Ever notice that “blogging” is different for everyone?
I have a very specific blogging style for EmptyEasel and that’s the way I tend to think of blogging overall—as a vehicle for teaching. But the truth is, other art bloggers do things differently and many are quite successful.
In fact, I’ve come to realize that there are a several distinct blogging styles which almost all art bloggers fall under. If you’re trying to choose a direction for your own art blog, perhaps this list of blogging styles will help:
Blogging to teach
As a new blogger back in 2006, I found myself creating a teaching blog almost instinctively. For some reason I was continually drawn to explain what I knew, analyze problems and figure out answers, and then post whatever I learned.
If you’re cut out to be a teaching blogger, you’ll probably know it. Do you like explaining things, coming up with examples, and showing others the “right” way to do something? Do you have a lot of experience with your subject matter, or are you at least willing to experiment until you figure it out?
Successful teaching blogs usually contain a lot of how-to articles and works-in-progress posts. Art bloggers who teach tend to use a lot of images (or embed videos) and generally, their blog posts are a lot longer than the stereotypical blog post that only contains a few paragraphs.
Blogging to share opinions
Opinion blogging is a very popular blogging style—perhaps the most popular if you look at blogs overall and not just art blogs.
Everyone has an opinion, but some folks are just a lot more eloquent and adept at getting their point across. If you’re one of those, then perhaps this is the style for you.
Successful opinion bloggers usually write a lot of reviews and critiques, and often comment on current news or events. These bloggers have a tendency to get a lot of comments and criticism themselves, so it helps to have a thick skin and be an excellent writer if you’re going to take on this style.
Blogging to enlighten, entertain, or amaze
What do you do when you find amazing artwork online? Do you immediately share it with your friends? Post it to your facebook profile? Link to it from your blog?
If you enjoy linking to great art or featuring other artists on a regular basis, you’d probably make a great influential blogger.
The great thing about this blogging style is that it doesn’t have to be as time-intensive as the others—you can mix in a lot of short short, quick blog posts (that link out to interesting artwork or artists) with longer, featured blog posts.
Blogging to create connections
You might be more interesting in blogging to make business contacts, network with gallery owners and influencers, or just make friends all over the world.
This style of network blogging usually takes the form of conversations, with lots of commenting back and forth between groups of bloggers. Many bloggers in this niche will integrate their Twitter or Facebook profiles with their main blog and be active in several social networks, too.
Blogging to self-promote
Publishing information about your upcoming shows and exhibitions (basically press releases) is a very popular blogging style. Sure, being a self-promotional blogger may not sound appealing, but there’s nothing inherently bad about it.
Daily painting blogs are a natural extension of this self-promotional blogging style. By posting new paintings every day, or several times a week, you can keep people interested in what you’re working on and build friendships over time.
Blogging to learn from oneself
Hearkening back to the original purpose of blogging, journal blogs are more introspective than any other blogging style. As an artist, it might appeal to you to see where you’ve come from, and how you’ve progressed over time.
Journal bloggers tend to publish a lot of sketches, paintings, scribbles, and random thoughts. As a result, these types of blogs offer an informal, intimate look at the artist’s working process and thinking patterns.
Blogging to show personality
If don’t necessarily want to blog about art, but you still want to have a blog, you can always post about your life, family, and friends. While not as directly promotional as some of the other blogging styles above, having a personal blog certainly has the potential to develop deeper bonds and create friendships.
You may find that you enjoy blogging more when it’s less about “marketing” and more about just blogging for fun.
Ultimately, the point of blogging is not to blog a certain, specific way, but to blog the way that fits you best.
In some ways, it doesn’t matter so much HOW you blog. . . it just matters that you put more of YOU online. The more of you that’s available, the more likely people will find you and interact with you in the way that you’re looking for.