This post is the first in a series called The Complete Guide to Building Your Own Artist’s Website.

We’ll get down to the process of actually getting your artist’s website set up very soon, but first I want to go over some of the key benefits of having your own website, as well as the essential ingredients of any artist’s website.

Why Every Artist Should Have Their Own Website

As an artist in the information age, your website is the cornerstone of your online world, but you may be wondering what exactly is my website for? Here are some of the things your own website can do for you.

Showcase Your Artwork

Your artist’s website is your own personal online art gallery, with only your work on display. Think of it like a permanent exhibition devoted solely to your art. If someone wants to view your work, they know that they can visit your site and browse your artwork to their heart’s content, without getting distracted by the work of other artists.

Should you decide you want to display your art in physical galleries, then you can show your website to the gallery owners so that they can decide whether or not they want to display your work.

At its core, your website represents your online identity as an artist.

Form Relationships

Your website, if set up properly, should be able to provide a direct connection to the people who love your art, allowing you to build relationships with your fans and potential customers.

You can give people a way to connect with you personally, so that they feel like they know you and trust you, which is much more likely to make them connect with your work.

Attract Customers

If you want to sell your art, your website is one of the very best ways to introduce new people to your work.

As we shall see in a later post, this step will require a bit of work on your part, to spread the word and make people aware of your website. We’ll cover a variety of techniques you can use to build traffic to your site, and keep people coming back for more.

Sell Your Work

Yes, it’s actually possible to sell your own artwork directly from your website, as I will discuss in more detail in a later post. And you don’t need any advanced technical knowledge or programming ability to get it set up.

You can also use your website as a way to capture the contact details of people who might be interested in buying your work at a later date.

Essential Ingredients of an Artist’s Website

There are certain things an artist’s website needs in order to be successful. However you go about getting your website online, you should make sure that these essential ingredients are included:

Image Galleries

This goes without saying really. If you’re putting your artwork online, you need some sort of gallery in which to display it.

However, not all image galleries are created equal. You need to make sure the gallery you use is well structured and user friendly, so that it’s easy and enjoyable for visitors to browse your images, and so your art is portrayed in its best light.

Ideally, each image in your gallery should have its very own page on your site, on which you can write a bit about the artwork, and allow people to leave feedback (see what I wrote earlier about forming relationships).

If you can include multiple images on a single image page, that is even better, as you can include close-ups of detail, pictures of the creation process, or photos of happy customers with your artwork.

Social Media Integration

If you’re not using social media to promote your artwork, where have you been? People spend a huge amount of time on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest these days, and the opportunity for increasing your exposure via these sites is massive.

The first thing you should do is make sure each of your image pages has social media sharing buttons on it, so that people can easily share your art among their social networks with a single click.

Facebook and Twitter buttons are a must, and you could also consider adding Google+, Pinterest, Instgram, and StumbleUpon buttons. Try not to include too many though, as people given too many options tend to choose none.

You should also integrate your own social media profiles into your site, so that people can keep up to date with you via their favourite social network. It’s not difficult to add a Facebook like box, and a Twitter feed to your site.

Blogging

Writing a blog is probably the single best (and most underused) way to attract visitors to your site, and turn them into loyal fans. People who like your artwork will love to read more about you, whether you choose to blog about how you create your art, your inspiration, your techniques, whatever. People love to feel like they know you a bit better, and a blog is a great way of building those relationships.

Also, since an art portfolio site is largely based on images, which are difficult for search engines to properly understand, a blog is a great way to build up more relevant text content that Google can index.

Mailing List

A mailing list is a fantastic marketing tool, which a lot of people overlook.

Having people visit your site and look at your artwork is one thing, but having them give you their email address, so that you can send content straight to their inbox, is so much better, as it prevents people from forgetting about you, and you can regularly get back in touch with them and remind them to take action.

As well as sending emails to your list, informing them of new artworks, upcoming exhibitions, and general newsworthy content, most good mailing list services also allow you to send your new blog posts directly to your subscribers’ inboxes, so that you can provide a good mix of promotional and non-promotional content (too much selling will just make people unsubscribe).

Contact Form

Your website visitors need some way to get in touch with you, whether it’s to purchase an artwork, enquire about commissions, or just to send you a nice comment.

You should have a dedicated contact page, where people can send you an email through a contact form (you can also provide your email address if you wish, as some people don’t like using forms.)

On this page, you can also list all the other ways people can get in touch with you (telephone, Twitter, Facebook etc.)

Online Shop

This isn’t an essential ingredient for every site, as you may prefer to sell your art offline, or through sites like Etsy or Ebay, but it’s definitely worth considering giving people the ability to buy your art directly from your site.

