Being an Artist in today’s day and age is kinda scary.

Because you need to keep up with the trends and you need to market yourself constantly, otherwise you’re going to get lost and blend in the background.

Social media is no longer extremely reliable for your business. And depending on it, 100% is seriously a big risk. In this post, I will teach you how to start an art blog that makes money.

Whether you are a traditional artist or a digital artist, you require an online presence.

This is a fact.

It doesn’t matter if you have a zero-tech background or have no clue about starting or creating a website; I’m going to walk you through the process step by step.

Ready?

Let’s begin!

What is an Art Blog?

A Blog is a Website that is regularly updated with any type of content (usually text and/or video) displayed in reverse chronological order that either educates or entertains the reader.

An art blog revolves around your art. There are limitless opportunities for your art blog. You can display your work, talk about your process, sell your merchandise, use it to get clients and deals, and even educate people on how to walk along your path.

An art blog works like a portfolio. It also helps you build a brand.

I’ve covered multiple ways to make money as an artist in this post.

Can I make money with an art blog?

Short answer – yes!

An art blog can make you money provided you are consistent with posting and have identified and narrowed down your niche.

If you can start an art blog and get traffic to it each month, you will make money with your blog. A few ways of doing that are via:

  • Ads: Once your blog gets enough traffic, you can directly apply to an Ad company and make money with your traffic.
  • Affiliate Marketing: You can talk about your tools or different programs, and if someone purchases via your link, you will get paid a commission! Most blogs start making money via affiliate marketing.
  • Services: An art blog is an excellent way to get eyes on your work. Your blog basically works as an art portfolio. So, as long as you have a contact form, you will keep getting inquiries and gain clients.
  • Merchandise: If you’re an established artist, you can start selling your work on merchandise like cups, books, calendars, and whatnot. And you can use your Instagram to drive traffic to your shop.

You can read how bloggers make money with their blogs here. I will be giving more examples further along in this post.

The main benefit of starting an art blog – Building a Brand

If you have your own website, there’s nothing like it.

It becomes way easier for people to book you for art services. For instance, when I started this blog, the number of clients I got each month shot up the roof.

People would look at my work on Instagram and then head to my website to see more examples or read about my process and instantly hit me up via my Contact Form.

Not to mention a lot of people ended up finding me via Google Search. You’re now casting your net wider, so the chances of picking up opportunities skyrocket.

This post includes affiliate links to products I truly (from the bottom of my heart) recommend, meaning at no extra cost to you, I may earn a small percentage which I will use to buy my poor dogs food.

Stray Curls Angela has two adorable labrador girls.

 

1. Choose your Art niche

When you create an Art Blog, you need to be very consistent with your niche.

If you are working with animation, let your blog be about that.

If you are working with digital art and comics, your art blog needs to focus on that.

Google loves consistency, and it ranks websites higher if they are extremely focused. They look at your posts and see your keywords, and understand what your art blog is all about.

So, keep your art blog very unified. It will become easier to grow.

Narrowing down your art niche is very important. This is the only way to get traffic to your art blog.

You would have noticed the same thing on Instagram.

You’ll see that most Accounts grow faster when they are focused on one type of post. Some accounts post just quotes. Some post just traditional art. Some make only comics, and they find it really easy to grow their Instagram account to 100K+ followers.

Google as a Search Engine works pretty much the same way.

If you understand how SEO works as an artist, you will be ahead of most in your field- I guarantee that.

2. Choose a name for your new Art Blog

You don’t have to break your head about this.

It just needs to feel authentic to you. If you’ve had an Instagram account for a while, chances are you already have a brand name. You can use your name too!

No biggie.

I decided to go with Stray Curls because I have curly hair, and at the time, I was publishing curly hair comics.

Stray Curls is named after my curly hair comics.

The name stuck, and it’s officially my Brand Name.

3. Choose a Domain Name

domain name is your website URL.

E.g.: (www.google.com or www.yahoo.com or www.straycurls.com) and your hosting is the space where your website will live – imagine it as a house where your little blog is going to stay.

It is difficult to stay indoors but it's better to be home than go out at this point and risk infection. So stay at home and stay safe!

First, we will name your Blog baby and then buy it a house for it to stay in.

How to come up with a good Domain Name?

The first step in choosing a domain name is to not fret about it too much.

Here are a few tips on choosing a good name:

  1. Never keep your domain name too long. It will become confusing for repeat visitors. Write it down on a piece of paper to see if it looks okay first.
  2. Make sure that your domain is easy to spell.
  3. Choose a .com because it’s universal and won’t become confusing.
  4. For inspiration, look up your competitors who have art blogs. Do not keep it similar to theirs; you want to stand out!
  5. When all else fails, go with your own name. See how Lisa Glanz is rocking her Blog.
  6. Think of what you want to be remembered for and use words that resonate with that!

