When you think of an artist website you generally think about a site that showcases an artist’s work, a portfolio site if you will. With the exponential growth of blogging, many artists are now supplementing their portfolio site with a blog. Blogging allows artists to share their art and life with the world in a very different way, one that lets people get to know the artist behind the art. Portfolio sites and blogs are both websites, they just have a different purpose and function. Portfolio sites tend to be like an online brochure, whereas blogs are more like a diary that allows artists to communicate with their audience.
If you already have a website you may be thinking about adding a blog. Artists who wanted to start blogging are faced with a question: Where do I set up my blog? There are 3 options:
- Set up a separate blog elsewhere
- Integrate a blog into your current website
- Build a new website based on a blogging platform
Let’s look at these options.
1. Set up a separate blog elsewhere.
This is the easiest solution. There are lots of places you can go to set up a blog. You can even blog for free if you are willing to live with the design and usage limitations. The main drawback with this approach is that the blog is not integrated with your portfolio website in form or function. It has an entirely different look and feel and the format and navigation are completely different. It leaves visitors with the feeling they are “somewhere else” when they are reading your blog. Also there is no guarantee that someone who lands on your blog will take a link to your website.
Hosted services are available from TypePad, Blogger, and LiveJournal. Duane Keiser is an example: Website, Blog
2. Integrate a blog into your current website.
Adding a blogging function to your portfolio website addresses the problem described above. Visitors could see a consistent design in terms of headers, navigation, colours, etc. In this case, your blog would appear as a menu item on your website, and when you click on it, the blog looks like it belongs on this website. Your portfolio header and navigation bar carry through to the blog page. While it is technically possible to integrate a blog into an existing portfolio site, these types of projects can be a challenge because of the coding, style and format of the existing website. This means that most artists would be dependent on someone else to make those changes and the cost of making them could be prohibitive.
An example of an integrated blog is Marilyn Fenns’ website.
3. Build a new website based on a blogging platform.
A blogging platform is a software solution that allows people to easily create and maintain a blog. Blogging software is getting better all the time. You can now create a blog that looks like a portfolio site, yet provides the flexibility to also blog. It all hangs together as one cohesive site. On some artists’ websites you would be hard-pressed to tell that it was created using blogging software. Platforms you could consider for a self-hosted blog include Movable Type, WordPress, and Textpattern.
Becky Joy’s website and blog is build on WordPress. Says Becky, “I had a website with another company. I quit that and went with WordPress. It gives me more options in my website and blog. I think it is better to have the blog integrated with the website. Ultimately, I want people at the website.”
