At the end of 2006 and again in 2007 I did a review of blogging art in the previous 12 months. This post is the beginning of my Review of Art in 2008 which comprises:
- Part 1 (this post) which focuses on the specific blogging practices of artists and illustrators in 2008
- Part 2 which this year changes to being more about the current economic context for the online artist and the wider perspective of art on the internet.
As before I’m going to try and divide my observations into three parts:
- what has stayed the same in 2008
- what has changed in 2008
- the scope for improvement in 2009
- a few predictions about blogging art in 2009
In doing so I’ll be also be highlighting and checking back on my predictions for 2008.
BLOGGING ART IN 2008: What has stayed the same?
Blogs are pervasive and influential - The main message is that blogging continues to be pervasive and the art and illustrated blog continues to be an important channel of communication for the online artist.
Despite any amount of twittering to the contrary, blogging has not died although blogs continue to start and die-off on a regular basis as they always have done. Besides being pervasive, blogging is also influential. Blogging after all probably changed the course of the American Election!
In June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs, compared to the 30 million blogs which were around when I started 3 years ago. However both numbers contain a lot of ‘archived’ blogs.
It’s more relevant to look at the numbers relating to recent posts – see the graphic (right) produced by Technorati for its report on the State of the Blogosphere / 2008. (see the end for more links to the rest of the report)
(I’m pleased to say that this blog now has a Technorati authority of 187 and is ranked at no. 20,478 in the world!)
It’s very difficult to work out how many art blogs there are out there, not least because there are so many blogs out there which categorise themselves as art when they’re not.
Ongoing themes As one might expect, a number of previously identified ‘themes’ are still current
- Art blogs are still started with good intentions and/or a ‘good idea’ and are then abandoned within the first 3 months of life. However my impression is that this is now happening much less often than in the past. Maybe because those who are impulsive have been and gone and/or because blogging is no longer the latest craze – those following what is fashionable have moved on to other things?
- New art and illustrated blogs don’t find it easy to get noticed by potential readers. In the past, this related to the lack of good quality directories. However to really get noticed, you still can’t beat getting out and reading and commenting on other people’s art blogs. I always take a look at a blog if I get a comment from somebody who is new to me. Plus, of course….
- If you like the art, chances are you’ll like the contents of the blogroll -self-explanatory really. Plus the next best way to get noticed is to appear in somebody else’s blogroll. Share the blogs you like to read and the art you like to look at.
- Blogging art = improved art - the more you practice the better you get. One doesn’t need to look far to see stories about the benefits of daily painting for example.
BLOGGING ART in 2008: What has changed?
This section highlights my perspective on what changed in 2008. Those which involved my predictions are prefaced by ‘2008 PREDICTION’. Even if I say so myself, the majority of them were accurate! I’ve commented below on what transpired. Also included below are other major changes in 2008
Generic – Reading blogs is now more popular. As the Internet becomes much more part of normal life for many people, there are more and more people now reading blogs. There are also many more blog readers than there are bloggers. In March this year, it was estimated that 77% of active internet users read blogs.
The implication for artists is all about content. Thinking about what you are saying is as important as thinking about what you are displaying. How do you add value to people’s lives? How does your content help you to relate to your readers? I know I greatly appreciate the comments I get that suggest that my ‘who’s made a mark this week’ post each Sunday is looked forward to as much as the Sunday Papers!
Generic – The definition of what is “a blog” is beginning to blur. As Seth Godin noted (see Death of the personal blog?), independent author bloggers are getting squeezed out of the lists of ‘top blogs‘ as blogging has become a business and high ranking is only achieved through frequent posts produced by a team of bloggers.
In generic terms and other sectors, blogs and blog authors are linking up and/or amalgamating in order to syndicate their content and attract advertising revenue. Some blogs also recruit and pay additional authors to spread the load as monetisation permits. Blogs on corporate sites are actually run by the staff (only) and may or may not represent independent views. In overall terms some blogs are beginning to ‘morph’ into something that looks much more like a newspaper or magazine or mainstream corporate website. This means they now look much less like the original concept of a blog. Most of these developments have had a very limited impact on art blogs to date although there are signs of creeping corporatism and monetisation.
