6 years on – why I started Blogging
Redhead, 2005 (my first full ochre piece)
What made you decide to start a blog? If you’ve blogged about this before, go back and read it. Is that still the reason? What’s changed?
[From Topic: Why did you start? | The Daily Post at WordPress.com]
I started a blog because I was bored and in pain and everyone was doing it. no seriously! before I had heard about blogging as a marketing tool, before I rediscovered my art, I was in a bizarre limbo state as part of my dealing with my pain and the loss of my job and ability to work a full time desk job ever again. I oscillated between different varieties of denial and came up with a million random entrepreneurial ideas (I suffer from chronic entrepreneuritis – symptoms include glassy expression, a constant flow of business ideas, inventions, books, applications.. anything you can create a business around. I get it from my dad) and decided to write a book. my blog was a way for me to get those book ideas down, and to be emo and stuff. but I didn’t like being all emo and whingey and I really didn’t like writing a book! so I started painting again to while away the hours, and blogged about that instead. you can see the blog click over from random nothings to art and how excited I was about it all! it turns out, the more I experimented with painting and enjoyed myself, the less pain I felt. and sharing with the world enabled me to create the career I have today.
sometimes I wonder about taking down those old posts, they’re a long way from where I’ve come today, and I worry that they aren’t in keeping with my “brand” but I look back fondly on them, they’re part of my journey. this blog is the history of my career from the beginning, an online visual diary and a fun diversion. I lost some aspects of that along the way, but I’m hoping to recapture some of the best aspects again.
I’ve come a long way!
Over to you- why did you start a blog?
Achieving my goals bit by bit…blogging
dream- 3D reference image
I want to build up my blogging, and my affiliate earnings, I want to add on some extra revenue streams as a fun funds funnel (yes that is what I’m calling it!).
This one is easy… In principle anyway, all I need to do is blog more!
I have to use the tools at my disposal to write posts. Instead of focussing on creating the long rambles you all know and love (hehe) I need to remember that I can create short posts too! I can quickly write one on my iPad or my phone or computer. I want to keep the post quality good, but I want to increase their frequency and my output. I also want to blog more about my story and processes.
To that end, i’m joining the post a week movement at WordPress. They email suggestions for posts, we send them back, and tag them. I’d join post a day, but I know myself and don’t want to start too fast out of the gate, let’s see how we go here first. I also want to reply to comments more, and ask questions, create polls, fun things!
As far as affiliate earnings go, currently I am making enough to support my online costs and my growing daz3d habit. They enabled me to go slightly nuts at the sales last year! It’s fun, almost like free money. I make this promise to you though, it will be unobtrusive, and only about products and stores that I personally use and like. I prefer to work more on the lines of content rather than sales. I will be creating another blog or two to work more directly with affiliate sales later, again with products I believe in. The extra revenue streams involve some digital art and book ideas for kids that have been inspired by Erica. I may or may not link to them here, but rest assured, this blog will stay the same! Just, I hope, better and more reliable than before.
Interesting would be good too 
So, over to you, what are your tips for blogging in the new year?
My goals for 2011
I have been thinking about my goals for this year.
Emerging - A3 Watercolors and Pencil on Paper by Jennie Rosenbaum
They are broken down into personal, marketing, online, offline, exhibiting, creating art, learning and other revenue streams. At least so far…
Last year was a wonderful year for me, I finally achieved one of my long term goals and gained gallery representation. I’ve been building my abilities and my connections and I think things will go very well this year if I can maintain momentum.
This year, in a nutshell, I wish to achieve these things (in no particular order):
I want to get my new studio up and running, have it functional as well as beautiful and spend time in it! It’s a garage workshop so it will take a lot of work but the beauty is that when it’s done it will be all mine.
I want to write a business plan and actually stick to it this time.
I want to build up my blogging, and my affiliate earnings, I want to add on some extra revenue streams as a fun funds funnel (yes that is what I’m calling it!).
I want to build up my online presence even more. Build on what I have created and refine my practices. I also want to add some YouTube into the mix. I hate YouTube, but I cannot deny it’s power. I also want to finally make a landing page for my facebook fan page!
I want to paint. I want to be disciplined and work effectively to create the paintings that are inside me. I don’t have a shortage of inspiration, I have a shortage of oomph. And that is something I want to correct!
This year may finally be the year of the website redesign. It might be time.
I want to work on my online galleries to make my listings as good they can be, I also want to increase my sales.
I want to continue to learn, to grow and to add to my knowledge of 3D, of anatomy and of painting techniques.
I want to give more back to the arts community! I want to continue the fight for the rights of nude art and to help out other artists.
How will I do all these things? stay tuned…
Edit: 2011! how could I get that wrong?
what I had for breakfast…not!
Interlaced – 12×12 Oils on Canvas
It’s been becoming apparent to me that I don’t actually write about myself very much in my own blog. this has come about for a number of reasons. Mainly, it’s because I have a mostly loathe/hate relationship with myself and the thought of writing about myself is a worry. I don’t want to bore people by discussing what I had for breakfast or mentioning my day to day trials with pain management, being a new parent or breastfeeding and all the millions of things that go into making me who I am. I worry about minutiae and obsess and never end up writing.
I like to keep a professional blog, with relevant and interesting information, but it is increasingly missing that personal element. and I think that is a bad idea. I started this to be a journal of my progress as an artist, and as my art is intimately tied up with who I am it makes sense that I should write about that too! I realize I don’t share good news when it happens, or, increasingly, no news at all and that just isn’t right. being an artist is more than just your genre or your finished works, it’s about the person behind it all. I promise I will try to keep it relevant, and hopefully interesting! and no, I won’t talk about my choice of breakfast!
Recent Comments