Hello, artist! You took the plunge and started your own art blog? That’s fantastic, because a blog can help you a lot in creating visibility online! Now, with your blog up and running, you might wonder what should be in an art blog to make it successful. Well, in this post, I’ve sorted out seven things that will help you make your art blog a good one. These must-haves will help you drive free, organic traffic to your site, create visibility for your art, engage with your audience, and ultimately make money with your art blog!
Building a website for your art and setting up a blog is the first step to success! Why? Because your art blog can significantly help you drive free, organic traffic to your site, create visibility for your art, and engage with your audience.
If you’ve already done those two things (website + blog)—congratulations, you’re on the right path! If not yet, don’t worry, it’s not too late. You can get started now. I have two easy-to-follow tutorials that show you how to make a website for your art and how to start an art blog.
Now, with your blog up and running, you might ask yourself what should be in an art blog to make it successful.
You’re in the right place, my friend. I’m going to tell you exactly that in this blog post!
I’m not going to talk about the topics you should blog about, because that always depends on your specific art niche. No. I’m going to give you a hands-on guideline of what you should have in your blog that is applicable to any art blog.
Ok, with that being out of the way, let’s get into it!
Do art blogs make money?
Art blogging has many benefits. One of them is that you can make money with your art blog. In fact, blogging is hands-down the best marketing strategy you can possibly think of.
It helps keep your site fresh and up-to-date; inform, educate, and inspire your readers. By helping fellow artists solve their problems, you can actively engage with your audience and establish yourself as an expert in your field.
You can share the story behind your art, give insights into your creative process, and build your artist brand.
When your website and blog are optimized for search engines, you’ll automatically attract lots of free, organic traffic over time. In return, you can find buyers for your art, sell courses and guides, or recommend your favorite art supplies in exchange for an affiliate commission.
Doesn’t that sound amazing? Here are the facts:
- 54% of companies use a blog for product promotion, thought leadership, and engagement.
- 82% of marketers see a positive ROI (Return on Investment) from consistent blogging.
- 80% of people say they like learning about a company and its offerings through their blog content.
- Businesses that blog generate 126% more leads than businesses that don’t.
More benefits of art blogging: 7 Reasons Every Artist Should Have A Blog [*Hint: Blogging Is Profitable*]
What makes a good art blog?
Now that you know how beneficial blogging can be, it’s time to talk about what you should have in your art blog to make it really work.
We’re not talking about your beautiful art here, which should definitely be a big part of your blog. That’s for sure. We’re looking at your blog from a more practical perspective.
Your blog is meant to help you attract visitors to your site, grow an email list of interested subscribers, generate sales, and build an inspiring community.
To achieve those goals, there are a couple of must-haves that should be in your art blog.
Here are seven things that will make your art blog a good one!
7 Things that should be in an art blog
Art Blog Must-Have #1: Social Sharing Buttons
You want to get the word out about your work and provide valuable content to your audience. Wouldn’t it be a pity if your readers couldn’t share your posts?
That’s why you should have prominent social sharing buttons on every blog post you publish. They make it easy for your readers to forward your articles to their friends—and remind them to do so!
You can have social sharing buttons at the top and at the bottoms of your posts, you can use floating buttons or sticky buttons. There’s a plethora of options to choose from.
I recommend displaying the most common sharing platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest, WhatsApp, etc. For more choices, your visitors may click on the “+” icon.
Any website building platform comes with social sharing buttons, whether you’re using Squarespace, Wix, Weebly or WordPress.
For WordPress, Sassy Social Share and Add to Any are two great (and free) social sharing plugins. Both have appealing design options and probably all sharing platforms that exist in the world!
Art Blog Must-Have #2: Calls to Action / Lead Magnets
Calls to Action, or simply CTAs, are those magical buttons and links that guide your readers through your site and keep them engaged.
Without CTAs, your website visitors, blog readers and customers might find it hard to take the correct route to read more of your content, buy a product, or sign up for a service or list.
As you’ve poured your heart and soul into your blog posts, it would be a pity if your readers just clicked away. That’s where the calls to action come in. Text links, colored buttons or clickable images encourage visitors to explore your site further—and maybe even buy something in your web store!
Another thing that should be in an art blog is a newsletter opt-in. Your blog is the ideal place to get in touch with your greatest art lovers—and a newsletter opt-in helps you stay in touch with them.
