Today’s Visions

Blogging can be a very useful promotional tool for artists and can serve as website, portfolio and advertising in one shot.

Blogging Raises Your Google Profile

Since Google prefers fresh content, regular blogging tends to push your Google results higher. Other people linking to your blog posts also increases your Google profile. To get the full benefit of this, you need to ensure that you are blogging under your professional name.

It’s not just Google that likes new information: people are also far more likely to come and visit your website if you’ve got constantly changing content. How often is someone likely to blog about your really cool art? Once or twice tops. However, if you’re regularly writing good blog posts then you don’t just get repeat visits, you may also get repeatedly linked, which means… yes, better Google results!

Blogging Reminds People You Exist

Promotion isn’t something that you do once and then it’s done forever: it’s more like exercising - you need to do it little and often!

Blogging helps with that; if people are constantly coming back to read your blog, then they’re naturally more aware of you. You don’t even need to constantly talk about your own art; just by visiting regularly they’re getting a gentle little nudge that you and your work exist.

Blogging Improves Your Website Numbers

Being able to say to a gallery or a funding body, “well, last month I had X number of visitors to my website” puts you in a better negotiating position because it proves that your work is already popular.

Blogging Connects You With People

This is one of the most important reasons to blog: I’ve met some completely amazing people through blogging and some of them have turned into offline friends.

Blogging can help you find a group of people who support your art. This can include other artists, gallery owners and curators but equally importantly it can include lots of non-artists who are willing to be advocates for your work.

Cultivating a group of people who like your work is vital for any artist. Supporters will turn up at your shows, cheer you on, blog about you, tell their friends and even sometimes buy your work. Supporters are great!

Blogging Gets You Out Of Isolation

Many artists work in isolation and blogging can help reduce that all pervading sense of invisibility. My own studio is in my home: this is definitely the best option for my art practice but it does mean that I don’t always get as many opportunities to connect with other artists as I’d like.

Even if you are in a studio, there aren’t always as many opportunities to connect deeply with the other artists as you might expect - they’re busy, you’re busy and you might not have that much in common anyway. But online you’re not limited to your geographical surroundings - with a little effort, you can find a peer group with whom you truly click on an artistic and intellectual level.

Blogging Breaks Down Barriers

Sure, there’s a hierarchy in the blogging world but there’s also a surprisingly level playing field. You can leave comments in the blogs of ‘far more important’ bloggers and they’ll generally reply to you on an equal basis. I’ve spoken in blog comments to published authors and more established artists in a way that I would never have dared to do in other mediums. Blogging opens the channels of communication in a way that feels comfortable to me: I feel much more equal online, I’m less intimidated by what someone’s done and just respond to what they write and how they come across. Blogging makes me braver and that has translated into my offline promotion efforts.

In the same way, blogging can make you seem more approachable and human to people who are interested in your art. Why not do the next generation of artists a big favor and help to break down the myth that artists are all crazy, ear chopping introverts or outrageously drunken drama queens!

You Can Reach A Wider Audience

People who might not be comfortable visiting a gallery are often happy to look at your work online, especially if you initially engage them with a blog post that’s relevant to them. Through blogging you can often reach people who wouldn’t otherwise consider looking at your art and those people can sometimes end up being incredibly supportive.

Blogging Empowers you

By being active online you take a little bit of the power away from the artistic ‘gatekeepers’ and put it back in your own hands. You’re not just sitting around twiddling your thumbs waiting to be discovered - you’re out there building an audience and creating your own opportunities.

Of course, the gatekeepers aren’t ever going to be redundant - artists still need gallery owners, exhibitions, audiences, collectors and funders in the offline world. I’m not trying to denigrate the artworld or its gatekeepers but particularly in the early days it can feel as though you’re banging your head against a brick wall and getting nowhere. I’m not complaining about that either; there’s absolutely no substitute for paying your dues and we all have to knuckle down and do it. However, a little bit of encouragement online can keep you going when it feels as though no one else knows you exist. You’re still going to have to engage with the artworld offline but blogging can help to increase your confidence to deal with those interactions.

Blogging Strengthens Your Voice

When you’re blogging about your own work, you have to think about your work. You have to put into words what you’re trying to do and that’s damn good experience when you need to write artists’ statements and press releases. A lot of artists hate writing about their own work and find it excruciating - blogging can help you get over that.

Blogging Can Generate New Opportunities

I know people who’ve been published or been offered exhibitions because of their blogging. It hasn’t directly happened to me yet but I have approached people I know in the online world and scored opportunities that way.

Blogging Is Cheap

Blogging costs virtually nothing compared to other forms of promotion like postcards, poster and ads but it can be very effective. Writing a good blog post won’t cost you anything except time, energy and a little for internet access and the electricity to run your computer but it can get distributed all around the world. Not only that but when people link to you, the information is usually replicated on their blogs plus they also usually link back to you. It’s like you sent out a single postcard and someone photocopied it and gave it to all their friends. As we all know, word of mouth can be a powerful thing. Who knows how connected some of those people might be? Who knows how large the audience on their blog is?

Blogging is Fun!

OK, obviously I’m biased on this one but I think blogging is a blast. It’s an effective promotional tool for me but it never feels like work because I enjoy it.