We all know that blogging is good for artists because it helps you create exposure for your art, attract traffic to your website, and increase your art sales. But how do you write an artist blog that actually attracts an audience? In this article, I share 6 hands-on tips that’ll make it easier for you to decide what to blog about and how to make your creative posts attractive to your readers. Are you ready to give your artist blog a boost? Let’s go!
The times are gone where it was enough to have an artist website with just your artwork and resume on it. Nowadays, you need to take it a step further to get seen on the web and stand out among the crowd.
Writing an artist blog is a great way to promote your art online and attract a wider audience.
That’s why blogging is good for artists. It allows you to create exposure for your art, connect with potential buyers and fellow artists, and keep your website fresh and up-to-date.
Your blog encourages visitors to return and engage with you through comments.
But, even more importantly, your art blog is a tool to get your website seen in the search because you can easily optimize your blog posts for SEO.
→ SEO For Artists: 5 Game-Changing Tips To Get Traffic To Your Art Website
Is blogging good for artists?
Apart from the benefits of blogging that I shortly mentioned above, there are many more reasons why blogging is good for artists.
In fact, blogging, in my opinion, is the best way to create exposure as an artist.
Here’s a quick overview of what you can do with your art blog:
- It helps you get eyeballs on your art.
- It allows you to present yourself as the artist—just the way you want.
- You can connect with potential art buyers and curators, increasing your income possibilities as an artist.
- You can build personal connections with fellow artists and people interested in your artwork by giving them insights into your creative process and the meaning behind your work.
- You solve other artists’ problems and establish yourself as an expert in your field.
For more info, also read my article on whether you should still make an art blog in 2024.
How do you write an artist blog?
If you’re not used to writing and have never published an article online, the thought of writing an artist blog can be daunting.
It’s something outside your comfort zone, for now, but with a little bit of practice, it will get much easier.
But don’t worry. That’s totally normal. We’re all a bit apprehensive when we’re supposed to leave our comfort zone as artists.
It was just the same for me when I started this art blog.
But I’m here to help.
In this article, I share 6 hands-on tips on how to write an artist blog that attracts an audience.
These tips should make it easier for you to decide what to blog about and how to make your creative posts attractive to your readers.
So, let’s go!
6 Tips to write an artist blog that attracts an audience
1. Define your audience.
Before you even start writing your first post, think about your ideal audience. In marketing, this is called the target persona.
Your perfect target persona are the people you love talking to. They are the ones interested in your art. They want to know more about yourself as the artist.
And they probably come to your blog to seek advice from you and to learn from your experience.
To help you figure out your ideal reader, ask yourself the following:
- What are the most frequently asked questions you get from your followers?
- What are the pain points of your target audience and how can you solve them?
Keep your target persona in mind when you write your artist blog in response to these questions!
2. Choose a compelling headline.
The headline is the most important part of a blog post. It’s like the headline of the articles in a newspaper. You first browse the titles and then you decide what you want to read, right?
It’s the same on the search engine results pages. The blog post title is the first thing that catches your eye when you sift through the results.
That’s why it’s important to choose a compelling title that sparks the readers’ interest.
You don’t need to write the headline before writing the actual article. Sometimes, it’s easier to write the artist blog post first and edit the headline when you’re done with the write-up.
→ 102 Best Blog Title Ideas For Artists That Will Get You Clicks
3. Select artwork to display in the blog post.
A blog post should never contain just text. You should always include some images to break up the paragraphs. Even more so as you are an artist. ʕᴖᴥᴖʔ
Since you are a visual artist, I assume, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find beautiful and original images to accompany your articles.
Besides showing the final work, you can show yourself creating the artwork or what your pieces look like when hung on a wall.
If you don’t have the opportunity to take a photo of each and every print you offer, you can use so-called mock-ups.
Wall mock-ups, for example, are great to show people what an artwork looks like when hung up on a wall. For that purpose, you can download a digital file containing an empty frame in a room setting. All you need to do is fill the frame with your own piece of art and you’re done!
For beautiful mock-ups allowed for commercial use, I recommend Creative Market, Creative Fabrica, and Etsy.
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4. Be of help to your readers.
This is one of the most important learnings I can share with you: don’t make your art blog just about yourself.
Sorry to say, but many of your readers won’t come to your art blog to read about you and your art.
Most of your readers might be other artists that are struggling with their own problems. They are searching the web to find solutions to their struggles, so the best thing you can do to attract an audience is to be of help to your readers.
That doesn’t mean that you cannot speak about your art at all. On the contrary. I explicitly recommend telling the story behind your art and giving insights into your creative process. That should definitely be part of your art blog.
However, you should make sure to maintain a balanced ratio between blog posts about your own art and helpful content you create for fellow artists.
There’s no general rule for how much you should speak about your own art versus how many posts you write for other artists. But a ratio of 20/80 or 30/70 seems to be a good rule of thumb.
5. Create evergreen content.
When you write an artist blog, it’s important to create a nice bank of evergreen content. Evergreen content, as opposed to seasonal content, remains relevant and interesting for a very long period of time.
Typical examples of evergreen content are how-to guides, tutorials, checklists, common mistakes to avoid, lessons learned, and so on.
The good thing is that you write an evergreen post once and it will bring in website visitors year after year.
Evergreen content also works great for SEO. Creating evergreen content around the keywords you want to rank for is a powerful strategy to drive lasting organic traffic to your site
→ How To Find The Best Keywords For Artists To Boost Your SEO
In addition to timeless articles, it’s a good idea to have a couple of timely, topical pieces on your website, too. Those articles will only drive you traffic for the next few months, but they have the potential to get a lot of traffic to your art blog.
Some ideas of seasonal articles for your artist blog may be art trends for the current year, upcoming art events, art exhibitions, etc.
6. Write about your art.
Last but not least, you should also write about your art. For many artists, this can be the hardest part. And no, your art does not speak for itself. Usually, artists need to explain their art for people to understand it.
Writing about your art may feel awkward at the beginning. But that feeling of awkwardness will go away after a while. And believe me, people who are interested in your art are interested in knowing more about the artwork as well.
The best advice I can give you here is: just start writing. Be authentic and write with a voice that is genuinely your own. Don’t ponder about what people might think when they read your account.
…and don’t write about your art with the intention to impress collectors and curators. People in general, and those experts in particular, have a very delicate feeling for what’s authentic and what is not. So, the best you can do is simply be yourself.
For example, you can start by saying what inspired you to create the artwork, the message you want to convey, and describe the process of its creation.
Typically, these are the kind of questions that your readers want to have answers to and that allow them to relate more to what you do.
Furthermore, you can write about your creative journey, upcoming projects, events, and your main sources of inspiration.
By the way, if you’re looking for a treasure trove of inspiration and positivity, check out my 365 Printable Cards with Inspirational Artist Quotes and 101 Printable Cards with Positive Affirmations.
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Ok, these were my best tips on how to write an artist blog that attracts an audience.
What are you thinking? Did I forget anything? What do you usually write about in your artist blog? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you. Don’t forget to sign up for my email list so you don’t miss out on new blog posts and other cool stuff. ♥
