5 more things I see artist bloggers do wrong

In a previous post, I talked about 5 things I see artist bloggers do wrong. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but just in a “you could do these things differently and see more success”. Since that post, I have been on the lookout for other things I see artist bloggers do wrong. This goes for loads of creatives and all kind of bloggers btw. But I just wanted to point some more out to you!

These are five more things I see artist bloggers see wrong. 

(p.s. If you see a * it means that is an affiliate link, but everything I recommend I truly use and love!) 

They don’t have sharing buttons

I mean, you want people to share your work right. Get it out there and change people’s lives?

If you have a WordPress blog (like this one) you can easily instal Sumo.* It gives you amazing sharing options like the buttons on the side.

(And btw, if you don’t have an email list yet, please start one right now. You can connect Mailchimp and Sumo* and start growing one right away!)

Just remember that the easier it is to share, the more likely people are to share your work.

Other ideas related to this are

• click to tweet (I don’t have it on my blog, but I love it when other people have it on their blog.)
• Having links to your social media (seriously, I forgot about that in my blog makeover)
• Custom pin it buttons
• Having a call to action at the end of your post

I know sharing buttons can be a little bit scary because I might feel like people could steal your stuff. Which does bring me to the next point;

Your images are not protected

I mean, if you really only have a small audience, your work probably won’t get stolen. But as your page views increase so does the likelihood of your images getting stolen.

If you are not yet, make sure you are signing your work. I will be honest, I forget to do this all the time. I am not good at protecting my work. Mine has been stolen around 3 times now. And believe me, it would have been a lot less work to sign the work, then to get your work back.

I will talk more about art theft and how to prevent it in the next post. But the general gest for now is as follows; Protect your work.

You might also like;

How to set good goals that are actually attainable!

Content ideas for your art or illustration blog!

You are not consistent

I know, creativity is a painful thing. And honestly, I am not great at this either. I can not even begin about my Instagram habits which is something like 7 posts and then some weeks of nothing.

But that does not mean that you should not be posting frequently. If you are not sure how to start; start slow. Have some posts backed up, and try writing every week.

Start with posting once a week before going faster.

Being consistent is one of the best ways to grow. Fresh content helps bring people to your blog or social media.

You are talking in negatives

You know what doesn’t help you; captions that read a variation on these “I am not a great artist but here is my painting” “Not my best work, but hope you still like it” “I hate this, not sure why I am posting this”

Listen to me. You should be your own biggest promoter. There is no reason to talk down to yourself or on your work. If you don’t think something is perfect there are plenty of ways to say that, that still show positivity and confidence like; “Just started with oils, here is my first work. What Do you think?” “This one is more of a practise piece but I do really like the colours” “This really was a hard one, but I am finally finished!”

I know this is a hard one. Just start out with trying to keep your remarks about your own work neutral and go from there.

Something that really helped me with this is something someone once said to me which is;

“When I see you call your own work bad while I am no I am not as practised as you are yet, it also makes me feel bad about my own work”

And that really hit me. Because I don’t want other people to feel bad about their work ever.  Negative self-talk doesn’t just affect you.

Think about that.

You don’t call yourself a professional

Okay here is the deal. Art is super subjective, and there is almost no one who can say that is good art and that is bad art. As long as you are moving forward and have the intention of treating it like a profession, you are a professional in my books.

Certainly, if you have sold work before, you are more than welcome to just call yourself a professional. Of course, if you don’t want that, you don’t have to. If you like being a hobbyist, please, you do you.

I just don’t want you to be scared to call yourself that.

Here is more on that; Do I need professional art supplies to be a professional artist?

Have anything too add to this list? Don’t hesitate to leave a comment. And please share this post so we can have more amazing artist bloggers that are super successful! 

p.s. This blog post was added to the #100 Blogger’s Pit Stop! Check out all the amazing blog posts over there!