Artists Should Be Blogging, Too

Over the past few weeks a number of artists have come up to me with the same very interesting question of “what do you think I should do next?” These artists have websites, MySpace pages and numerous videos on YouTube. They have followings within their local communities, perform constantly, and are clearly working their way up to bigger and better things. I mulled over the question a bit and now I want to share with everyone the advice I shared with them; if you’re an artist you need a blog, and I mean a real blog, not just a MySpace blog. Let me explain.

First, an artist’s blog can act as a timeline of their career. One can easily scroll down, or click around and see what someone was doing a year ago versus what they’re doing now. Second, unlike MySpace blogs, which can be useful in their own right, with real blogs each individual post is another link with your name on it that can show up as a search engine result. Even if you only post something once a week that’s 52 new ways for people to find you online.

What makes for a great artist blog is information and engagement, meaning I want to know what’s going on with the artist, where they’re performing, etc. and the artist should also be finding ways to keep me there with engaging content. This is one of those rare situations where things are just as easy said as done. You know all those YouTube videos you have of performances and tours? While it’s great you have them nobody is going to your YouTube page unless they already know who you are. Sorry, that’s just a cold, hard fact. With the blog, every time you shoot a new video and put it up on YouTube you can then embed it in a post. A lot more people will see it that way and a lot more people will comment on it, as well.

Blogs can also be great places to promote shows and interviews. If you have a flyer you can put up a jpeg of it. If you don’t have a flyer you can simply write out where you’ll be and who else is on the bill. Just interviewed by a magazine? Scan it in, or scan in the cover and tell people where they can pick it up. Interviewed by a website? Post the intro and a link to it. Going to be on a radio show? Use the blog to promote that. I also stress that when artists do a performance or go on tour that they have someone take pictures, even if it’s themselves, because by posting up tour pics not only do you keep your blog active, but you create an impressive scrapbook that will keep people glued to your site. A buddy of mine just toured the UK and I was constantly checking in to see where he had been and what pictures were up.

With flyers, show info, interview links, videos and pictures it can be very easy for any artist to maintain a blog. This isn’t supposed to be challenging, it’s supposed to be a simple way to create more visibility, build a fan base and connect with that fan base. Finally, an artist should add a link to their blog on their website and post in their MySpace blog whenever they update it, effectively creating an all encompassing universe for said artist. Everywhere a person goes in that circle has something to do with the artist and creates a closer relationship between them and their fans.

The perfect artist website has a bio, streaming music, pictures, a link to a YouTube page, show info, links to MySpace and Reverbnation pages, links to interviews, and a link to a blog. If an artist has all those things on their site they’re on the right path, and you can put money on the blog being one of the most clicked links. People want to see what their favorite artists are up to. Let em in! It doesn’t have to be a tell all, just tell enough to keep your fans happy. You’ll be surprised at how positive the results will be.