Charm FX

Posts Tagged ‘goals’

Artists, performers, writers and other creatives using a blog or web site to showcase their work need to be aware of PageRank. It’s a number calculated based on link analysis that’s supposed to indicate how relevant your site is to other sites discussing similar content. The problem with that is, for artists, often our content is very, very specific! The more specific and individual we make ourselves and our work, the harder it is to be seen by search engines as “similar” or relevant to a keyword phrase or sites that may be tangentially related to the subject of our work. For many visual artists or performers who’ve documented their work with photos or videos the problem is compounded by a lack of text on pages for the search engines to index. For these it is very important to annotate images and videos with tags, captions or some descriptive text.

Having said all that, PageRank is only an indication of how likely your site will turn up in a search for specific keywords found in your site based on links from other sites seen as also relevant to those keywords. PageRank is not necessarily a direct indication of how much site traffic you can expect to see on your site! Often we see advertising for SEO services or instruction on how to improve search engine optimization for our sites. I’ve even seen this being offered specifically for Artists and creativity related sites. I’m all for optimizing your site for search engines, but the assumption that doing so will have a direct and immediate impact on site traffic for artist’s sites is typically not accurate.

When you are making work that is highly individual it’s important to realize that search engines are really not smart enough to grasp the subtle differences that might make your work or performance great versus something manufactured using similar descriptions. If your goal is to increase awareness of your work and a broader base of collectors or fans the thing to concentrate on is traffic. How do you increase traffic if you’re not focused on PageRank? For specific, individual work we all need to focus on virtual locations where targeted influence can result.

Some suggestions include:

— an obvious one is to use social networks like twitter where followers may have similar interests and may retweet mention of your posts

— bookmark links to posts on StumbleUpon where others may find value and give your bookmark a “thumbs up”

— On LinkedIn join Art related Groups or Alumni Groups if you attended an Art institution or program. Submitting a post with useful links to posts on your blog or site that include Art related references, articles or videos will likely result in traffic from individuals with similar interests who may pass along your link or mention it on facebook, twitter or other social networks.

These methods have a higher likelihood of resulting in site visits from individuals who have already self filtered themselves, who are interested in the content they find in these channels.

Please mention your own experiences and add methods you’ve found to be effective in the comments below.

Why is there a cliche that creative people are tortured or unstable, or that they must suffer to do what they do?

There are a few words that describe a way of thinking about creativity that are particularly pernicious and debilitating.

Two of these words are “genius” & “talent”.

In some ways the perpetuation of the negative impact of these words is provided by many creative people and institutions. The words are useful as marketing tools, making the artist a rarity. While things and people with something to say, and advanced ability are not always plentiful it’s not enough of a reason to pay attention to someone. Plenty of really smart people never did anything. Plenty of highly skilled people squandered every opportunity they came upon. Using those two words to market someone or their work is a ploy that plays on the insecurities of others.

The impact of the use of these words in creative circles that is most destructive is how much it impedes those who are growing into seeing themselves as a creative individual. This perception of some as talented or geniuses and not problem solvers and working on things each and every day makes it difficult for students and novices to make an attempt. Once you achieve some level of success you’re still in this position of constantly comparing yourself and your work to some unattainable standard of greatness.

This kind of “frame” around approaching anything creatively can be and is sometimes debilitating, hence the cliche of the tortured artist always striving for something out of reach.

The thing is, any of the seriously successful and many of those we think of as examples of creativity didn’t spend time even considering their own “genius” or “talent”. Rather, they were looking at the market, the climate of their times, or their own passion for ideas.

If you spend all your time trying to convince others how good you are or trying to be something others expect of you, you’ve already lost.

Create what you’re passionate about. It’s all you can do. It’s the most you can do and it’s enough.

Please add your own insights. thanks.