Blogging is an art! Improving your website content:

Let’s talk about twicking our contents, and making our websites THE PLACE to be and to go to.

Previously we discussed how images make the biggest impact and how click-bait and keywords are the draw-cards. Now we’re going to discuss the huge subject: CONTENT.

Once your website is setup and people are coming to your website, you need to keep them coming to your site. Again and again!

So what keeps them coming?

Your content… your story, what you write about and how you write it:

We all know that our contents must be fascinating, dramatic and informative. But artists need more than that, if they are to outshine popular websites. That is: sites that provide answers to health problems, weight-loss, games, music, facts on cars, IT software or sport events.

Consider:

1. Your front page is the gateway or porthole to the rest of your website. It must grip everyone’s attention. People are drawn to emotional stuff. Something deeply spiritual or dramatic that happened in your life that has made you what you are today. Why you paint the way you do. People love it when they hear of someone who achieved things in spite of the opposition they faced.
2. Do things differently. Your uniqueness is your fame. Make your site exceptional and sensational. People have boring 8-5 existences. Give them a thrill. A place where they really can get a kick back and find new and exciting stuff. Present good interesting stories about where you’ve been and what you did. The beautiful, mad or silly things that happened along the way. Give people an adventure of their lives. Add maps and photos of the place, so they can go there too.
3. For one, we must know who our audience is. Who we are talking to. We can’t just presume they’re artists or gallery owners. Need to captivate buyers too. Such as art lovers, people likely to invest in your art. More than that, it’s wise to consider those who are also associated with our trade, for example decorators, print shops, framers, etc.
4. We have to know what we’re talking about to gain credibility, so write with conviction. Share results of your research or surveys you have done. One thing an artist can do is bust myths about artists and art theories. Even if this brings what we say into debate, it will generate and encourage comments and feedback. And added to that, the quality of our artistic renditions substantiates our adroit knowledge.
5. It’s not only what you talk about that brings people to your site. It’s your `voice’ they want to hear. Be more transparent, expose your personality by the way you express yourself. Be awesome, ridiculous in a funny way, using stimulating adjectives and `cheekery’ words in your dialogue. What are you excited about. Share it. Put enthusiasm into your words. (By the way, the word cheekery is a word we made up and use in our family. To us it means tongue-in-cheek quips.)
6. People love to laugh out loud. If it’s so funny they are quick to share that laugh with others. Being an artist you can draw cartoons. Show you have a sense of humour. Make fun of serious situations, stressful things people face. If it’s something we all endure, it hits a cord of recognition that’s only too true.
7. Are our blogs positive? How do we treat people, as colleagues or associates? Does our advice fit naturally within our illustrated adventures so people don’t feel lectured? Often people have frustrations or a problem, but they won’t admit it, too shy to say so, or too scared to ask for help. Admitting you had a problem makes you more human in the eyes of your viewers. And when you tell how you overcame it, it gives them hope that they too can overcome it, by trying it out in the privacy for themselves.
8. Talk about the types of dreams and hopes your niche of people are bound to have. Suggest ways they can obtain the things they desire too. You can add diagrams of the systems or simple formats that you’ve been talking about.

Observing things more closely:

Be a deep thinker, ponder on what you’ve seen or read. Read between the lines and play attention to your inner feelings. You’re bound to pick up new theories and concepts that way. Perhaps it’s something someone said that triggers off a Wow Moment. As soon as an idea pops into your mind, write it down. Constantly gather these facts and new ideas and put them into a file, so that you never run out of stuff to write about.

Ask yourself a few questions:

• What makes me interested in a website?
• What makes you leave a website?
• What do you hope to see on a website?

Therefore what should or shouldn’t I put in my website? Considering people most probably feel the same way I do! 

Ask a few questions in your content:

Because people don’t usually like to make comments on websites, you have to get them thinking.

• Your content may be interesting but when you ask a poignant or astute question or two, it makes people think about what you are promoting. And questions make people think for themselves.
•  Once they’re thinking about what you’re saying and asking, their thoughts start going down deeper and deeper. One thought leads to another, and then other...

Questions stir people’s imagination:

 When their profound thoughts reach their inner souls, it stirs their feelings and makes them feel your site has something worthwhile to come back to. Again and again, because they consider you are able to satisfy their needs or yawning desires.

People tend to think advice is too direct:

Like you are telling them what to do! Forcing your opinion on them! But if they have to think about how to answer your question, they are likely to own their own hypotheses and feel they’re were the clever one who found the answer. 

The facts you supply start the topic. Questions give food for thought! 

Draw-cards to share:

• Offer something that’s free. You could say that it’s another way of advertising!
• Provide practical demonstrations. There’re a lot of private art teachers out there who are always looking for new practical material or exercises they can use in their classes.

There must have something that people can share with their friends and colleges. The more people coming to see what’s on offer, the better. Then they see what else you have there of interest, and it’s not long before they are hooked, because they realize your website is THE PLACE to be too.

There is so much to talk about on this topic of content:

Therefore we’ll have to make another time to talk on it further. So I hope you'll can come back again to see what else there is to discuss on the topic, to make our blogs and websites more effective.