I saw a comment today from Cindy O. asking how I do so well at blogging! I want to say thanks so much Cindy...I appreciate your confidence in me, though I don't really know what I'm doing~ to be honest, I'm just figuring it out as I go along!
So, I know it can feel challenging, too time consuming, overwhelming to make a nice working blog; we come to a part where we get stuck, there's no one to help us, and we lose interest...I've been there. It took me a long, long time to actually committ to the blog...to posting on a regular basis. Then I wondered how 'out there' I should really put myself, you know, how far to go with the things I would talk about. There are a number of things to take into consideration when you're first starting out like, name of blog, which company to go with, how to save photos for the web, making banners, tweeking photos, and then ....wondering how it all works and if yours will ever look half as good as some of the other great eye candy out there!!!
Well, it's like anything else in life, you just have to start...at the beginning. Pick out a blog company. I was tired of paying for a website that I could not use, and was pretty irritated with the whole experience. I didn't really understand what a blog was or what it could do for me...how these things are useful, yada yada...I never did get that til just now...like, today. (More on that in a minute.)
So, picked blogger, and set up an account. Decided on a name that the http will go to, you can always change the title of your blog later to whatever you want. Once you are set up, just start to explore the buttons. Another great trick is using the help button. Click on this and put in a minimal description of what you want, it will provide a lot of solutions and prevent a lot of frustration.
So, I took blogger, cause I liked the looks of it and it is free. Love the free part! As an artist, especially mixed media, we can end up spending and spending and spending...never coming close to a real return on the investment. So, it's nice to try and cut corners everywhere you can. I spent soooooooooo much money on my old website, was terribly disappointed with having no personal control over the site, and never getting the job done through the company's people... So, I decided to cut my losses and find something free, over which I would have complete control. Voila, this. (There are a lot of others that are free I believe, but my tutorials will only concern blogger, since that's the only one I'm familiar with.)
So: 1. Get yourself an account
2. Don't fret over what you're gonna say, etc. You can start several blogs if you like to discuss a myriad of other topics through the one account. Just focus on your innitial message, why you really wanted to start the blog in the first place...for our purposes here, it's art.
3. Now come up with a name for your blog
OK. You are off and running!!! How exciting! And here's another tip: Nobody knows you're even there yet...so you don't have to worry so much about how it looks etc., in the beginning. You can take your time and see how you feel about committing to a blog on a regular basis. See what you have to say, and show, and how you feel about sharing it. Look at other people's blogs for inspiration. Just start with one blog you like, and check out the blogs that that blog follows. You can continue into oblivion with this...once you get on that person's page, check the ones they follow, and on and on. There are a lot of great blogs out there, I had no idea unitl today when I was picking out the ones I want to follow. And...there is a wealth of information on them about things to do to your site, art projects to get into, and more.
Ok. More in the next tutorial!!! Let me know if you have questions, I'd be glad to help!
Cynthia
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