Having a successful blog is the key to making a living online as an artist.
By far the most common worry I’ve heard so far from people on my Threads program is that they can’t run a blog because they don’t have anything to share.
The natural impulse is to wait until you feel you’re ready. Except, of course, that that day will never come.
I think you have something very compelling to share right now.
You just need to be strong enough to do it.
Share your struggle
We all know how hard it is to learn to draw and paint well.
Sometimes it’s hard just to get to the easel!
The way I built the audience I have now was sharing my learning journey, complete with all the frustrations and dead ends.
I look back at some of it now and I cringe that I could ever have got things so wrong.
Sometimes I would even post drawings that I’d ripped up and had to tape back together just so I could put them on the blog.
Even now I still post my failures and you know what? People really appreciate those posts.
So share your struggles because we all have them.
People will identify with your struggle, and by sharing it you may very well help somebody through theirs.
Share your triumphs
To be fair, I’ve had a lot more struggles than triumphs.
But if you persist, eventually you will make progress. It’s inevitable.
And when you can see it in your work it is empowering. Your dreams seem more achievable. Perhaps you can make it after all.
So share your triumphs along with your struggles because people need to see that it’s possible for them to make progress too.
Share your Journey
Those struggles and those little triumphs add up to something very powerful over time: A living record of your learning journey.
It will be useful for you because we tend to forget the detail of what we’ve been though, and what got us to where we are.
We have a strong tendency to rewrite our own narratives so that we can see ourselves in a better light.
It’s natural to do that.
But it’s not very helpful for anyone else. Or for ourselves, come to that.
You’ll probably already have heard my mantra for running successful websites and building an audience: Make it about them.
So although you’ll be writing about your own journey, you’ll be doing it because it may help others.
So share your journey, share all it’s highs and lows.
Be unflinchingly honest. Because we all need it.
Share your story
Over time, your journey will evolve into a story of your transformation.
Stories are incredibly powerful and compelling. Especially stories of transformation.
Ultimately, that’s how you’ll connect with people.
If you want to build an audience and eventually make some or all of your income from art online, you will need to connect meaningfully with people.
This is how you do it.
Me, write?
Yes, it might feel unfamiliar at first. Awkward. You will be self-conscious.
The awful truth is that it’s a whole new thing to learn, a whole new area to struggle with. As if worrying about your work wasn’t enough, now you’ll have to worry about how good your writing is!
The fix is the same as it is for art: Write often.
If you want to know where to start, I’d advise you get a journal, and start writing a little in it every morning.
Don’t worry too much about it being good material for a blog post to start with. Just get writing. Write about what you struggle with, your triumphs and your journey.
Do a little every day, even if it’s just a sentence. Get into a writing habit.
Over time, your story will begin to appear.
I’m willing to bet that you’ll be surprised by what comes out, if you stick at it long enough. You’ll be surprised to find too, that it’s pretty interesting.
Writing out your story will help you find meaning in your struggles (because that’s what stories are for) and it might help you find a way through some of them.
Sharing that might help someone who reads it to find their way too.
So share your story, because it’s the most meaningful thing you have.
And you don’t have to wait, you can start doing that today.
Best wishes and thanks for reading,
Paul
Threads is an artists community designed to help you make a living from your work online.
If you’re interested in living an independent life as an artist on your own terms, Threads is for you.
Great piece of advice Paul. I designed a blog thrice and then had nothing to post or say and ended up deleting it. I had no idea how to begin. Now am going to design one and start posting. Thanks!
Wow! That’s brilliant Aarti! Let me know how it goes.
Please, what is the different between free blogs that you share information about how to sell art like this one and threads ?
The biggest difference is that you’re part of a community working towards the same goal, sharing support and information. Don’t underestimate the power of having a group of people working with you, it can make the difference between succeeding and not.
I also share more in depth information, live demonstrations of how to set up a site and get visitors to it. there are live training webinars and virtual workshops every month, as well as group online meet-ups.
there’s just much more going on 🙂
I know 3 people who each have a decent blog, write regularly sharing artistic process, personal history, metaphysical thoughts, how and why a piece of art came to be, even personal inner and physical struggles. All are very interesting because they display themselves as humans, not as super art heroes. Their writing is good, they don’t go on, it’s concise, clear, gets the main idea across and leaves you with something to ponder. They’ve been at it for quite a number of years. Yet, they don’t have much of a following, hardly any comments, even though their work (both painting & writing) is splendid, and they come across as wonderful individuals. Maybe they’re more busy at the easel than the keyboard. I don’t know. And I wonder why their blogs are not more popular, don’t gain more attention.
This is not to say that blogging doesn’t ”work”, but there must be something more to this blogging fever than meets the eye. I’ve had blogs, took them down as I evolved, matured. If we all blog, who’s going to read it all ? Do you think we have time to read all those blogs ? Read the same thing in 50 shades of grey ? After a while I unsub because they’re all the same, and don’t improve my life. By now we all know that we all struggle at the easel, suck at motivation, fail more often than succeed. So what would make a real difference to gather an audience ?
These are just a few thoughts that run through my mind, not at all a post against blogging, or a ”what’s the use” type of response. I sincerely wonder how you make people read you rather than the next blogger.
