A Curious Life Coach

• Blogs give you a fantastic opportunity to share your work.
• Blogs give people a place to go where things are often updated, compared to a more static website.
• Blogs can lead to wonderful opportunities! In some cases, they can be the gateway to jobs opportunities & book deals.
• Blogs are a great way to share notes and information.
• Blogs can be a great way to get good support from your peers and you may make some new relationships.
• Posting to your blog can help you feel good.
• If you are introverted, it can be a challenge to get over the fear of posting.  Blogging can be great practice for making yourself vulnerable (posting things you make or showing your work in public can feel risky). Blogging tips for introverts:
• Try posting factual things.
• If you don't want something known, don't post it on your blog—it’s not necessary to reveal intimate personal details, so only post things that you feel comfortable sharing.

• Get in the habit of posting regularly to keep readers engaged. You can make blogging part of your routine.
• Have something with a theme to update every day.
• You might have a blogging day, devoted to developing content for your blog.
• You can schedule auto posts or pre-post blog entries (write your post the night before you’d like to post or several days in advance and your blog program can post them on schedule. This is easy to do on Blogger)
• Collect a certain number of related items or resources and post them together when you have 10.
• Find an e-course about how to blog. Holly Becker from decor8 teaches an absolutely awesome online workshop called Blogging Your Way.
• Use Google Analytics to see the statistics and numbers of people reading your blog. Be careful to not become addicted to checking stats so often that you get depressed when they are not what you may have hoped.
• Use Google Alerts to be notified when somebody writes about what you or your blog—this way, you’ll know you’re getting press. FYI, Google Alerts does not always catch new posts, but in general it’s a good way to see what people are saying about you or your work.
  

• Write about what you’re obsessing about.
• Post links to interesting things or ideas when you’re not obsessed with something.
• Write book reviews (Doing this might bring you free books to review).
• Post pictures or write about what you’re currently creating or working on.
• Pictures of interesting things.
• Let people know here to find you (events, shows, stores, etc.)
• "How To" posts are great.
• Conduct interviews.

• Learn to take awesome photos! Blog posts with beautiful photographs are the ones that get linked to and shared the most.
• Ask others to blog or tweet about you.
• Use your social network to share your blog—your blog can spread like wildfire this way.
• Click through to commentors (on your blog) to post comments on their blogs or sites. This can bring more traffic back to your site.
• Email other bloggers to tell them that you love them! (Personal emails to bloggers get more attention than things that look like press releases.)
• If you’re passionate about what you blog about, it will catch on eventually. Be patient—it takes time! Blog because you absolutely love to.
• Have & cultivate your own voice.
• Twitter is a great place to build blog readership—tweet about your new blog posts!
• If you use Twitter and you have any questions about blogging, tweet about those questions to get help with your blog from your followers. People love to help!
• Giveaways (great exposure for artists and business!)
• When you offer a giveaway as a blogger, make sure it’s relevant to your blog.
• If you do third party giveaways, have the third party mail the prize in order to save you time and money.
• There are giveaway collection sites, which can be a great place to post information about your giveaway to drive traffic to your blog.
• Random.org is a good way to choose random winner for giveaways.
• Have Contests!
• Incorporate contests with an interview. This is a good way to get people on your blog.
  

• You can have guest bloggers post on your site to share their knowledge or expertise.
• Hosting a guest blog on your site can be a challenge to manage
• Remember that you will be responsible for the repercussions of anything that your guest bloggers post.
• You may consider having guest bloggers sign a contract which lays out the guidelines of preferred subject matter and expectations of how they may behave as they make posts on your blog so that they will not attract lawsuits or offend your readers.
• Being a guest blogger on other sites is a good way to promote your work or to help the host cover a certain topic which they may not be as knowledgeable about.
• How do you become a guest blogger? Email people to say, “I’d love to do a guest blog for you!”
  

• Google Ad Sense.
• Amazon Associates (when you link to a product and someone clicks through that link to buy the product, you receive a kick-back)
• Offer free ads or $20 per month ads to start attracting advertisers to your blog.
• Raise ad rates as your readership grows.
• When considering how to monetize your blog, if anything feels uncomfortable to you, don’t do it.
  

• Blogger is great for beginners and people who need a simple, easy to use interface.

• Word Press is more advanced and easy to connect to your website. Great for search engine optimization!
• TypePad is more complicated and can be a challenge to navigate, but some people swear by it.

• Tumblr and Flickr are great for image posting.
• Pinterest is a way to keep track of things you like.
  

• Something Old, Something New (wedding inspiration)
• Design Sponge (design Inspiration)
• Oh Joy! (design inspiration)
• Design Wise (party planner, inspiration) **I am having trouble finding a link to this...if you know how to find this blog online, please send me a link. Many thanks!
• Juniper Moon Fiber Farm (great farm blog—pictures & notes about how the animals are doing)
• Posie Gets Cozy (Great craft/sewing inspiration blog)
• Angry Chicken (Crafts & Cooking)
• You Go Girl (Sewing)
• CakeSpy (All about cake!)

Click here for details and to R.S.V.P.

You are invited to join PDX Sketchbook Meetup and join us in Drawing Architecture!

If the weather is nice, we will meet at A Curious Life and then head outdoors to draw some neighborhood buildings. If weather is not conducive to working outdoors, we will find a nice spot to draw inside of the 1235 Studio Building, where we normally meet.

Please note, you do not need to be a masterful architectural artist to join us. Beginners are very welcome so come as you are!

Bring your sketchbook and non-toxic drawing materials.

See you soon!

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.