Blogging for Artists - Resources for Artists

Why artists should blog

Making a Mark: Why artists should blog

Some statistics and other information to help you think about why artists should have a blog

Making a Mark: Notice Me! (or why you should get an art blog)

Notice Me! is the name of the Student Supplement produced for the September 2010 Edition of the Artists & Illustrators Magazine in the UK. This included an interview with me concerning how students can get recognised by using a blog to promote their art.

Making a Mark: Notice Me! Creating a popular art blog

What follows is the second part of my note on blogging for the article in the Notice Me! supplement for student artists in Artists & Illustrators (A&I) in September 2010.

Kirsty Hall - WHY ARTISTS NEED TO BE ONLINE

Things have changed in the art world: I believe that curators increasingly expect to be able to find information about artists online.

By being visible online (under your professional name, of course), you allow other people to do your promotion for you. This works largely through the medium of blogging, although occasionally artists are picked up by the larger mainstream media because a story about them has appeared online.

9 Reasons Why Every Artist Should Have Their Own Art Blog

Are you an artist? Do you have an art blog yet? If not, you should. Here's a list of nine reasons why every artist should have their own art blog. And if you think blogging is still diaries and journals, well, a lot's changed over the past few years.

Life Plein Air: Why Artists Should Blog

Why Artists Should Blog
...to get more "Google Juice", I thought I'd try blogging. So yes, dear reader, I first started my blog for the money. In the end, I do (over a year later now) for the passion. The fact is, in order to write something worth reading nearly daily, you have to have the passion. Sure, there are bloggers who write daily for the money (they used to call them journalists), but that's not my story. If you're a lurker and considering blogging, consider this........

Kirsty Hall - Why Artists Should Blog

Blogging can be a very useful promotional tool for artists. It's not a substitute for having a good online portfolio or for doing lots of offline work on your career but it can be a useful addition. Not convinced? Here are my reasons:

Rose's Art Lines: Why You Should Have An Art Blog - Part 1

Why You Should Have An Art Blog - Part 1 - which is about what her blog has done for Rose Welty's art

Rose's Art Lines: Why You Should Have an Art Blog - Part 2

Why You Should Have an Art Blog - Part 2 - which is about what a blog can do for you as an artist

Rose's Art Lines: Why You Should Have an Art Blog - Part 3

Why You Should Have an Art Blog - Part 3 - which is about the difficulties you can face while blogging and what you can to do to address them

Linda Blondheim Art Notes: Is Blogging Good For Artists?

Yesterday I got an email from an artist asking me if I feel that blogging is good for my career? The blog is probably the best thing I've ever done for myself.

Why Artists should consider blogging | Rise Art

Rise Art - Why Artists should consider blogging
Posted on November 10, 2010

MAKING A MARK: Why be an art blogger?

What's the point in producing an art blog like mine which focuses more on art in general rather than my own art? Well because sometimes you get letters like the one below.

Why Blogging Matters (for Self Promotion) | The Art Curator

When you work in the visual art world, it's easy to neglect other forms of media. Especially the language of the web - writing.

Blogging Webware and choosing a blog platform

Time to check out which is the right webware for you

Problogger - Choosing a Blog Platform

Darren Rowse writes about choosing a Blog Platform and identifies some things to think about including:
* blogging goals
* budget
* technical capability
* what are other people using
* hosted versus standalone

Weblog software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Weblog software (also called blog software or blogware) is a category of software which consists of a specialized form of Content Management Systems specifically designed for creating and maintaining weblogs.

Blogger (service) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blogger on Wikipedia

Blogger

Blogging software - owned by Google
Used by a lot of Bloggers

Blogging Software, Business Blogs & Blog Services at TypePad.com

TypePad is the premier blogging service for professionals and small businesses. TypePad hosts many popular blogs and small business websites.

TypePad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TypePad is a blogging service from company Six Apart Ltd, and the largest paid blogging service in the world. [citation needed] Originally launched in ...

WordPress - About

WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing and with fewer users than you can count on your fingers ...

Build a Website - Create a Blog - Squarespace

Squarespace is a stylish, streamlined way to build and manage a website, create a blog, and publish just about anything else on the web.

About LiveJournal

LiveJournal is an online community, a social network, and a place for self-expression. We strive to create an environment where you can connect with others, ...

Build a Website - Create a Blog - Squarespace

Squarespace is a stylish, streamlined way to build and manage a website, create a blog, and publish just about anything else on the web.

Which blogging platform should you choose? | News | TechRadar UK

Which blogging platform should you choose? Opt for friendly and free or pay for greater control?

