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Blogging about Blogging Advice! Geesh!

By Catherine Ratliff

 

Rose by Jayden Ratliff

Yes, we have a million bloggers giving advice about how to sell your art, where to sell your art, to whom to sell your art, and the mistakes you make when marketing your art.  The information I stumbled across while reading random blogs, as an artist, is extremely helpful.  It’s true that no one person is absolutely correct when speaking on the subject of selling your artwork on a blog.

Marketing experience is helpful.  So, I will give props to the experts who have more experience than most people from sitting in a marketing class while obtaining their degrees or just everyday strategizing to sell their work.  I don’t believe that you will get the bulk of your sales via blogging.  However, it can pull some traffic onto your websites. This point is a common statement made on advice blogs.

I was perusing through some blogs about how to sell your work and the mistakes artists make while blogging which is why their art doesn’t sell.  Yes, you will make mistakes while marketing and hopefully learn from them in the meantime.  But, what I actually bumped into was a blog that mentioned the mistakes you make while blogging and it was catered to artists.  Huh?!

Now (scratching my head), mistakes….hmm, while writing a blog?  I didn’t know you can make mistakes while writing a blog, let alone blogging as an artist.  Unless you are defaming someone’s name or something along those lines, blogging should be a no-brainer.  Blogging in the minds of some people is talking about their lives, their interests, their goals, and also if they choose to sell their talents.  

So, I ran across a blog that caught my eye.  I will not include the actual posting but it seemed to me as a cold opinion than helpful advice to making ‘selling your art’ more strategic.  Perhaps the title should have included “When trying to sell your art on your blog, these are the following ideas an artist can consider’….it sounds more appropriate.  No, I am not an expert and if I totally offend anyone, please stick a banana in my mouth, and tell me to go and ‘cork it’.  *smile*

One tip from this anonymous blog was, “Leave out your dull and meaningless posts!” I was taken back.  Who is anyone to say someone’s post is meaningless?  Perhaps, it is meaningless to you.  Here is another comment, ‘no one wants to read about your cat or your trips’.  Look, I’m no expert.  I am aware that people do have their opinions.  That is perfectly fine.  I will not try to be too judgmental.  What I am hoping to achieve by semi-venting about this anonymous blog or others out there like it is…a blog is a blog.  What you choose to do with your blog is your right.  There is nothing wrong with a mixed blog, whether you are selling your work or not.

Here’s my opinion, because that’s all it is. I love mixed blogs.  Mixed blogs gives me a chance to get to know the author.  If the author is an artist and want to sell his or her paintings or artwork, then I welcome the chance to know the creator.  Who is anyone to say there is a particular way to blog about the things you hold dear?  Moreover, who can say when you should be adding to your blog? The only thing I can agree with is that if you are trying to get some traffic to your art it may be good advice to keep your blog postings coming. However, it is your blog and you shall speak upon it anytime you choose. If you choose to skip a month, no one will be angry. To blog or not to blog…is at your willingness.

A mixed blog is colorful; not stagnant.  Marketing requires color, does it not?  What I consider stagnant is a blog that just goes on and on about the artist’s work post by post.  When I say ‘colorful’, yes, I mean colors, but most importantly, I mean topics that get your attention. There may be no doubt that the talent is there.  A really good artist’s work will sell itself.  Okay, that’s cliché because in this day and age a little marketing and creativity is warranted.  Oh boy, I can feel that banana coming.  Yikess! J  However, there are a lot of people who may need some additional stimulating to get them noticed as an artist. I told ya, I have no problems with that.

I look at it this way.  If I was an art collector, one of my purchasing factors would revolve around whom the artist is and what makes him or her tick.  The necessary purchasing factor would not only be about the story behind the artwork itself or the fabulous representation, but by how the author stimulated my mind during my search.  One of the many factors that would determine a set purchase would be because the author of the blog made me laugh.  I’d probably look further to see how far the rabbit hole actually went.  Hey, you might even sell two works of art.  With that being said, and as the anonymous author on said blog mentioned that there would be skid marks from leaving your blog in a hurry if you talk about yourself and your cat rather than your art work in the first five postings, good riddance to you and you shouldn’t have the honor to own the artwork.  

Just know a blog is a treasure chest of twists and turns.  If you are a true art collector, keep it fun; turn and keep turning through the maze of visual vistas.  Laugh and enjoy the new things that stick to the sponges you call a mind and heart.

I need to laugh and feel the excitement of who the artist.  My money is worth it.  I’m not just some person who is in a hurry to skim through a few articles and miss the Van Gogh of artwork because he or she was too much in a hurry to sip the fresco.  Stick around…enjoy the stories.  We are alive, our hearts are beating, we love, we learn, and we experience.  Pour the inspiration from other bloggers into your cup.