This document summarizes a senior project for creating an artist's blog. It includes an introduction outlining the goals of researching how to build an effective blog and using text analysis to examine existing successful art blogs. The methods section displays a fake call for proposals for help constructing the blog and presents the results of analyzing other blogs. Two sample blogs created by the student are included. The discussion reflects on what was learned and how it will help with writing, art, and PR. An annotated bibliography and references are also provided.

1. Senior Project
In
Communications
Furious Painter Web-BLog
By Brandon Orbanosky
At
The University of Maryland
April 24, 2015

2. 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction to Project ………………………..………...…3
Methods ………………………………...…. 4
Call for Proposal ………………………...…………. 5
Text Analysis ………………………………...…. 9
Results ………………………..……...…. 13
Furious Painter Blog 1 …………………………..…...…. 14
Furious Painter Blog 2 ………………...……………...….16
Discussion …………………..…………...…. 18
Annotated Bibliography ……………………..………...…. 20
References ……………..………………...…. 22

3. 3
Introduction to Project
The main purpose of this original project is to research, for myself as an artist, how to build,
write and produce an artist’s web-blog (blog). The methods portion of the project will
display a fictitious call for proposals (CFP) to have writers, web site developers and public
relation (PR) firms bid on the job of writing and constructing an effective blog and building
an Internet presence. The methods portion of this project also includes original research of
a text analysis (TA) to examine existing successful art blogs. The results portion of the
project will display two of my written and produced Furious Painter blogs. Then in the
discussion portion of the project, I will examine what I have learned from completing this
project and explain how this knowledge will help me in the future as a writer, artist and PR
practitioner. Additionally, I will include an annotated bibliography discussing the relevance
the listed references had on my project. Finally, I will include a list of references for all
sourced materials revealing where I found all the information to complete this project.

4. 4
Methods
The methods portion of the project displays a fictitious CFP to have writers, web site
developers and PR firms bid on the job of writing and constructing an effective blog and
building an Internet presence. The CFP method gave me a fictitious audience to write to
including writers, website developers and PR firms. This also gave me the avenue to do the
actual research and development needed to create an artist blog, but in reality, I am the
writer, website developer and PR firm.
Additionally, included in the methods section is a copy of the original research I completed
in the form of a TA to examine existing successful art blogs. This method of research was
used to further understand what it takes to create and artist blog. To be more specific the
TA was used to dissect important factors that made an artist blog successful. Those factors
included the visual appeal, how often the blog was updated with fresh material, and how
connected the artist blog was to other sites and blogs.

5. 5
BrandonOrbanoskyArt.com
Createa Blog and Internet Presence
Call for Proposals
Issue Date: May 7, 2015
Submission Deadline: May 21, 2015
Request To: Writers, Website Developers and PR Firms

6. 6
Statement of Problem
My business venture BrandonOrbanoskyArt.com needs help building, writing and constructing
an effective blog and manufacturing an Internet presence. The primary goal of this project is to
accumulate a large following of readers of the Furious Painter web-blog. The secondary goal of
this project is amplifying interest and linking the website BrandonOrbanoskyArt.com to the
Furious Painter web-blog. The tertiary goal of this project is increasing interest in my artwork
and myself as an artist. The hope is an upsurge in readership for the blog will lead to interest in
my artwork and increased flow of Internet traffic to my storefront at BrandonOrbanoskyArt.com.
Creating an overall superior presence on Internet and growing the potential sales and profits for
BrandonOrbanoskyArt.com. Finally, when these goals have been met it will lead to increased
opportunities to show my artwork in galleries, and enlarge my popularity in pop culture and the
art world.
Background Information
Creating images from what I see in my everyday life is the inspiration for my pieces. Visiting the
local aquarium, racetrack or in my travels to places like Japan or Italy I found detail and color in
normal everyday life experiences. Exploring various perspectives and using light and dark tones
to delineate space transforming the two-dimensional plane of a canvas into a three dimensional
creation. Painting is a way I can express the way I see and interpret the world and letting others
in on my perception. The website BrandonOrbanoskyArt.com was created to have another
avenue to show my art and create a larger presence in the art world. This has led to my first show
“Orange and Blue” at the Pacific Grove Art Center displaying 25 paintings for six weeks in the
historic Boyer Gallery. To build on this successes my next venture will be to add an art blog to
go along with the BrandonOrbanoskyArt.com website.
Scope of Work
Writers, website developers and PR firms must understand their proposal must demonstrate how
they can build a popular blog and Internet presence. The scope of the project will include why
my audience will be attracted to read the Furious Painter web-blog. Good examples should
include how the Furious Painter blog could simplify techniques to create interesting and
beautiful paintings. The information presented on the blog would include short articles on what I
have been up to daily, photography of sketches of current paintings and short video clips. The
blog could ask readers for help for new ideas for projects or just have general questions about art
or social issues in the articles to inspire a conversation in the comment section. Consumers
would be the target audience but general readers and other artists could be interested in reading
the blog as well. The focus of the blog should be more than art and the techniques to create it, but
should also focus on the trials and tribulations an artist goes through in creating it. This must be
portrayed in a humorous way to keep readers interested. The main focus should be me, and
presenting my personality to the public. The blog should present fresh interesting material daily
to keep people coming back and reading more… and eventually interested enough to buy my
paintings.

