FAR Blog Writing Tips
What should I write?
Artists
That’s the beauty of blogs. There are no rules on what you should write, but you must always think and consider carefully what words you do choose to make a permanent historical record of for future historians, future descendents, and future civilizations. You must also consider the immediate future as well. After all, your own personal FAR Blog is designed to help you, the Self Promoting Artist of the 21st century, achieve success.
If you intend to sell the work you produce, then blogging is one heck of a valuable tool. What I am typing at this moment can be considered blogging. It’s nothing more than an electronic diary or journal. That’s right. I’m just sitting here talking to you, the reader, as if you are sitting right here in front of me. I can choose to tell you all sorts of things about myself, what inspires my art work, my philosophies, gallery receptions, and art fairs I attended, my fears, my kids, my dogs, and whatever else I choose to tell you about my corner of the world. Words are powerful! Never underestimate them and choose them wisely and you will have a world of fun with blogging and will open up a whole new world of possibilities. The key is to attract and maintain a loyal audience of readers who hopefully become loyal collectors of your work. Your blog entries should be written in a conversational style as if you are visiting with friends. It is this type of lively, conversational dialog that draws others to read about you!
Collectors
Pretty much ditto here. FAR Collector members can write from all kinds of collecting perspectives—write about why they collect, share specific knowledge, promote and sell pieces in their own portfolio if they so choose and much more. The possible topics for blogging are infinite.
Industry Professionals
Those of you who have a professional background in the visual Arts and you would like to contribute to this Blog, please email us: admin@fineartregistry.com. We will consider a few select professionals for an exclusive category on the FAR Blog. Like all other members, all entries made by professionals will be permanently archived for future history and research.
1. Keep your posts interesting, as creative as possible and “in the moment.” Energetic, short, concise sentences are best.
2. You should try to use keywords in your title and post. For example, if your post is about the study of Berthe Morisot, then you would type exactly those words in your blog – “study of Berthe Morisot”. You should always keep in mind what people might possibly key into Google or other search engines. If you work at it, you will become an expert at it and will in turn increase the ranking of your post pages on search engines.
3. Don’t forget to proof and preview your entries before posting. Some blog HTML editors have a way of creating strange symbols out of certain characters and spell checking will help with this.
(Important Note: Rich editing, also called WYSIWYG for “What You See Is What You Get,” means your text is formatted as you type. The rich editor creates HTML code behind the scenes while you concentrate on writing. Font styles, links and images all appear just as they will on the internet. The FAR Blog includes TinyMCE, a rich editor that works well in most web browsers used today. It is powerful but it has limitations. Pasting text from other word processors will most likely not give the results you expect. If you do not like the way the rich editor works, you may turn it off in the My Profile form, under Users in the admin menu. Once turned off you will be able to insert your own html. If you are not familiar with html code, it is recommended that you continue to work with the rich editor.) For more see FAR User Guide.
4. It’s important to stay in the public eye. In this fast paced, here-today-gone-tomorrow world we live in, people are looking for consistency. If your posts are being read, commented on and responded to in some way, then you are getting through and making an impact. So make sure you post daily if you can, or at least twice a week. It will pay off.
5. So you’ve proofed your entry and previewed it. Everything looks just great! Now publish it! Then you want to make sure that you promote your blog right along with your FAR portfolio on other sites as well as your personal web site, in your email signature, and by word of mouth.
See future FAR Editor Blogs for more great tips on how to market and make the best of your blog.