Discuss: How often do you blog about your art?

bsherwin: Do you maintain an art blog? If so, how often do you post about your art? Do you feel that maintaining an art blog is important for your online art marketing efforts? Is your art blog strictly about your blog -- or do you cover other topics about art? Do you have any advice about art blogging in general? Feel free to share information -- and DO offer a link to your art blog if you desire.

	animesh roy via faso.com	12 months ago
	i blog about anything about which i feel excited about writing and sharing...

	Janet Glatz via faso.com	12 months ago
	Yes, I do maintain a blogspace about my art. Occasionally I will write a piece about social media marketing. It's a relatively new thing for me, and I have yet to see that it has helped my marketing efforts. I intend to persevere, however!

	Animesh Roy via faso.com	12 months ago
	Anyone interesed to see my works and read my blogs can use these links: You can view my works here.. http://www.artists.de/animeshroy.html http://www.animeshroy.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/animeshroy/http://facebook.com/animeshroy https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2372107020936.2142340.1198322224andtype=3#!/media/albums/?id=1198322224 You can read my blogs here.. http://royanimesh.blogspot.com/ http://animeshroydotorg.wordpress.com/

	Gayle Faucette Wisbon via faso.com	12 months ago
	I try to blog at least a few times a month. I post to my blog whenever I've completed a new painting and whenever I have something I want to share or feel inspired by. I find that having a blog integrated with my website brings a lot more visitors to my site. So I do think it is an important online marketing tool. Here's my link. http://gaylefaucettewisbon.com/blog

	Kim VanDerHoek via faso.com	12 months ago
	I post to my blog at least every two weeks and I try for once a week. Mostly, I write about my art and every so often I will write about a business related topic. Even though not many people leave comments these days (FaceBook kind of took over in that area) I am always amazed at how many people are reading my blog right after I post and how many hits I get to my web site. It's become an essential tool to for helping to have a dialogue with my audience and for collecting newsletter subscribers. in fact I would call it one of the corner stones to the marketing part of my business. You can see it here - My Blog - http://www.vanderhoekart.blogspot.com/ My web site where I maintain a second blog (for increased traffic) - http://kimvanderhoek.com/

	Jackie via faso.com	12 months ago
	Unless I am extremely busy, I try to blog on our site every day. As part of my freelance work I write blogs for three other sites daily, so if one has to miss out, it's our own site. Paying clients have to come first. I write about our artwork, publishing, destination marketing and social media - the latter three are part of our freelance work. Blogs are in search engines in minutes and are the heart of social media. Essential.

	Carolyn Hancock via faso.com	12 months ago
	FASO has made blogging so easy, including its linking into FaceBook, that I write several times a month, almost always when I can feature a new artwork. But I also write about problems a painting presents and how I've resolved them. The fun part of blogging, for me, is weaving a little bit of my travel stories in. One solution: I did find this week that photo alignment looks much nicer putting images in a table within the blog.

	Jackie via faso.com	12 months ago
	Blogging software allows you to set articles to be published on any date you wish. This means that if you find yourself in a writing mood, you can write several blogs, time them to be published at the intervals of your choice and then you don't have to worry about it. For example, this morning (as I do every Friday) I wrote eight blogs for a client, each timed to be published on a different day. This means that a new article will be released every day and no-one has to think about it until next week. The eighth one is a 'just-in-case' and it means that if I'm really busy I have a collection of 'spare' articles ready to go. If your inspiration to write comes only occasionally, it's a great way to make sure you always have articles ready to go.

	Jana Botkin via faso.com	12 months ago
	Five days a week, now in year #5! However, it isn't solely about my art. Sometimes it is about the business of art, about my drawing students, commissions, murals, sources of inspiration, on and on and on. Love to blog, LOVE it!!

	Jackie via faso.com	12 months ago
	Wonderful, Jana, me too!

	Jackie via faso.com	12 months ago
	I have an idea. Let me tell you and then let me know what you think. Why don't we - the contributors here - set up a system of guest blogging? For example, Jana could write a blog and I post it on my site with a link to hers. And a short bio section at the end. This would give her a whole new audience. Then I could do the same on her blog giving me a whole new audience. Then Carolyn, then Kim, then Gayle, then Animesh, then Janet (and everyone here) could join in the system. It would be easy to write - "Jana Botkin talks about her art" or something. We could all have a weekly guest writer. It wouldn't have to be a long piece. And for those who don't write as often as they like, if you have guest blogs, it means that your 'blogging duties' are over for another week or so. As many of us add our blogs to various social media, we'd all get even more exposure. It doesn't matter if it's about someone else's art because it's on YOUR site. Or we could say "don't write about your art per se but about your inspiration, what started your career as an artist, experiences at galleries, favorite places to paint, your motivation, why you prefer pastels, your favorite music to listen to when creating art, an artist you admire, news from the art world, a favorite poem - anything". What do you think? Does anyone want to write a guest blog to go on my site???

	Jana Botkin via faso.com	12 months ago
	Jackie, I think this is a wonderful suggestion. Guest posting is one of the fastest ways to increase readership. I've done it a few times and know it works. The bloggers who accept guest posts have guidelines - things such as the main blogger reserving the right to edit, to publish the post when she chooses, and to not post if it doesn't feel like a fit. The best blogger I know has his guidelines here: http://michaelhyatt.com/an-invitation-to-write-for-my-blog.html And here are some tips on how to be a good guest:http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/02/24/9-ways-become-an-exceptional-guest-poster/ Perhaps we should begin by reading one another's blogs to learn if we fit or how we can fit a post to someone else's blog. Gotta go read Jackie's blog!

	Jackie via faso.com	12 months ago
	Great! Thanks for the links too, Of the first, I don't think it's necessary that it is 100 percent original. If it was first posted two years ago that's fine - let's give it a new lease of life! I also think the author is being a bit pedantic by specifying between 500 and 800 words. Who's counting? A great blog post can be 200 words or 2000. No rules! On my way to read yours now :)

	Jackie via faso.com	12 months ago
	Jana, I'm getting "Internal Server Error" when I click your link. Help!

	Brian Sherwin via faso.com	12 months ago
	Jackie -- That is a great idea. I know that some artists are very protective of their following... but sharing info -- and a trade-off of mutual introduction -- can increase following for all involved.

	Brian Sherwin via faso.com	12 months ago
	Everyone -- what length is your average post? Do you try to maintain an average length / word count? Just curious.

	Jana Botkin via faso.com	12 months ago
	Shortest are 100, longest may be 600 words. That would make an average post 350 words (ooh, an artist and a math whiz??)

	Jackie via faso.com	12 months ago
	The last thing I am is a math whiz :) Although I like to think that I'm a terribly organized person (haha) I have no idea how many words my blog posts are. I just write until I've nothing more to say, I think! Brian, I think it's great if blog posts are all a similar length - it gives the blog a nice uniform look - but I don't take my own advice there.