If you are selling online, every image page on your site should have clear details of the size, medium and price of the artwork, as well as shipping information, with either a buy now button, or a link to buy it on your Etsy shop (or wherever you sell your art.)

Things to Avoid

As well as looking out for all of the essential ingredients I mentioned above, you should also be aware of several potential pitfalls which you need to avoid.

Flash

Definitely avoid galleries built with Flash. They may look impressive, but they won’t do you any favours, as Flash content cannot currently be indexed properly by Google, making it much harder for people to find your images.

Flash websites are generally to be avoided if you want people to find your site through search engines (which you do!)

Huge Watermarks

A lot of artists use big, ugly watermarks on their images, in an attempt to prevent copyright infringement. I wrote an article about why I think this is a bad idea – Why You Need to Stop Worrying About People Stealing Your Images

Not Asking People to Take Action

If you want people to buy your artwork from your site, make it easy for them. Tell them how much the artwork is, and give them a simple way to buy it.

They shouldn’t have to search high and low for a way to contact you so that they can enquire about prices.

Also, if a work is not for sale, make that clear, to avoid any confusion.

What about hosted sites?

You may have seen certain services that provide ready-made artists websites, where you just have to upload your artwork and the rest is done for you. So you might be wondering why bother building my own site when I can just get a ready-made one?

I’ve seen a lot of these sites. Some of them are ok, but I’ve yet to find one that contains all the essential ingredients I’ve mentioned above, and some of them are just plain awful, with poor design, no search engine optimization (more on that later), and more often than not, they simply make you and your artwork look bad.

That’s why I would always recommend building your own website, so you have complete control over the content and design, and you know that you’ve got everything you need for a successful artist’s website.

Getting Started

Ok, that’s the introduction out of the way. If you’ve read this far I’m sure you must be convinced that building your own website is the way forward, so in the next post, we’ll get started with the first step, setting up your web hosting and domain name.

If you have any questions about why you need an artist’s website, or what makes a good artist’s website, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Note: This is a guest post by illustrator Leah Jay.

Need a creative shot in the arm? Just ask your six year old self for ideas! Many artists already use images from their subconscious that were planted there in childhood. A few simple steps can help you engage in dialogue with your ‘inner child’, and get some new artistic inspiration.

1. Look through old photos. If you have some photo albums around, flip through them and see what you looked like. Say hello to your second grade self, relive your friends and activities. Remember those Christmas morning snapshots? Check out the toys you got for Christmas. Did you love some of them more than others? Do you miss them? Why?
2. Search through attics or basements. Some parents save their kids’ art work and school papers: if yours did, you’re lucky because these collections can be full of treasures! Your earliest drawings might show characters, people, or ideas you can revisit today.
3. Ask a relative for a chat. If your parents are still around, or an older brother or sister or close relative, they can tell you stories about your childhood you haven’t yet heard. What about that time you walked home in the rain by yourself and got lost? Or the big birthday party surprise? How about your first word or your first favorite food? Sometimes these things never make it into the photo albums, but can reveal some new scenes to illustrate.

By revisiting my childhood, I remembered the game of Pretend. It’s hard to recall this state of mind as an adult, but that picture of your stuffed elephant may remind you of a day when you talked to it, and it talked back. Maybe an invisible friend filled that empty chair at your tea party.

Those creatures were once as real to you as your little brother. If you’re like me, you know they all had names, personalities, and adventures with you. These imaginative play or pretend play sessions are now lauded by psychologists as important and even necessary to the development of social skills and creativity.

Those were the days when your imagination was accessible right at the surface. Those days were magical. And while some might have had happy, colorful childhoods, bringing up events from your early life might be scary, painful and dark. Images you gather can carry some unexpected power… don’t be afraid to use what you find. And if you find things you’d rather leave behind, that’s perfectly okay. You’ll know what to use… just take the best and leave the rest.

What is most powerful and moving always comes from within you, and from your own life experiences. Don’t forget your early days on this earth – when things might have never been clearer.

Note: This is a guest post by Nick Ruiz from Recycled GoGetter.

There’s a saying that I love:

“Don’t try and give the world what you think it needs, do what makes you come alive, the world NEEDS more of those people.”

I really take that to heart and I hope that you will too…

When you passionately pursue your dream, you create a unique road to travel on that is full of surprises and amazing experiences and people.

See, it doesn’t even matter what you are passionate about; it could be art, writing, selling your products or services…When you radiate passion, people of all walks of life are drawn to YOU, even if they aren’t totally interested in what you are offering. They become emotionally involved in you and the story you can tell them about whatever it is that you are offering.

