Monday, June 4, 2018

Why Blogging is NOT DEAD!! With Life-Art-Business Coach Kimberly Conrad

There has been a lot of talk lately in the art world about whether or not blogging is dead.

I am here to tell you that blogging not only is NOT dead, but is more critical now than ever. 

BLOGGING ...consistently and on multiple sites is the BEST and QUICKEST way to build a strong internet presence.


WHY BLOG? 

#1 I have always told my clients, there are people who collect art, and people who collect artists. Those who fall into what in this post is referred to as "online art collectors" peruse the internet for the perfect piece of art at the perfect price. They care not about the story behind the art, or the artist who created it.
As artists, we very much appreciate these collectors, as they bring many of our online sales.

There are also those who collect artists. In this case I am referring to those buyers who usually first connect somehow with the artist. They read your blog and your newsletters. They are interested in who you are as a person, what you do, how you live  what you believe in. They are inspired by what they see and read. They connect on a personal level and purchase your art because they feel and value that connection, and want to bring that inspiration into their home.

Blogging is how you create that connection and allow those people a glimpse into who you are.

I know there are many artists who have no desire to create that personal connection. They blog the image of their art, size, medium, price, and a link to purchase. That is perfectly okay.....however, if that is the case, reason # 2 is still critically important.

 WHY BLOG???

#2 Blogging is a powerful VEHICLE for building a strong portfolio in GOOGLE IMAGES.

 WHY DO I CARE ABOUT GOOGLE IMAGES???

My years of experience show that most people searching the internet for art go FIRST to google images. This is true of Individual Collectors, Galleries, Interior Designers, Art Consultants and Art Licensing companies. They click on an image that they like, which takes them back to where that painting originated from, where it was originally posted. 
Most people upload art periodically to their websites, which periodically enters their data into the internet artosphere (my special word). Bloggers, when posting consistently (as the serious ones do) are consistently, usually daily, even multiple times daily, (when posting on multiple blogs) entering their data into the artosphere, blogosphere, googlesphere...you get my point. Blogging is how you drive traffic TO your Beautiful Website, where you have a well organized cohesive body of work exhibited. Always place a link to your website in your blog post.

WHY NOT JUST POST ON MY OWN BLOG??? While having a blog of your own is a MUST ...if it is the only place you are posting that image and those keywords make it into the search engines that one time. If however, you are posting on multiple blogs ( including group blogs) your image, name and keywords are going into the search engines multiple times, as opposed to one. 


Side Note... There are blogging communities that help to facilitate the above. For example, on the Where ART Lives community blogs, every post autoposts to the WAL Facebook, linked in, google plus and twitter platforms, and also go to the WAL Pinterest platform and the homepage of the WAL website.
That's a lot of mileage for each post you make!

WILL I SELL ART IF I BLOG??? The answer to that question is most likely.......eventually, and in many different ways. While we all desire to sell paintings directly from our blogs....and many do...once you have a strong portfolio of your work in google images (which takes time and diligence) and if your art is "marketable" the sales will come. The sales will come in many forms: commissions, new gallery representation, art licensing contracts, direct deals with interior designers, and of course the intentional and the spontaneous collectors.


 WHAT IS MARKETABLE ART
???
That is quite a loaded question, and the answer is not so simple. By marketable, I mean sellable. Art is very much relative to the viewer. If the price is competitive, and you work hard to find your particular audience, AND become a keyword expert in your category of work......you will most likely find someone to purchase your art. If people are purchasing your art, you can consider your art marketable. The biggest common denominator I find with artists that DO have a strong internet presence that are NOT selling art, is that their work is not competitively priced for where they are in their art journey. Plain English...their art is over priced. I have been contacted by, and do consistent business with all mentioned above, Galleries, Interior Designers, Art Consultants, Art Licensing Companies and individual Collectors... and every one of them found me online by googling Abstract or Contemporary Landscape Paintings, Abstract or Contemporary Seascape or Aspen Tree Paintings...which are the keywords that I most post under. I ALWAYS ask them how they found me!!



  Blogging is KEY!! Key Words are Key!! Frequency is Key!! Consistency is Key!!


I hope you found this post helpful!

If you would like to set up a coaching session with me, or learn to speed blog, so that you can blog on multiple platforms without spending hours at your computer, you can reach me at lifeartbusiness@consultant.com


 LIFE - ART - BUSINESS


 Kimberly Conrad Contemporary Art Gallery
 220 East 7th Ave (Governer's Park)
 Denver, CO 80203
 303.881.2258

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