I think I’m a little in love with Seth Godin. I read his name on a blog I like and decided to look up one of his books. I picked up Small is the New Big, and it’s a great books. AS such I’ve started to read his blog and its great too.
One of his entries is about creating a great blog. I would say that this also applies to creating a great art blog as well as great art, if you work in a group.
Number 9:
One voice, one vision.
Every group I’ve ever worked on has proven this to be true. There is always one person in a group to take hold and make it theirs. However when there isn’t someone on the panel or in the group who doesn’t stand up and take control the mission becomes muddy and unclear.
So, I think this applies to a blog even when managed by a single person. I know that in the past that I’ve lost my vision and my focus. So the thought is that if you take a look at your blog and think that perhaps there is too much direction. Its always easy to reign yourself in.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Focusing in on the Intenet
In the rebuilding of my blog I’m going to explore the area of focus. Focus like intent deals with the content of my blog. Instead of looking at what I hope to accomplish with my blog I look at how I’m going to get to that point.
So how do I focus my blog in on my intent? In my case I’m going to tailor my content and schedule myself to post regularly. I’ve decided that I’ll keep some of my better content- the look into my studio, balance of art and DayJob, photos of my work and looks at my art process. I’ll add to that mix some looks at other people’s art, what they do with hand made/ bound books, some exploration of commercially available journals and notebooks, and links to other people’s blogs.
In terms of scheduling I plan on posting 3 to 4 times per week, anything more will be gravy.
Knowing my customer base can help me to focus my blog to bring more people in to read my content. Having sharply focused content and thoughts should only define the blog more clearly in the reader’s mind. This should be a positive change..
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Climbing Mountains
Problogger.com has an excellant article that relates to my previous post. It's about setting goals, breaking said goals down into measurable and easily attainable steps and executing those steps for success. Awesome ideas for anyone. You can read it here.
What's the Intent?
As I’ve been considering moving my blog from blogger to my own domain I’ve been thinking of the structure, my intent as well as the focus of the blog. I think that if I we’re starting my blog all over again I would structure it a little differently, change the focus a little as well as look a little more closely at my intent.
So these are good lessons for people to think about as they start their own blogs to promote their art. The first question to ask yourself as you start a blog is this:
What is my intent? That simply means what do you hope to accomplish with your blog? Are you writing to write, writing to share knowledge, or writing to promote your work. Any answer is fine really but that one answer is going to shape what you do with the other questions you need to ask yourself as you start on this journey.
Let’s first explore my answer to that question. Originally when I started out I was writing to write. I had a lot of knowledge of bookbinding and I wanted to share it. I wanted to create something of a resource for other bookbinders on the web. On my website and my blog I wanted to link to other book artists making great art, show tutorials and in general write about what it’s like to be an artist making art while working a DayJob. All that’s fine and I think I succeeded at most of those goals. As in life, art is organic and as my abilities shifted and grew so did my desire to sell my work. So I started up my website, started eBay sales and later etsy sales. Should be good, right? Well, the website isn’t the rousing success I hoped it would be but my other sales have remain constant. Somewhere in here I realized that my blog could help drive sales (more on this later and in my ‘zine.) So my focus began to shift, I wanted to show more of my binding and less of what other people were doing.
Somewhere in here I realize now that I lost my focus, my blog went from being a great place for binders to visit to being something of a mish mash of ideas. What I wanted from it was no longer clear. I knew that I wanted to use it to promote my sales, but I’m sure that it’s not working as well as it could because of my unclear intent and a muddled focus.
So here I am trying to refocus- my answer to the above question of intent? I want to promote my ebay and etsy sales. It’s a simple answer that lends itself to more questions. How am I going to do that? I will be refocusing my content and redirecting it towards my customer base. Who are my customers? MY customers are people like me but who don’t have time to bind books. Bibliophiles, busy tech heads with a desire to write, people using David Allen’s GTD, people who use moleskines ciaks and other fine stationary, people who are done with the Palm and Pocket PCs. I’ve found that my customer base is diverse, from artists to geeks but all have a desire to write and use their notebooks well. Fine stationary and notebooks have an appeal all their own and I need to appeal to that audience. So how do I appeal to my customer base? That’s the real question. Do these people want or need to know how to bind their own books, not likely, are they interested in it, probably but the people who want to read about bookbinding are other binders; who aren’t for the most part the people buying my work.
It has dawned on me after all this time that I’m appealing to the wrong audience, bookbinders rather than artists and people who want to use my work.