Making A Mark Publications - FREE Guides to Blogging for Artists

Guides written by Katherine Tyrrell and published by Making A Mark Publications

A Making A Mark Guide - 6 great ways to find subjects to blog about

Blogging for Artists - A Making a Mark Guide - 6 great ways to find subjects to blog about by Katherine Tyrrell

This Guide is for artists who are new to blogging or people who are finding it difficult to find subjects to blog about. It provides guidance and tips about six different ways to develop blog content and strategies and routines which help to make blogging enjoyable and easier

pdf file available to download FREE

A Making A Mark Guide - Blogging Etiquette

Blogging Netiquette - a Making A Mark Guide to comments policy, blogroll police and blogging Ps and Qs by Katherine Tyrrell

This Guide is for artists who are new to blogging and/or people who have concerns about comments or what you should or should not do while blogging

pdf file available to download FREE

How to improve your art blog

Making a Mark: How to improve your art blog

A year ago I wrote a couple of posts about why artists should blog. A year later this post is about how to improve your art blog.

Recently I gave some advice to a successful artist who wanted to use her blog as part of her marketing of her art but wondered why she wasn't getting much of an audience for her blog. For those of you who would also like to improve your blog profile and traffic and/or use it to market your art, you'll find that this post develops the themes in some of the advice I offered. Some of my advice comes from having managed a major marketing operation in the past and the rest comes from having blogged most days for the last 20 months!

If you're blogging just for the fun of it - that's great too. If you'd like more readers and more people to comment on your blog you may also find some of the following comments to be useful pointers

The 12 Biggest Problems With Your Blogs « Lorelle on WordPress

Lorelle on WordPress - Helping you learn more about how to blog

Making a Mark: Advertising your work on your blog - the design essentials

You want to create the right impression with your website or blog - so should you use advertising? Or should you just use the design lessons from advertising? One of the questions which perplexes me is whether or not a case can be made for using advertising on an artist's blog or website. However when it comes to lessons to be learned from advertising about design effectiveness I'm not in the least bit confused. The answer is clear - there's lots to learn and use - whether or not you use adverts!

How To Write Great Blog Content - The Pillar Article » Entrepreneurs-Journey.com - by Yaro Starak

Online marketing advice and how-to guides by Yaro Starak, a young entrepreneur from Australia.
A pillar article is usually a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice.

Making a Mark: Unique vs. repeat visitors - and the impact on sales

How many repeat visitors do you get? Is the number increasing over time? Do they bring you repeat business if you use your blog to help you market your art?

This post looks at site tourists versus repeat visitors and their impact on sales.

How to Be a Successful Art Blogger: 7 Effective Blogging Strategies for Artists

As a blogger for over two years now, I know firsthand that creating a successful art blog has a lot more to do with planning and hard work than with being a great writer. In fact, I'd say that 90% of my success with EmptyEasel comes from following the 7 blogging strategies...........

Understanding Inbound Links: For Artist Bloggers and Art Website Owners

Getting other art websites to link to your art blog or online portfolio is important-if you want Google traffic, that is. Inbound links help Google understand where to rank your art website, whether that's on the first page or a few hundred in. Read more about SEO for artists.

8 Reasons You Might Not Be Getting Many Comments

8 Reasons You Might Not Be Getting Many Comments - a RECOMMENDED READ

why most artists' blogs fail | gapingvoid

Most artists' blogs fail because they fail to understand the basic truth about artists' blogs

Why content is so important - and how to improve it

How to Create Cornerstone Content That Google Loves | Copyblogger

When trying to rank well for the one or two topics that your entire site is built around, creating flagship content is your best bet.

Blog Pulling Power - Creating Flagship Content | Performancing.com

Blog Pulling Power - Creating Flagship Content
"Flagship content" is an effective way of creating a blog using a core of content that you build around. The post, series or "message" is added to and referred to repeatedly over time, increasing the original value and relevance and also keeping it fresh. While the main benefit is branding and educational value, there are other benefits I will describe later.

How To Write Great Blog Content - The Pillar Article » Entrepreneurs-Journey.com - by Yaro Starak

Online marketing advice and how-to guides by Yaro Starak, a young entrepreneur from Australia.
A pillar article is usually a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice.

10 Journalism Tips For Bloggers, Podcasters & Other E-Writers

Blogs, podcast & e-newsletters make it easy for anyone to be a journalist. Here are some tips on how to do it well.

Making a Mark: Making A Mark - popular posts in 2008

This post reviews what were some of the most popular posts on Making A Mark in 2008 and identifies - by type - the sort of the posts which got the most traffic.