The people who sign up for your email list are those genuinely interested in your artwork and the content you provide on your blog. By sending them regular email updates, you can let them know about new pieces of art, sales, new blog posts, or special discounts.
Great plugins for WordPress newsletter opt-ins are AWeber, ConvertKit and MailerLite. They are reliable, packed with features, and free up to 1,000 subscribers. Other website building platforms have their native opt-ins.
The fastest way to build an email list is by offering people an incentive to subscribe, a so-called lead magnet. That can be a free eBook, a printable, or Photoshop preset. For more ideas, have a look at my eGuide with the 40+ TOP Lead Magnet Ideas for Artists—one of my lead magnets available in the Freebie Library. (ᴖ‿ᴖ)
Art Blog Must-Have #3: Affiliate Disclosure
If you’re not into affiliate marketing, you can skip this part. However, if you’re teaming up with brands and earning some commissions, it’s crucial to have an affiliate disclosure on your website. It’s not just good practice; it’s the law!
A disclosure lets your readers know about your affiliate partnerships and helps you maintain trust and integrity on your blog. You’ll have to inform your readers that you’re using affiliate links in a blog post before they even have the opportunity to click on such a link.
That’s why many bloggers include an affiliate disclaimer at the very top of each post—just the way I do it on my site, too. That affiliate disclaimer needs to include a link where people can learn more about your affiliate partnerships.
Art Blog Must-Have #4: Sidebar with Your Offers
When you’ve created some beautiful artwork, a helpful eBook, or an instructional course, you don’t want your audience to miss out on it. That’s why you should display some of your offerings in your blog’s sidebar.
You might think that it’s enough to have your products in your online store, but not everyone might view your store, even if it’s linked in the main menu.
To let your blog visitors know what’s on offer, it’s good idea to show them some of your best products in the sidebar! If they are interested, they can click the call to action and get more information. ʕᴖᴥᴖʔ
Art Blog Must-Have #5: "About" Section
No one likes to engage with an “anonymous” blog. When we read a blog post, we all want to know who wrote it, right?
Adding an “About” section to your art blog is the minimum you can do to relate with your audience. Just add a little blurb about yourself at the bottom of each post, but make it personal.
For example, you can say what kind of art you like to create, how you came to art-making, and what’s your purpose of running your blog. If you want, add a photo of yourself; it’s always nice to have a face to the writer!
That’s not only a good start to connect with your audience, but it can also help you build trust with Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness) guideline (even though it’s not a ranking criterion).
Art Blog Must-Have #6: "Read more" Suggestions
“Read More” suggestions are basically calls to action, which we already talked about above. However, “Read More” suggestions are so important for your art blog that they deserve their own section. ʕᴖᴥᴖʔ
You can have in-text links, a selection of your most popular blog posts in the sidebar, or related post suggestions at the bottom of each post. In any case, you should make sure to have an abundance of “Read More” CTAs in your art blog for a number of reasons:
First of all, they help you keep your readers engaged and stay on your website. After all, you want people to read as much of your valuable content as possible. That’s why you publish blog posts in the first place, right?
The second reason is that “Read More” suggestions help you build your internal linking structure and increase dwell time. Both are ranking factors for search engines.
Dwell time is the time people spend on your blog. A long dwell time signals search engines that your content is interesting and helpful. Hence, your website will rank higher in the search results pages.
By interlinking posts that are related to each other, you can show search engines which sites have topical relevance and improve your website’s ranking! In other words, “Read More” suggestions help you kill two birds with one stone.
- Here's where you can lean more about building an efficient link structure and optimizing your website for search engines:
Art Blog Must-Have #7: Great Content
The last but not least thing that should be in an art blog is great content. Even if you do everything else right, but you don’t have good articles on your site, your art blog won’t make it.
Writing compelling articles requires honing your writing skills. You’ll never be able to attract and retain a readership, if you don’t know how to write.
But what’s probably even more important than writing skills is to focus on solving your readers’ problems. By addressing their pain points, you win your readers’ trust and become a valuable source of information in your niche.
Read more: 102 Best Blog Post Ideas For Artists That Will Get You Clicks
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Okay, these were my 7 tips of what should be in an art blog. I hope you are able to take home some inspirational ideas to improve your blog in some aspects. Have I forgotten something? Maybe you know other things that make a good art blog. If so, feel free to share them with all of us in the comments!
Make sure to sign up for my email list below so you don’t miss out on new blog posts and other cool stuff. ♥
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