This week, in lieu of the Blogger of the Week feature, we are taking a look back through our featured Bloggers and focusing on some of the tips they gave for successful art blogging. Most artists know by now that blogging can be extremely beneficial for marketing their art, but it can also be the biggest hurdle to overcome. We hope some of these top tips help!

Kari Tirrell ~

1. Plan your blog posts with your audience (and search engines) in mind. One of the things I like best about blogging is that it makes the artist accessible.  I enjoy blogs where I can read the artist’s thoughts about what they’ve created, see their process, and interact with them through comments or email.  I assume that the readers of my blog are similarly interested, and try to write my blog posts accordingly.  It is also important to keep in mind that search engines need keywords.  If you want people to find your blog, include relevant keywords in your posts.  Simply posting a picture of your work with the title and dimensions is not only less satisfying for the viewer, it will also do very little to help the search engines find you.

2.  Follow the blogs of artists you admire, and leave thoughtful comments on their work.  The value of interacting with other artists is a benefit of blogging which should not be underestimated.

Claudia Roulier ~

I would say that the single most important thing is to do it regularly. I had someone ask me last First Friday if I added content on a regular basis, I knew he was asking me was it worth his time to check in every so often. You need to keep it interesting and give people something to come back for. It’s a great way to show your new art. I really like showing point A to point Z during a project. Sometimes I feature things I see that are of interest  on other blogs (always ask permission first). Some of my content is about my dog who is a real character, I did a recent flyer featuring my dog. On my blog we can also add a snippet of a sentence or two to help entice people to swing in for a look. One time I was having the blues about my art and the short phrase I chose was “my art sucks”…boy did I get a lot of interesting  comments and a bunch of hits. Pictures are always good I use them almost every time I post. Try to be concise, sometimes you don’t need many words, people tend not to read long rambling posts. I try to mix it up, with tips and suggestions to just posting art. Spell check everything!

Maria Soto Robbins ~
1. Blog as frequently as you can. For me it’s at least three times a week, usually more. I do see the benefits of blogging frequently (via Google analytics) but sometimes I don’t have time to craft a complete post  and instead will just post a description of one of my paintings from one of my venues (Etsy or ebay), along with a picture.  This is still good for the seo however it is lazy approach and I don’t recommend you over do it. The point is to get something out there rather than go for days and days without posting anything on your blog!

2. I’d like to share, a simple list I glance at each time I blog. It consists of these basic, but important reminders (adapted from dailyblogtips.com):

1.  Did I read the post after writing it?  (You’d be amazed how many times, I’m in a hurry and forget to do this-lol.)
2. Is the post as complete as it could be?
3.  Did I research any related keywords?
4.  Did I think carefully about the title?
5.  Did I link to one or more of my older posts?
6. Did I link to external resources when appropriate?
7. Did I check to make sure my links are working?
8. Did I include an interesting image?
9. Is this a good day for traffic?
10. Did I proofread and check my spelling?

3. Besides these things though, the most important thing is to have a certain degree of passion about that which you blog about and have those feelings shine through to the reader. It’s a lot about your reader (not you necessarily) and what he hopes to find in your blog. They’re reading because you inspire them somehow!