So, for those of you that don’t absolutely love what you are doing, selling, etc, you need to move on to something that makes you come alive. I’m not saying quit your job, what I’m saying is that you need to start something after-hours that really makes you tick.

If you are already on the road of doing what you are passionate about, congratulations. Success is much more attracted to people who love what they do and so are the customers that buy their products and services.

People who are “ALIVE” cannot be ignored. It’s only a matter of time before more and more people start to notice you and connect with you and your story.

Watch the video below and I will expand on this a little more…

(If you’re reading this in an email, click here to watch the video)

Note: This is a guest post by Dreama.

Oh you’ll lose. Cash, respect, credibility and perhaps even your sanity – because success isn’t easy, nor is it meant to be.

Sure there are stories about how luck drastically changed a person’s life, that striking it rich, or famous was the result of a conversation that happened to fall on the right ears.

Of course these stories are never spoken from people we actually know, because seldom do they ring true. Often, such stories are formed from carefully crafted ideas channelled through media machines to keep aspiring artists frothing at the mouth.

Truth is, any successful book, article or conference boasting some “sure-fire” path to greatness, has a very real story of how hard work is the only real secret.

Thinking of some of today’s creative geniuses has taught me some worthwhile things about success – here are some of them:

Success relies on passion to survive

Success thrives on passion and without passion there is nothing.

Face it, no-one needs or wants your great skill until you prove to them they can’t live without it. Remember using candles and burners to lights a room? Of course not!

Electricity is essential to everyday yet so many countries in the developing world get on just fine without it. To you, it is an absolute necessity because it’s all you know.

Did you know?: Thomas Edison (the bloke who invented the bulb) made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing said bulb before he got it right? That’s 1,000 wrong attempts before the jackpot!

Success is absolutely terrible with money

Image source

If you want to be buddies with success you had better get used to being broke.

Money will be spent on things like, buying things for passion, losing things because of passion, being tricked by passion into investing in bad ideas, and many other passion-based expenses.

And remember, there is no way around this because success needs passion (see first point).

Did you know?: Walt Disney (the movie and media legend) was once fired from a job at a newspaper because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas” after which he bankrupt himself with several failed businesses… I bet that newspaper have since changed their tune huh?

Success is a members-only club, with harsh prejudices

Image Source

Want acceptance? Fancy yourself as the “in-crowd”? Well success doesn’t let people in all that easy.

You’ll be judged and probably told you suck. You might even be encouraged to give up after being ignored by your peers, people you admire or even your loved ones. See, success likes to watch you suffer, kind of like an initiation – then, and only then, once you have gone on to show just how wrong everyone is about your undeniable genius, will success gain a little respect for you.

Did you know?: Oscar winning actor Sidney Poitier was told after his first audition that he should “stop wasting people’s time and [...] become a dishwasher or something” – I bet he has his own dishwashers doing the chores for him now!

Success is shy, you need to make the first move

Image Source

Let’s be clear. You won’t wake up one morning with a sweet note on your pillow about all the things success will bring you if you just wait around. Even if some Samaritan with good (if not slightly bizarre) intentions does happen to leave you a lovely note saying exactly that, it still won’t get you want you want.

Success requires you to introduce yourself first. To be determined and sure that it’s what you want. You won’t always know your calling right away and you can’t rely on someone to tell you what it is you’ll go on to do. You need to pursue your craft wholeheartedly before you see any gains…

Did you know?: Mastermind author J.K. Rowling (the lady behind the Harry Potter franchise) was once depressed, struggling financially and coping as a single parent whilst attending school and composing a novel. She had no clue as to the future success of her works, but kept on at it – the rest is Hagrid history.

Success will taunt you, often

Success will tease you into thinking you’ve got a hold of it and then will disappear into the distance. Sure, you’ll get a little taster of it, kind of like food tasters being handed out beside the main cart to lure you in. Well success is like walking up to that cart to buy something and then seeing it vanish into thin air!

Perhaps this is a way of teaching you it’s value. You know how worthwhile your hard work was to get that little sample of greatness, and you have to keep working as hard to keep the samples coming.

Eventually, you’ll have built up enough brownie points through effort, for success to let up and stop with the taunting, but it won’t happen overnight.

Did you know?: Philanthropic legend and billionaire Oprah Winfrey was fired from her job as a television reporter and once deemed “unfit for TV” – Not sure what individual made that decision, but I’m pretty sure they were wrong…awkward.

Dr. Laurence J. Peter once said: “If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” I think he was right. – I guess success wants us to know what we want, and what it takes to get it…

How many people do you know who say one of their goals is to write a book? A fair few I’ll bet.

