It all started with web logs.
The word “blog” comes from the term “web log.” Starting in the early 1990’s people would post diaries and journals online through various digital methods. For a long time the content of most blogs was the boring and mundane details of the diarist’s life. These origins have created a stigma that remains today. People often ask me why I read blogs. “Why do you care what someone’s cat had for breakfast?” I don’t care.
Blogs have been evolving at a very rapid rate these past couple of years. They have become so much more than online journals, even though a lot of people still think of them as just that.
Bikes and blogs.
Before I moved to Colorado in early 1999 I was living in Illinois just outside of Chicago. And one Spring I decided that I needed a new bike, a mountain bike to be exact. A mountain bike is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling, including jumps, and traversing of rocks and washouts, and steep declines, either on dirt trails, logging roads, or other unpaved environments. (thanks Wikipedia) I can tell you there is not a lot of that in the suburbs of Chicago. So why was I buying a bike designed for such things? Because like blogs mountain bikes had evolved. A mountain bike is the most versatile and useful style of bike available. Due to its rugged construction I knew it would be ready for whatever I needed it for. In the suburbs we do not have rocks, roots, and downed logs to traverse. But we do have curbs, potholes, and uneven pavement to deal with. My mountain bike has always handled whatever my city commute threw at it.
Blogs are a lot like the mountain bike. They were created for one use but now people use them for many things that go beyond simple blogging. This is good news for any artist looking to showcase themselves and their work online because now it is possible to use blog software as a content management system for your website. An artist can now create a site through a blog in a way that your visitors will not even realize they are visiting a blog. And blogging software can handle just about anything your decide it needs to handle.
A few examples.
Here is a great example from the Owen Gallery in High Falls New York: (click on image to visit the site)
The gallery’s site was built using Wordpress, a leading blog software. Here is another example:
August is Artist Blog Month here at Art Palaver.
Throughout the month of August I am going to be talking a lot about blogs and what a great tool they can be for artists. I wanted to start off by planting the notion in your head that you may not know blogs as well as you think you do. Today is just a teaser of what is to come. If your not using a blog yet I’ll give you all the reasons and knowledge needed to begin. And if you already have a blog we’ll make it better.
Please let me know in the comments what exactly you’d like to know about artist blogs or what problems your having with yours.
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Thank you Daryle for an informative article. I’m new to your site, but the article about blogs immediately attracted my attention, for that’s just what I’m learning about right now – marketing my art (and my husband’s) online. I just finished our business website that I did using wordpress platform. It’s http://www.maestroartservicesintl.com/ . I’d love to hear your feedback. Some of the questions I have are these: is it better to have a static homepage or to have a blog as a home page? And if I have a website and two blogs, what’s the best idea for a home page? Thank you, Daryle,
Diana
Thanks for the linkback to EmmaFrostFiles.com. A blog can definitely have more than one use….I learned that after using the WordPress script for my site.