Why Blogging is good for Artisans
Regular readers will know that I like to promote blogging for Artisans. In Ireland Rebecca Allen is the trail blazer in this respect. Even though she is blogging only for a short time, she has had significant success with it. I wrote here about her experience and some of the reasons why I think she is such a good blogger.
Marisa Haedike of Creative Thursday, is an american blogger who I have also highlighted. She has really developed an elaborate business around her blog, with a shopping site and weekly podcasts on how to go for what you want and live the creative life. (a podcast is like your own online radio show and it allows you to download the show onto your mp3 player or computer, so that you can listen to it when you are not online).
Today I am going to highlight another artisan blog. This time, it is a collective of 6 artisans who are running the blog. The umbrella collective is only 3 months old now, but already it is gaining peoples attention (have a look at the comments to their announcement of a christmas show). The group are based in Australia and have some really excellent craft. What I particularly like about their blog, is that they take care to present there products in a stylised manner. This makes them stand out from other new craft blogs. They also plan to start selling items from their blog. This is what I like so much about the option of using a blog. You can start off as a simple blog to test the waters and then slowly start to build an awareness of your business. Then, when you see that there is enough interest out there, you can add other features to it like a shopping function. This option is so much friendlier than having to risk large amounts of money on a website that may never take off.
I know a lot of artisans out there are not really familiar with what a blog is and why it is superior in many ways to a website, so I am going to try and explain this as best I can:
The human touch
Most important for me is the social and interactive nature of blogging. Anybody can add a comment to a post on a blog (a post is like a news article). For artisans, this means they have the ability to build up relationships with their public. So the relationship aspect makes the blog a more human and social option to a website. On very popular blogs, you will often see dozens of comments under posts. This creates a kind of social conversation that websites just can’t replicate. I believe artisans for the most part will welcome this. You will find also that other artisan bloggers will support you and contribute to the conversation. So essentially a great way of networking and learning from your fellow artisans. Even if your blogging never turns out to be the business success you had hoped it would be, you will get to meet some great people through it and have lots of fun.
A Medium for self expression
Blogging was invented to make it as easy as possible for non- technical people to publish on the web. Now is really the first time in history that anybody can publish without having to go through the intermediaries of publishers and editors. It is truely a remarkable moment in history I believe. But, up to now blogging has been dominated by tech people in Ireland. Why are there so few artists and creative people blogging in Ireland? These are the people we need to bring colour and imagination to the Irish blogosphere.
A website can be a shop front for your products or a kind of brochure, but not really a great outlet for expression, unless you are or have a very talented web designer at your disposal. But with a blog you have this extra dimension.
Most artists I know are not just talented in their particular field, they usually can excel in many areas of art. With a blog you give expression to all of this. You can tell stories, philosophize, discuss culture, play music and video, create communities and many other things:
If you like video, why not insert some video clips in your blog.
You might be impressed by my ability to do this, but all you need to be able to do this, is to know how to copy and paste, nothing more. Its simple!
You can also put music/information sound clips on your blog.
You can tell personal anecdotes.
You can have a bit of fun with your readers
You can even dispense enlightening homespun philosophies
Its really up to your imagination.
Blogging basically lets you express yourself and build up a picture of you that others will relate to.
You might be thinking…why can’t I do this with a website. Well you can do all of those things on a website, but because most websites are static (ie front pages rarely change), you have to actively go and seek these out. With a blog, you’re seeing these stories appear on your front page as they get published. So if you are following a blog, you are witnessing an evolution of thought. Each day a new article appears and a new story unfolds. You actually get to know the person behind the blog and this makes a blog an altogether more interesting, human and expressive medium in my opinion.
So those are some of the more poetic reasons for starting a blog, and here are some of the more prosaic ones:
Not half as costly as websites
Getting a web designer to build a basic website can cost you thousands of Euros. Blogging is nowhere near as expensive, because it is a template based system. The web designer can charge you less because he/she doesn’t have to spend a large amount of time coding the website. You can also form a collective like the umbrella collective above, this will make the cost of the blog almost negligable on a per person basis.
Getting to the top of Google search page
Blogs are updated frequently and this is one of the factors that Google takes into account when determining what position your website holds in its search results. Most people do not search further then the first page of search results, so it’s obviously very important that you get on this page. If your blog is popular and gets linked to by alot of other bloggers, this also counts in your favour. If you use wordpress or typepad as your blogging software, you will effectively be using templates, which are coded in compliance with industry standards. Google also looks at this when determining how high you appear in the search results.
Starting a Revolution
I would love to help any artist get started in blogging. Irish Artisans may not be aware that there is a major renaissance in Arts and Crafts across the Atlantic, mainly due to the influence of the internet. Ebay, Etsy and Blogging are driving this renaissance. It’s a shame that so few Irish artists are not availing of the cheap and highly effective medium of blogging.