The question of intent begs the question of who the readers of the blog are-i.e. who are your customers. The answer to that question will drive the answers of the other 2 questions of focus and structure. Questions that I’ll explore more fully in another post.
I’ll suggest that if your starting out or even currently working on a blog ask yourself these questions:
So these are good lessons for people to think about as they start their own blogs to promote their art. The first question to ask yourself as you start a blog is this:
What is my intent? That simply means what do you hope to accomplish with your blog? Are you writing to write, writing to share knowledge, or writing to promote your work. Any answer is fine really but that one answer is going to shape what you do with the other questions you need to ask yourself as you start on this journey.
Let’s first explore my answer to that question. Originally when I started out I was writing to write. I had a lot of knowledge of bookbinding and I wanted to share it. I wanted to create something of a resource for other bookbinders on the web. On my website and my blog I wanted to link to other book artists making great art, show tutorials and in general write about what it’s like to be an artist making art while working a DayJob. All that’s fine and I think I succeeded at most of those goals. As in life, art is organic and as my abilities shifted and grew so did my desire to sell my work. So I started up my website, started eBay sales and later etsy sales. Should be good, right? Well, the website isn’t the rousing success I hoped it would be but my other sales have remain constant. Somewhere in here I realized that my blog could help drive sales (more on this later and in my ‘zine.) So my focus began to shift, I wanted to show more of my binding and less of what other people were doing.
Somewhere in here I realize now that I lost my focus, my blog went from being a great place for binders to visit to being something of a mish mash of ideas. What I wanted from it was no longer clear. I knew that I wanted to use it to promote my sales, but I’m sure that it’s not working as well as it could because of my unclear intent and a muddled focus.
So here I am trying to refocus- my answer to the above question of intent? I want to promote my ebay and etsy sales. It’s a simple answer that lends itself to more questions. How am I going to do that? I will be refocusing my content and redirecting it towards my customer base. Who are my customers? MY customers are people like me but who don’t have time to bind books. Bibliophiles, busy tech heads with a desire to write, people using David Allen’s GTD, people who use moleskines ciaks and other fine stationary, people who are done with the Palm and Pocket PCs. I’ve found that my customer base is diverse, from artists to geeks but all have a desire to write and use their notebooks well. Fine stationary and notebooks have an appeal all their own and I need to appeal to that audience. So how do I appeal to my customer base? That’s the real question. Do these people want or need to know how to bind their own books, not likely, are they interested in it, probably but the people who want to read about bookbinding are other binders; who aren’t for the most part the people buying my work.
It has dawned on me after all this time that I’m appealing to the wrong audience, bookbinders rather than artists and people who want to use my work.
The question of intent begs the question of who the readers of the blog are-i.e. who are your customers. The answer to that question will drive the answers of the other 2 questions of focus and structure. Questions that I’ll explore more fully in another post.
I’ll suggest that if your starting out or even currently working on a blog ask yourself these questions:
- What is my intent?
- Who are my readers/customers?
- Then, who would I like them to be?
Monday, September 24, 2007
hints and tips
If anyone reading this has any hints or tips for articles- leave a note- is there anything you'd like to read about on here? I'll research it out and write about it. Or if someone would like to be a guest blogger, I'd love to have some one else write up an article and post it up here with links and credit.
Leave a response below or head to my profile to send me an email.
Leave a response below or head to my profile to send me an email.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Biz Cards
Let’s talk about business cards or as I like to call them Biz Cards. I’ve had a few great debates on the merits of the biz card over the years- about whether artists should or should not have them. Are they worth the money you’ll spend and time in design? How can you design them?