Useful for artists wanting to review their content and work out how to generate more traffic for their blog,

Essential Reading on Content for your Blog

Essential Reading on Content for your Blog. Includes posts about:
* Source Quality Content%u2026 Continuously
* Blog Content Strategy 101
* Content Producer's Copyright Checklist
* Big Content Monetisation Ideas for the Little Guy
* 5 Ways to Build Your Blog's Voice
* Use Content Channels to Boost your Readership

Blogging and a painting a day

Making a Mark: Will you be a success if you blog your paintings daily?

Yet more coverage yesterday for blogs which feature "a painting a day". This is the link to the New York Times article "Everyday scenes painted every day" in the New York Times on 31st August.

This time the reporter from the New York Times is asking "Will the painting-a-day frenzy last? Or is it merely the fleeting symptom of a new Internet trend?"

Read on.....

Making a Mark: Daily painters, paintings and paintworks - and where you can see them

The daily painting movement has seen more than a few sites come and go in the last 18 months or so - but I was extremely pleased yesterday to see the announcement of a new site - Daily Paintworks. This new site includes some of my favourite female artists who paint every day - Karin Jurick, Carol Marine, Sarah Wimperis and Belinda del Pesco - as well as a number of other names who will be well known to the daily painting fraternity.

For today's post, I've decided to place this new site in the context of all the other daily painting sites that I know of and to check out the current state of play as we near the end of 2007.

Making a Mark: The "stickability' factor

Yesterday, in my post "Will you be a success if you blog your paintings daily?" I suggested a number of factors which I think help artists to sell their work on-line - independently of 0n-line galleries or auction type websites.

Today, I want to emphasise one more factor - the "stickability" factor.

The reason for emphasising it is I think maybe too little attention has been paid to the fact that a lot of the people who are now enjoying success with sales associated with their daily painting blogs - or other art projects - didn't necessarily achieve success straight away.

Problogger: Blogging vs Social Networking

People debate the value of different social media channels for promoting their art - particularly daily paintings.

Blogging vs Social Networking - here's Darren Rowse's take on what other people are saying about the pros and cons of blogging and social networking and the future of both

Different perspectives on "Must Read" Art Blogs

8 Must-read Art Blogs for 2008 - a Few of the Best Art Blogs Online

As an art blogger myself, I read a lot of art blogs. I've found some good ones and some great ones - but going into 2008, I wanted to pick out the cream of the crop: the very best art blogs online.

Must Read Blogs « Kirsty Hall

....there are loads of other wonderful art blogs that I read as well but these 8 very different blogs are the ones that I absolutely wouldn't be without. My criteria: blogs that are updated on a regular basis and inspire me either visually, intellectually or preferably both.

What's this 'long tail' and why is it relevant to selling art?

The Long Tail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The phrase The Long Tail (as a proper noun with capitalized letters) was first coined by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired magazine article[1] to describe certain business and economic models such as Amazon.com or Netflix. Businesses with distribution power can sell a greater volume of otherwise hard-to-find items at small volumes than of popular items at large volumes.

Beginning in a series of speeches in early 2004 and culminating with the publication of a Wired magazine article in October 2004, Anderson described the effects of the long tail on current and future business models. Anderson later extended it into the book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More (2006).

Anderson argued that products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough.

Wired 12.10: "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson

This is the original blog post about The Long Tail - subsequently turned into a book. It relates to completely different areas of business (notably the music business) but essentially is about why the future is about selling less to more.
"Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream."

So why's that relevant to artists? Everybody has a market - you just need to find it and find out how to tap into it. Read this to understand how some of the mechanics work.

"The Long Tail" Blog

A public diary on themes around a book

Read about the strategies being pursued for marketing items other than art and identify what's useful and what's not.

Theft of blog content and what to do about it

What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content - Lorelle on WordPress

"Having been the target of copyright thieves, and working with writers, authors, and photographers on copyright protection and laws for over 25 years, I thought I'd talk a little about what to do when someone steals your content.

First, you noticed that I didn't say "if" someone steals your content. That was on purpose. With the glut of information on the Internet, it's now a matter of "when" not "if".

The first step in learning about what you can do when someone steals your content is to know that it will happen, so the more prepared and informed you are, the better your chances of prevention and having a plan in place when they steal." Lorelle

Spinning Spammers Steal Our Blog Content « Lorelle on WordPress

Last week, an article I wrote for the Blog Herald, "Blogging Outside of Your Community By Not Blogging in Your Native Tongue", caught the attention of more than just the readers. It caught the attention of the staff of the Blog Herald by attracting a very unusual trackback from a new kind of copyright violating splogger.

