Should Artists Have a Blog? Art Blogging Pros and Cons

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Kevin Hayler: Professional Wildlife artist, author, and traveler.

In today’s digital age, artists are increasingly turning to blogs as a way to showcase their art and connect with their audience. This guide explores the benefits, drawbacks, and practical aspects of starting and maintaining a successful art blog. Should artists have a blog? Yes and here’s why.

An art blog is important for showcasing an artist’s work, engaging with a broader audience, and establishing their authority and expertise. It is a powerful marketing tool for promoting an artist’s brand, products, and services.

This post will open your eyes. It will point out the advantages and the very real drawbacks of starting your own art blog. I’ll use my experience to guide you along the way.

Let’s start

Disclaimer: When you buy something via my affiliate links I earn from qualifying purchases and sometimes earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. I am an Amazon Associate among others. I only recommend trusted sites.

The Benefits of Starting an Art Blog

I don’t want to underplay the amount of work it takes to become established with an art blog. There’s a lot of competition out there. That said, there are some very persuasive reasons you should consider the idea.

Let’s go over a few.

Making Money

Let’s cut to the chase, a blog is about making money and it’s not vulgar, a dirty word, or selling out. An artist blog is a smart business move. Having your own blog can be a lucrative source of income.

Think about these ways to make money with an art blog:

Promoting and selling your art prints and products
Selling your originals
Selling your own courses
Selling digital downloads such as ebooks and guides
Attracting Commissions
Promoting affiliate links
Running ads

The list goes on, keep reading because I talk about monetization later on.

With effort, an artist’s blog can become a profitable online business.

A Blog Drives Traffic to Your Website

Creating and posting fresh content to your own website helps to improve your site’s visibility on search engines, primarily Google. The more content you post the easier it becomes. Why? because your articles will be keyword rich.

Optimizing your blog posts with relevant keywords increases your site’s search engine optimization (SEO) performance and in turn, this attracts more visitors, potentially resulting in more sales and commissions.

It’s free traffic but there’s a caveat. You must appear on the first page of Google to attract readers, and that requires you to research low-competition search terms and write about things people want to read and not necessarily what you want to write about.

Gives You The Space to Tell Your Story

An art blog is a fantastic way to share your story and artistic journey. It enables you to connect with your audience on a deeper emotional level.

Artists are romantic mysteries in the public imagination, and your backstory is fascinating to people. The public wants to know what makes you tick. Give them what they want.

Present your career path as a hero’s journey. It goes something like this:

Begin with your life as it was and your dreams of a better life
The moment when you decided to follow your dreams and begin your journey
The unexpected struggles that blocked your path
The disaster that came crashing down
Your epiphany and subsequent triumph over adversity
The outcome and success the world sees today

It’s a classic storyboard structure and will fascinate your reader. Don’t lie, simply tell the selective truth. No one wants to hear the everyday mundanities of life. Mold your experiences into an interesting narrative.

A Blog Establishes Your Expertise and Increases Your Authority

An artist’s blog can establish an artist’s expertise in their field and increase their authority by sharing valuable insights, knowledge, and skills with their audience. It’s all about trust-building and providing proof of your credentials.

You aim to be the go-to source for information in your area of expertise. Write several interlinked articles comprehensively, around one subject. These are called topic clusters and Google picks up on your expertise and gives your posts a boost.

Blogging Builds Your Personal Brand

Your art blog helps you build your personal brand as an artist. It serves as the perfect platform to showcase your portfolio, it gives you a voice and recognizable style. By writing about topics related to your art, you can position yourself as a thought leader and attract new clients.

Remember that you can be whoever and whatever you like online. A brand represents an ideal.

Gives Your Audience a Point of Contact

An art blog provides a reassuring hub and point of contact between you and your audience. You should have a contact page, and consider activating the comments section of your blog.

Having a comments section is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it encourages feedback, and replying to comments increases your engagement and helps with your SEO. On the other, it attracts the occasional idiot or even abuse.

You can delete unkind comments but it’s the emotional damage that matters most. Allowing comments is a judgment call.

It’s also good practice to publish a business address and telephone number. You certainly need an email address.

There are obvious privacy issues in publishing a home address and personal number, but having a published real life address signals to Google that you’re a legitimate business, to both the algorithm and your website visitors.

