Question in AJmarketing, a Yahoo Group I somehow still subscribe to
"Has anyone had much luck with bloging as far as getting your work known, sold or promoted? It seems that with so many blogs out there it would be tough to single out anyone in particular to promote ones work. How would anyone know to look at your's in particular?"
My business life is so busy that even my seeing this was a fluke. Or maybe it was something I was meant to see somehow.
Putting my energies into where they pay off best is just common sense . . . Blogs have provided a venue to communicate with thousands of people instead of the much smaller numbers available in groups, even on yahoo. So I blog and interact through other blogs.
That said, do blogs work?
Oh my - I can not even begin to tell you. Let's just say this: Abso-posi-lutely!!!
But one must be willing to put the time (and study) needed into building your readership (fan base) and please understand that the people you want to read your blog will not be artists, artist wanna-bes or art geeks.
You need to be read by a WIDE variety of people - lawyers, mommies, authors, entrepreneurs, administrative assistants, accountants, teachers, other blogger - and maybe especially techies since they've got money to buy art.
People want to "meet" you and "know" you before they are driven to buy your work. It's a whole new world out there and this one is all about relationships, not about marketing.
The questions are: are you willing to -
1.) see a blog as just part of your plan to create buzz for your work?
2.) think in a new way?
3.) give generously of yourself and what you know?
4.) talk about more than just how you chose the blue you used for painting abc? and
5.) give up self-serving stuff like trading links?
Great!
Then let's begin a public conversation here where lots of people can read it and get a peek into how artists think and who you guys are.
I hope you'll read my blog on a regular basis and actively participate in the conversation. If you're stuck in the email world and don't want to branch out too much you will want to:
- put the headlines from the blog on a "my yahoo" homepage where you can click what you're interested in reading - or -
- register to get the blog sent to your in-box (you control this entirely) via the feedblitz service
There are some wonderful resources that link here at the Artsy Asylum and I hope you'll be among them. Read the archives and browse through the topics for things that interest you.
Being part of the conversation truly can get YOUR blog seen and read and followed.
The comments sections on all the posts in the Artsy Asylum blog are open and waiting for you.
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Hints to make this work for you:
- Create thoughtful and well worded responses that answer questions and contribute to the topic of the posts you're addressing.
- Talk about somebody and something other than yourself.
- Show yourself to be someone that's level headed, consistent and part of the larger community.
- THEN readers will want to get to know you and will actively seek you out instead of you having to promote yourself and your work