Also more and more artists are digitally decluttering, letting go of social media because it sucks up all your time. Some of us are digital minimalists in order to spend time where it really matters. For instance, I allow myself 15 min/week on social media, and only one which works decently for me.
Maybe you have something to share that I’m missing.
You not be aware of it D, but your comment is an excellent example of a worthy post for a blog.
Very good point, in fact I think this discussion may well become one soon!
Thanks D.
It’s entirely possible to have fantastic content, but if you don’t know how to get attention to it then it will be like shouting into an empty room.
The two primary sources of visitors are Google and social media sites – mostly facebook and Instagram. If these bloggers aren’t active on those sites and using them in right way, then the unfortunate truth is that it doesn’t matter how good their writing is, they won’t be found.
Most blogs aren’t very google friendly either, although it isn’t particularly difficult to make them so. It’s something of a vicious circle, because the most important thing to do to get your site to appear on google is to have other people link to your content. If you’re not getting visitors, of course, that’s not going to happen.
None of this stuff is rocket science but you do need to understand the basics of how to get traffic to a site, it’s not enough just to create good content. But good content is where it starts. Equally, if you get visitors to your site and don’t have anything useful or interesting for them when they get there, they won’t be back.
Getting visitors to a website and then turning those visitors into relationships is an art in itself. It’s not enough to assume that content alone will get you found. It won’t.
I’m sorry to hear that these sites aren’t getting a following since it sounds like they’re contributing something useful. It does happen to most sites though, usually because people aren’t spending enough time and energy on attracting visitors.
As you say, these artists may be too busy at the easel to spend much time on that, but if you want to start to build a following and eventually make some or all of your income online as an artist, you will have to devote time to marketing yourself.
That used to be more the job of the galleries, the gatekeepers. Now it’s our own. With this great opportunity comes a need to know how to make the most of it.
” Do you think we have time to read all those blogs ? Read the same thing in 50 shades of grey ? After a while I unsub because they’re all the same, and don’t improve my life.”
This is exactly why each blog needs to be different, and why I encourage artists to share their own stories rather than re-hashing what they read elsewhere.
It’s very important to find your own authentic voice online. The problem, I think, is that too many people think they have to come across a certain way.
“By now we all know that we all struggle at the easel, suck at motivation, fail more often than succeed. So what would make a real difference to gather an audience ?”
Do you mean what content? What makes a difference is to give people something useful, to help people with a problem in some way.
“I sincerely wonder how you make people read you rather than the next blogger.”
Be more authentic. Be more helpful. Most blogs don’t get visitors because not many people get this right. The ones that do, thrive.
“Also more and more artists are digitally decluttering, letting go of social media because it sucks up all your time. Some of us are digital minimalists in order to spend time where it really matters. For instance, I allow myself 15 min/week on social media, and only one which works decently for me.
Maybe you have something to share that I’m missing.”
Do you mean that artists aren’t online much so won’t be reading blogs? I wouldn’t take your example and assume it’s generally true. Look at the comments sections of this blog. I don’t even want to start talking about my email inbox, it frightens me!
There is no shortage of interest in good and helpful information. Rather, I think that there is so much bad and indifferent information out there that the good really stands out.
But it doesn’t come easily. That’s true. You need to understand how audiences work online and how to attract visitors, and you need to be prepared to work at that for a period of time before you see results.
That’s why most art blogs don’t last. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Hi Paul,
I’m not a visual artist, I’m a writer starting a new blogging/social media project, and your advice goes for me as much as for your artist readers. Thanks so much for the wise words about honesty, openness, and the importance of our stories.
To follow on a bit from the previous poster, I love the opportunities that the Internet offers to discover inspiration, ideas and connections all over the world – it’s like a kaleidoscope and you can explore to find just the things that chime with you – or you can go way far outside your own familiar experience. I find I undergo phases of expansion and retraction with regard to social media and web-surfing. It’s all good.
Cheers!
Thanks Cam. Yes, all of the above advice is just as relevant for writers. More so, if anything, since it goes for your writing too!
Thank you, Paul! I so appreciate your help and encouragement. I get ~50 list type emails a day and yours is one of the very very few I regularly click through and read what’s offered. It is all about me and what I’m going through and I feel connected to you and your art and that is brilliant and so inspiring that I maybe can do it, too. xx
Thanks you Kato, that’s so good to hear!
I have done the odd list post myself, but I make doubly sure they’re really useful when I do!
Hi Paul,
Thank you so much for another great post. As usual, you are absolutely right about beginning to write.
After reading your post, I think about how I ended up painting with oils and there is so much to tell the audience about it and why I am still pursuing it! one can’t imagine!
It is time for me to get to it and share. Thanks for all the encouragement and all the positive thoughts you pass on to us so we can take the first and most important step towards success! Thanks Paul!
Exactly Crisalida! A comment above was complaining about how similar art blogs are. It’s true that we all struggle, that we all go through similar struggles, but that’s what makes sharing our stories so powerful.
When you find your own voice with you writing, you will find your audience too, as long as you know how to get them to your site in the first place 🙂