It’s the only way to Capture Emails and Start a Mailing List

A blog is essential for collecting emails and building a mailing list of potential customers. By offering valuable information or exclusive content in exchange for an email address, you have a direct line of communication with your audience.

Your private list is the best way to keep your loyal followers updated and informed about your latest work, projects, and any special offers you want to promote.

Owning an active mailing list has the potential to make you the most money. One targeted offer to the right audience can have immediate rewards. It’s the secret of success for the most business-minded art bloggers.

A mailing list is the one asset that you control online. Everything else online is subject to arbitrary change, without notice. Your business relies on secret algorithms and changing rules, and that can wipe out your business overnight.

Owning a list of committed supporters is a safety net should things go wrong.

Drawbacks of Starting an Art Blog

Blogging is not a bed of roses, it’s harder than you imagine. You’ll spend hours behind a computer screen and there is far more to it than just writing. The backend stuff is enough to put anyone off.

Blogging is a Steep Learning Curve

Starting an art blog can be challenging. Learning the technical aspects of running a blog, such as setting up and navigating the platform, keyword research, SEO, images, and site structure, can be a daunting task.

I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. I honestly thought you just wrote about what you know and your expertise would rise to the top. Not a chance.

If you ignore or resist, the signals that Google demands, your great post will get buried and never see the light of day. Being the best is not good enough.

Your articles will never outrank huge sites with high domain authority. That leaves you with one option, to find the low-hanging fruit the big boys have not yet discovered, or are too low-volume to care about.

You must learn how to find these uncompetitive subjects and write about them. That’s not all, you have to format your blog in the right structured way.

You have to remember so many things:

Learn how to write compelling headlines of the right length,
How to write answer snippets so that Google finds them and bumps your articles to the top
To place cascading subheadings in a logical way that Google can read

And on and on it goes.

With time and effort, you will become proficient in blogging, but it won’t come overnight, which takes me to my next point.

If you are going to start a blog, save yourself the hassle and get some help.
Check out Emma on Domestika

Blogging 101 tone, branding' and strategy

Blogging Involves a Massive Time Commitment

Maintaining an art blog requires so much time. Creating fresh content regularly, finding images, and doing keyword research takes forever, and that’s ignoring the maintenance issues that affect the functioning of your site.

Some writers are quicker than others, and there are plenty of tools that can help, even so, you’ll spend hours making one post. To compete, you will have to write at least 1500 to 2000 words per article, make it keyword rich, with optimized images, researched and fact-checked.

Blogging is a full-time job and artists must try to balance their time writing with making new artwork. They both require discipline and long periods of time away from other people. It’s a tough ask.

Most artists cannot combine the two disciplines. It can be overwhelming. The only way to do it, is to set aside a time slot for your blog, either daily or at certain times of the week.

It Takes Time to See Results ( If Ever! )

Building a successful art blog with sufficient page views, and steady traffic, takes time. You are in it for the long haul. It requires consistent effort over months or even years.

Blogs on a new site will take 6 months to rank on average, and in the meantime, you can’t edit them substantially or you’ll run the risk that Google reindexes your post and starts the process all over again.

It’s important to be patient and try not give up in despair. It will feel like you are talking to no one while your posts languish in obscurity. You have to focus on producing high-quality content that appeals to your target audience and learn to wait for results.

IMPORTANT UPDATE ( Nov 2023 )

When I wrote this post my traffic was fairly consistant. I was hovering around the 45000 impressions a month and on the cusp of breaking the 50000 barrier, the minimum requirement for joining Mediavine (Top Ad company) and higher earnings.

Then Google rolled out an update that hit my traffic hard, quickly followed by a 2nd that crushed my numbers down to only 15000, and now it’s the middle of a 3rd update 2 weeks later.

I followed all the best practices that was supposed to soften any algorithm change. It didn’t mean a thing. They changed the rules and punished transgressors as if we were gaming the system.

Plenty of excellent bloggers (untold thousands) with great websites were wiped out almost overnight, through no fault of their own.

Let that be a warning to you. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket because Google has no scruples whatsoever. It does everything in it’s own interest.

And if you think starting a YouTube channel is an alternative strategy, remember who owns the 2nd biggest search engine in the world – you’re right, it’s Google. They own the 1st and 2nd largest search engines on the planet.