And how many actually do it? If I had to guess, I’d say not many, maybe one or two max.

So what puts people off writing their masterpiece? Lack of time? Low self-confidence? General procrastination? These may be factors for some people, but I think a big part of it is that people don’t bother to write a book because they don’t think there’s any chance that it’ll get published.

Well that need no longer be a concern, because it’s now possible to publish your own book for free, and make money selling copies online.

Blurb.com is a self-publishing platform that allows you to design, edit and publish your own book with their easy-to-use book-making tools. You can create print books like novels, or full-colour photo books with pretty much any content you can imagine.

You can then list your book for sale via the Blurb.com website (you just have to buy one copy yourself). Each book has a base price, and you can then set a higher price for your book, and you will keep the difference. So if your book costs £10 to make (base price) and you set the price at £15, then you will make £5 for each copy sold!

I’ve used Blurb for my own projects on two occasions:

Publishing a Photo Book for Self Promotion

When I was doing pet portrait commissions, I needed a way to advertise my work, so I used Blurb.com to create a showcase book, demonstrating some of my best portaits, explaining the process of a digital painting, and of course providing my contact details.

A friend of mine then let me put this book on the table in the waiting area of her hair salon, and I got quite a bit of business from people browsing the book while waiting to have their hair done.

Creating the book was really simple using the Blurb BookSmart software. I just uploaded all the images I wanted to use and dragged them onto the appropriate pages. The whole process took no more than a few hours, and I received my finished book within a couple of weeks.

You can preview the entire book here: DrawMyFace Portraits (note, there’s no profit markup on this book, as I published it for promotional purposes, not to sell, but feel free to buy yourself a copy if you like!)

Publishing a Novel as a Personal Gift

The second time I used Blurb.com was after reading the manuscript of a novel my Gran had written, based on her own life.

My Gran wrote the book in the early 80s, and I knew she had tried to get the book published through traditional means, and got several rejection letters, after which she had stopped trying, and the manuscript had been left to collect dust on a shelf in her house until I finally got round to reading it last year.

While I was reading the book, I got the idea to get a single copy of the book published and give it to my Gran for her birthday. So my girlfriend and I began the task of scanning in the original typewritten pages, and proofreading the book to correct any errors created by the scanning process.

After that mammoth task, it was simply a case of importing the files into Blurb’s software, doing a final bit of editing, and designing a nice cover from the original photos my Gran had attached to the front page of the manuscript.

Again, the professionally printed book arrived within a couple of weeks, and my Gran cried when I gave it to her on her birthday. Her dream of having a book published had finally been realised. All the family now have a copy of Late Night Final, which you can preview here – Late Night Final by Elizabeth Somerville (there’s no profit markup on this book either, as it was only intended for friends and family to buy, but again, feel free to buy a copy if you like the preview!)

Publish Your Passion

These are just a couple of ideas based on my own experience using Blurb.com. Whatever your passion, you can create a book to showcase your talent, whether it’s a bestselling novel, a unique cookbook, or just a nice alternative to a traditional photo album.

If you’ve published your own book, on Blurb or elsewhere, I’d love to hear what success you’ve had with it, please tell us about it in the comments below.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you decide to buy a book from Blurb.com after following these links, I will receive a commission payment, which helps me keep this site running. If you’re uncomfortable with that kind of thing, that’s fine, no hard feelings. If you do make a purchase through my affiliate links, then thank you, I really appreciate your support!

I was recently lucky enough to receive a copy of Richard Schmid’s book Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting for my birthday, and I can safely say it’s the best instructional book on oil painting (and painting in general) I’ve ever had the pleasure to read.

As well as providing a detailed insight into the techniques and theories of an experienced oil painter, the book also helps dispel some commonly held beliefs about painting. You’ve probably heard some of these myths yourself:

1. Great Artists are Born With Talent

“Talent. Don’t bother about whether or not you have it. Just assume that you do, and then forget about it.”

~ Richard Schmid

Anyone can learn to paint. Seriously! While artistic ability may be determined to some degree by genetics , it is by no means the only factor. There are dozens of other things that must all be present in the right combination, including (among many others) perseverance, dedication, good teaching, hard work, and a certain degree of luck!

With the right combination of these things, even someone with little “natural artistic talent” can become an accomplished artist.

2. You Should Never Copy Another Artist’s Work

Studying the work of other great artists by copying their work and learning from their knowledge is how we become better artists ourselves.

All great artists have ‘stolen‘ the ideas of great artists before them. There is no shame in copying the work of a competent artist, as long as you are learning from their knowledge, rather than blindly imitating or passing of other people’s work as your own.