Here are some more examples of great artisan/Indie blogs. Read them for yourselves and appreciate how effective and addictive they are.
I would love to start a revolution (a bloodless one I might add) in the Irish Blogosphere. I know there are artisans out there who are made for blogging!
Can we sprinkle some fairy dust on the Irish Blogosphere?
technorati tags:artisan, blogging, crafts, online shopping Ireland, Christmas Shopping, unique, art
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18 comments
Permalink1
Paul,
Thanks so much for the thoughtful post. And for the all the wonderful links!
PS I think you are definitely the man to start the Irish artist blogging revolution…!
Permalink2
Thanks Maryam, these big essays take alot out of me you know;-)
Permalink3
This is very comprehensive and impressive. Have you considered submitting it to the Irish Times for consideration?
Permalink4
Hi Pink,
I’m flattered that you think so. Not sure about the “Irish Times”. Maybe I should wait until a few more more artisan bloggers start appearing?
Love your blog, by the way. You must give me some tips;-)
Permalink5
Here, here. Irish times - brilliant. Remember, newspapers want cutting edge news! Don’t wait til it’s a full fledged trend.;-)
Permalink6
Hi Paul, great to see others encouraging artisan to get onto the blog revolution.
We at the Umbrella Collective have the same mission with our fellow crafters. We’ve found blogging to be a powerful tool in crossing the limits of location (Australia is very far from everywhere!), and has been a powerful tool in building community and genuine conversation on the arts and crafts outside of the institutions.
Additionally, it refines ones presentation skills very quickly and is a wonderful way to record your arts practice and give people an insight into the work that artists do.
I’ve been blogging (I have three major blogs apart from Umbrella Collective) for over a year. I now set blogs up for others in the arts. And its great to see people open up to the creative potential of blogging. Its such a powerful tool and in the hands of artists it can offer so much.
I hope that Irish artisans take part in this revolution too. We are out here waiting for you
xx
ps I’ve sent this post on to all of my Umbrella Collective cohorts they are sure to enjoy it.
Permalink7
Maryam: You might be right about the timing, alas personal circumstances prevent me going down this route for the time being. It is something I might look at in the new year though:-)
Florence: Thanks very much for your perspective. Great to see that you are making a success of it. I’m sure you’ll agree that blogging is not something artists should be intimidated by, just because it’s in the ‘Tech’ sphere. I think alot of people, when they hear the word “tech” immediately assume complexity, but with blogging, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Permalink8
Hi there Irish Crafters,
I am from the Umbrella Collective and living in rural Australia have found blogging to be a lifeline in keeping in touch with exciting things and people. I like how you connected blogging to real world outcomes. Blogging is a great bridge from cyberspace to face to face communication. it can be very addictive.
Permalink9
Hi Shannon,
its great that you guys are commenting on this. The more of that I get, the easier it is to convince people who may not be familiar with blogging of its benefits:-)
Permalink10
Paul, I agree, it *is* super easy. We use Blogger which is now in a new phase called Blogger Beta, it’s more user-friendly than ever. The people at Blogger began with the concept of setting up a blog taking only three simple steps. Now that philosophy has translated through the rest of its system, making it easier than ever.
On top of that Blogger is owned by google and, as to cost..its free!
Blogging has opened up the internet to us as *the* most valuble tool.
I strongly encourage all of your readers to give it a go, after all what have you got to lose?
xx
Permalink11
Yes I agree Florence. Blogger is quite an attractive option in that it is free and with the new beta, you also have some much needed improvements in the platform.
Myself, I prefer wordpress because it gives me much greater scope for making changes to my blog and it has a slightly friendlier commenting system. There are dozens of useful little programs that you can plugin to wordpress as well that help greatly with the user experience.
Permalink12
I absolutely agree with you Paul, and whole-heartedly support the revolution
..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!
Permalink13
Great points Abigail, especially the notion of spurring yourself on. I guess you could compare a blog to a diary. The only difference is that a blog allows you get feedback to your daily scribblings. When you feel you have an audience, you try that little bit more.
Permalink15
There is actualy a growing community of Irish bloggers out there, totally aware of the craft renaissance that has sprung up around the world. You shold come to some of our knitting meetings also and find out what we get up to. Ive changed over recently from blogger, which I found a tad infuriating, to wordpress, which I like but havent managed to add all my bits from blogger into my site yet, due to internet issues. I do have an Etsy shop though, as does at least one of my fibre friends, and another who will also be joining our little world. Come and say hello!
Permalink16
Hi Sara,
good to hear that its growing. This post may be a bit dated now. Still I don’t see a lot of arts and crafts blogs apart from your group and one or 2 others. I went to the RDS in December and of the 50 or so artists that I talked to, I’d say only 2 or 3 knew what a blog was. I agree Wordpress is much better then Blogger.
Permalink18
Great post, you make some excellent points here.
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