Plagiarism Today

A Site About Plagiarism, Content Theftand Copyright Issues Online Plagiarism Today on the WordPress Podcast

Making a Mark: Google fails to stop theft and abuse by spam blogs

Google's search engine lists spam blogs which steal copyright material from legitimate blogs and then generate income by hosting Google Ad-Sense adverts.

The content of my blogs - which is all copyrighted specifically to address this issue - is being repeatedly scraped (stolen) and used on spam blogs. The content of your blog might be suffering the same fate. I'm currently faced with an explosion in the amount of material being stolen. Read on to find out if you've got a problem like mine and what you can do about it.

What to do When Someone Steals Your Blog's Content - Blog Plagiarism

What to do When Someone Steals Your Blog Content - Blog Plagiarism

An old post but still a good one

Google Ad Sense - Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Google AdSense

Where to go if the splog taking your content/infringing your copyright is also hosting Google Ad Sense advertisments

5 Content Theft Myths and Why They Are False : The Blog Herald

Content Theft Myths and Why They Are False
November 19, 2007 | By Jonathan Bailey
When it comes to content theft, there is a great deal of confusion.

Not only is copyright law almost impossible to understand, even by most lawyers' standards, but the technology used to steal content on the Web is often confusing in and of itself.

This confusion has given rise to a series of myths and misunderstandings about content theft, many of which have very negative implications for Webmasters concerned with the rising tide of scraping and plagiarism.

Making a Mark: Blogging - an update on rights, liabilities and spam attacks

Every so often I have a good look round at what's being posted about blogging and using the internet and in particular anything of that ilk which relates to art and being an artist. I'm posting some links and snippets on the weekly "who's made a mark this week" post most Sundays - but every so often I feel the need to do a bit more - if only to make sure I've got a post that I can bookmark and refer to from time to time!!!

Making a Mark: Comment Spam - how to recognise it and what to do with it

Comment spam is when people leave text or links in comment which are completely unrelated to the topic in question.

Allwhois

Allwhois, a free service provided by MarkMonitor, is the most complete whois service on the Internet.

Allwhois automatically locates the appropriate "whois" database server for a particular domain name, queries that database for information about that domain name, and returns all available data. In addition, a domain name availability check will also be performed, even if a particular domain extension doesn't have a searchable whois database.

How to increase your subscribers and get your content to them

How to promote your RSS feed and/or email subscriptions

Google - FeedBurner

FeedBurner can be used by anybody who wants to keep track of who is subscribing to their RSS feeds.
FeedBurner delivers content and feed subscriptions to subscribers using feedreaders and e-mail. You can offer email subscriptions and can time when posts are published to emails.
It was acquired by Google and can be accessed easily via a Google account

Making a Mark: Blog feeds - and how to set up a Feedburner subscription facility on your blog

If you want people to visit your blog you need to help them.
* First of all you need to activate a feed for your blog.
* Then you need to offer your visitors a subscription facility - so they can remember where to find you again and/or get your content sent to them every day.
Below I look at how you help people subscribe to your blog and analyse your blog traffic., but first some context........

Art Biz Blog: Resources for your artist mailing list

Art business blog for marketing, promotions, and general business help for artists. From Alyson B. Stanfield.

FeedBurner | Webware100 : Cool Web apps for everyone

An opinion about FeedBurner (a service for blog or Web site owners to keep track of who is subscribing to their RSS feeds.)

FeedBurner - FeedBurner Email Overview and FAQ

FeedBurner Email ad FeedBurner email is a service that allows publishers to deliver their feed content to subscribers via email. ...

FeedBlitz - The Leading RSS and Blog to Email Service

FeedBlitz provides RSS and blog email subscription services. Offering RSS by email provides greater reach for feed publishers, and gives easy RSS ...

FeedBurner Help

Official FeedBurner Help Center where you can find tips and tutorials on using FeedBurner and other answers to frequently asked questions.

Essential FeedBurner questions - FeedBurner Help

o Does FeedBurner put ads in my feed without my consent?
o How many services can I apply to my feed?
o What types of feeds does FeedBurner support?
o Once "burned," what happens to my original feed?
o How do I redirect traffic from my site's original feed to my FeedBurner feed?
o Is there a feed file size limit?
o Can I use FeedBurner if I don't already publish a feed?

QuickStart Guides for Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, MySpace, Podcasting - FeedBurner Help

o Blogger
o WordPress
o TypePad
o MySpace
o Podcasting

Feed 101 - Feedburner Help

Feed 101 - answers to FAQs

Making a Mark: Techie Saturday - The new Subscriptions Links widget in Blogger

About Blogger's new widget for subscribing to feeds and comments. If you're thinking of using it, there are two important points which need to be noted about the choice you're offering to readers of your blog.

