Would you like more traffic to your art blog? In this post, I am going to talk about how to evaluate your last years’ art blogging efforts to help you build your audience.

 

Evaluate Your Last Years’ Art Blogging Efforts

 

 

Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links on this post are affiliate links and will be clearly marked as so. I will earn a small commission when you purchase a product or service from an affiliate link at no extra cost to you which helps with the costs of operating Nevue Fine Art Marketing. I will only recommend products I have used, found helpful to my business and are companies I trust.

 

Before I begin I would like to congratulate you on blogging for one year.

Most bloggers give up too early. They have a difficult time seeing how blogging will benefit their business in the future.

It takes time to see any kind of results from blogging. Most bloggers will not see any results for about two years. This can become frustrating for most people.

Do yourself a favor and do not become frustrated or impatient. Stay focused on your content marketing strategy. Before you know it you will be thanking yourself for staying the course.

By evaluating your last years’ blogging efforts you will become aware of things that are working and things that will need to be addressed. The information that you gather will help you to make a more productive digital marketing plan for next year.

 

[clickToTweet tweet=”Most bloggers give up too early. – Nevue Fine Art Marketing” quote=”Most bloggers give up too early. – Nevue Fine Art Marketing” theme=”style3″]

 

Art Blog Evaluation Checklist

Use this checklist to help you gather valuable information that will help you to grow your art blog faster.

Take some time to write out your answers. You will do yourself no favors if you just skim through the material.

The value will come from your answers and the strategy you implement for the year.

 

How Many Blog Posts Did You Publish

Let’s first take a look at how many posts you have published over the past year.

It does not matter if the number of posts is 5 or 500.

Why is it important to know how many posts you published?

The number of posts you produce will greatly affect the growth of your blog.

You increase the odds of being found by your target audience by publishing more content. One of the many reasons sites rank higher in search is due to the amount of valuable content they provide.

Take a look at the number of posts you have written and ask yourself:

• Can you publish more posts next year?
• How many more posts can you publish?
• How many posts will you have to write per month to hit your goal?

[clickToTweet tweet=”The number of posts you produce will greatly affect the growth of your blog.” quote=”The number of posts you produce will greatly affect the growth of your blog.” theme=”style3″]

 

Blogging Schedule

Now that you have your goals written for how many posts you will be producing next year, let’s take a look at how consistent you were with your posts.

Did you publish blog posts once a week?

Did you post once a month?

Or did you publish five posts one month and nothing for the following three months? 

Consistency is important when it comes to growing your audience.

According to Lindsay Kolowich’s post on HubSpot:

Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5 X more traffic than companies that published between 0 – 4 monthly posts.

Ask Yourself:

• Can I be more consistent with my blogging schedule?
• What will be a realistic blogging schedule?

Now that you have a schedule plan, write down every day you will need to publish a post on your calendar.

If you document it on your calendar, you will be more likely to get the task done.

 

Google Analytics

Let’s take a look into your Google Analytics.

If you have been blogging for a year and have not set up your Google Analytics, you are missing out on some valuable information. Take some time now and set it up for your art blog. It is free.

Watch this video to learn how to set up Google Analytics on your WordPress blog.

If you already have Google Analytics set up, log in to your account so you can look at the next statistics we will be covering.

 

Traffic Growth

Let’s take a look at your traffic growth.

Where there any spikes in your traffic?

If so, what caused the spikes?

Did the traffic gradually increase over the year?

Was there a month that was busier than the other months?

All of this information will help you to build a better content marketing strategy for next year.

I do want to mention that it is normal if you have not seen much growth in the first year.

What you are doing now will greatly affect your results for next year.

 

Most Popular Blog Posts

What was your top five most popular blog posts?

Write them down and go to your art blog.

Look at each of the posts and take note of why they might have done so well.

• What topic did you cover in the posts?
• Was there a lot of information that helps the reader?
• Did you have images in the post? How many?
• Did you have a video in the post?
• Was the post scannable?
• Did you break up the text with headers?
• Did you link to other content?

Now take a look at some of the posts that did not do so well.

[clickToTweet tweet=”What you are doing now will greatly affect your results for next year.” quote=”What you are doing now will greatly affect your results for next year.” theme=”style3″]

What is different from the posts that did well and the posts that did not perform as well?

 

Other Helpful Information

Now let’s look at some more information that will help you to build your art blog’s following.

 

Email List

One of your biggest assets will be your email list.

Your blog will be a great way for you to build your list.

There are some great email opt-in plugins available for WordPress that will help you to grow your list.

OptinMonster (affiliate link) is a popular plugin used by many professional bloggers.

After you have your list you will want to use an email service to send out weekly or monthly newsletters.

A couple of popular email services are Aweber (affiliate link) and Mail Chimp.