3. Painting is Easy When You Know How

Although skilful artists may make it look easy, painting well will always be a challenge, because as our painting improves, so too do the standards we set for ourselves.

Painting is a lifelong learning experience, so the more skilful you become, the more demanding your painting challenges become, so if anything, you could say that painting gets more difficult the better you get at it.

4. Sometimes a Painting Just Doesn’t Work

Artists often complain that their painting just isn’t working, doesn’t feel right, or lacks a certain feeling. The fact is, a painting doesn’t paint itself, so if it’s not turning out how you intended, you can always find the problem in one of three areas – the subject, the circumstances, or something you are doing wrong (contrary to poular belief, it is not usually colour, but drawing that causes the most problems).

By following a process of elimination in these areas, it is usually possible to isolate the cause of the problem and fix it. Blaming the painting itself is a real cop-out.

5. People Are More Difficult to Paint Than Other Subjects

While it’s true that artists often find it more challenging to paint portraits than other subjects such as still lifes or landscapes, there is nothing inherently more difficult about painting portraits than anything else.

When we paint, we should not really be thinking about painting objects, trees, faces, fruit etc. What we are really painting is the effect that light has on various surfaces, so we really only need to learn to paint one thing – light.

6. Colour follows certain unbreakable laws

While there are rules of thumb concerning that can be helpful under some circumstances, there are always exceptions to the rule that you need to watch out for. For example, it is often said that when painting landscapes, warm colours “advance” toward the viewer, and cool colours “recede” away, but the fact is that sometimes colours can appear warmer with distance, so you always need to look out for the exceptions to these ‘rules’.

7. You can’t learn to master colour, you either get it or you don’t

There is often an air of mystery around colour, like there is some secret to it that only the chosen few know about. This is of course false, colour can be mastered like any other skill, all it takes is dedication and practice.

8. Red is a warm colour, blue is a cool colour

In fact, the temperature of any colour is always relative to the surrounding colours. For example, as Schmid points out, green may seem cool compared to red, but it can look warm when placed next to blue. Whenever a new colour is introduced, it alters the relative temperature of all surrounding colours.

9. Colour harmony means a pleasing set of colours

Colour harmony in painting has nothing at all to do with how pleasant the colours appear to you. Colour harmony is merely a ‘relationship that unites colours’, created by the light source in any scene. Nature, therefore, always displays perfect colour harmony, whether you like it or not. If you paint the colours exactly as you see them, you will achieve colour harmony.

10. Adding white to a colour simply creates a lighter version of the same colour

White is the coolest colour available, so adding white paint to any other colour not only lightens it, but also makes it cooler, essentially changing its colour. You need to look out for this and compensate by mixing with warmer colours.

A must-read if you’re serious about learning to paint

Note: I’m not getting paid to promote this book, and I don’t earn any commission for recommending it, I simply believe that if you want to learn how to be a better painter, you need to read this book. You can buy the book from Richard’s own website.

Let me know in the comments if you learned anything new from this post, or if you’ve read Richard’s book yourself, and what you thought of it.

This month’s roundup of posts from around the web is focused on overcoming that Achilles heel of many creative people – procrastination.

Permanently Conquer Procrastination

Healthy Lifestyle Plus

“People who procrastinate tend to be less healthy, less wealthy and less happy.”  In this article, Corinne L. Casazza suggests trying the Sedonda method to release the resistance that causes you to procrastinate. Read this article…

Procrastination: The Causes & Cures

Reasons to be Beautiful

Samantha Graham discusses several theories suggesting why we procrastinate, and offers some tips for increasing productivity, by first exploring the cause of your procrastination. Read this article…

How to Stop Procrastinating and Get Your Homework Done

Amiria

This no-nonsense guide is aimed at high school art students, but I’m sure we still have some of the bad habits we had when we were in high school, so I think artists of any age can benefit from these tips. Read this article…

Stop Procrastinating By Understanding Why You’re Doing It

Brazen Careerist

Kelly Gurnett also believes that getting to the root cause of your procrastination is the first step to overcoming it, and offers some common reasons that you might want to look out for. Read this article…

5 Strategies Artists Can Use to Overcome Procrastination

Skinny Artist

Finally, if you haven’t seen it already, here’s an article I wrote for Skinny Artist with some techniques I have used personally to overcome procrastination. Read this article…

I hope some of these tips help you to stop putting things off, and get more of your creative work done.

If you have your own surefire cures for procrastination, please feel free to share them in the comments.

Note: Skip to the end of this post to read about an exciting new resource I’m currently working on!

