by Rebecca Sciullo | Apr 20, 2020 | Artist Blogging 101
Once you understand how your blog is set up and have established your categories, it’s time to start posting. Technically you could upload an image of your work and leave it at that, but a better practice is to put together a well-constructed entry every time you post. This post focuses on how to structure your artist blog posts.
How to Structure Your Blog Posts
Each blog post should contain the following:
Title. Use a strong title that will interest your reader.
Introductory paragraph. Provide a clear introduction prefacing what the post is about with an introductory paragraph.
Headings. In this post, “How to Structure Your Blog Posts” above is a heading. Headings help to capture your audience’s attention. Many readers will quickly skim the headings before deciding whether or not to read more.
Body The body is where you share the bulk of your information. Use shorter paragraphs. Use your authentic voice when you write.
Professional image. Use clear and appropriately cropped images. In addition to your work, incorporate pictures of yourself at work, your studio, or anything else that might be interesting to people who follow your work.
Call to action. At the end, you should ask your reader to take some action. You might ask them to visit your online gallery where you share more images in a collection, sign up for your newsletter, or follow you on Facebook. While you have their attention, make sure you find a way to keep them engaged.
The Importance of Your Writing
For an artist, your work is going to be the focal point of your blog posting, but don’t assume that the accompanying text is not important. Your authentic writing can be a great support to your visual media and should entice your readers to learn more about you and your work. We’ll talk about this more in coming posts.
Stay tuned to Artist Blogging 101 for more tips on writing posts for your artist blog. If you missed earlier posts, start here.
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by Rebecca Sciullo | Apr 16, 2020 | Artist Blogging 101, Learning
What You Need to Know About Your Artist Blog Categories
Your blog posts have to have a Category – a word or short phrase that describes your post topic.
For instance, on Artisan Advantage, my Categories include things like Artist Blogging 101, Resources, and Events. You can see a full list of my Categories in the right-hand sidebar of my website.
Make a list of Categories that you think makes sense for your blog. Try to avoid long phrases, and try to limit the number of Categories as this will look neater in your sidebar and be easier to manage.
Most blogging platforms will have a default Category such as Uncategorized. Remove or rename this one. General Might be a better term for posts that don’t fit within any of your main categories.
Here are some common Category names used on artist blogs.
New Work
Events
Workshops
Learning
Demonstrations
If you work in various media, you could have a category for each type. If you paint different types of subject matter, you could have a category for every kind of subject that you paint.
Tips on Setting Up Categories
Set up your Categories before you start posting so that they are ready to go. You can always add or edit them as you go.
Be thoughtful about your Categories. Category names should be logical and not made-up or clever names. They are essential navigation links, so treat them accordingly.
Try to avoid long phrases. Most Categories are one to four words.
Try to limit the number of Categories as this will look neater in your sidebar and be easier to manage.
For more information on how to start and maintain an artist blog, follow along with Artist Blogging 101
For help with your artist blog, visit my Artist Blogging Services page.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Apr 14, 2020 | Learning, Resources
Here in Pennsylvania, where I live, we are five weeks into our “stay at home” order. In my household, we’ve been figuring things out as we go. Emotions have run the gamut from fear to frustration to gratitude. Things that have sustained me include my faith, family, neighbors, (aka social distancing) and staying busy.
Where I’m Focusing During COVID-19
After the initial shock of this situation, I have been attempting to focus my business in a few areas.
– Finishing projects that were long overdue.
– Making changes to my business plan for the future.
– Maintaining relationships.
I have spent some time learning and watching webinars specifically focused on how businesses can manage through this crisis and thought I would share some things that I learned with you from them:
Business Survival Takeaways
– Look for good news. Focusing on the endless barrage of negative news will not help your mindset for business. It’s okay to check in once a day but avoid overexposure.
– You have a choice. You can respond or react to the situation. Choose “respond”.
– Acknowledge reality. Own it. Solve it. Do it.
– Give yourself moments to breathe.
– Over-communicate.
– Adjust your plans and act accordingly.
Watch this webinar.
For visual artists, I recommend watching this webinar offered by Artwork Archive – Strategies for Running an Art Business During COVID-19. It is full of ideas and resources to help you adjust your business to this situation.
This 30-minute webinar will provide you with the tools, strategy and resources to transition your art career online and help you decide what areas you can control during these unprecedented and difficult times.
One last word. It is normal to have a “bad day”. I have experienced my fair share during this experience. Stay strong! We will get through this.
*Legal Disclaimer. The information contained in this webinar, in Artwork Archive materials and on the Artwork Archive or affiliated websites is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter. You should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of any content included in this webinar without seeking legal or other professional advice.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Apr 13, 2020 | Artist Blogging 101, Learning
Let’s Look Inside Your Blog
Once you set up your blog on your chosen platform, you will soon be ready to start posting. Before you do, take some time to understand the basic structure of your blog. This information pertains mainly to self-hosted WordPress or WordPress.com, but you will find that most platforms have similar features.
Your Blog Components
Posts
Posts are individual entries that you will write on your blog. They can include content in the form of text, images, or videos. In your WordPress dashboard, there is a tab labeled “Posts” that you’ll click on to write your new blog posts. This area is where you will spend most of your time working. As an example, here is a link to a chronological series of blog posts from “Artisan Advantage”.
Pages
As I posted about last week, your blog is a website, and as such, there are some traditional web pages that you should add to it. You should find a tab labeled “Pages” where you can add them to your site. Pages are for more static, timeless content. On Artisan Advantages, I have pages such as About, Resources, and Contact.
Media
This section is the library where all of the images that you upload to your website will be stored. You can add, delete, or edit images, video, and audio right here. When you add an image to a blog post, you will retrieve it from your Media gallery.
Comments
Read, moderate, or respond to comments posted on your blog in this area. Comments are optional, and you can decide whether or not you want to enable them.
Appearance
For WordPress, this is where you will manage the entire look and layout of your website. Manage themes, widgets, menus, and customization in the Appearance section.
Plugins
A plugin is a piece of software that acts as an add-on to a WordPress website. For self-hosted WordPress, you must set up specific plugins for your site, which I will go into more detail in a later post. Plugins are one of the most important benefits of using a self-hosted WordPress blog. Plugins can extend functionality or add new features to your blog. For WordPress.com, only certain packages give you the ability to add plugins.
Learning Curve
Don’t be discouraged if some of this seems confusing or overwhelming when you open up your blog dashboard. If you work at your blog consistently, over time, using these components will become second nature to you.
For a more detailed description of the inner workings of self-hosted WordPress, download my Artist Blog Set-up Guide.
If you are not using WordPress, then visit the Knowledgebase or Help Center of your chosen platform to review how each of these components works.
For a quick session where I can answer some of your questions, consider a complimentary “ask me anything” Consulting Hour.
For more intensive help, consider my Artist Blogging Services.
Thank you to KOBU Agency on Unsplash for the photo!
by Rebecca Sciullo | Apr 11, 2020 | Consultations
Would you like some free consulting to help you with your visual art business?
How It Works
I am opening up time to work with one artist every day, Monday through Friday. The sessions will be in place until stay at home orders are lifted here in Pennsylvania.
These are “Ask Me Anything” hours where I will take time to help you with your visual art business.
“Ask Me Anything” Hours are available on a first-come-first-serve basis. I have allotted 6o minutes for each session, so I ask that you provide me with some information before our meeting to make it worthwhile. Please fill out the form below to take advantage of this opportunity. I will respond as soon as possible to let you know if a session is available for the coming week. Sessions will be facilitated via Zoom.