4. Choose a Good Hosting

Please don’t go with free hosting:

Do not ever choose a free hosting platform.

I know that when you’re just starting your Art Blog, you’re not keen on spending too much money.

I get it.

But the main problem with free hosting is that your website will look like this – wwww.imabigartist.wordpress.com or www.imabigartist.weebly.com – ugh.

It really doesn’t look good for your image.

And when readers stumble upon your art blog, they’re going to take one look at that URL and go, “Eh, this person can’t even spend money on a decent website; they’re obviously not a professional. I’m outta here!”

Because it’s just how people think.

Remember, people ain’t stupid.

Free hosting will undermine the quality of your blog, and it’s going to be really hard to make money with your art blog.

It’s sad and unethical, but everyone does indeed judge a book by its cover.

And if that doesn’t convince you, here are a few more reasons why you should not start a blog for free:

  1. Affiliate Marketing becomes impossible. It’s difficult to apply to Affiliate Programs when you have a blog on free Hosting. No Brand or Company would want to be associated with a free blog. It tarnishes their image.
  2. You cannot place ads freely. Getting accepted into Ad programs becomes very hard because of the reason mentioned above.
  3. You can lose everything without any notice. Tomorrow, the free blogging platform you’ve chosen can close down, and your website will be wiped clean. Or they can change the rules, and you’ll have to start from scratch. It’s extremely risky!
  4. Ranking on Search Engines is close to impossible. You can say goodbye to your search rankings because Google will never rank free websites in their Search Results. Remember, they want to provide only the best user experience to their readers.
  5. Your domain will look hideous. This will automatically drive people away.

Your Domain, Hosting, and Website Theme are the 3 things you should not compromise with your Art Blog.

Want to develop your art skills and make money with your art and drawings? Take this free email course

Which host to choose?

There are many Hosting Companies to choose from, and when you’re just starting, it’s good to start with a cheap hosting platform.

This way, you can test the waters before dipping yourself in completely!

When you're just starting a blog, it's okay to choose a cheaper hosting platform. This is the best way to test the waters and see if your Blog will make you money. That way you're not losing anything.

If you start gaining an audience and realize that blogging is indeed meant for you, then you can move on to faster and better-paid hosting.

The Best Host for Blogging Newbies

*whips out her pokéball*

I choose you Bluehost! When you're just starting your Blog, its better to go for a cheaper Hosting Platform. And in my opinion, Bluehost is best for Beginner bloggers!

Man, I can really rock a low ponytail…

I choose you, Dreamhost!

I love Dreamhost because it’s quick, efficient, cost-effective, and reliable.

I’ve been with them for almost 5 years now and all my websites are hosted with them.

It’s the perfect solution for anyone who wants good customer support.

Not only do they have 24/7 customer support, but they also give you a money-back guarantee if you’re not happy.

Now, that’s confidence!

Apart from this, WordPress gets installed automatically!

You’ll also get free SSL.

Ain’t that sweet?

>>CHOOSE DREAMHOST<<

 

Make sure you choose WordPress hosting.

When purchasing, please buy hosting for 1 year so that you don’t have to worry about renewing for a whole year.  You can select the Shared Starter plan.

5. Choosing a WordPress Theme

Okay, now comes the most interesting part of creating your art blog – choosing the WordPress theme.

Here’s a lovely WordPress theme for artists, illustrators, animators, storybook artists, etc.:

Illustrator is a very pretty wordpress theme for Illustrators and artists.

It comes with 15 different pre-designed layouts. So, you can choose one that you fancy.

This is one of the best WordPress themes for Artists

>CHECK OUT ILLUSTRATOR THEME HERE<<

An alternate theme:

Divi is personally a favorite among Bloggers because it allows Bloggers to get whatever they want via drag-and-drop.

Yep.

No coding.

Additionally, it allows Google to index your website extremely easily. This is something you want because it will help you get onto the front page of Google’s Search Results!

Elegant Themes is constantly updating and adding new themes to its library. They also have wonderful customer support.

This is most important when you are buying a theme for your WordPress Website.

It’s a very elegant solution.

Elegant Themes - Divi is a beautiful theme for Bloggers. It's a drag and drop theme and is extremely flexible!

Because if you are unable to figure out something, you don’t want to be left in the dark.

Their Support Team will help you with any doubts or difficulties that you may have. And Elegant Themes is straightforward to use, especially if you’re a newbie blogger with no prior website building experience.

