Whether you want to increase your art sales or expand your reputation as an artist to a global audience, having an art blog can be the perfect vehicle for achieving your art career goals. An art blog can reside on your art website or consist of your stories on Facebook or LinkedIn. In this article you’ll learn how to create a successful art blog.
At the end, you’ll find links to more articles on this subject.
Follow The 6 S’s
The good news is, you don’t need to be a great writer to have a successful art blog. Simply follow the guidelines offered in the 6 S’s: Style, Subjects, Schedule, Subscribers, Share, and SEO.
Style
The appearance of your blog and posts should closely match the design of your website. Take time to select the top banner, font styles and sizes for your content, headlines and sub-headlines. Keep them consistent for every blog post. Your goal is to create a professional and attractive appearance for readers to enjoy. Correct style also applies to proper grammar and spelling so proofread before you publish.
Decide on the average length of your posts and choose a general format you’ll want to follow, such as how many pictures will accompany each post, the style for your introductory paragraph and your call(s) for action in your conclusion.
Subjects
Choose general topics in a few different categories, such as news and events, works in progress, special sales, your source of inspiration, etc. Vary them to avoid being repetitive and predictable. You can also ask your subscribers and fans to submit questions that will make interesting blog topics and keep them connected.
Avoid sharing too much personal information. First and foremost, your art blog should be about you as a professional artist.
And, of course, add beautiful images of your art or of you working in your studio, plein air, giving a workshop, at your art exhibition, etc. Let the pictures provide the idea for your topic and describe them. Spice things up occasionally by posting a video.
Ask your followers and subscribers to provide questions for topic ideas. Barbara Rachko, who is a leading pastel artist, maintains a superior art blog “Barbara Rachko Colored Dust”, in which she answers questions about her art.
For topic ideas read “Topic Ideas For Your Art Blog Posts”.
Schedule
Choose how frequently you want to post. This should be manageable and fit your current schedule because it’s important to not deviate from it. You can always begin quarterly or monthly and increase the frequency as you become more experienced. The more often you post, the better, as long as the content is good.
You can plan your posts around your calendar of events, such as your upcoming exhibitions, workshops, new products, etc. When you determine how often you will be writing a new article let your followers and subscribers know how often they can look forward to reading them.
A good idea is, before you launch your blog, write several articles so they’ll be ready to post according to your schedule. You can also occasionally have a guest writer as long as their article relates to your art.
Subscribers
Once you get your art blog going you’ll want to focus on growing your list. With every new post you’ll announce it with a link in social media and in your email newsletter.
Ask readers and social media followers to share your post links as I have done at the end of this article. Place “SUBSCRIBE” links in visible locations on several pages of your art website.
You can also attract subscribers through RSS (“Really Simple Syndication”) feeds. This allows readers to add your blog to their RSS feed reader and they’ll receive an email notice when you add a new post.
Share
After you write each blog post share the link in your social media platforms and email newsletter. Also place “Share” buttons, like you see on mine (see below) and ask your visitors to please share.
Don’t stop there! To generate more traffic on your art blog, explore the many opportunities to be a guest writer and share a similar article on other blogs with links back to your blog.
SEO
You don’t want to limit your readers solely to existing subscribers and your immediate circle of followers. Learn the basics of SEO – Search Engine Optimization. Create important content and include keywords that your customer profile will respond to and those that will encourage Google and other search engines to rank your article as high as possible.
There are many excellent articles available online about SEO. Simply do a google search. However, in the beginning, I wouldn’t let this preoccupy too much of your time. Instead, first focus on providing excellent content for your followers.
You may also want to read…
Topic Ideas For Your Art Blog Posts
The Benefits of Having An Art Blog
Simple Steps to Writing Best Art Blog Posts
Barbara Rachko Maintains A Superior Art Blog
How to Use AIDA When Writing About Your Art
How to Write Your Artist Email Newsletter
Do You Want Personalized Help?
If you need more help, I offer writing services for artists.
Great source of valuable informations about Art/ thanks for the opportunity and for sharing your beautiful guidance in this world of Art/ ivo David
Dear Ivo, I appreciate your visit and your kind words. Best wishes to you! Renee
I want to print this. It helps me to know Renee’s suggestions about writing a blog. I will get going on a blog. Years ago I tried one, but Renee gives me good advice.
The idea is a wonderful idea with a wonderful coach, she plants the seeds of inspiration and enthusiasm and this only can be done by a good friend, the articles are good, interesting, and accelerating for the artist mind, I am going to try to upload one of my images and then I will wait for her opinion
Renee, Thank You! Your articles always seem to be timed exactly when I need the advice. After reading some of your articles about art blogs you convinced me to set one up. This information is so helpful! When it’s up I’ll contact you for one of your “mini consultations” to get your feedback and constructive advice. Thanks again Renee for a great article.