by Rebecca Sciullo | Apr 27, 2020 | Artist Blogging 101, Learning
The last entry in Artist Blogging 101 reviewed the basic structure of a blog post. Before we get into the details of how and what to post, make sure that you have the appropriate pages set up on your site.
Pages to Consider for Your Artist Blog
Pages contain static content. Your audience can find them by navigating from your menu bar. While you will update them from time to time, they are generally not updated daily, like your posts. On Artisan Advantage, some of the pages include such as About, Resources, and Contact.
Here the pages that you should consider including on your site.
About Page:
This page will help visitors to get to know you. Style and content will vary, but here are some ideas on what to include.
A welcome to visitors. Thank them for visiting your site.
Your biography and artist statement. You could write your biographical information in a more informal style than you would in the case of submitting a bio to an exhibition or entry. Or, you could set up sub-pages for your biography and artist statement.
An invitation to follow you on your social media pages and to sign up for your email newsletter.
Some guidance on how to find your blog posts, in case someone lands on the About page first.
How to contact you. Yes, you will also have a contact page, but it never hurts to include this information on your About page as well.
Here is the About Page that I created for my father.
Gallery Page
While your blog posts will feature your work, you should have one page that directs them to a gallery of your work. There are different options for how to set up your gallery. You can consider using a system like Artwork Archive or you could build your gallery right into your site.
Here is an example of a Gallery page from artist Marla Greenfield.
Here is another way to set up your gallery, from artist Don Lake.
Artist Amy Rice presents her work as Portfolios and Projects.
Contact Me Page
This page is devoted to providing information on how people can contact you. Most blog platforms will give you the option of adding a contact form. I still recommend including an email address and any other contact information that you are comfortable sharing here.
How to Find Page
This page helps people to learn where they can find your work, either in person or online. The content will depend on your situation. Examples of information that you share would be galleries or retail venues that exhibit your work, both online and offline.
Events Page
An events page would list all of the different places that you are presenting or exhibiting in person. Or, considering our current situation, you could add online events such as virtual exhibitions, art talks, or demos if you are doing these things.
Include any place where people can interact with you in real-time.
How to Hire Page
If you do portrait or commission work, you should devote a page that explains how someone can hire you.
Here is an example from artist Mara Carlini.
How to Purchase Page
Similar to a “How to Hire Page” would be a How to purchase your work page. Explain how you transact, ship work, handle returns, etc. The more information that you can provide, the more likely your online visitor will feel comfortable dealing with you.
In the Press or Media Page.
List websites or news outlets where you or your work is featured. Keep track of your articles and add them to this list in a reverse chronological manner as they appear. Don’t be shy about tooting your own horn! These articles also help to establish your credibility with your audience. If there are one or two that are extremely impressive, you may want to feature them on your About page as well.
Publishing Your Pages
Publishing your pages should be a similar process to publishing a post. Don’t be afraid to work through a few drafts before you publish them. Take time to edit and proof before you launch, but remember, you can always update them as needed.
This week, take time to work on your pages. For more content from Artist Blogging 101, go here. If you’d like some help with your artist blog, visit my Artist Blogging Services page.
Do you have a unique page that is working well for your artist website and blog? I’d love to see it. Feel free to send a note and a link to becky@artisan-advantage.com.
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.
Join the Artisan Advantage newsletter for regular updates.
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 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 8, 2020 | Artist Blogging 101, Artist Websites, Learning
As you can see from prior posts, Artisan Advantage focuses primarily on blogging for an art business. The recent post, Choosing a Platform for your Artist Blog, talks about the different services that you can use for setting up a blog.
With all of this information about blogging, I want to make sure that one thing is clear.
Your Blog Should Be a Part of Your Website.
That is, while you can have a site that consists only of blog posts, it makes more sense to have a robust website that includes a blog.
There are some basic pages that every site should include.
Christina Hills is offering this free checklist as she ramps up for her Website Creation Workshop Course. This guide provides information for anyone looking to build a website for a business
Whether you currently have a website or are looking to create a new one to house your blog, this checklist provides some great information that can help you make sure you have everything you need to make your site the best it can be.
In it, you will discover exactly which web pages you need to include if you want to attract customers.
Christina also shares her advice on which pages you can wait until later to create because she knows one of the biggest hurdles is getting overwhelmed by having too much to do!
My favorite resources are actionable, quick to implement and produce immediate results. This guide is one of them.
Don’t waste your valuable downtime over the next couple of weeks on Netflix and YouTube. Spend this time renewing a resource that will contribute to your long term growth!
Check it out:
CLICK HERE for your free Website Creation Checklist
Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase an item from Christina Hills I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Apr 6, 2020 | Artist Blogging 101, Learning
How to choose a domain for your blog.
A domain name is what someone types into their internet browser to find your website. My domain name, for instance, is www.artisan-advantage.com.
For an artist, a domain name should be a relatively easy choice. You will likely want your name to be the focus of your domain name.
A domain name might end in .com, .net, .org, or a country code like .us (United States). “URL” or “web address” are other names for a domain.
Register Your Domain Name
When you register a domain name, no one else can register it. Try to keep your domain name simple and easy to remember. If another website is using your preferred domain name, then you won’t be able to use it. In this case, you should come up with an alternative. While .com domains are typically the most preferred domain, but you could see if your name choice is available as .net.
For example, let’s say I wanted to set my domain up as beckysciullo.com, but someone else was using it, I could try a variation such as one of the following:
beckysciulloartist.com
beckysciulloart.com
rebeccasciullo.com
beckysciullo.net
Your domain name is not a “make or break” factor for your site. As long as it is clear that visitors have found your art site, you are doing your job. Give yourself a day or two to think about it, and then make a decision.
For more detail on choosing a domain name, download my free Artist Blog Set-Up Guide.
If you have questions about setting up your domain, drop me a line at becky@artisan-advantage.com.