What I love about Divi is that it’s extremely stylish and customizable. See how easy their drag-and-drop feature is!

Divi is a drag-and-drop theme that is extremely flexible and stylish!

Did I mention that when you purchase Divi, you get over 800+ premade website layouts?

Divi comes with over 800+ premade website layouts! You don't need to struggle with complicated website designs anymore! Just pick what suits your fancy.

This basically eliminates the need to get a Designer because you’ll have so many pre-made layouts to choose from! This is super useful if you don’t want to waste time figuring out how to design your website!

And if you buy Divi, you will get access to future pre-made layouts!

Note: Whenever you are picking a WordPress Theme, pick a theme that has a lot of demos and pre-made layouts like the two I’ve mentioned above. This makes it easy to change the look of your website without having to buy another theme.

>>CHECK OUT DIVI HERE<<

 

6. Add the necessary Pages for your Art Blog

1. Homepage

When people land on your website, they need to know in less than 5 seconds that you’re an artist, and they should understand who you serve.

There are a few things you can display on your home page:

  • A little excerpt about yourself and a small button leading to your About Page
  • Your most popular pieces
  • A small description of your services/products plus links leading back to them.
  • Include relevant keywords in your art niche on your Home Page. This will boost your SEO.

2. About Page

Sometimes when your readers are going through your blog posts, they will get curious and want to know who’s the person behind that piece of art.

So, they’re going to peek at your About page.

This is, by far, the most important page in your Blog.

When you’re writing your About Page, you can include:

  • A little history about yourself: How old you are, where you live, and why you started art. When people know what drove you to draw or create art, they will identify your passion and relate to you better.
  • Whom your art blog serves: Write a little bit about why you’re writing your blog and whom your blog is for.

Additionally, you can read this post to learn how to write an extraordinary About Page for your website.

3. Contact/Reach Me Page

If your readers love you and want to hire you to make them a commissioned piece, they should be able to contact you.

Aside from that, Companies and Brands will want to reach out to you for sponsored content or hire you as an artist.

Have your Contact Page visible so that these people find it easy to write to you. Additionally, the more open and approachable you look, the faster you build trust.

7. What should I put on my art blog?

Now that your art blog is ready, it’s time to create content for your art blog.

It's now time to fill your art blog with content and posts

There are loads of post ideas you can come up with:

  1. What got you started with your art? How did you develop and study your type of art? This is a post you can keep updating each year as you progress as an artist.
  2. What tools do you use? Show your Work in Progress.
  3. Talk about your latest piece and what inspired that.
  4. How do you work with people? Is there an interesting client that you had to work with?
  5. How do you overcome artist blocks? What do you do to get your mojo back?
  6. Include tips for other artists that are starting in your niche.
  7. Have you ever come across a roadblock? What did you do to move past it?
  8. Your favorite resources on your type of art.
  9. Create a drawing challenge and ask your readers to join you!

Include a lot of images in your blog posts.

You’re an artist, and your blog should be extremely visual. If you are a traditional artist, you will need to take many photos and embed them in your posts.

If you’re looking to learn how to write an SEO-intensive blog post, I have a guide that will help you.

8. Promote your art blog and grow your blog traffic

1. Social Media is gonna be your best friend

Now that you know how to create great quality blog posts, it’s time to learn the importance of promoting.

You cannot write your blog post and then sit quietly, expecting people to find it.

It doesn’t work for a while because SEO takes some time to kick in.

I know this because I did the exact thing during my first 2 months of blogging and got crickets.

The key is to be patient and promote your content on all the social media that brings you the most traffic. You can use Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

See how Lucy Knisley posts on Twitter to keep her following engaged:

You can use Twitter to show your work to your followers and drive traffic to your blog

If you’re looking for a guide on Pinterest, read the current Pinterest strategies I’m using in 2021 that actually work!

Note: If you would like to see more blogging tips on your Pinterest Feed, then be sure to follow me so we can be Pinterest buddies!

After Pinterest, the second-best Social Media is Facebook.

Facebook can bring you many views each month if you space out your posts and post about 4-5 times a day.

After one month of blogging, you can start recording your stats in a notebook. Keep a notebook aside for coming up with blog post ideas and recording your social media stats.

Ultimately, your time should be divided like this – 25% blog post creation and 75% blog post promoting.

Want to develop your art skills and make money with your art and drawings? Take this free email course

2. Join Blogging/Art communities

Aside from marketing on social media, keep aside time to join FB groups to be part of a community where you can share your views and get help related to Blogging/Art.