If that is not a monopoly I don’t know what is. Do you really think your tiny little site matters to them?

Take that into account before you start your journey.

I just posted this article on Medium about the update and how it has changed the game for bloggers. Read it Here

Should artists start an art blog pin for Pinterest

Targeting the Right Audience is Tricky

Determining what to blog about and identifying your target audience is not as easy as you think. An art blog invariably covers several aspects of art creation and they appeal to different audiences.

My website started life as an online gallery and e-commerce store. I soon discovered that my particular niche, namely wildlife art in pencil, was far too narrow to get sufficient volume, so I branched out.

In doing so, I was talking to a different audience. That’s fine for advertising revenue and affiliate links but hopeless for reaching out to my existing audience and selling more art prints.

Think about it, different audiences desire different things:

Professional artists who need help selling and marketing their art
Amateur artists and students looking for tips and tutorials
Enthusiasts who want to collect your art and know more about you
Retail customers looking for a nice picture for the wall

If you only want to sell your art, don’t bother writing for artists because they don’t buy artwork. Likewise, art buyers don’t want to know about marketing or art tutorials.

I made a mistake by not separating my art gallery from my art blog, they should’ve been on two different websites. I thought that combining the blog and gallery made perfect sense, and it did, that was until I changed direction.

In the end, it was a bit of an own goal and now it’s hard to go back and change things.

That leads me nicely to my next section.

What Do Artists Blog About?

This is probably the biggest sticking point for most bloggers. There is only so much to say, right? Yes, that’s true, but not to worry. You can diversify your content to include a range of related subjects.

And don’t worry if you aren’t an expert in every field. Do what everyone does, and research the subject and see what other bloggers are writing about.

Remember that your reader has no patience. All you have to do is provide the information they came for. If your blog meets a need, it doesn’t matter that you had to research the answer As long as you’ve provided a shortcut to an outcome and saved the reader time, it’s good enough.

The following list will help you to brainstorm some potential subjects.

Write About Your Creative Process and Techniques

Artists use their blogs to share their creative process and the “secret” techniques they use in their work. Writing “How to” posts is a great way of attracting a larger audience.

Sharing the tricks of the trade builds confidence and trust with your readership which, in turn, leads to higher conversions when you have something for sale.

Inspiration and Influences

Artists can use their blogs to share the sources of their inspiration and influences, whether they come from other artists, books, nature, or personal experiences. By discussing your influences, you are providing context for your artwork and insight into where your passions lie.

Writing about other artists is not as daft as it sounds. Your fans are not going to abandon you, and casual visitors might use your affiliate links to buy another artist’s course or art book. It’s a win-win.

Art History and Theory

Blogging about art history and theory is an excellent opportunity for artists to demonstrate their knowledge of their chosen medium, style, or artistic movement. Perhaps that expensive art education will come in handy after all!

I like to read Quora Posts by Michelle Guagy. If you want to know how to write art posts with references to art history, look no further.

Reviews of Art Shows and Exhibitions

Artists can use their blogs to write reviews of art shows, events, and exhibitions they attend. This provides a new perspective on the art scene and helps their readers to discover new artists, galleries, or exhibitions.

Writing reviews also allows artists to engage with and support the work of their peers in the art community.

Art Marketing and Business Tips

Your art website serves as the perfect platform for sharing art marketing and business tips with fellow artists. This valuable information helps other artists to grow and develop their own art businesses.

Give away plenty of your best “secrets” for free and use the trust you build to upsell a course or digital download. Compile your content (with exclusive bonuses) into an instant PDF download. It’s a great way to make some extra money.

Join Gumroad and sell digital products on your blog post like this…

It doesn’t matter that your customers could find everything for free elsewhere, or even by reading your old blog posts, they’ll be happy to pay for the convenience of having the information instantly.

Share Personal Reflections and Insights

Don’t be afraid to embrace your individual experiences and emotions related to art. Share your stories and opinions about specific artworks that have touched you or art movements that inspire you.

Reflect upon your artistic practice, and don’t hesitate to share the lessons you’ve learned along the way. By opening up about your experiences, you’ll create a more meaningful and relatable dialogue with your audience.