I guess at the end of the day it’s all a question of taste and whether you prefer a multi-author journal type of approach or the output of a single independent artist/author.
As Seth suggests, there’s probably room for both approaches – but there is a need for separate lists, otherwise as he suggests it’s like comparing newspapers and books! Just for the record, I anticipate this blog remaining entirely independent and advertisement free for the foreseeable future!
Generic – Microblogging platforms – like Twitter – proliferated in 2008. Twitter is the most popular and yet it has still to identify a long-run business model to support its continued existence. I’m not yet persuaded that micro-blogging is of critical importance to online art and for me the jury is out on the cost-effectiveness of social messaging. But then I’m not a great user of mobile phones either!
Generic – podcasts aligned with blogs became more popular in 2008. Podcasts have been around longer and are now pretty universal in relation to a number of topic areas. Again I’m not persuaded that they are of critical importance to the art blogger – although I’ve very much enjoyed podcasts created by major art galleries in relation to art exhibitions.
2008 PREDICTION: Fewer new art blogs than in the past. I think I was right about this prediction. My notion was that the sort of person who starts blogging and then gives up quickly was more likely to participate in the interactive communities in 2008. It’s not possible to do any sort of count but my impression is that there have been fewer new art blogs in 2008 compared to 2006 and 2007. However, I didn’t anticipate what sort of impact the credit crunch might have on new blogs….
2008 PREDICTION: The credit crunch will have a significant impact on the art market and what gets blogged by those marketing their art online. There was some considerable debate back in January 2008 when I started writing about how the state of the economy and the coming recession were was going to impact on the art market. Mostly, it was about people not thinking that a recession would happen to them. As we now know we have got a global recession. More about this tomorrow. The interesting aspect for blogging has been that it has generated more blogs by artists who have realised that they need to diversify and strengthen all their channels of communication in order to address the rigours of the current marketplace.
2008 PREDICTION: More experienced bloggers giving up on blogging as blog fatigue sets in. Fewer people gave up than I thought might do. Instead, what we’ve seen are some long term bloggers beginning to ratchet back on their frequency of posting and/or now have people helping them out with their blogs.
The issue of pacing oneself still seems to be one that taxes us – and that applies to the production of art as much as it does to blogging. For some people, fewer blog posts were associated with times when they needed to take a break from their art. However I think other projects and in particular other ways of using the internet for art have also represented a positive diversion from blogging.
Overall, I think more experienced artists who are using blogs as part of their art business marketing now understand that they are an important channel of communication and that blog output can usefully be planned, paced and managed in a business-like way.
Art Directories are improving – at long last. My complaint for the last two years has been that blog attrition, spam activity and poor categorisation seriously affected the quality of directories of art and illustrated blogs. The most impressive Art Directory I came across in 2008 is Blogged mainly because it is moderated by people and also provides scope for individuals to write reviews of and rate different blogs. It still could do with a ‘weed’ to exclude more general blogs but it’s getting there.
Tagging is now more or less universal – with more artists understanding how tags/labels/categories help people find their work. However there is scope for improvement – see below.
Blogging around communities of interest has emerged as an important new dynamic in 2008. What follows are examples of ways in which blogs are being used for communities of interest.
Communities of interest are people who are linking together to create sites which provide:
- a joint focus for their efforts,
- a chance to talk with like-minded people or people with a similar interest
- an increased chance of getting a profile for their art and for people to get to know about their blogs, and
- for some, a better chance of selling their art.
Making art and selling art – communities of interest for artists
Team blogging has emerged as a popular form of blogging in the latter half of 2008. It’s a very useful way of blogging about a specific subject and/or group projects which are also becoming much more prevalent. In a way this is the voluntary and co-operative version of the corporate and commercial team approaches to blogging highlighted above.
What’s interesting about collaborative team blogging is how members are chosen and how boundaries for activities get defined. I’ll continue to return to this theme tomorrow and in 2009 as I’m expecting it to be an important aspect to online art and blogging in 2009
2008 PREDICTION: More art societies embracing blogging in place of or as well as regular newsletters. The notion I had was that art societies would realise that they could enhance their green’ credentials (never a bad thing) and more importantly save both money and volunteer time stuffing/stamping envelopes if they used the internet more. While it’s true that more art societies (and branches/chapters of art societies) have now got blogs it’s still the case that this is an area where many art societies lack knowledge, skills and capacity.
