Blog Design Service
Its as easy as sending an email
Blogging can get you on the web easily, quickly and at little expense.
It’s as easy as sending an email. Have a look at this video to see how. When I design a blog for you, all the design and technical aspects will be taken care of. All you need concentrate on is writing about your art and clicking the publish button.
Art Blogging is really affordable
I can build you a customized blog with shopping cart for under EUR400. If you were to go to a web designer to have a website with shopping cart developed, it will cost you at least 4 times this amount. You can save lots by choosing a blog, freeing you up to spend more money on marketing your web presence.
And I will argue later, that blogs are as effective as websites and in many ways superior. You can also add content and links to your blog yourself without having to ask a web developer to do this.
View this video for an example of how easy it is to add a new page link to your blog.
This gives you greater independence and more flexibility in managing your web presence. You also save money by not being charged for every small modification to your site. And you can make updates spontaneously. No waiting around for a web developer to do the change for you.
Get yourself a customized blog, stand out and look more professional
But some blogs are free, you might say. Some are free, but what I offer is a customized blog. I can tailor the blog to your brand image. I will create a header image based on your art, which will give your blog a unique look of its own, that separates it from the many other common place templates that people use on free blogs.
This will make your blog look more professional and give customers more confidence to buy from your blog.
I will also make sure that your blog has a proper .com name, so that people can easily remember your websites name. Again, it looks much more professional if your site has a short .com name, rather then the long web addresses offered by free blog services.
Flickr galleries to exhibit your Art and other extra functionality
I have many years of experience as a blogger and a blog designer, so I know the ins and outs of blogging. I will set up your blog with all the functionality that you require, to hit the ground running in your blogging adventure.
Your blog will have added functionality like flickr galleries and slide-shows of your art so that you can show off your work.
Encourage repeat customers by offering your readers an email subscription option.
I will set you up with an email and newsreader subscription service. This will allow you to collect emails from your customers and send them regular updates from your blog. This will greatly increase the chances of your readers staying loyal to your blog and coming back time and time again.
The more visits you have, the more sales you are likely to make. This is probably the most essential tool to have, if you are serious about selling online.
Gather stats on your blog visitors. Find out what works and what doesn’t.
I will also set you up with a comprehensive statistics service, so that you can track the visitors to your blog and see where they are coming from and which pages they visit on your blog. This will help you analyse what works and what does not on your blog.
All of this added functionality does not come with a free blog, so I am saving you time by adding all of these tools from the outset.
To get a good idea of the customisation that I provide, view this video.
Heres a look at the statistics package I include in the blog
And here’s a look at the shopping cart solution I offer on the blog
Examples of some of the art and craft blogs I have created
Customer Testimonies
Heres what Karen Harper, editor and CEO of the Irish Craft Association had to say about my service:
I found Paul to be very thorough with each section, so that when I walked away I could come back and remember what I have just learned. Everything was done in small steps and It felt very manageable.
In a very short time, I had my blog up and running and was able to tell others about how useful it was..in fact after 9 days of being online my blog was on the front page of Google for Irish Craft. Not being technical, I didn’t realise what an achievement this was. Now, I have over 100 subscribers and this growth shows no sign of stopping. The best thing I can say is I would definately recommend Paul to anyone that is not technically minded, because there is never a feeling of getting bogged down with technical jargon.
Now, that I have my blog running for a couple of months, I am able to get information out to the global market, whereas before the whole idea of setting up a website was daunting and a hassle. It is as easy as writing an email, and putting a picture or two in helps back up everything I write.
With my business it is vital that I get feedback from everything I do, so I provide a good service. So blogging has been invaluable to me. I met Paul by chance and it has given me more chances than I could have imagined.
For more testimonies, check out my portfolio
Blogging is a great way of promoting your art, developing a reputation and reaching a wide audience.
All of the above will help you sell more. Blogs, as distinct from most websites, are community centered and interactive.
Bloggers will visit other blogs and if they like what they see, may leave a comment on your blog (a function unique to blogging). They may even write about your blog on their own blog, and therefore introduce your blog to a whole new group of readers and potential customers. Its a kind of free and natural advertising for your art. Bloggers who write about you will often be interested in your area and so will have readers who are interested in your area. So this is the best form of advertising…..natural, targeted, word of mouth advertising.
If your work is really very unique, you could easily find that one blogger writes about you and then several other bloggers who read that blog will write about you, creating a kind of domino effect, that could lead to several hundred new readers in a day.