I recommend them. I love my biz cards. I refer to them as little nuggets of marketing and networking GOLD. Business cards condense your contact info down to a small readable format that you can slip into a pocket and pass off at a moments notice. If someone is interested in your work and pursuing more about it at a later time- what’s the best way to give them your telephone number and contact info? A post it fished from the bottom of your bag? Nope hand them a biz card. The useful attributes of a biz card are as follow: Everyone knows what they are; you don’t need to reinvent the contact wheel, just go with the flow. They are small, immensely portable and cheap. So you can take them with you anywhere- plane, train and automobile. Putting 10 cards into your go bag won’t weigh you down. Heading out to paint in public? TAKE SOME CARDS! Because they are cheap and portable you won’t mind passing them out. The best thing about them is that in this small portable format you have everything you need for contact information- phone number, address, website and name. (All those items aren’t needed for a good card but are good prospects.) When someone asks you for your info, there’s no awkward attempts to remember your phone number or email address, it’s all there. All in all they are super easy. I take a small stack with me everywhere. I keep a few in my bag, and a few in my to go notebook. Just incase I talk about my book or art and someone wants to see more I give them a card. I hand them out like they are going out of style. In my 5 or so years of using them regularly I think I’ve made and handed out thousands. Most office supply stores offer an inexpensive service to make a basic black and white card- about $10 for a thousand. Staples is running a special to make a certain number while you wait. A great thing is to look at the publishing software on your computer and see what sort of templates are on there- adapt them to suit your needs. This is great if you move around a lot. You can print off 10 or 500. Office supply stores also carry biz card blanks- perforated sheets of cardstock in biz card size. Print and tear. Easy. I happen to use cardstock from the craft store- I buy the color I like by the packages- 100 sheets, print up 20 or 30 sheets at a time and cut them by hand. This lets me change them however I like and I can print them when ever I like- it’s on demand. As far as information on your cards- name, title, website, email and a phone number (if you want). I include a blurb about what I do- artist and bookbinder and my location- city and state as well as my eBay id. I give them out freely- friends, people I just met, and I put 2 in every eBay package I send out. If you are using card stock think about ways you can use the template on your computer to make your cards a little different. They simply need to be around the same size of a biz card 2 inches by 3.5 inches. (I suggest keeping the width about the same as standard- that way they fit into a rolodex.) There are loads of books in B&N and Borders probably in a small local chain about biz card design, some of the ideas are impractical and many are so cool your going to want to use that idea. Take a look at those books make some notes. Then head back to your studio and think about what you want to impart about your art/website with your cards- rough, rugged, different, tough, durable and earthy were some adjectives I used to describe my work. So I wanted my cards to reflect that. I picked out a paper- kraft paper. Initially I picked a rough chocolate coffee brown cardstock with a neat texture, but it didn’t print well, and then I happened upon a package of kraft paper cardstock, and it was perfect. So that is what I use for everything now. I also found some kraft paper that was perfect for my stationary, and thus I created a complete package around those adjectives that I felt described my work. Put some though into your design and information and you’ll quickly have a great card that you’ll stick with and want to hand out to everyone. * a quick note about those prefab cards from staples, I saw a really cool card from an artist that was a inexpensive card from staples- black ink on white paper that the artist quickly stenciled a design onto. The print of the card itself was tactile and nice, and then the image overlaid that and added more interest to the card- still one of the coolest cards I’ve ever seen. So spending $10 on pre-fab cards is great too- you can use them as is or add to them and end up with a fabulous card.(This is an excerpt from my upcoming Zine about art marketing.)Sunday, September 9, 2007
A little Planning Goes Along Way
So I wanted to write about my DayJob a bit here and how it’s affected my ability to spend time on internet and art things.
Obviously the DayJob is important to me, I’ve learned a lot of useful skills from them, some of which I’ve applied here online and some that are universal- like when to shut my mouth. I worked 50 hours this week. Yup, 10 hours of sweet overtime. But it’s left me with less energy when I finally arrive home. Keep in mind that now I’m in the new location I drive about 1 to 2 hours per day for travel completely dependent on traffic. So my days are sometimes 12 hours long. Obviously that’s a lot of time, and I’m left exhausted on some days.
So I’ve had to carefully plan out my days when I come home from the DayJob- cook dinner and lunch for the next day, eat and pack it up. Then I clean up. I relax for about a half hour reading my email then I head to the studio for about an hour. Because I only have an hour I have to pick and chose what I do carefully. This week it took me 3 days to cut and fold paper for hedgehogs, something that normally I’d have done in 2. In addition to that I worked on the 2 portraits for my boss while I relaxed in front of the TV. Normally the portraits would have been done in 2 days or so.
Because I’ve prepared for the unknown things happening I’ve been able to plan ahead for certain things- like the covers for the hedgehogs have already been cut, so all I need to do is sew them and glue them up. But when unexpected emergencies arise- such as the recent instance with eBay taking down all but one of my listings it throws me for a loop. Thanks to eBay I’m out a possible $50. While not a big deal it is a burden for me, I simply didn’t have the time to relist those auctions, it would have required me to shift my other responsibilities.
I try to prioritize the studio, website and personal items. Obviously blog entries go to the wayside in weeks like these, custom orders that I would normally weave into my time get shifted to top of the pile and get done first and eBay listings are saved for weekends when I have more time. I keep a to do list in the front of my Jotter notebook that lists the items I need to accomplish during that week, I cross them off as I go. In terms of personal items, I’m keeping a shopping list on a post it in my jotter. The rest of the personal stuff is sort of a routine: dinner is made easier by having a lot of pre-packed veggies in the freezer and chicken ready to go, so for nights where I come home ready to sleep- I can throw a chicken breast in the frying pan, a package of green beans and maybe some rice in the rice cooker.