The critical question which art societies will need to be address in what will be a very challenging and difficult year is whether art societies now need to review their role and revise their overall approach towards supporting the activities of their members. More about this tomorrow.
2008 PREDICTION: More art tutors will begin to use blogs to communicate effectively about their art holidays and workshops. This continues to develop – although it’s not taken off in the way I anticipated. Interestingly those tutors who have been doing this for a while are getting better at it. Photos are being used to display both the sorts of places visited and painted and also the sort of people who attend such workshops. It all helps with the buying decision!
Even more interesting for the tutors is that the workshop students are also doing rather well if not better than the tutors at explaining about the workshops they’ve been on! While it’s great when you have a satisfied student, tutors need to beware the disenchanted student! I’ve read at least one account by a very dissatisfied student this year – which will probably crop up every time somebody searches on that tutor’s name.
BLOGGING ART in 2008: What did not change?
Some of my predictions were less accurate in terms of the pace of change. Or maybe I was just too optimistic about the time needed to make changes?
Continued development of video-blogging
Use of video is now extensive across the internet. There has been some further development in relation to art but I’ve seen fewer videos on art blogs than I was expecting. This has resulted in fewer “who’s made a mark his week” weekly posts that include links to good quality videos. Most of the really good ones were made by museums and art galleries. My guess is that this is an area where more bloggers need to some specific ‘how to’ advice and guidance before they start posting stages of a work in progress for example. I have to confess my new mini tripod for table top videos has stayed in its box!
However I’ve seen a lot of simple but good slideshows this year! Maybe that’s the way forward for the static picture.
However within the corporate art journal community, American Artist has now joined the F&W blogs which set up in 2007 and all of seem excited about video-blogging and new ways to try and sell training DVDs/downloads!
BLOGGING ART in 2009: Room for improvement
- a more managed approach to content delivery How you approach this really depends on what you want your blog to do. If you want to use it to relate to potential customers and/or galleries then it’s probably a very good idea think about what you say and how you say it in terms of your blog being the virtual equivalent of a Private View or an interview with a Gallery owner. Similarly, writing just a few words about what a painting is about or how it came about is always much appreciated.
- Smart marketing There are lots of indications that people don’t think too much about how their tags ‘fit’ with keywords relating to their art. Those who are getting smarter at marketing their art are also getting better at tagging/labelling their art so that it fits with keywords they’d like to become associated with. Tags are also useful for ‘branding’ if your site has a clear identity. Words in blog post titles are a bit like ‘meta tags’ – they’re very important to browser searches.
BLOGGING ART in 2009: a few predictions
I’m going to be writing more about art on the internet and within the economy tomorrow and a number my prediction relate to that and my analysis of how things will change.
Here’s a taster. I’m expecting that:
- The concept of collaboration will be very influential in 2009. The trend towards blogging around communities of artistic interest will expand. I’m expecting the self-help agenda to be influential in 2009. When the going gets tough, company brings comfort. Art societies, artists within a locality, artists selling art within a genre and others will begin to appreciate the value of working together in a co-operative fashion. I’m expecting that will include appreciating the value of blogging together to raise artists’ profiles and sell art.
- Corporate commercial blogging related to art will ultimately depend on finances. Paying somebody to blog ultimately depends on the cost/benefit analysis. Commercial operations will find they have to adjust their cost profiles as the recession hits home. Artists, like everybody else, will be cutting back on their retail spend. Advertising in print publications is already drying up. Advertising on the internet is bound to take a hit as well and major internet companies are already cutting costs. Hence corporate blogging will need to become very slick and beneficial to artists or it will also face a cut.
- Art blogs will see an emphasis on sharing experiences. I’d expect to see lots of sharing of experience between bloggers as we have seen already. Life is going to be very tough in 2009 and free tips will be very welcome.
- Professional artists will lick their art blogs into the best shape possible. Those who generate income from their art will want to maximise the potential of their blogs and the way it can generate traffic for their stores, galleries and places where they are selling art.
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