In the previous article, Jason Dirks of Meylah.com shared 3 Reasons to Start a Creative Blog for Your Business. Not only are Jason’s ’3 Reasons’ motivational to non-bloggers, but his ‘Reasons’ are validating to established art bloggers like myself. Below, Jason provides some more valuable blogging advice that you don’t want to miss!
by guest author: Jason Dirks of Meylah.com
There are several important things that make a good blog post. Now that we know why you should have a blog for your creative business, let’s cover the basics of what to include and how to create a great blog post:
- Plan Your Posts: A great way to maintain your blog is to create an editorial calendar to plan your upcoming topics. This not only gives you a well organized list, but allows you to create themes around your posts so you keep your readers interested and the information rich. And remember to be flexible with your editorial calendar topics because you never know when a hot topic might need to be your next blog post.
- Use Compelling Titles: The title is the first thing to grab the reader’s interest and it should also highlight the main story of your post so make sure to be creative and informative with your titles.
- Find Your Voice: Be creative and showcase your personality in your writing. The key to a good blog post is to find your own unique voice and don’t be afraid to speak (write). A trick a friend told me about is to use a voice recorder to first record your blog post verbally and then transcribe it. This allows you to find your voice while avoiding the ‘formal’ nature of writing.
- Spelling and Grammar Check: Make sure you proofread your work before publishing. We all make mistakes and this one can be easily avoided by simply proofreading your post for spelling or grammatical errors.
- Link To Other Resources: A blog is a great resource of information and one of the best ways to provide great information is to link to other blogs for useful information. This creates an information-rich post and will help you build up your network connections with like-minded folks.
- Foster a Discussion: A great way for readers to continue to read your blog post is to ask questions to your readers and foster a discussion through the comments section. Remember, comments result in a number of benefits to both the reader and the blogger.
- Use Images: One of the best ways to grab a reader’s attention is to use great images and best of all…it’s easy to do. You can either use your own images, get permission from another owner to use their images or use Flickr to search for images with a Creative Commons license for “free use, sharing, re-purposing and even remixing depending on the owner’s choice.” To understand the proper rules for image use, see the post Etiquette: Dos and Don’ts of the Arts and Craft Community, written by Dionne Christiansen.
- Remember The Rules: Be creative and make it your own, but remember to follow a couple rules. First, don’t plagiarize (copy) somebody else’s work or make other’s work available for download if you don’t own it and second, don’t give out too much personal information as that is always a risk.
A good blog post is one that you make your own and the list above is to provide guidance…not limits. Some blog for fun, some for money, and some for both. Make your blog unique and unlike anything else out there…and of course share your blog with us as we’d love to connect to you!
*****
Thanks Jason, for the informative articles! Lori 
You might also enjoy reading: How to Find Your Own Artistic Voice or Visual Artist’s Challenge: Balancing Self Promotion & Gallery Representation
About Lori McNee
Thanks again Lori for sharing this article with your readers! Jason
Jason, I am glad you are happy with the posts. Breaking them up into a few new articles was a way to really share your content and give the readers time to digest all the useful information.
Thanks again!
Lori
Hi Lori, hi Jason!
Thanks for sharing these points about planning your blogging a bit more. But this is only the start up to a content that hopefully attracts a lot of readers.
Now, how do you do step 2 and 3 (2= get traffic, 3= convert this traffic into buyers)?
This would be very interesting to read about more, how do you do this/ What can you advise? What is your experience?
Thanks again for your refreshing blog, it starts to stand out from the crowd
Jan
Hi Jan-
Great thoughts! Thanks for sharing your questions and I will work on answering them in an upcoming post. Believe it or not, I have only been blogging for a little over a year and I have really learned a lot! By sharing what I am learning, I hope to shorten the learning curve for others, especially artists who would rather spend their time painting than blogging!
I will add let you know when the blog post will be up live! (Give me a couple of weeks…)
Best-
Lori
Nice brief and this enter helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you as your information.
Glad this article helped you!
L
Nice post! Really helps bloggers to generate not only traffic but also add interest to readers!
Hi Katrina. Thanks for stopping by and adding your thoughts. Glad these tips are helpful to you.
Have a great day – Lori
Hi Lori!
Thank you and Jason for this wonderful article, it will help us, new bloggers, a lot.
I will go work on mine after reading all this wonderful info
Hi Malu – good luck with blogging. It is a big adventure and lots of fun too. I am glad this article has helped you get motivated! Keep in touch.
Lori
It’s a pleasure to read your blog
Lori and Jason, this was indeed a great post. I’ve been looking for ways to spruce up my 5-year-old blog. More planning is definitely in order!
I did take a reader poll recently, and that helped guide me toward what readers really want.
Martha
aka @colorpoetry
Hi Martha – thanks for taking time to share your comment here – comments are really useful for me as a blogger…it helps me to know if I am on the right track! Glad this post helped you.
Best – Lori
I’ve found that a lot of articles about blogging are very long and often confusing. Yours is concise and to the point and yet contains plenty of excellent advice for a novice like myself. Thank you!
Dear Lori,
I just started my fine art career in February, and Blogging in May (http://blog.cherihalsema.com/).
I find your blog very helpful as a new blogger. I also like to watch your videos. Your kindness and cheerful attitude is so wonderful. Thank you for your inspiration and your beautiful art.
My Best,
Cheri
Hi Cheri, congratulations of starting your new art career – how exciting! I appreciate your kind words…blogging is a lot of extra work and I never tire from hearing words of encouragement! Please keep in touch and if you have a story to share, let me know.
My Best – Lori
Impressive and very clearly mentions the basic rules of blogging.
I agree totally with your point on ‘finding your own voice’, something which many aspiring bloggers miss out.
Look forward to reading more, hope we catch up on twitter too
[smohkim]
Hi Sardar-
I appreciate you stopping by this blog and commenting. I followed you on Twitter and am glad to connect there too. Nowadays, blogging is an important aspect to most businesses, even art, so I think it is important to remind ourselves of the basics.
Take care and hope to see you again-
Lori
Daryle and Katana…you are the best to RT this on Twitter…thanks for sharing this information.
Lori