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Blogging for Artists - Resources for Artists

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An Introduction to Blogging For Artists

 

Are you an artist and want a blog? Or maybe an artist who wants to work on improving your blog?

If you are then read on - you'll find links on this site to sources of advice, information, and all other matters which are relevant to blogging for artists and blogging by artists.

It focuses first on blogging basics, then on blogging for artists. Finally it covers some problems encountered by artists who blog and how to deal with them

Bookmark and Share: Use icons in right hand column to create a bookmark or link to be able to check back to this site and/or e-mail this site to a friend who is interested in blogging for artists.

Notes:
1. The authors of all images and text in all links posted here own the copyright.
2. The advertisements are not of my choosing - see modules below for my own comments

Why artists should blog 

Have you been thinking about having a blog for your art? Read the links below to find out some of the reasons why this could be a very good idea.........
Making a Mark: Why artists should blog
Some statistics and other information to help you think about why artists should have a blog
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:
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.
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

POLL: Which is the most popular blogging platform for art blogs? 

This poll explores which is the most popular blogging platform for art blogs.

All the various blogging platforms have their pros and cons - and these can vary depending on the type of blog you have. You can read more about this in the Blogging webware module below. In the meantime, if you have a blog - why not vote?

Loading poll. Please Wait...

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, ...

BOOKS: All about blogging and how to blog  

books about blogging on Amazon

Almost everything you need to know about blogging cam be accessed on the Internet

This is for those who prefer to curl up with a hot drink and the instructions before they get down to blogging business

How to improve your art blog 

You agree it's a good idea and you've now got a blog - but you aren't getting as many visitors as you would like.

Read about 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.

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.

Theft of blog content and what to do about it 

Links to useful sources of information and advice about sploggers - spam bloggers who steal content - and what to do about them
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
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.

Tools, tips and techniques 

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
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: 29th July 2007: Who's made a mark this week?
Includes an item on Websites and blogging - keyword analysis
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!!!

So this is a blogging update for us all - lots of things to read and do if you are looking for ways to avoid Christmas shopping in your spare time! ;)
Known Issues for the New Blogger
Known Issues for the New Blogger
The latest on what's still a problem, what's getting fixed, and what's been taken care of, direct from the Blogger team.

How to increase your subscribers and get your content to them 

Make it easy for people to read your blog - offer them subscriptions options and then deliver your content to them.

People wonder why they don't have subscribers. It's generally because they've neglected to include a bit of webware which registers subscriptions and then makes sure that people get your content every time you post - via RSS feed and feedreader or via e-mail direct to the inbox
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........
FeedBurner
FeedBurner delivers content and feed subscriptions to subscribers using feedreaders and e-mail
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. ...
Google has acquired FeedBurner
A: FeedBurner is a Chicago-based company that provides media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds. Its Web-based tools, ...
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.)
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 ...
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.

Feed readers - for reading other blogs and feeds 

A feedreader is a way of making it easier for people to read the blogs they subscribe to and cover syndicated content
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
Bloglines
Bloglines is a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. With Bloglines, there is no software to download or install -- simply register as a new user and you can instantly begin accessing your account any time, from any computer or mobile device. And it's 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. "

Statistics for your blog 

StatCounter Free invisible Web tracker, Hit counter and Web stats
Insert a simple piece of our code on your web page or blog and you will be able ... Accurate real-time website statistics with detailed visitor tracking and ...
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.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics has been re-designed to help you learn even more about where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site. ...
Google Analytics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Google Analytics (GA) is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. Its main highlight is that a ...
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
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.

Blogs which provide useful tips about blogging 

Read around to get an idea of what is happening in the blogging world - or read just a few who are doing the digests for you.
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

New GapingVoid Cartoons 

 

Blogging Art - A Review 

Making a Mark: Blogging Art in 2007 - A Review (Part 1)
This post is the beginning of my Review of Blogging Art in 2007

Part 1 (this post) is about 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 part 2 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 2)
This is Part 2 of my review of blogging art in 2006.

It looks at the influence of art and illustrated blogs - blogs vs websites, blogging communities and the role of blogs in marketing artwork. I was also going to try and identify the influential blogs.......of which more later.
Making a Mark: Blogging Art in 2006 - A Review (Part 1)
Yesterday my blog celebrated its first birthday - it made me think about what I knew when I started, what I know now and how blogging has changed in the last year in the art and illustrated blogs world.

So - for anybody who's interested - here are some of my observations after a year of blogging amongst art and illustrated blogs. So much has occurred to me while writing this, that this post has become Part 1 and Part 2 will follow next week.

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

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 

A lot of people keep and/or publish the artwork on their blog in online storage systems
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 ...

SOFTWARE: Adobe Photoshop Elements 

software on Amazon

Photoshop Elements is a cut down version of Photoshop. It provides all you need to work with your images for use on the internet - on website and blog.

SOFTWARE: Adobe Photoshop  

software on Amazon

This is the big heavy duty version - it's really more than you need for blogging purposes but should you be interested read on......

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

Essentially - for artists - it boils down to how the internet is structuring demand and supply.

Knowing what is happening in other markets can can be helpful to how you use your blog in relation to other distribution channels for art with many items and 'clout' - such as e-bay, etsy and other online gallery sites or community listings
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.

Making A Mark 

Katherine Tyrrell writing about: - Making marks with pastels, pencils and pen and ink - Creating new drawings and paintings - Influences on developing both artwork and art careers - Interviews with artists - Information about resources for artists and art lovers ....and best viewed in Firefox

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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.

Comments and Suggestions 

Let me know what you think - but please do not spam!

Anybody can comment and feedback is always welcome - including suggestions for how you think this lens could be improved
BUT
please note that:
* All comments are moderated before publication - and I do check all the links
* All html is stripped out of comments. Spam is not published.
* All suggestions about the inclusion of any websites and blogs will be reviewed but will only be published if the website is added.
* Please do not ask me to rate your lens (see Squidoo FAQs)

David

Well done, this is a well thought out site.
I have a artist blogging resource site as well - it's just a casual thing I used for students at a blogging workshop. I am growing it slowly as I feel the need.
http://artproofer.blogspot.com/

Posted April 23, 2008

Janine

Wow! What a great source of suggestions. Thanks for putting this here. It looks like it will be very helpful to me as a developing artist.

http://artwithinme.blogspot.com/

Posted March 19, 2008

gabriellejc

Thanks a bunch for this lens. Helpful info. I'll let you know when I start mine - been putting it off for over a year. eeesshhhh.
if interested check out my lens of my 25 favorite abstract paintings:)
http://www.squidoo.com/200abstractpaintings

Posted February 23, 2008

EditionH

Hi Katherine,
thank you for putting up this excellent lens.

Posted December 19, 2007

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Hi, I'm makingamark

makingamark

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I'm an artist who enjoys sharing information about art on my blog Making A Mark and my website and my travel sketchbook blog as well as my squidoo lenses. You can read more about me and find out how to contact me here.

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