Bloggers get noticed by the Media
Many bloggers who are the first to blog in a particular subject area, tend to get picked up by the media. Its a great way of standing out in your profession and developing a reputation as an expert. Again, this all serves to heighten your credibility and increase the likelihood of selling your art.
See here how felt crafter Rebecca Allen got picked out for her blog.
Blogs help develop relationship and trust with your customers
Customers can interact with you through commenting on your blog. Blogs in general tend to be more casual and down to earth then websites and people find it easier to give feedback. This is a great way of developing a relationship with your readers/customers and gaining valuable feedback. It’s much more personal and makes for a better experience for the artist and the public.
To buy an expensive painting from an artist who lives thousands of miles away from you, takes a huge degree of trust and in my view the single biggest selling point of blogs over websites, is that you can develop this trust through the constant interaction with your customers that a blog enables.
This is achieved through commenting and the fact of artists sharing something of their own life through the blog. This sharing of life experiences and sometimes fantasies creates a kind of a bond between the reader and the artist that can never be simulated by a website.
This developing of trust is a powerful thing, that results in a loyal customer/friend who will come back to you again and again, and will have the confidence to buy off you repeatedly. Artists websites are like shop fronts, blogs on the other hand are like stories and communities. Blogs are far more interesting. You want to see what happens next, where the artist is going, what way he/she is developing, what’s happening in their lives. This makes people return again and again to their blog.
Blogging spurs you on and motivates you to create more art
When you are regularly putting your art online and getting positive feedback for it, it can make you feel motivated to do more then you would normally do. I’ve read many a blog post on this topic and have even covered this on my own blog.
Abigail Percy, herself a very successful blogger sums up the motivational effect and the social element of blogging in this comment which she left on my blog:
“Blogging has been an amazing turning {starting!} point for my business….it filled the gap that leaving art school left, with just the most amazing surge of support, feedback and friendships….and has been an excellent tool, not only for documenting my work and my process but also spurring me on to *want* to make and produce so I have something to show, and contribute. Blogging is a community…and one I am really proud to be a part of. I have been blogging for almost a year now, and have only good experiences to show from it..both professionally and personally. The custom of linking within blogs has meant a huge amount
of coverage of my jewellery {leading to sales, stockists etc} and I have made many amazing friends around the world…many of whom I have been lucky enough to meet in person.
My advice?….get blogging!!! it’s free, fun, positive and productive!”
The rise in Artisan Blogging is now getting documented by the media:
Artists take paintings to masses - USATODAY.com
Google loves blogs
There is also a very important technical reason why blogs are preferable to websites. Google ranks websites based on a number of factors. One of them is the amount of activity on the website. Because blog content is updated frequently, blogs perform very well on google search results, as google sees them as being highly active.
You will find that you will get a lot more visitors through google then you would with a conventional website. Again, the more visitors you get, the bigger your audience and the more you should sell.
You can Sell your art on blogs without having to buy an expensive shopping cart solution
I also offer you the opportunity to have a shopping cart added to your blog. This allows you to sell art from your blog, typically paying a small percentage commission on each sale (2-3%).
My blog and shopping cart combination fee starts at less then EUR400. A website with integrated shopping cart will set you back at least EUR2000. This is a great saving to you.
A link to your ETSY store can easily be added to the sidebar of your blog. You can even put small thumbnails on your sidebar, which readers can click on to be taken to that item on your ETSY store. Once there, they can pay for your art piece through the ETSY shopping cart. If you find it hard to visualise what I am saying, have a look at this short video to see how it works.
Less Drudgery
In the end of the day, if you can manage to successfully sell art on your blog, you can make your life easier in many ways. You will be more independent, less time spent running around the country attending fairs and exhibitions, more time for studio work and a social life. You will pay less to middlemen like gallery owners.
Life can be easier for you and more satisfying on the whole.
You will also meet some very interesting people on the blogosphere and make new friends and contacts you would never have dreamed of making before. I’ve talked a lot about selling from your blog, but the fun and community element of blogging is to me more important and is something I would value, even if I were never to sell anything through it.
Here are some interviews I did with top artisan bloggers, to give you a feel of the enthusiasm they have for blogging.
In my opinion blogging is the single most powerful way of marketing your art online. To be successful at it, is definitely not easy, but with a little persistence, you can be make remarkable progress in it.
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