FeedBurner makes paid services free | The Web Services Report - CNET News

Both FeedBurner's Stats PRO and MyBrand are no longer paid services. Read this blog post by Harrison Hoffman on The Web Services Report.

Feed readers - for reading other blogs and feeds

How to read everybody else's RSS feed - easily!

Aggregator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Such applications are also referred to as RSS readers, feed readers, ... As a solution, many feed readers allow users to tag each feed with one or more ...

Google Reader

Get all your news and blogs in one place with Google Reader. With Google Reader, keeping up with your favorite websites is as easy as checking your email. ...

Google Reader is FREE

FeedDemon - RSS News Feed Reader Review - About Email

FeedDemon is a clean and well thought-out approach to reading RSS feeds. Easy to configure and use, FeedDemon still has a comprehensive feature set.

Technorati: Front Page

As a member you can claim your blogs, and create a personal Technorati profile!

BlogPulse Analysis | Top Blogs

BlogPulse is a window into the blogosphere. Open it daily to discover the people, issues, blogs, posts, commentaries, tidbits and news that bloggers are ...

GreatNews: The Intelligent RSS Reader

GreatNews claims that it "is extremely fast. Even with hundreds of rss feed subscriptions, GreatNews's response is always instantaneous. "

Tools, tips and techniques

Making a Mark: NEW - Automatic publication of future-dated Blogger posts

Some tips for people wanting to use this new function in Blogger to schedule posts for publication in the future.

Hexadecimal 216 Color Code Chart (Internet safe)

Hexadecimal 216 Color Code Chart (Internet safe)
216 that won't be altered in some strange way by various browsers. Here are the colours that you can be relatively sure will look the same from browser to browser.

Two Tried and True Methods for Drawing Attention to your Art Blog

In the next few paragraphs I'll explain two methods for immediately drawing attention to your blog posts: the first is pinging and the second is simply smart social networking.

Understanding Inbound Links: For Artist Bloggers and Art Website Owners

Getting other art websites to link to your art blog or online portfolio is important-if you want Google traffic, that is. Inbound links help Google understand where to rank your art website, whether that's on the first page or a few hundred in. Read more about SEO for artists.

SEO for Artists: Tips to Help your Art Rank Higher in Search Engine Results

Artists: are your online art portfolios and art blogs getting just a few visits per day? Learn how to get more traffic from Google and other search engines using SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

Problogger - 13 Ways to Promote Your Next Blog Post

13 Ways to Promote Your Next Blog Post

Favicon Generator

Make your own favicon with this online editor

Carol Clasper - Favicon Tutorial for Blogger

Favicon Tutorial for Blogger
(I've not tried this but have read the tutorial through and it's very straightforward)

Blog Buttons : Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt

Blog Buttons
Cindy from studied my blog banner tutorial and worked out how to make her blog button link to her blog. But she also wanted to show the code for her button on her blog so that others could cut and paste it into their templates. (Those using New Blogger can simply cut and paste the code into a new widget using either the html or text page elements.) The code is very easy...

10 Blogger Best Practices: What Guides You as You Extend Your Reach? - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once.

February 3, 2009
10 Blogger Best Practices: What Guides You as You Extend Your Reach?

10 Blogger Best Practices: What Guides You as You Extend Your Reach? - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once.

February 3, 2009
10 Blogger Best Practices: What Guides You as You Extend Your Reach?
Here are 10 Blogger Best Practices for the social web. These 10 best practices guide me as I write and meet new people on the social web. They help me stay focused on my quest and explain it when people ask. When I remember them, they serve me well. I hope they'll serve you too.

How To Take Your Blog to the Next Level....Once You've Got a Start

How To Take Your Blog to the Next Level... Once You've Got a Start

Color Charts - Webmonkey

The Web Developer's Resource

7 Popular Blogging Styles for Artists to Choose From

I've come to realize that there are a several distinct blogging styles which almost all art bloggers fall under. If you're trying to choose a direction for your own art blog, perhaps this list of blogging styles will help:

SEO myths and the power of repetition | SEO Theory - SEO Theory and Analysis Blog

There is a new round of SEO Myth discussion this month and some of the favorite old windmills of SEO gurudom are being targeted for dragon-slaying once

Does Your Blog Need a Disclaimer? | The Blog Herald

Many of you have heard of disclosures, legal statements that disclose the fact that you are blogging to make money, and being paid to blog. What about disclaimers? Should your blog have a disclaimer? Does it need one?

