I sent out a newsletter today explaining to all of my artist friends what Bob and I are attempting to do in creating a rich media ad network for creative individuals, artists, gallery sites, and blogs. There are several reasons why we are interested in adding this element to Red Easel and offering it as a way for artists to monetize their blog sites. First of all, as you may have noticed, I have not monetized Red Easel at all. I don't have Google ads. I don't have any ads at all for that matter, albeit the small ad banner I created for Robert Genn in celebration of his new book. That's it.
I don't like clutter. I don't particularly like static ads. I don't like text ads either that you see on so many sites from Google and various other ad networks. I think they junk up a site and distract from the message - in this case - your work, your stories, your message that you are trying to convey on your website and your blog.
So, before we get into all of that, I want to talk about blogging and how it can help you sell your work, tell your story, and open doors for you that some of you probably never thought possible.
BLOGGING 101:
Blogging is essentially an online journal. Red Easel is a blog. Blogs are websites that enable the user to write stories and interact with their reader audience via comments. Personally, I love blogging, if for no other reason than it has enabled me to connect with artists and others around the world, make new friends, and have a conversation that just 10 years ago would have seemed impossible. I love it, and that is why I am here.
So, what exactly is a "blog platform?" Now you know what a blog is, but what is a blog platform? Well, there are a number of really good platforms out there in the blogosphere, my favorite being TypePad. I love TypePad! Six Apart owns TypePad and the customer service has been personal and professional from the first day I started using them over 2 years ago. In that 2 years I have become an expert with TypePad in blog creation and design elements and can help anyone out there who wants a TypePad blog. However, there is also Wordpress, and Wordpress has become what many believe to be the "it" platform for blogging. There are tons of templates that can be purchased to customize your blog site, but then you have to find a host and, well, to tell you the truth, I don't know that much more about Wordpress accept to say that I tried them and got so frustrated I went to TypePad and never looked back.
Here is a list of blogging platforms. Take a look at each and within this list will be a good one that I am sure you will find to be most comfortable in blogging:
You probably want to know what you are going to do with your blog once you have one. Well, if there is one thing I know for sure, it is that artists love to write, almost about as much as they love to paint. Artists also love to share their stories, and blogging allows you to do that. It gives you a place of your own on the internet where you can share your successes, your new paintings, your workshops, your photography, your personal stories and more.
I use TypePad for 3 blog sites I have online: Raisin Toast (my personal family blog) which includes a section of the blog called "In the Studio" where I share stories about my new paintings and things that I am doing in the studio. Red Easel (you know me here!), and Vaughn Fine Art (my gallery of paintings). I built all 3 using TypePad. In the last 2 years I have discovered that I love to write and design blogs about as much as I love painting. That is why I started Red Easel too - because I wanted to build a community of artists where you could share your stories, your paintings, your successes, and more. A place you would find useful information to make your career goals possible as an artist, and to share information with you (like this article) that will hopefully add some insight into how to utilize social networking to your advantage.
So, now you have your blog all set up and you want to drive traffic to your blog in addition to maybe earning a little bit of cash for your efforts. I know I do! Blogs offer something called a RSS Feed - RSS is short for "Real Simple Syndication." Your readers can subscribe to your feed, and every time you post to your blog, you ping Google and Yahoo and other search engines and if you post regularly, eventually you will have good page ranking in the search engines. If you have any questions about starting a blog, designing a blog, or how to optimize your blog, I can help.
ADVERTISING & PUBLISHING:
Your blog is set up and you've been writing and publishing for some time now, now what? If you've searched the internet much you may have noticed that some blogs and websites have ads in the sidebars. I've been to blogs that have so many ads, in fact, that I immediately leave the site. They can look ugly and cluttered and take away from the value of your site. Any advertising that you place on your site, to monetize your blog, should be complimentary to your design and content. For instance, I don't want gaming or sports ads on my personal blog or my artist blog. I wouldn't mind having nicely designed video and flash ads (rich media advertising) that were professionally created, from companies that I respect, and for products that I trust will add value to my reader community.
In my personal blog, Raisin Toast, I utilize Blogher Ad Network, and they provide me with the javascript that I place in my sidebar and at the foot of my posts. Every time a visitor loads a page in my blog site it counts as an impression. Advertisers within the Blogher Ad Network pay for the number of impressions, and Blogher pays me every month a commission for the number of times that a particular ad has had impressions on my blog. That is why the more readers and visitors you have to your blog, the more money you will make from your ad network. This is a much better advertising model than CPC which means (Cost per Click). You have no control over the number of visitors who click on an ad shown on your site. CPM is more profitable for the publisher and a better model for the advertiser all around.
As you may know, I have spent the last 5 months or so redesigning Red Easel and have now reached the point where I would like to monetize the site with unobtrusive advertising from a network that represents advertisers that I know will be of value to my readers. I have searched and searched and cannot find a network that will work with me, mostly because I do not yet have 100,000 page views every month and my readers are in a niche market - artists, galleries, curators, art enthusiasts, art students ...
That, currently, leaves me with several options - use Google Adsense and place text ads in the sidebar, place static ads from various advertisers in the sidebar based on an affiliate relationship, (in other words, if a reader clicks on their ad and buys something, I get a commission), wait until I have over 100,000 page views every month, or try my best to start my own rich media ad network for creatives and artists like yourself. At the moment I have opted to try to learn all that I can to start my own ad network geared towards the artists who also blog. And there are many of you out there.
So that's where I'm at, because if I can monetize Red Easel and add value to the site in this way, then Red Easel will continue to grow and add value to the artist community. That is my goal. However, I want you to benefit from this as well. We are a community.
This is my proposition to you. If you are a creative individual, an artist - and you have a blog, or would like to have a blog, then I would like to help you in a number of ways. I can help you start a blog (with TypePad), design a blog (with TypePad), design a masthead (the banner across the top), create ad banners (for your sidebar and for others to place on their site), and hopefully soon, Red Easel will also be able to monetize your site with quality advertising from advertisers like Artist magazines, art suppliers, products for the artist, books, and more. But, we have a lot to figure out. This is a completely new business venture and we are only now asking the questions and seeing if this is even doable.
If my hubby and I get this venture off the ground, you can bet you will be the first to know! And the best news of all is that we will all benefit. I need artist bloggers to let me know that they are interested in monetizing their blogs, and then I will have an easier time finding quality advertisers to join our network.
This was never something that I ever considered until I spent days searching for a network to place on Red Easel. In addition, with Bob being out of work for the last 15 months and being the genius that he is in Business Development and the IT industry, it was a natural next step for me to approach him about starting our own small business and ad network for artists. We've been educating ourselves over the last month about what we need to know, how to start a rich media network, how to find advertisers, how to find publishers (like you), how to track impressions and what program would help us do that? We have a thousand questions and are learning about the online ad business for the first time. I wanted to share it with you - juggle some ideas back and forth - listen to your thoughts and opinions - maybe make some connections that you think would be helpful. Bob and I are open to discuss this with all of you. Why? Because you are important to us and you are our artist friends. And that is important to me.
If you have any questions, suggestions, thoughts - please tell me here! I love hearing from you, and thank you for letting me share my hopes and dreams with you too.
Note: All paintings in this article are by American artist, Edward Hopper.
Here are a few artist blogs that you might find interesting and inspiring! ...
Dianne Panarelli Miller Fine Art Blog
Cristina Acosta's Create & Relate Blog
D. Eleinne Basa's Painting Journal
David Darrow's Blog "My Thoughts Exactly"
Jeremy Lipking's Personal Art Blog
Share