Download this free PDF – Growing Your Business with Email Marketing to learn how you can build your list.

Back to our evaluation.

• How many people subscribed to your blog or joined your email list?
• What did you do to build your email list?
• What steps are you going to take to increase the number of subscribers next year?

For more information on email marketing visit –  Ultimate Email Marketing Guide for Selling Art Online

[clickToTweet tweet=”One of your biggest assets will be your email list.” quote=”One of your biggest assets will be your email list.” theme=”style3″]

 

Blogging Costs

If you are selling your art, you are in business. You want to know exactly how much money you are spending on your business. This includes your blog. (These figures will be beneficial to you when it is time to see your accountant.)

Did you keep accurate records?

If you didn’t and you have to spend time digging for receipts, take note of this.

Set up a plan to make your job easier for next year. Remember, every year you blog, the busier you will become.

You can break up your blogging expenses as followed:

• Hosting
• Domain Name
• Premium Plugins
• Email services
• Premium Themes
• Training/Courses
• Other services

In the future, most of the costs will come from the hosting and domain name. You will not have to spend money on Premium themes or plugins after you have your blog set up to your liking.

[clickToTweet tweet=”If you are selling your art, you are in business.” quote=”If you are selling your art, you are in business.” theme=”style3″]

 

Income Generated From Your Blog

The goal for any business is to have more money coming in verses money going out.

There are many ways that you can generate money from your art blog.

The main source of income will be generated from art sales but you have many more opportunities that are available to you.

Your blog can generate income from:

• Services
• Tutorials
• Courses
• eBooks
• Adds
• Affiliate links and the list goes on

Successful artists have many income streams to balance out their income. Art sales will fluctuate so you want to set up different ways to generate extra income that relates to art.

I will be covering this topic more in the future. If you have not already, be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you do not miss any important posts on building a successful art business. (See how I did this? I plugged in my newsletter to build my email list. You want to do the same on your blog.)

 

What Did You Learn

Take a few moments to think about what you have learned over the past year.

You probably do not even realize everything you have accomplished.

Here are some things that you have probably become familiar with:

• Set up hosting
• register a domain name
• resizing, editing and posting images
• uploading videos
• Header tags
• Alt Tags
•  Meta descriptions
• Parent Categories
• Child Categories
• Installing Google Analytics
• Replying to comments
• Installing themes and plugins

And the list goes on.

Do not be concerned if there are some things that I have mentioned that you are not familiar with. You will be learning about them and more throughout your career of blogging.

Make a list of things that you would like to learn next year. Knowledge is power. The more that you learn about blogging, the stronger your art business will be.

 

Networking

Did you meet any new artists or bloggers?

Networking with other people in your niche has many benefits.

You will be able to help each other grow as artists and business owners. (Yes, if you are selling art, you are in business.)

If you haven’t started to reach out to people over the past year, make it a goal to do so for next year.

You might also want to join Facebook Groups to meet new people.

 

Next Year’s Blogging Goals

Now that you have evaluated last year’s blogging efforts, it is time to write some goals for next year.

Do not just think about them. Actually, write them out.

If you struggle writing goals visit – Sell Art Online Basics Setting Goals

Having something to shoot for is crucial for growth.

Do you want your efforts to produce the same results as last year?

If the answer is no, grab some paper and start writing out your goals.

 

Ask yourself these questions:

How many times should I be posting?

For help on writing an editorial calendar visit – How To Create a Blog Editorial Calendar

How can I write content people will want to read?

For help on writing pillar content visit – How to Write Pillar Content and Why it is Important for Artists

How can I promote my blog posts?

To learn how to promote your blog posts visit – How to Promote Your Blog Post

How can I join Facebook Groups?

To learn more about Facebook Groups visit – Facebook Groups for Artists

How can I build my email list?

To learn more about email marketing visit – Ultimate Email Marketing Guide for Selling Art Online

What can I do to improve my art blogging efforts?

 

Conclusion:

The best way to improve is to have a full understanding of where you stand.

Take thirty minutes to evaluate your last year’s art blogging efforts, next year you will be thanking me.

You might also be interested in:

5 Blogging Mistakes Artists Must Avoid

Revise Your Top Blog Pages for More Traffic

How to Build an Email List from Scratch Fast

How to Build Brand Awareness By Commenting on Blogs

How to Find Your Target Audience

 

28 Day Blogging Challenge for Visual Artists

Are you ready to start building an online presence?

Download your copy today, or Purchase on Amazon.

 

 

 

 

The Productive Artist How to Live Your Dreams The right mindset and time management skills are essential for any business. These topics are often not talked about but are key elements for your success. You will learn how to have a winning mindset and time management skills necessary for operating a successful art business. Available at Amazon or Download today.