Problogger - 15 Ways to Rework Your Next Blog Post Title

15 Ways to Rework Your Next Blog Post Title

The title of your next post is the main factor that people use to determine whether they'll read your next post. This is true in most places that people are going to stumble upon your post whether it be on a search engine, in an RSS feed, on a social media site, in a link from another blog etc.

A great title will draw people into the post and give them reason to read it.

A bad title will more often than not be ignored, glossed over and mean a post goes unread.

Blog Marketing Tips #1: How to Optimize Blog Post Titles

Tip 1: Your Blog Post Titles Have Two Audiences

You've no doubt read that you need to make your blog post titles "search engine friendly," but doing so often kills the creativity and initial appeal of your writing. Instead of trying to appeal to your loyal readers and Google at the outset, approach the two difference audiences in separate stages.

Making a Mark reviews - New Federal rules for product reviews/endorsements by bloggers

Beginning Dec. 1, bloggers, Twitterers and many others who write online product reviews must disclose the receipt of free merchandise or payment for the items they write about.

Some SEO Advice For Bill Gates

What do you get for Bill Gates, the richest person in the world? How about a little free SEO advice for his new blog? It could use some.

(This contains a good analysis of some of the problems blogs can have and how to address them)

Tips: Titles, Links, Labels and Archives

How to help people find your blog posts

Making a Mark: Why it's a good idea to use labels in Blogger

the aim of this post is to help people to understand better:
* why using labels is a good idea
* how to choose labels to use
* some things to think about before using Labels in Blogger

Making a Mark: New Blogger Update #3: Labels in Blogger

With the switch to New Blogger I get to use the new labels function. Which is both a plus and a minus

15 Ways to Rework Your Next Blog Post Title

15 Ways to Rework Your Next Blog Post Title

How to Write Blog Post Titles (for Search Engines AND People)

With blogging, some things that seem simple and natural (like how you write the titles for your blog posts) are actually fairly complex and VERY important to the success of your blog.

Making a Mark: How to make it easy for people to link to you - and how to sketch a cat!

Two topics today about how to do things quickly:
1. How to make it easy for people to link to a blog post you've written - and send visitors to your blog
2. How to sketch a cat in 30 seconds

Tips: SEO and Keywords

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: SEO Starter Guide updated

About two years ago we published our first SEO Starter Guide, which we have since translated into 40 languages. Today, we're very happy to share with you the new version of the guide with more content and examples.

Welcome to Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (PDF file)

This document first began as an effort to help teams within Google, but we thought it'd be just as useful to webmasters that are new to the topic of search engine optimization and wish to improve their sites' interaction with both users and search engines. Although this guide won't tell you any secrets that'll automatically rank your site first for queries in Google (sorry!), following the best practices outlined below will make it easier for search engines to crawl, index and understand your content.

Making a Mark: 5 positive ways to help your art website rank well in Google

How to help a website or blog rank well in search engine pages is a challenge - but it's also rather interesting.
There's also a fair few myths around and about in relation to "what works" in terms of optimising your website for Google searches.

Making a Mark: 5 more ways of helping your art website to rank well in Google

Following on from Monday's post 5 positive ways to help your art website rank well in Google here are five more ways to have a positive impact on the way your art blog or website ranks in Google.

Making a Mark: 5 approaches to avoid on your art website or art blog

It's very difficult to get everything right in terms of an art website or blog. However, it's a lot easier to avoid doing things which are going to have a bad impact on your art website or art blog.

SEOMOZ Search Ranking Factors

SEOmoz's biennial search engine ranking factors survey aggregates opinions from 72 of the world's top search engine experts, showing which metrics are most important to high rankings.

What is Search Engine Optimization (And How Can Artists Use it?)

SEO, or "search engine optimization" is a term that encompasses all the different techniques you can use to help your website become more visible in Google, Yahoo, or any other search engine.

StatCounter Blog - Blog Archive - SEO: Intro

Although we are definitely not SEO experts, we have picked up some tips and tricks over the years about how to publicise your site and drive traffic to it. In a new series of blog posts on the theme of "SEO for the Complete Beginner" we're going to share with you some of what we have learned

Keyword Basics

Written by resident expert, Ken McGaffin, the series of four articles is the perfect introduction to the process of keyword research, strategy, and then using that knowledge to optimize your website for search engine success.

How to Increase Traffic to your Art Blog by Describing your Artwork for Google

Blogging is a good way to promote your art online, but only if you do it the right way. To help, I'm starting a new series called SEO for Artists, and today's article will explain how to describe your artwork for Google.

Making a Mark: 29th July 2007: Who's made a mark this week?

Includes an item on Websites and blogging - keyword analysis

MAKING A MARK: Techie: Ten top reasons to use tags on your blog

Why use tags on your blog? In this post I list ten top reasons why using tags on your blog will benefit you.