Essentially we plan for this sort of thing with my job- there are often times when an emergency arises- wireless dies, registers stop working or card readers stop working. In those instances I have to stay until it’s fixed. Sometimes I know I’m going to be there for extended periods of time- such as this past week and probably the next couple of weeks- though after this week things should calm down a lot.
I’ve also had to plan for things within my job too. I’ve had to dedicate a page in my planner to planning out important instances with my day. Appointments, interviews I’ve set up, interviews I’m conducting, call back etc. For the first time I’ve had to look at my duties and prioritize them and see what I can accomplish in half my day while shifting my temporary duties (human resources) to the forefront of my day. I spend my AM doing my normal duties while every 2 hours looking at a specific program for my temp responsibilities for a half hour; back and forth until noon. I then shift gears in the afternoon and work solely on the temp responsibilities.
Towards the end of this past week I started to feel more comfortable with the temp responsibilities which has lessened my stress level as well as the time I spent at work. My goal is always to get everything done that I can do in 40 hours. I like my job but my website and art are my real focus in life.
In short a little planning and focus have made my home and internet life run a little more smoothly though I’ve been wishing there were more hours in the day.
Obviously the DayJob is important to me, I’ve learned a lot of useful skills from them, some of which I’ve applied here online and some that are universal- like when to shut my mouth. I worked 50 hours this week. Yup, 10 hours of sweet overtime. But it’s left me with less energy when I finally arrive home. Keep in mind that now I’m in the new location I drive about 1 to 2 hours per day for travel completely dependent on traffic. So my days are sometimes 12 hours long. Obviously that’s a lot of time, and I’m left exhausted on some days.
So I’ve had to carefully plan out my days when I come home from the DayJob- cook dinner and lunch for the next day, eat and pack it up. Then I clean up. I relax for about a half hour reading my email then I head to the studio for about an hour. Because I only have an hour I have to pick and chose what I do carefully. This week it took me 3 days to cut and fold paper for hedgehogs, something that normally I’d have done in 2. In addition to that I worked on the 2 portraits for my boss while I relaxed in front of the TV. Normally the portraits would have been done in 2 days or so.
Because I’ve prepared for the unknown things happening I’ve been able to plan ahead for certain things- like the covers for the hedgehogs have already been cut, so all I need to do is sew them and glue them up. But when unexpected emergencies arise- such as the recent instance with eBay taking down all but one of my listings it throws me for a loop. Thanks to eBay I’m out a possible $50. While not a big deal it is a burden for me, I simply didn’t have the time to relist those auctions, it would have required me to shift my other responsibilities.
I try to prioritize the studio, website and personal items. Obviously blog entries go to the wayside in weeks like these, custom orders that I would normally weave into my time get shifted to top of the pile and get done first and eBay listings are saved for weekends when I have more time. I keep a to do list in the front of my Jotter notebook that lists the items I need to accomplish during that week, I cross them off as I go. In terms of personal items, I’m keeping a shopping list on a post it in my jotter. The rest of the personal stuff is sort of a routine: dinner is made easier by having a lot of pre-packed veggies in the freezer and chicken ready to go, so for nights where I come home ready to sleep- I can throw a chicken breast in the frying pan, a package of green beans and maybe some rice in the rice cooker.
Essentially we plan for this sort of thing with my job- there are often times when an emergency arises- wireless dies, registers stop working or card readers stop working. In those instances I have to stay until it’s fixed. Sometimes I know I’m going to be there for extended periods of time- such as this past week and probably the next couple of weeks- though after this week things should calm down a lot.
I’ve also had to plan for things within my job too. I’ve had to dedicate a page in my planner to planning out important instances with my day. Appointments, interviews I’ve set up, interviews I’m conducting, call back etc. For the first time I’ve had to look at my duties and prioritize them and see what I can accomplish in half my day while shifting my temporary duties (human resources) to the forefront of my day. I spend my AM doing my normal duties while every 2 hours looking at a specific program for my temp responsibilities for a half hour; back and forth until noon. I then shift gears in the afternoon and work solely on the temp responsibilities.
Towards the end of this past week I started to feel more comfortable with the temp responsibilities which has lessened my stress level as well as the time I spent at work. My goal is always to get everything done that I can do in 40 hours. I like my job but my website and art are my real focus in life.
In short a little planning and focus have made my home and internet life run a little more smoothly though I’ve been wishing there were more hours in the day.
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