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Wednesday, September 04, 2013

Three Great Reasons to Start an Art Blog

'Not Too Shabby'          11x14          pastel           ©Karen Margulis
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 Did you ever wonder about the purpose of a blog?  I just gave a talk about online art marketing to the Booth Artist Guild in Cartersville,  Georgia.  One of the things we talked about was blogging. I love to blog. I try to convince my artist friends to start their own art blog. But the question always comes up....why?  Why are blogs useful?  Here are three reasons why you should consider starting a blog:

close up detail

  •   Blogs help you paint better.  This is the reason I started my blog back in 2005.  It was a personal journal for me.  I would do my daily painting and post it to the blog. I could see the painting with fresh eyes. I could see I was making progress. It was a visual diary of my art journey....so much better than throwing paintings in a box.  I felt accountable to the blog. I had to post so that meant I had to paint. It was one of the best things I ever did to improve my work. (and by the way if you don't want to share with the world you can set the blog to be private and invite the people who you wish to see it.)
  • Blogs Open up Opportunities for you.  If you share your blog with the world and you post consistently you will be found. You just never know who will find you either. I have had many opportunities come about from someone stumbling across my blog...galleries, book covers, teaching and speaking engagements to name a few.  Taking the leap of sharing yourself and your work through your blog can be well worth your time and effort. (blogs are great for getting found since every page you post is a potential web page to be found)
  • Blogs Make you a Real Person.  If you wish to connect with other artists or maybe sell your work online you need to network. Blogs give you the opportunity to share something about your work and yourself. You become a friend...someone others feel comfortable with and trust. This is important for sales.  But even better is the friends you make through sharing yourself with the world. I treasure my followers. When we have the opportunity to meet in person it is like we are old friends!



Have I convinced you to start a blog?  Tomorrow I'll share some pointers with you!

Today's painting:  11x14 Uart 500 paper with Terry Ludwig pastels. This is a scene from a trip I took to Pawleys Island South Carolina. 

8 comments:

Judy Felsen said...

I've been thinking about starting a blog. This is good Info. I do want to share and keep track of my process and progress.

David King said...

Hmmm....I blogged for a year and a half and got no opportunites from it. I can't say in my case that it was worth it but I wasn't really posting as a professional, just as a hobbiest. I'm not sure what I could have done more to get noticed or "found". I'm kinda regrouping now and in a few months may restart with the idea of going "pro", any suggestions on making blogging more productive the next go around?

Casey Klahn said...

Good post, Karen! I agree with your 3 points, and I will add that an artist blogger gets to establish their own narrative about their work.

Karen said...

Thanks for the comments! Casey great point about establishing a narrative!
David, I took a blog triage online course from Alyson Stanfield and that really gave me great ideas to make my blog more productive. I think it is a long slow process of consistent posting and writing content that helps you get found!

Alexandra J. said...

It is always interesting to read your blog! I'm blogging since last year to show my paintings and share my creating process because I for myself found so many helpful hints in the www. I discovered that people do read my blog but they seem to be really timid to leave comments and I'm a bit frustrated about it.

Karen said...

Thanks Alexandra, I find that I have trouble getting a lot of comments when I have the word captcha on. Those are a pain! But if I turn it off I get way too much spam! I can't win!

STH said...

Thanks, Karen. I am having difficulty posting a good photo of my art and using the cropping function on my blog. Any recommendations?

Karen said...

Hi, I have had a lot of questions about photos so I will share some tips in an upcoming post . Stay tuned!