Blogging conduct and security online

Making a Mark: Notes on blogging etiquette for artists

I thought I'd write a few words on blogging etiquette. I hope people find it helpful even if you're not new to blogging. Unfortunately, it's sad to say, but the people who breach the common courtesies on a regular basis probably aren't reading this or any similar post on any other blog!

Official Google Blog: security

All posts about online security - official advice and information from Google about how to protect yourself and what to watch out for

Making a Mark: Blogging - an update on rights, liabilities and spam attacks

Every so often I have a good look round at what's being posted about blogging and using the internet and in particular anything of that ilk which relates to art and being an artist. I'm posting some links and snippets on the weekly "who's made a mark this week" post most Sundays - but every so often I feel the need to do a bit more - if only to make sure I've got a post that I can bookmark and refer to from time to time!!!

Blogging and Google Analytics

Google Analytics | Official Website

Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness.

Google Analytics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Google Analytics (abbreviated GA) is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. GA can track visitors from all referrers, including search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents.

MAKING A MARK A Making A Mark Guide - Installing Google Analytics on a Blog

This guide is for people wanting to know how to install Google Analytics on their blog

Why ALL Online Artists and Art Bloggers Should Use Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free web stats program which allows anyone, including online artists and art bloggers, to track the number of people visiting their website each day and to see where those visitors are coming from.

Making a Mark: How to find out what are the most popular posts on your blog

How to find out what are the most popular posts on your blog by putting Google Analytics to your blog.

Statistical Software for your Blog

If you don't want Google Analytics or want something more detailed

Making a Mark: Exploring Web Analytics #1

Web analytics is the study of the behaviour of visitors to websites/blogs. This post looks at the definitions of the technical terms used in web analytics.

17 Statistics to Monitor on Your Blog [Day 30 - 31DBBB]

17 Statistics to Monitor on Your Blog [Day 30 - 31DBBB]

StatCounter Free invisible Web tracker, Hit counter and Web stats

A free yet reliable invisible web tracker, highly configurable hit counter and real-time detailed web stats. Insert a simple piece of our code on your web page or blog and you will be able to analyse and monitor all the visitors to your website in real-time!
* Free, Fast, Responsive, Quick loading and Reliable Service. (Why is it free?)
* Invisible Tracking - no ads on your website.
* Accurate real-time website statistics with detailed visitor tracking and analysis.
Free and priced service

Site Meter - Counter and Statistics Tracker

A fast, free Web counter that features custom counters styles. Site Meter creates dynamic 3D charts showing visitors, page views, country maps, ...

ClustrMaps - Hit counter map widget and MySpace tracker shows ...

Thumbnail hit counter map widget and MySpace tracker shows locations of all visitors to any site - free.

MapStats - Blog Flux MapStats

Blog Flux MapStats is the coolest way of tracking your website visitors. Not only does it provide the normal statistics and graphs, we have incorporated the ...

Blog Statistics with Performancing Metrics

Performancing has been on a roll lately. First, a blogging tool for Firefox and now, Performancing Metrics has been launched, ...

WhoLinksToMe.com - proud home of Blog Stats Checkers Anonymous

WhoLinksToMe.com checks to see who links to you so you don't have to.

Mint: A Fresh Look at your Site

The original Mint. Mint is the only self-hosted, real-time, extensible web stats app. Satisfy your sweet tooth for site stats with Mint!

Fee-based

Web Analytics in Real Time | Clicky

Clicky Web Analytics is simply the best way to monitor, analyze, and react to your blog or web site's traffic in real time.
Clicky is designed to be the easiest web analytics service you've ever used. Services like Google Analytics do everything except take out the trash, but you probably don't know what any of the data means. With Clicky, everything just makes sense.

Free and priced service

Compete | Compete

Compete helps you benefit from click-sharing by providing free services that create a more trusted, transparent, and valuable Internet.

Advantageous for heavy weight blogs which can afford the premium service

Quantcast - Home

Quantcast is a new breed of measurement service helping buyers and sellers quantify the characteristics of digital audiences against which they can activate addressable advertising solutions.

comScore, Inc.

comScore is a marketing research company that provides marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses.

Blogs which provide useful tips about blogging

Lorelle on WordPress

Lorelle on WordPress - Helping you learn about blogging and to do more with WordPress

Blog Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging - ProBlogger

ProBlogger Blog Tips
Tends to be rather commercial and money oriented but also provides lots of good tips for bloggers of every persuasion

Kirsty Hall - Articles for artists who want to be online

Kirsty is writing a series of articles on her blog about how artists can use the internet for promotion. The series is ongoing and will be covering topics like blogging and social networking in the futurel

Art Biz Blog: Web Sites, Blogs, and Technology for Artists

Art business blog for marketing, promotions, and general business help for artists. From Alyson B. Stanfield.