I recently tweeted about Michele Theberge’s guest post on using mindfulness to cope with distractions, and one observant reader responded to point out the irony of sending this message via Twitter, one of the biggest distractions on the planet!

The exchange got me thinking about how artist’s can utilise social media more efficiently, and avoid wasting hours every day on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc.

I’d like to share a few free resources with you that I’ve found very useful in focusing my social media efforts and getting maximum mileage with minimum distraction.

Focus by Leo Babauta

Focus is a free simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction. The whole book is full of useful strategies for focusing on your important work, and simplifying your life in general, but I particularly liked the chapter on clearing distractions, which includes a list of distraction-beating tools, such as programs that will block you from accessing distracting websites at certain times, leaving you free to concentrate on your creative work.

Download the free PDF version of focus, or buy it on Kindle.

Buffer

To keep your social media followers interested, you need to regularly post links to articles and resources that you think they will be interested in, but you don’t want to bombard them with a ton of tweets all at once. It’s better to spread your tweets out at regular intervals.

Buffer allows you to do just that. Once you’ve signed up, you simply connect buffer to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, install the browser extension, and then when you find a web page you’d like to share with your followers, you simply click the buffer button and your post will be added to your queue and fired off at regular intervals.

You can adjust the times and frequency that your buffer posts are sent, and you can have up to 10 posts in your queue with a free account. If you upgrade to a paid account, you get unlimited posts in your queue, and you can specify different schedules on certain days.

Hint: You can also get a free report from Tweriod that will tell you the most effective times to schedule your tweets.

I find buffer useful because I can allocate a fixed time for browsing the web for interesting content, and then add several posts at once to my buffer queue, rather than constantly interrupting my creative work to look for posts to tweet. I tend to have buffer post 3 – 4 times per day, so I only have to top up my queue every two or three days.

Get a free buffer account here.

Tweet Old Post

Tweet Old Post is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to automatically tweet your old blog posts at random.

This is a really great way of helping your new Twitter followers to read some of your old blog posts, which they might otherwise have missed. At the same time, it reduces the time you have to spend looking for interesting posts to tweet.

It’s important to only use this plugin if most of your content is ‘timeless’ and won’t go out of date. For example, you don’t want to keep retweeting a post about an ‘upcoming exhibition’ that happened last year.

If you have a mixture of timeless and time-sensitive posts, what you can do is exclude individual posts from being tweeted, so you can exclude your time-sensitive posts and then only your timeless posts will be tweeted.

Again, you can alter the interval between tweets. I would keep this to a maximum of once or twice a day to avoid being overly self-promotional.

Get Tweet Old Post from the WordPress plugin repository.

Pocket

How many times have you said to yourself “I’ll just quickly check Facebook”, only to find yourself hours later still reading articles that your friends have posted about.

I find that one distraction tends to lead to another, so even though you only intended to spend a couple of minutes checking your news feed, you will often end up getting pulled away by interesting stories or funny pictures.

One tool I’ve found that really helps me avoid this is Pocket (formerly Read It Later), which allows you to save interesting articles with the touch of a button, so that you can read them later at a more convenient time.

It’s basically like bookmarking, but the beauty of Pocket is that it works on smartphones and tablets, and you can read your saved articles offline.

So if a friend posts an article on Facebook that I want to read, I’ll usually just save it to pocket, and then read it later that day on my phone when I have some free time. It really helps to keep me focused on what I’m supposed to be doing.

Sign up for a free Pocket account.

Share Your Tips

Do you have any strategies or tools that you use to avoid being distracted by the lure of social media. Let us know about them in the comments.

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Announcement: The Complete Guide to Building Your Own Artist’s Website

I’m currently working on a comprehensive guide that will teach artists how to set up and promote their own website without having to pay a fortune for a web designer, or learn how to code a website by hand.

The guide will cover the complete website setup process, as well as SEO, website maintenance, building an audience, social media and much more.

You can read more about the guide here.

This post features a review of The Successful Artist’s Career Guide, a book by Margaret Peot all about how to earn a productive, joyful living with your artwork.

But before we get to that, I recently caught up with Margaret, who took some time out of her busy schedule to answer a few of my questions:

How would you define ‘success’ for an artist?

Margaret Peot

Margaret: The novelist Ray Bradbury said in an interview for the NEA, “Love is the center of your life. Things that you do should be things that you love, and things that you love should be things that you do.”

So, keeping this in mind, success for an artist is to be able to make a life doing what you choose to do and love, to be able to make a sustainable living from this thing that you love, living in a place that you choose. Or, if you have decided, legitimately, to make your money-making gig separate from your art-making, that what you have chosen to do for money honestly sustains you on multiple levels as well. And then, within that framework, to be able to embrace all of the rest of things of life: to have a family if you choose, and to contribute to your community.

