GCU Forum - Which blog hosting site?

Judy_139270

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 870

Which blog hosting site?
Jan 8^th, 2010, 9:53am

I'm thinking about starting a blog, slightly prompted by suggestions (on the card widget page) of promoting one's card store in one's blog. But after spending hours reading about artists' blog on the web, I am totally confused! It seems that some don't allow any commercial links or promotion of one's products for sale but I'm not sure which!
embarrassed

So I thought the best thing to do would be to ask other artists which blog hosts they use and how they get on with them.

BTW, I've just read that facebook is very strict about not allowing any business promotion on one's profile page. Has anyone had a problem with this?

I apologise if this has been asked before but I couldn't find any mention of blogging using the forum search button.

BTW

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Judy's Card Store:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/judyscardstore

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Doreen_137017

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 5275

Re: Which blog hosting site?
Reply #1 - Jan 8^th, 2010, 10:28am

Hi Judy,

I imagine you will get lots of great response here!

I use www.blogspot.com and only promote myself with no problems. http://salonofartgreetings.blogspot.com

Also, Facebook offers Fan Pages for Business promotion and that is why they frown on business promotion on personal pages. So if what you want to use Facebook for is purely promotion, then create a Fan Page for your art and it will work well for you.

http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/The-St-George-Salon-of-Art-LLC/145081542081?ref= ts

I had a Facebook page first that I intended to use for business only because I didn't know about the Fan Pages at the time. So my Fan Page is trying to catch up, but it's all a learning experience and that's never a bad thing Grin

Good Luck making your choice!

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Salon of Art:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/SalonOfArt

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Bits_139043 Full Member artist Posts: 167	Re: Which blog hosting site? Reply #2 - Jan 8^th, 2010, 11:13am I use blogspot http://scrappingbits.blogspot.com/ and have done for over a year now with no problems at all. I LOVE it. It was so easy to set up, use and update for a newbie
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Nan_137018 Senior Member artist Posts: 297	Re: Which blog hosting site? Reply #3 - Jan 8^th, 2010, 11:26am Judy-- I opened mine with GoDaddy and bought a domain name. Have an Apple-Mac and they helped me set up my own web/blog on which I can do anything.
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Elizabeth_137795 Gold Member artist Posts: 724	Re: Which blog hosting site? Reply #4 - Jan 8^th, 2010, 12:34pm Very interesting . . but my question is: how do you get people to follow you or even know you have a blog. So, I set up a blog with links to my store . . now what? elizabeth
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Justin_139578 GCU Newbies artist Posts: 8	Re: Which blog hosting site? Reply #5 - Jan 8^th, 2010, 12:34pm Blogger or wordpress are both very good, and both are free.
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Carole_139352 GCU Newbies artist Posts: 16	Re: Which blog hosting site? Reply #6 - Jan 8^th, 2010, 6:24pm I find it easier to put advertising on blogspot than wordpress because I don't have much computer savy. I've just started it and am learning too but willing to answer questions if you need. http://countrymousestudio.blogspot.com/
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Leonilde_137327

Senior Member
artist

Posts: 360

Re: Which blog hosting site?
Reply #7 - Jan 8^th, 2010, 10:14pm

Quote from Judy_139270 on Jan 8^th, 2010, 9:53am:

I'm thinking about starting a blog, slightly prompted by suggestions (on the card widget page) of promoting one's card store in one's blog. But after spending hours reading about artists' blog on the web, I am totally confused! It seems that some don't allow any commercial links or promotion of one's products for sale but I'm not sure which!
embarrassed

So I thought the best thing to do would be to ask other artists which blog hosts they use and how they get on with them.

BTW, I've just read that facebook is very strict about not allowing any business promotion on one's profile page. Has anyone had a problem with this?

I apologise if this has been asked before but I couldn't find any mention of blogging using the forum search button.

BTW

--------------------------
Hi Judy,

I understand your predicament very well. I have a hard time to advertize my art and I am much more comfortable creating than marketing it. It is a quite a process and I have learned a lot in this forum. Our artists are absolutely generous and very, very supportive. Like some others suggested before, I opened a blog at www.blogspot.com you can see it at http://www.artcor7.blogspot.com/ I am still learning its features and I have used a lot of try and error but it is standing there now.
I wish you luck

in your attempts and if you need help ask me through my page at the contact this artist at my GCU gallery.

Leonilde

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Artcor7:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/Artcor7

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martin_138364

Full Member
artist

Posts: 150

Re: Which blog hosting site?
Reply #8 - Jan 9^th, 2010, 1:24am

Hi Elizabeth,

Once you have got your blog up and running you need to submit it to the search engines, on one of Corrie’s lens she recommends submitting every 3-4 weeks.
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
when you add new content use the PING option to let the web know that you have added something new. After that it is just a case of adding new content and getting your link out over the internet.

Another blog site is www.tumblr.com more of a min blog with not a lot of options Sad

but very easy to use

. I upload a small image add a comment and the link to my card, tumblr then post a massage and link on my twitter account. In less than a minuet I get new content on twitter with a link to my blog, new content on my blog with a link to my card

. www.martinspixs.tumblr.com

Martin

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martin's Card Store:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/martinscardstore

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Gayle_135739

GCU Newbies
artist

Posts: 7

Re: Which blog hosting site?
Reply #9 - Jan 9^th, 2010, 8:59am

Quote from Elizabeth_137795 on Jan 8^th, 2010, 12:34pm:

Very interesting . . but my question is: how do you get people to follow you or even know you have a blog. So, I set up a blog with links to my store . . now what?

elizabeth

You can register your blog with places like http://technorati.com and http://www.blogcatalog.com. I also use the application on Facebook called Networked Blogs, so all my posts show up automatically on my profile. I have two blogs - one on Blogger - http://favoriteprintsandposters.blogspot.com and one for my own art that's integrated with my website - http://gaylefaucettewisbon.com/blog.

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Art from the Land of Enchantment:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/artistonthemesa

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Elizabeth_137795 Gold Member artist Posts: 724	Re: Which blog hosting site? Reply #10 - Jan 9^th, 2010, 10:36am Thank you all for your help . . sounds like I'll have to start a blog and to register it everywhere mentioned. elizabeth
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Judy_139270 Gold Member artist Posts: 870	Re: Which blog hosting site? Reply #11 - Jan 10^th, 2010, 2:34am Thank you all for your very helpful suggestions. I'm moving in the direction of Blogger because it seems so user-friendly to set up - unless anyone has anything negative to warn me about with Blogger?
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Eva_135867 Full Member artist Posts: 191	Re: Which blog hosting site? Reply #12 - Jan 10^th, 2010, 5:52am Hi Judy, I'm very satisfied with Blogger, I have two blogs there http://krasilnirazbor.blogspot.com/ and http://krasilnirazborgreetingcards.blogspot.com/ Eva
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Judy_139270 Gold Member artist Posts: 870	Re: Which blog hosting site? Reply #13 - Jan 10^th, 2010, 6:12am Thank you, Eva, and thank you too for your very encouraging comments when I first opened my 'store' - they were much appreciated!
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