Share Behind-the-Scenes Glimpses of Life as an Artist

Offer behind-the-scenes glimpses of life as an artist. Share your day-to-day experiences, creative struggles, triumphs, and failures. Readers want to know what it’s like to be an artist.

This is an example: What is it Like to Be an Artist? The Truth Revealed!

People love to see the artist at work. Share your works in progress, your sketches, your studio cum kitchen table, your favorite kit, or even videos of you working. These insights help to demystify the creative process and let the audience see how your art comes to life.

Kevin Hayler drawing in public — Yours truly drawing in public at my market stall

Explain what you do, and how you organize your day. Be transparent and open up about the highs and lows of your chosen lifestyle. Don’t be afraid to reveal the gentle and more mundane aspects of your life, it’ll make you more relatable.

Create Art Tutorials and Tips For Your Readers

Many artists use their blogs to offer tutorials and educational content to their followers. You can do the same. Consider making Youtube videos to accompany your blog posts and watch your views increase. Google owns Youtube and related video content will boost your rankings.

You can write step-by-step guides on specific art techniques; these can be insanely popular. You don’t even have to be the best in the business. It’s frustrating to be outranked by mediocrity but it happens all the time. Google can’t read imagery. It ranks text content and domain authority.

You can supplement your “How to draw” series with “How to use” posts, covering a multitude of related subjects.

You can write about things such as:

Photo editors and how to use them for different tasks,
Popular Digital drawing and painting apps such as Procreate for iPad
How to use online platforms such as Etsy, Redbubble, and Canva
You can write art book reviews.
The best social media platforms
Art supplies you love to use
You can buy art courses, recommend the best, and add affiliate links.
Better still, write about your own courses and keep all the profits

Once you start brainstorming ideas, they keep coming.

To prove my point I’ve written these, amongst others:

Showcase Your Finished Work

Finally, you can use your art blogs to showcase and write about your completed works. Record the process if you can and write everything you can, including anecdotes and any background stories.

"Heat and Dust" a pencil drawing of a white rhino by Kevin Hayler — “Heat and Dust” a pencil drawing of a white rhino by Kevin Hayler

Use informal English and a casual tone of voice. Edit out the jargon and “art speak”, and keep your writing simple. Don’t use big long words, no one is impressed, and some people switch off instantly.

Post a blog about each work of art and have a “buy now” button for impulse sales. Interlink all of your image posts internally and link to them from your social media posts. At the very least you’ll get quality backlinks from the major players and drive free traffic to your site.

How to Start an Art Blog (Overview)

It’s useful to have some idea of the blogging process. In this section, I will outline the basics.

Choosing a Blogging Platform

Setting up your blogging platform is the first step in starting an art blog. If you’re serious about blogging you’ll use WordPress.org, it’s free and the platform of choice for 43% of all websites on the web, including my own.

That means you have a huge support infrastructure behind you when you need it. Countless blogs and videos are available to guide you through the setup with a vast array of plugins, and most are free.

WordPress is open source and free but there are costs involved. These are my costs for 2023, you can find cheaper introductory deals and cheaper services but you must bear in mind the need for great customer support. It’s worth paying a few dollars more.

My host is GreenGeeks.com and I currently pay $105.12 per year for the basic plan. They have first-rate support plus they’re also carbon neutral. Their ethics are important to me.
I pay $17.95 for my annual Domain name renewal with my hosting company. I could get this cheaper elsewhere but I’m lazy. Try Namecheap, their prices are low. Your host will entice you with a cheap introductory offer, but check the price you’ll pay when the offer ends.
I use the GeneratePress premium theme which costs $59 per year. GeneratePress Premium is a lightning-fast theme with superb support. There are other equally good choices, such as Elementor, Astra, and Kadence themes.

Make sure to also choose a domain name that reflects your brand. Don’t make the mistake I made and be too specific. Ideally, you want to choose a broader term that allows you to change direction as your blog evolves.

GreenGeeks Web Hosting Landing page for ethical art blogs — **Greengeeks** – Carbon Neutral and great customer support

This post is directly related: How to Start an Art Blog and Make Money for Beginners

Choosing a Structured Layout for Blog Posts

When creating blog posts, it’s essential to choose a structured layout that is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and Google-friendly.

Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and short paragraphs to break up the text and make it more readable. Incorporating images of your artwork or relevant visuals can also help engage your audience and keep them on the page.

The ideal structure goes something like this:

H1 headline title of between 45 and 60 characters containing the main keywords
Introduction one or two sentences indicating what the post is about
Answer Snippet Written in formal English, 40 – 50 words in 2 – 3 sentences. Answer the query directly.
H2 Subheading is like a chapter of a book. The first paragraph can be an answer snippet
H3 Subheadings break up the chapters into digestible content
Repeat Subheadings write approx 200 – 300 words under each H2 heading until you complete the article.
Conclusion Sum up the key points you made in the article.

Your post is unlikely to rank below 1500 words in length. It should contain images, graphs, and tables, to illustrate your content. It should contain hyperlinks to authority sites and internal links to related posts.

Developing Basic Writing Skills and Your Unique Voice

If your grammar is poor and your spelling is terrible. Don’t worry, some extensions will correct your mistakes.

. I use the free plan but you might want to upgrade to a paid plan if your English is particularly clunky. My early blog posts are embarrassing to read. Most bloggers have a similar story.

Write in a way that feels authentic to you, and don’t be afraid to share your personality and emotions in your blog posts. This will help you connect with your audience and make your blog stand out from the rest

Write in simple English and get to the point. Don’t stray far from the main subject and for heaven’s sake don’t use acronyms without a definition. Write as if you are talking to a friend.

Building a Regular Work Routine

Establishing a regular work routine is crucial for maintaining your art blog. Dedicate specific times each day (or each week) to write and update your blog. It’s important to produce fresh content.

Anyone working for themselves has the same issues with motivation. The only way to get things done is by setting goals and having a clear work structure. You haven’t got the freedom to do things when you feel like it.

When you hit a brick wall, and we all do, try seeking inspiration from other bloggers in your niche and remind yourself of the bigger picture and your ultimate aims. I like to travel and my efforts are directed toward that goal.

I want to reach 200 blogs and then I should generate enough income to travel anywhere.

Planning Your Content in Advance

Planning your content in advance allows you to sit down every day and know what to write about. There is nothing more frustrating than a blank page with no topic in mind.

Create a content calendar that outlines the topics you want to cover. Set aside a day to sit down and do some keyword research. Put the list in a spreadsheet and tick each one off as you write them.

This will help you stay organized and focused, making it easier to stick to your blogging routine.

Starting a Newsletter and Making A Mailing List

I’m a fine one to talk. Do as I say not what I do!. I’ve been so slack with my list, I seem to have some kind of irrational block stopping me from doing one of the most important jobs.

The idea behind building a list is straightforward, it’s a no-brainer, which might say something about me.

You collect emails from your readers and keep in touch with them through regular emails sent out at the same time every week.

You send a simple email with a link to your latest blog post, upcoming events, and special offers. It should be brief and to the point, with hyperlinks back to your site.

Aim to send out an email once per week.

Staying connected with your audience will help foster loyalty and encourage them to keep visiting your blog. Don’t use your newsletter just to sell. Use it to build trust and post exclusive content that will benefit your audience.

Many beginners start a list with Mailchimp. Until recently their free plan allowed you to collect 2000 subscribers before being charged, now it’s 500. If you join, you can always switch your provider at any time and take your list with you. You aren’t stuck with one company.

YOU own your mailing list!

Bulk emails cost money. If the truth be told that’s one of the main reasons I’ve been procrastinating. If you have to spend money sending emails, you need to get a return.

Also, check out these alternatives. I knew about Sendinblue (now Brevo) but the other two sound really good:

Sendy – $69 fee then pay-as-you-go – $0.0001 per email.
TinyLetter – This one is FREE!

N.B. I just realised (July 2024) that Convertkit has changed and they have a very generous starter plan. They allow 10,000 subscribers!

Having Something Your Audience Can Buy

To keep your audience engaged and coming back to for more, make sure you have something valuable to offer every now and then. This can include original artwork, art prints, digital downloads, or even online courses and workshops.

This post is useful: How to Price Art Prints: A Practical Guide For Beginners

Run promotions and offer discounts they won’t get elsewhere. Use newsflashes to highlight offers you’ve seen elsewhere on the web that are too good to miss.