So many young artists set aside their art making as they get older, to get a “real” job with benefits, without realizing that they can have full lives as artists. A full life, a life that you choose, is within your grasp. It requires some soul searching, followed by decision making and detailed planning.

There’s a lot of buzz at the moment about how artists can easily promote themselves online. Do you think it’s important to combine this with a certain amount of offline promotion too?

Margaret: It is extremely important to make oneself “discoverable” online. When someone goes to the internet to find out about you, they should be able to find your name, images and accomplishments in many places. So, posting about your work, classes you teach, and exhibitions you take part in is crucial.

Because this is so crucial, it is easy to think that time spent on self promotion online, which is amusing to do, and time consuming, is all that one must do to promote oneself as an artist. However, none of this is as important as meeting with people face to face, making eye-to-eye contact with them.

Looking at real art, meeting people at art fairs, exhibitions, parties, conferences of like-minded individuals: These meetings can’t be beat.

If you are anxious meeting with people, stop thinking about what people can offer you, and think about what you can do for them. This internal shift can alter the whole DNA of a social encounter. Also, don’t forget that the reason people deal art or make it is because they love that. So, ask them questions about this love – make a friendship. These conversations are the beginnings of relationships, which start associations that can last a lifetime.

How important is it for aspiring artists to get really clear on the direction they want their art to go?

Margaret: Making art is hard: You have to absorb everything, and then chuck it out the window and make the things that are meaningful to you. You can’t ride the tide of what has been done before, but really have to forge forth with your vision – something true to you – otherwise, why bother, really? No one wants to live an imitative life. We want to be the heroes of our own stories.

In my book The Successful Artist’s Career Guide, Marshall Arisman, the famous illustrator and raconteur, told me that his friend, the novelist Paul Theroux said, “Never try to make a universal point, or write a letter to the world. Try instead to find a personal truth and hope that it becomes universal.”

Find your inner compass, and check in with it frequently. Try to separate your work from promotion of your work. You will be good at this – as an artist, you are used to looking at turning ideas around and looking at them from all sides.

You say The Successful Artist’s Career Guide started out as a conversation about what you wish you had been told in college. If you could go back and talk to your younger self, what one piece of advice would you give her?

Margaret: I would give two pieces of advice to the younger me:

1. Follow your bliss – it is the lens that you look through that makes you unique.
2. You don’t have to dance every time you are asked—you can actually sit out some offers that don’t seem right.

(Both of these bits of advice are about having an inner compass that centers and guides you).

Tell us briefly about your art background and how you came to be a published author.

Margaret: I have always been fascinated by books and book structures, narratives, stories. My studio work is full of them, and I have always written stories as well.

But the things that have gotten published to date are the books that I have written in answer to people telling me that they have always wanted to be an artist but can’t even draw a straight line, or that they used to be an artist, but had to quit to get a real job.

As I think everyone should be engaged in the act of making things, I wrote Make Your Mark, Inkblot: Drip, Splat and Squish Your Way to Creativity, The Successful Artist’s Career Guide, Alternative Art Journals (coming in September 2012), and two accompanying videos. They are all about making things, removing obstacles to making things, and making a life as an artist in whatever capacity you choose.

My Review of The Successful Artist’s Career Guide

The first thing that struck me about The Successful Artist’s Career Guide was how beautifully designed it is. Full colour glossy pages and a kind of grungy notebook/scrapbook style make the book a pleasure to look at, so if aesthetics is your thing, you’ll be pleased from the moment you open the book.

So what about the content? Over 7 chapters and 224 pages, Margaret guides you through the process of launching a successful art career, from planning how your ideal life would look, and choosing your area of expertise, through practical and legal considerations, to promoting yourself both online and offline, and ensuring that you keep up a regular studio practice.

Interspersed amongst Margaret’s own advice are several interviews with successful artists of many different areas of expertise, who share some of their own personal stories and advice.

In every chapter, there are worksheets and checklists for you to complete, which will help you make important decisions about your art and your career, and may give you ideas you hadn’t previously thought of.

There is even an 8-page checklist of potential art-related jobs for you to consider, followed by as many pages again explaining what some of the jobs entail. If you’re not yet sure what artistic career path you want to take, this can really help you brainstorm ideas.

Overall, there’s very little that I don’t like about the book. One thing worth noting though, is that all the legal stuff and advice on taxes and health insurance etc. is based on US law, so if you live outside of the US, those parts may not apply to you.

