Writing a blog can very efficiently help you as an artist get some visibility online and drive traffic to your website.
I have been writing regularly since 2010 and learned a lot during those 6 years. When I started blogging I had no idea in what direction it would get me and the subject and style of the blog evolved organically over time. Looking back, I now see many benefits in writing a blog and I think it helped me a lot in my career.
If you are currently writing a blog, I would be interested to hear about you in the comments and know if you came to the same conclusions I did, or not. If you are just thinking about writing a blog or just started, this might help you take a few shortcuts.
I started blogging about 6 years ago. This post is an exemple of what I am trying not to do anymore as I speak a lot in the first person.
You might also be interested in : Should you write a blog?
Here are a few things you can think about when writing an art blog
1-It is not all about yourself
That might sound like a blunt statement but it is perhaps the most important lesson I learned. Once you realize that readers are busy people, that they might not care that much about you (sorry!) .You are basically trading some of their time in exchange for something that should be of value to them, you learned maybe the most valuable lesson about blogging.
Any blog post that has too many sentences in the likes of ” I am doing this” “I feel inspired by this…” “I like this…” “This is what I paint” is interesting mostly for you and maybe your close entourage but could advantageously by replaced by “This is what you can do to…” ” You might like…” ” You could find inspiration in…” In other words, what you share about yourself has to meet your readers needs.
I just finished reading “Nobody wants to read your sh*t” by Steven Pressfield, and really enjoyed that book, I highly recommend it if you are writing any kind of content (books, blog, grants…). Among other interesting elements of the book, Steven stresses out that many writers when they begin think that everyone is waiting to read their writings but this is far from being the case, and most of us learn this the hard way.
2-No-one is going to get upset if you don’t write a post every week
This is one of the most common excuse I hear as a reason not to start writing a blog: The concern that you might not be able to post every week or every two weeks. This doesn’t really matter to your audience as I don’t think anyone will be upset if they don’t hear about you for a while. People usually get upset if they hear too much about you.
You might not want to establish an unrealistic schedule for posting, like one post a day. Starting with one post a week to one post a month might be an easier goal to reach.
Following a regular schedule to post is a good idea I think, because you get into a rhythm and also because you get to know better your blogging interface and therefore are becoming more efficient at using it. You don’t want to forget how everything works in between two posts.
3-Perfection is unattainable
I really believe that you learn while doing and get better at it with practice. So if you are trying to write the perfect post for the perfect blog when you start, you are setting up yourself for disappointment and might never push that “publish” button. Why not start with something small and learn as you go.
Publishing on the internet can be scary, your content can be potentially seen by everyone and stay published forever, but on the other end the amount of content online is exponentially growing and you are just a drop in an ocean of information, so except if you do something tremendously embarrassing you should be safe 🙂
4- Great pictures are important
There is really no way around it as you are working in visual art. You need great pictures of your art and you need great pictures of your process to share.
You might also be interested in : How to take good pictures of your paintings and Artists: Is it worth the time and hassle to document your process ?
Good pictures are also useful to incorporate into your blog posts, and they will really help with social media, especially picture based social media like Pinterest or Instagram.
Good pictures are also great to share your blog posts on social media
You don’t need to be a professional photographer but just to pay attention to a few important things like light and framing and cropping.
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