Offering products and services for sale on your blog is what it’s all about, and that links seamlessly to the next chapter.

How to Monetize an Art Blog

Can art blogs really generate money? You bet they can, but you only get out what you put in. It’s up to you to monetize your blog and here are the ways to do it.

Selling Originals and Art Prints

Let’s start with the obvious. You want to sell your art directly to the customer without a middleman taking a cut. It makes sense right?

You can add an online store to your site and open a gallery of artwork for sale. For this to be effective you must consider publishing prints of your best work. Fine art printing is a major cost and is not to be undertaken lightly. There are many pitfalls for the unwary.

Read my post about printing before you commit: How to Make Prints of Your Art: A Complete Printing Guide (2023)

You can set up a store with Woocommerce, a free open-source plugin that gives you everything you need to sell your products. That’s what I did.

It is possible to sell your originals online, I have sold quite a few, but it’s not without concern. My heart skips a beat when I get an order. It’s a moment of elation followed quickly by the sinking feeling of doom!

It’s very difficult to send original art in the post. Sending art overseas is especially fraught with danger:

It’s hard to get insurance for art
The packaging is a nightmare
The shipping is extortionate
Parcels go astray
Parcels get damaged

It makes you wonder if it’s worth it. At least prints can be replaced. Having said all this, I’ve been posting my prints out for years. I use postal tubes as they seem to survive the rough handling.

This post covers the subject: How to Ship Art Prints Safely: The Easy Way

Affiliate Links

When your audience purchases through affiliate links, you earn a commission. Be transparent with your readers. Legally, you must declare your interest and clearly state that you are benefiting from any purchase. Only recommend products you genuinely believe in or your reputation will suffer.

I get very little return from promoting art supplies, I do much better promoting art courses.

I have linked most of my art supplies and peripherals to Amazon. The percentage is very low, 4 or 5% I think, but it’s not much better linking directly to the art suppliers. I link to Blick but it’s peanuts really.

My best affiliate partner at present is Domestika. It sells art and craft courses of very high production quality and at very reasonable prices.

It started life as a Spanish platform and Spanish (English subtitles) is still the dominant language, but that’s changing. There are more and more English courses being produced.

Read my post but be careful, you’ll end up buying a course, they’re such a bargain price: Is Domestika Worth It? The Pros and Cons

Get to Grips with your Art business with Katy on Domestika

business strategy for creatives. How to sell your art online

It’s not always easy to get accepted for affiliate links, especially for new sites. Amazon is the easiest. They’ll accept you without a fuss, and if after 3 months you haven’t made a sale, they’ll suspend your account.

These are major affiliate companies:

CJ Affiliate (Formally Commission Junction)
Avantlink
Shareasale
Rakuten Marketing (Formally Linkshare)

If you get refused by a company don’t worry, you can reapply when your traffic is higher. In the meantime try . They are linked to major sites and act as an intermediary taking a commission for themselves.

Advertising

Incorporating advertising into your blog can help you earn a passive income. You can qualify for Google Adsense straight away. Ezoic pays better but you might be better off waiting until you reach about 10,000 viewers per month before running ads. Up to you.

Ads are intrusive and annoying.

I ran Ezoic ads and as I approached 50,000 impressions my monthly ad revenue hovered around $500 per month.

UPDATE: As I write this, in November 2023, I have removed all my ads. To comply with more stringent ‘User Experience’ rules on Google I had to make a decision.

Continue as I was with almost no chance my site would recover, or remove the ads and regain my sitespeed and ‘user experience’. I chose to quit Ezoic. My ad income had crashed to $4 a day anyway.

Digital Downloads

Offering digital downloads is one of the best ways to monetize your art blog. This can include, printable art, ebooks, guides, or templates.

By selling digital products, you can reach a wider audience and generate significant income without the added costs of producing and shipping physical goods. This is the way I am going. I’m already selling my own ebook and I plan to write more.

I am also going to experiment with selling fine art printable art as an alternative to printing and shipping out a physical print. I’ll see how it goes and report back.

Print on Demand

Closely related to the last digital downloads, some print-on-demand companies allow you to embed their products (complete with your designs) onto your website. You can sell a variety of goods without ever seeing or handling them.