One piece of advice from the book that really resonated with me came from Marshall Arisman (mentioned by Margaret earlier), who offered the following advice to an artist just starting out:

“Paint what you know and care about… and through this, you will start to get at what is important to you. Its resonance with you will make it important to others.”

Win a Copy of The Successful Artist’s Career Guide

If you think you would benefit from reading The Successful Artist’s Career Guide, Margaret Peot has kindly offered to give a copy of the book to one lucky reader.

To be in with a chance of winning the book, simply leave a comment below, stating how you think you would benefit from reading it. For bonus points you can also share this post on Facebook, Twitter etc. (it won’t increase your chances of winning, but you will get good karma!)

Note: This competition is now closed, but you can still buy the book from Margaret’s website. Congratulations to Karen Landrum, who was our lucky winner.

This is a guest post by Michele Theberge from www.themindfulartist.com

One of the most common problems artists express to me is:

“There’s not enough time to make art!”

One of the ways I have carved out more time in my life for art is to eliminate distractions.

Nine years ago, when I was an artist-in-residence at the Morris Graves Foundation, I spent eleven days in a remote and isolated setting. It was structured so the artist had no contact with the outside world: no telephone, newspapers, radio, Internet or TV, and no other artists or visitors of any kind. Nothing to distract me from my thoughts and my work.

Thoughts by Michele Theberge

For many people this would be torturous, but I found it heavenly. By spending time alone with my thoughts, I was able to observe which thoughts were productive and which were counterproductive.

This is something my meditation practice has taught me. When we are present with our thoughts, they lose some of their power over us.

By noticing and not fighting the counterproductive thoughts, I was able to stay in the present moment and keep focused on the work, I was not only able to accomplish a lot, but to work through difficult moments in the work.

Each evening I sat in a cozy armchair by a window over looking the lake and wrote in my journal. I spent this time musing on my day in the studio—what was working, what wasn’t and where to take the work next.

I was able to make time for reflection—something that at home I had never considered a priority.

When I came home, the contrast hit me. I realized that just by moving through my home it was quite easy to lose focus. Each room provided fresh distractions. I would sit down in the living room to rest and idly start reading a magazine. This distraction is not bad in itself, but multiply it by twenty such incidents and my mind zigzags all over like a hummingbird zipping from flower to flower.

Harmony in my Head by Michele Theberge

Keeping books and magazines piled in every room is like keeping snacks in every corner of the house and indulging even when I am not hungry. This distraction functions as a form of mind-clutter for me.

I must be discriminating about what I choose to put in my mind. I must carefully select which lectures to attend or films to see which books to read. I have learned the hard way that I cannot read every newspaper, support every cause, read every cool blog nor attend every art opening (even of my most beloved artist friends!). I cannot even cultivate or maintain friendships with all the people I enjoy! I have decided I must root out what is not essential. The best filter is my gut. Is this something I would really love to do? An article I feel really drawn to read?

I have found I need to have enough experience to stimulate but not too much to over-stimulate.

I know each artist has her own balance point with outside stimulation. What’s yours? Please share your experience in the comments below.

About Michele

Michele Theberge

People fall in love with the quiet, ephemeral quality of Michele Théberge’s drawings, paintings and installations constructed from delicate and light materials such as paper, paint, fabric, mylar, foil and pins. Collected internationally, her work has been exhibited in New York, Osaka, London, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Miami and the United Arab Emirates. www.micheletheberge.com

As a recognized expert in acrylic painting materials and methods, Michele travels the U.S. and Canada inspiring thousands of artists from beginners to established professionals with the latest techniques and materials. Her popular online Mindful Artist Mentorship Program teaches up-and-coming artists how to tap into their creativity at a deeper level, and move into the realm of professional artist. More experienced artists appreciate Michele’s gifts for helping them stay accountable, focused and effective in their studio practice and career.

To learn more about The Mindful Artist Mentorship Program, you can download a free audio recording of a recent class Michele taught on Connecting With Your Deeper Wisdom to Overcome 3 Common Obstacles as a Professional Artist.

In the recording you’ll learn:

1. Why it can be so hard to get in the studio and what to do about it.
2. FEAR – What no artist likes to admit to but nearly every artist has.
3. How to Shore Up A Rickety Foundation with 4 Key Pillars to Success

As well as a handout with some specific action steps so you can get started today.

Download your free recording now.

(Michele Theberge retains the copyright to all the images in this post.)

Note from Dan: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you decide to register for Michele’s Mindful Artist Mentorship Program after following these links, I will receive a commission payment, which helps me keep this site running. If you’re uncomfortable with that kind of thing, that’s fine, no hard feelings. If you do sign up through my affiliate links, then thank you, I really appreciate your support!