Articles about websites, blogs and technology for artists

Pro-Blogger - Blog Tools

Darren Rowse's list of Blog Tools

Daily Blog Tips - Top 25 Blogs About Blogging

The "Top 25 Blogs About Blogging" list ranks blogs according to their Google Pagerank, Alexa rank, number of Bloglines subscribers and Technorati authority.

Lijit Blog Search Tool - Review and Tutorial | Blogging Sueblimely

Blogging Sueblimely - a review of Lijit

Problogger - 10 Ways to Make Money BECAUSE of Your Blog

10 Ways to Make Money BECAUSE of Your Blog
What if I told you that there's a way to make money as a result of your blog where you don't need to have a single ad on your blog, where you don't have to run any affiliate programs and where you don't have to write any paid reviews?

Blogging About Art - an Annual Review

My annual review of blogging about art - people and practices

Making a Mark: Blogging Art in 2007 - A Review (Part 1)

Part 1 of the 2007 review is about blogging basics and some of the blogging practices of artists and illustrators in 2007 - in other words blogging art from the perspective of the individual blogger.

Making a Mark: Blogging Art in 2007 - A Review (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of my review of blogging art in 2007 in which I'm looking at the wider context for blogging and blogging art, communities of interest in a web 2.0 world and the sphere of influence for art and illustrated blogs.

View "The Bigger Picture" - an effort at trying to describe what is happening to art, artists and the art economy within the context of a web 2.0 world.

Making a Mark: Blogging Art in 2006 - A Review (Part 1)

Here are some of my observations after a year of blogging amongst art and illustrated blogs.
- It's now a lot more difficult to get noticed
- Commenting is the best way to stimulate visitors and links
- Nothing is permanent but change.

Making a Mark: Blogging Art in 2006 - A Review (Part 2)

Part 2 of my review about blogging art in 2006 looks at the influence of art and illustrated blogs - blogs vs websites, blogging communities and the role of blogs in marketing artwork.

It's my perspective based on my own experience, reading the opinions of others as expressed on the internet and impressions gained from surfing relevant sites over the course of the year. I look for data the whole time and find very little - hence the emphasis on shared experience.

Slideshows for your blog

SlideShare - share powerpoint presentations online

SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations on the web. And it's free.

Slide shows, download presentations, widgets, MySpace codes

SlideShare now has private sharing!
You control what, where and how to share! Keep it private, share with contacts, send business presentations to clients/colleagues, embed on company intranets etc

Art Biz Blog: Get a slideshow of your art online

SlideShare is a cool FREE site where you can upload your slides from PowerPoint or PDF file so they can be viewed online.

Online storage and management of images

Flickr: Photos from everyone in Flickr

Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos to the world, securely and ...

Picasa

Picasa is free photo software from Google. This version is Linux compatible. Picasa won't delete your pictures or put them online without your permission. ...

Register for free at Photobucket.com

Start publishing and sharing your online photos and videos by registering at Photobucket.com.

Computer software for manipulating images

Photoshop Elements Techniques - Learning Center

Elements Logo Welcome to Photoshop Elements Techniques exclusive in-depth look at Adobe's just announced new version of Photoshop Elements 6.0. ...

Photoshop vs. Elements

Photoshop verses Elements ... which is better, Photoshop or Photoshop Elements ... Richard Lynch and DTG investigate the differences in the Photoshop ...

Blogging and Advertising

Advertising, product reviews and endorsements

Making a Mark reviews......: New Federal rules for product reviews/endorsements by bloggers

Beginning December 1st 2009, new Federal Trade Commission rules means that bloggers, Twitterers and others using social networkl websites who write online product reviews and/or provide endorsements MUST make it clear if they receive free merchandise or payment for the items they write about.

Blogging sidelines and esoterica

Links that aren't about artists

The world's 50 most powerful blogs | Technology | The Observer

Any time you get aspirations for your blog ;) check out why these blogs do well.

Extending RSS 2.0 With Namespaces

With the recent release of RSS 2.0 by Userland, there's been a healthy amount of discussion over the smallest part of the spec: Extending RSS. This document attempts to clarify that section, by discussing the creation of the blogChannel Module from Dave Winer, and the underlying principles of namespaces.

This document is not intended to be the "end-all, be-all" of namespace discussions. For the sake of simplicity, I've left a lot of things out and I'm not talking in all the "right technical terms