It’s nice to help others because when you offer help and advice to others in your shoes 1 year ago, you make friends and establish yourself as an authority on the subject.

Try and not to spam FB groups with links to your blog posts unless necessary. However, if someone has asked for a resource and you have one, you may post a link to your blog post only if the admin allows it.

Furthermore, when you make online friends and have accountability buddies, you can keep tabs on each other and be constantly motivated to work on your Blog!

Having an accountability partner will help you stay motivated and increase your productivity!

3. Comment on other art blogs

There are tons of ways to market your blog for free, and this is by far the best one!

Whenever you like a blog post and find it valuable – don’t just leave.

Write a comment.

Ask a question.

Keep the conversation going wherever you go.

Not only does this help you build relationships with artists and bloggers, but it also makes you visible on the Blogging Map.

Comment on at least 3-4 blog posts every single day. This will help you get noticed in the blogging community. Make sure your comments are detailed and well-thought.

Here are a few posts to help you gain blog traffic:

9. Monetize your art blog

Don’t add ads to your blog in the beginning.

Aim for at least 2000 pageviews a month initially because it’s nice to gain some traffic before you monetize your blog.

If you’re a Beginner Blogger and want to grow faster and better, just check out my Blogging Bundle.

Grow your blog from scratch with this lovely Blogging Bundle. Start your blog on the right foot and grow your traffic exponentially with this Blogging Bundle which includes my Traffic eBook, my 45 page Blog Planner and my Holiday Traffic eBook!


RELATED POST: 27 HACKS TO BECOME AN ULTRA PRODUCTIVE BLOGGER + FREE 12 PAGE BLOG PLANNER

Different Monetization Methods

Once you start a blog and get around 10,000 views, you can follow the below steps to make money from your Blog.

  1. Ads – When you’re starting, ads are a good way to make some extra chunk change. But for this to work, you need to have many views because you only get paid if people click on these or buy something by clicking on them.
  2. Affiliates – Being an affiliate for a product means you provide a link to a product (that you are an affiliate for), and if someone clicks on that link and makes a purchase, the company provides you with a little commission at no extra cost to the person who clicked on the link.
  3. Products – I’ve made a lot of printables and eBooks that I sell in my shop. And you can too. You can either start a shop on Etsy or Creative Market or sell your products on your blog, like selling my ebooks on mine. If you are selling products on your own blog, consider using SendOwl. It has zero transaction fees, only a small monthly fee of $9. Offer a discount code to first-time buyers to encourage more sales.
  4. Services – Advertise your services on your very own Services Page. Let people know what you’re good at so they can hire you with a click of a button.
  5. Sponsored Posts – Write emails to brands you want to collaborate with, asking them if you can write a review featuring their product. It’s a great way to earn money at the beginning of your blogging journey and earn some recognition.

Here are a few resources to help you understand more about Blog Monetization:

If you like reading and you’re looking for a resource to learn how to create a blog, calculate your profitability and feasibility for each monetization technique so that you can implement the right ones for your Blog, then I suggest you check out my 270+ page eBook that will teach you every single strategy I’ve adopted for mine!

This eBook will teach you to start a blog and integrate services, products and content in your Blog so that you can make money blogging! Learn how to start an online business that makes money from the start!

Additionally, you can download my free 12 page Blog Planner right here.

Download my free 12 page printable blog planner that will make blogging more fun!

Some examples of Art Blogs I love

Loish has her own Art Blog, and it’s absolutely beautiful. Loish makes money via Patreon, her art books, and client work.

The Art of Loish is one of the most beautiful art blogs I've ever seen. This is how you start an art blog and then grow it to become a full-time business.

Amy has a lovely blog called Pikaland. She makes money via her courses and consultations.

Pikaland is a lovely blog dedicated to helping other artists

Then there is Sara from Brown Paper Bag, one of the most visually aesthetic art blogs I’ve ever seen. She makes money curating art and does affiliate marketing.

 

Sarah makes money via her art blog using affiliate marketing

Is this the end?

No.

Once you start your art blog, you’ve taken one step further and become a professional artist.

I know I’ve covered many points, and I know it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

Hey, I feel you.

Therefore, make sure you bookmark this article so you can keep coming back to it and read it at your own pace.

I’m pretty sure my dogs have their own blogs too.

Right now, every person and their dog has a blog. Learn how to start a blog with my super easy step-by-step guide!

But the secret to a successful blog, little grasshopper, is never to stop trying.

Here are a few posts to help you get past those initial hurdles:

And that brings us to a close.

I wish you all the best with starting your Blog!

So, what is your Blog about? Let me know in the comments below.

And if this post helped you learn something new, be a doll and share it with the world.