As you know, I write a weekly blog post about all things to do with running an art business, however new you are to the game. I try to provide engaging words on topics which you would find useful and this week I am looking at the subject of – writing blogs.

So, why write a blog? Well, the reason I write one is that many years ago I was advised that if I wanted to get my name and art seen by lots of people, writing blogs and newsletters would be great tools for facilitating that.

As many of you know my ranking within the world of UK art bloggers is currently 27th position, which I am over the moon about as above me in that ranking are organisations like Cass Art, Jackson’s art suppliers and the fabulous artist who produces the blog Making a Mark.

To begin with you need to write an introduction which appeals to your audience/followers. You should have a good heading (not sure if mine fulfills that criterion) and, from what I have learned, it always helps to have a question as part of that heading.

Just think about what you type into Google when you are looking for something you want to find out about.  When? What? Where? Which? Why? How? etc. are the kinds of queries you need to use.

Then you need to consider what to write about. Well, ideally it should entertain or inform. People are not interested in your walk in the park or your visit to the chiropodist (unless they have a personal interest in you or the park or they need help with their feet), but that is a very narrow market and if you want a following these are subjects people are unlikely to want to read about through your blog!

Before I started out, I spoke to other bloggers and they advised me to talk (write) about what I know, with the aim of informing people. I readily admit that I am not an expert, but I do know some stuff.

I read all kinds of books, I love to investigate technical data about paint and art products, and I talk to lots of people who share their knowledge with me, which I then pass on to you. I find research really good fun. Sad isn’t it? If you are excited by a subject, that will hopefully come across in your blog and people will want to read it.

I was also advised to keep things chatty. I am sure you already know that the attention span of the average human being is eight seconds; less than a fish, which has an attention span of nine seconds! So, I need to make you want to stay, read all the way through and enjoy what you have read. You need to do that, too.

I know that money can be made from blogging. How? Well, by collecting the emails of people, like you, who read my blogs and then using that to contact you, grow an email list and then have you see advertising, which is paid for by agencies or companies.

I don’t do this. I am not saying that I never will, but I have been writing art blogs for over five years and I still don’t do it. I don’t have enough followers to be interesting to advertisers and really, don’t you have enough advertising bombarding you every day?  I don’t want to add to that.

Anyway, to be honest, I don’t know how to set it all up. Thankfully, I have children who are absolute wizards at the social media lark, but I am rather lacking in these skills. For now, that is to your benefit.

That last thing I was advised to do was make my blogs visually interesting and colourful. I do this by sharing the artwork I produce and things which interest me. When creating your own blog, you need to make something which excites you. Making art really excites me but I also realise that I need to be aware of social media, because unless I have a presence, people who might want to buy my work will not even know that I exist, so I am learning, too.

Hopefully, if you are still reading this, I am one chapter ahead of you in the book of knowledge, like many school teachers who are also only one chapter ahead of their best students. I have started the journey and as I continue and learn more, I will happily share with you all.

There are loads of experts you can Google and learn from on the net.  Most of them will give you lots of good, far more in-depth and technical details than this. Information about setting up, publishing and making money from your blog, with lots of tips and very often a course you can sign up for where they will give you all the tools you need to be a seven-figure success.

Realistically, you are just getting going, you are dipping your toe in the water and until you are really ready to commit – and it is a big commitment – my basic, no frills, how to get started blog is probably all that you need for now.

So, just start writing, get a catalogue of subjects ready and then worry about setting up a website, blogs, hashtags, SEOs (Search Engine Optimisations – if you really want to know, Google it) etc., etc. later. Until you know that you can really commit to writing on a monthly, weekly or God forbid, daily basis, then take it all in baby steps. That way you will not waste your money until you are really ready to get going. You have to learn to enjoy the process of blogging; you need to know that you can commit to it; and you will have to find subjects which amuse, entertain and/or educate others whilst also keeping yourself happy and engaged.

I started in a very ad hoc way posting once a month (more or less) and received no engagement until I realised that I could commit to a regular spot. You need to develop your own writing style and, in keeping it light, you probably should adopt a conversational style. Your readers need to think you are talking directly to them and not loads of other people.

Short paragraphs help your reader stay with your blog. Going back to the attention span thing, people these days simply do not read long paragraphs; they seem to have lost the ability to do so. Using bullet points, sub paragraphs and visual images helps to break up the text, but it has to be something that works for you and your style.

I do not use bullet points or subheadings in my blogs; it is not my ‘house style’, though I do use headings in my monthly newsletters. Having headings can help you write short, informative paragraphs which your audience can scroll through to get to the bits they are interested in. That wouldn’t work for my blogs but you need to discover what works best for you.

Publishing regularly is key. People do look out for you each week and at a specific time. They tend to ignore you if you pop up on a different day to the one they were expecting.

One last very important issue is hashtags. To be safe, I’m going to assume not all my readers know (or even care) about the technical details, so I apologise for any offence caused. What’s a hashtag? The word, which is used to refer to the symbol (#) in social media platforms, combines hash from hash mark (that’s what the symbol is called) and tag, i.e. a way to mark something as belonging to a specific category.

What does it mean? On social media, hashtags are used on blogging and photo-sharing services, e.g. Instagram, Threads, Twitter, Tumblr etc., as a way of cross-referencing content by topic or theme

If you don’t have any hashtags attached to your blog, you will vastly reduce the chances of someone finding you. I keep things fairly simple, focusing on the subject I am writing about and I only use about 8-10 hashtags. Make sure they are different in every post, otherwise your posts will look like a bot and probably won’t get shown at all. Bots don’t like each other much and if you look like a human being the algorithms will be kind and show your work to a wider audience.

What’s a bot? An Internet bot, or simply a bot, is software that runs automated tasks over the Internet, usually with the aim of imitating human activity, such as messaging, on a large scale. Bots can perform simple and repetitive tasks much faster than people.

I hope that I have not put you off, that you will ease yourself into this fun activity and I hope that each week you will find one little gem from me, which will inspire you to come back next week, to find out more about me, my work and how I look at the world.

If you have enjoyed reading this post, please like and follow me and please share it with people who you think might be interested. I am always on the lookout for new artists to feature as I know how much everyone enjoys reading about other artists. Also, if you think there is a subject you would like to know more about and would like me to write about, I will be happy to consider it. Sharing, liking and following my blogs increases the number of people the algorithm shows the blogs to, so please share. Thank you in advance for supporting me this way.