Read these posts about POD:

You take a small percentage and they do everything for you. One company with a good reputation for consistent quality is Printful. Check them out. You can integrate their products with your e-commerce store and Etsy.

If you go this route, order a few samples to check the quality is up to your standard.

Popular Print on Demand Sites include:

Printful
Redbubble
Cafepress
Society6
Zazzle

Print on demand for creatives. A Domestika course about designing and selling your own products

Online Courses and Teaching Workshops

Creating online courses and teaching workshops is a fantastic way to share your knowledge and earn a good income. Develop courses or workshops on topics related to your skillset, such as drawing, painting techniques, or business skills.

Promote these offerings on your blog and through your mailing list to attract potential students.

You can host your courses yourself, on standalone platforms, such as Teachable, Thinkific, or Podia, or via 3rd party platforms such as Udemy, Skillshare, and Domestika

I’ve reviewed these platforms from a students perspective but they will give you a greater insight of what to expect:

Coaching

As an experienced artist, you can provide guidance and advice to fellow artists or aspiring creatives. Coaching can be conducted through one-on-one sessions, group workshops, or even online webinars.

Promote your coaching services on your blog, and social media, to attract new clients.

It takes some confidence and self-belief to take this route but it suits some. It has a major drawback as far as I’m concerned. Time zones can make live calls inconvenient, and there are only so many clients you can serve. It’s more of a side-hussle

Taking Commissions

Showcase your portfolio and provide information about your commission process, pricing, and contact information.

If you are seeking commissions having a blog linked to your social media is the way to go.

These posts will interest you:

It has the same drawback as coaching. There are only so many hours in a day to do commissions. Your income will have a ceiling built in.

If you find your work in demand, create a waiting list and raise your prices.

Patreon

Use your blog to promote and send visitors to your Patreon page. For those of you who don’t know, Patreon provides a platform for patrons to support their favorite artists. In return for monthly donations, the artist offers something in return.

The artist offers tiers of access with progressively more exclusive content.

That can take the form of, sneak previews, tutorials, access to advanced lessons, critiques, coaching, and live workshops. You name it. The limit is your imagination.

On average a patron donates for about 6 months. That means if your lowest tier costs $10 per month, you can expect to earn $60. If you can attract 200 patrons to donate, you’ll have another $2000 per month in your pocket. Worth thinking about.

This Domestika course will help you to get established

Learn to market and sell your artwork with Jessica Roux on Domestika

Should Artists Have a Blog? Final Thoughts

Starting an art blog can be a great way to showcase your work, expand your online presence, and connect with your fans, art lovers, and fellow artists. However, it requires a great deal of time and dedication to publish content consistently.

For those who have the staying power, there are potentially rich rewards. Not only selling your art prints, but online courses, and digital downloads too. Artists can turn their blogs into a very profitable business.

Before my 3 year blogging journey was crushed by the ‘Helpful Content Update’ I would have said blogging was a sensible way to bring in extra trade. I no longer think this is entirely true.

As far as I am concerned I was hood-winked into believing that doing things by the book, making excellent content, fact-checking, and bloody hard work would always be rewarded.

WRONG

That’s not how it works at all. You are building a house of cards.

There is no reason not to write a blog for your audience, but don’t make the mistake I made and assume that writing the best content will get you to the top of the search rankings.

Start a mailing list and ‘own’ your audience. Write for your list and market yourself elsewhere. Spread yourself around.

Use a combination of tactics. Use forums, write on Medium, join Pinterest, Linkedin, Instagram, and yes. make videos for Youtube.

Don’t rely on any of them because they will ditch you in a heartbeat.

Ultimately, an art blog can be a wonderful way to share your passion with the world but do it with your eyes open.

Wait, there’s more, don’t leave yet…

If you want to make a living with your art, why not copy what I did?
Use it as your blueprint

Selling art made simple digital guide for starting a small art business

If You Want to Sell Your Art

Check this out!

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Psst…it’s only $12.99!

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Should artists have a blog? Pros and cons. A pin for pinterest

Hi, my name’s Kevin and I’m a real person!
I’ve been selling my wildlife art and traveling the world for over 20 years. If that sounds too good to be true, I’ve done it all without Youtube, Facebook, or Instagram. I don’t even use galleries!
I’ll show you how I do it. Read my blogs or just grab my guide and copy what I do.