by Becky Sciullo | Feb 16, 2021 | Events
Free Presentation! Use Blogging to Build Your Art Business
Join me for Blogging for Your Visual Art Business this Friday, February 19th at noon EST.
Attend this free presentation about how to use blogging to create an effective marketing system for your visual art.
This presentation uses my personal experience and real-life examples to outline a system any visual artist can use. The information is relevant for many popular web platforms such as WordPress, Weebly, Squarespace, or FASO. Learn how to consistently share work with an audience across various marketing channels such as social media and email marketing using an easy to use blogging platform as the driver for your business.
My goal is for you to gain a new enthusiasm for building a web presence, whether you are starting from scratch or improving upon an existing website. Blogging to Build an Art Business offers advice for starting and maintaining this system in a manageable way.
Reserve your spot at the link below.
Blogging for a Visual Art Business
Friday, February 19, 2021
12:00 pm EST
by Becky Sciullo | Feb 15, 2021 | Learning, Social Media, Tools
Here are some marketing ideas for your Monday Morning
Five Art Marketing Ideas (and suggestions:))
1 – Dig into Pinterest with Pinterest Presents, a free virtual summit.
2 – Speaking of Pinterest. Convert your personal profile to a business profile. Business profiles offer better data and you won’t lose any of your pins by switching over.
3 – Gain exposure and revenue with Patreon. Allow fans to support your work. Build yourself a profile and get paid for things you might already be creating.
4 – Consider live-streaming your process.
5 – Don’t overlook LinkedIn. I recently read that posts with images get 94% more views. Your work can easily stand out on this platform.
Get More Art Marketing Help
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by Becky Sciullo | Feb 12, 2021 | Blogging
Blogs I ❤️ is the first post in a long-overdue series focused on artist blogs worth loving. With Valentine’s Day upon us, I figured it was time to get this going.
First Up: Austin Kleon
In a past blog post, I mentioned that I wanted to do this and asked readers to weigh in with suggestions—hat tip to artist Carol Skinger for the first pick. Austin Kleon’s blog just had to be first in this series. He’s a best-selling author, so you may already be familiar with him. If you’re not, you should be. I’ve read two of his books, Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work. They are worth reading.
Why you will ❤️ this blog.
Visit his site, and it will be evident why I’m sharing it, but I’ll highlight some of the reasons I love it.
The content is useful, interesting and entertaining all at the same time.
He covers a variety of topics while staying true to his promise of delivering new art, writing, and interesting links.
It’s effective. The layout is simple. I can find what I’m looking for. I want to read more.
He shares a ton of worthy things from books to music and other creatives.
Go check it out. You might lose an afternoon reading, which isn’t a bad thing!
Do you have a blog that you’d like me to consider for I Heart Blogs? Drop me a line at becky@artisan-advantage.com.
by Becky Sciullo | Feb 8, 2021 | Learning
Here are some marketing ideas for your Monday morning.
Six Art Marketing Ideas
1 – Figure out how to create marketing moments with your online presence.
2 – Research what other artists are doing with their websites. Seek out artists working in your niche, medium, or another area where you relate. Do they have a useful page that you could also add to your site? Or, so they organize their gallery in a way that would also work for your work? You can get all kinds of marketing inspiration through research.
3 – For your events, including virtual events, make sure you add them to event discovery sites such as Eventbrite or Facebook Events.
4 – Also, for events, don’t be afraid to reach out directly to groups or organizations where members might be interested in the event.
5 – Social media platforms are becoming search engines. People search for business and contact information within social media platforms. Be sure to have all pertinent information on contacting you and finding your website in all of your social media profiles
6 – Consider niche platforms to promote your work.
Get More Art Marketing Help
Would you like weekly updates with information like this to help your art business? Sign up for my mailing list here.
If you’re signed up for my email newsletter and NOT receiving my weekly updates, please check your spam folder
by Becky Sciullo | Feb 5, 2021 | Artist Blogging 101, Learning
*This is an post from April 2020 that has been updated.
How to Choose a Platform For Your Artist Blog
Before you can start blogging, you need to decide which platform you will use. Your platform is the software or system that manages all of the content that you publish. Platforms can also be referred to as content management systems or website builders.
Do you already have a website?
If you have a website for your art business, it may already have a blog function built-in. Many artists build sites on blog platforms but don’t use the blogging feature. If this describes your website, then it isn’t too difficult to start blogging. For artists, some common platforms with blogging features include Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, FASO, WordPress.com, and WordPress.org.
By using the Help or Knowledgebase of your current website platform, you should be able to find detailed instructions on how to use your blog feature.
Do you need a new website?
If you are happy with your current platform, don’t reinvent the wheel. However, you have an outdated website that does not offer a blogging feature, or you are starting from scratch, you need to decide on which platform to build your blog. If you have a site but find the platform difficult to use or not meet your needs, consider a switch.
Recommendations.
My top choice for both artist websites and blogs used to be self-hosted WordPress.org. WordPress.org is the most popular platform in the world. It offers the most flexibility for design, and it is what I use for Artisan Advantage. However, it takes longer to master than some other platforms. And, it is self-hosted, which means you have to find pay for a service to host your site. WordPress.org gets easier to use over time, however, so if you can commit to a longer learning curve, then it might be the choice for you. If you choose to go with WordPress.org, then I recommend checking out Christina Hills and her Website Creation Workshops.
Most of the artists that I help are eager to get started and don’t want to invest a large amount of time learning a system or building a site. Platforms that offer a more straightforward setup and more than adequate features for your blog based website include WordPress.com, FASO, Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix. Of these, WordPress.com and FASO are my favorites for artists.
Confused about WordPress.com vs.Wordpress.org?
You might be confused as to why I’m referring to two different platforms called “WordPress”. Check out this video from Christina Hills at Website Creation Workshop. She does a great job of explaining the differences.
Just Do It!
Your blog will never be perfect. You will always be changing and improving. In my years of blogging, one thing I learned is that sometimes you just have to start.
If starting a blog for your visual art business is something that you’ve wanted to do, I encourage you to get started today using one of the resources above or following allowing with Artist Blogging 101.
Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.