7. 7
Audience Analysis
My primary audience for the Call for Proposal (CFP) is writers, web site developers and PR
firms, but they need to know what my blog audience will like. A great example written in an
article, “Why Most Artists’ Blogs Fail” stated that the blog must set an example for the readers
and stand out for something that resonates, “…leads them to somewhere that they also want to
go” (MacLeod, 2010). The readers of the Furious Painter blog will not read it because they are
thinking of buying my paintings. They will read my blog because they enjoy the way I approach
my work and appreciate the funny stories and problems I encounter while creating the artwork
(MacLeod, 2010).
Writers, web site developers and PR firms must also consider my secondary audience of art
collectors, art curators, other web-blogs, and other artists who could possibly link to the Furious
Painter web-blog.
Writers, web site developers and PR firms must also consider my tertiary audience of Facebook,
Twitter, MySpace, Pinterest accounts, and video-sharing sites like YouTube and Dailymotion.
Blog Requirements
Proposals submitted should have two different samples of blogs showing how the homepage will
appear. The sample blogs will consist of an article no shorter than 350 words and display a
working layout to include artwork that will be presented along with the article. The header,
article title and main body of text fonts should be labeled for review. The proposed blog should
have a simple and easy way to have readers subscribe and follow the blog. The proposed blog
should have a really simple syndication feed (RSS) to allow automatic feed to different
networking sites. The networking sites should include Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace,
Pinterest, Google+, YouTube and Dailymotion.
Proposals submitted should have a place for readers to email me and a way to automatically
collect all the email addresses. The proposed blog should have a section readers can post ideas
for future blogs or possible painting projects. The proposed blog should have a social proof
section to show how many followers or viewers it currently has. The proposed blog should have
links to BrandonOrbanoskyArt.com and other artist blogs who would be willing to display the
Furious Painter link on their sites.
The proposed blog should also have a video bar to play the latest time-lapse videos that I have
created. The videos should be rated and the most popular video displayed first for readers to
view.

8. 8
Budget & Financing
I have completed some initial research to verify a range for the proposed bids to be included as
part of the proposals. Researching multiple sources and from the article “How Much Should a
Web Design Cost?” I was able to get some generic figures to create a web-blog. For the
proposals to be considered all the bids for the Furious Painter blog will be in the range of $1,500
to $3,000. These web-blogs should include current CMS Platform (WordPress, MovablType,
Drupal, etc.) and have unique styling elements. The proposed blog should also breakdown
individual costs of key requirements to include; graphic comps produced in Photoshop, graphical
splicing for optimal cascading style sheet/extensible hypertext markup language (CSS/XHTML)
structure, CSS/ server-side included hypertext markup language (SHTML) production in
standard-compliant fashion, unique CSS/XHTML adaptation to CMS platform of choice, and
bells-and –whistles functionality to meet my requirements.
Evaluation Criteria
The proposed web-blogs will be evaluated and rated using a four-point scale, four being the best.
The first and most important evaluation and rating will be based on the overall visual appeal of
the proposed Furious Painter web-blog. Secondly, the proposed blog will be rated on how
connected it is to social media and other Internet sites. Thirdly, the proposed blog will be rated
on how much free information is available on the blog for readers to download. Fourthly, the
blog selected will have an RSS feed and links to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace,
Pinterest, Google+, YouTube and Dailymotion. Fifthly, the blog will be rated on the quality of
writing, specifically looking for grammar, syntax, and spelling errors. Sixthly, the blog must
meet all the listed requirements to receive consideration and evaluation. Lastly, an overall
evaluation and rating of the entire blog package will also be given for each submission.

9. 9
Text Analysis
Text Analysis of Successful Artist Web-Blog
This research study will question: What makes an art blog successful? The study was a
textual analysis of 435 art blogs found on the Internet using the words “Top Artist Blogs” as
the criteria of the Internet search. Four coders were selected to review the art blogs for
possible materials or subjects that lead to an interesting and successful blog. After
reviewing the art blogs, data was collected from the attributes and factors found on each
blog.
Methods for Textual Analysis
The techniques for this textual analysis are standard. The analysis categories were
determined from indication markers found in a Google query “What makes a art blog
successful?” The coding process and training were developed next. Then population and
samples were determined from an actual count and an online sample calculator.
Analysis Categories. The following Nine specific influence markers were coded in this study:
1. Is the home page and overall blog visually appealing?
Factor 1.1 Very appealing
Factor 1.2 Appealing
Factor 1.3 Not Appealing
Factor 1.4 Dreadful
2. How frequently is fresh content added to the blog?
Factor 2.1 More than once a day
Factor 2.2 Once a day
Factor 2.3 Once a week
Factor 2.4 Once a month
3. Is the blog connected to other blogs?
Factor 3.1 Yes
Factor 3.2 No
4. Does the blogger comment on the conversations in the blog?
Factor 4.1 Yes
Factor 4.2 No
5. How many subscribers of followers does the blog have?
Factor 5.1 Zero to 10 subscribers or followers
Factor 5.2 11 to 100 subscribers or followers
Factor 5.3 101 to 1000 subscribers or followers
Factor 5.4 1001 to 10,000 subscribers or followers
Factor 5.5 10,001 to 100,000 subscribers or followers
Factor 5.6 100,000 plus
Factor 5.7 Information not available
6. Can you get free information or downloads on the blog?

10. 10
Factor 6.1 Yes
Factor 6.2 No
7. Is the blogger Male or Female?
Factor 7.1 Female
Factor 7.2 Male
Factor 7.3 Information not Available
8. What age is or do you consider the blogger to be?
Factor 8.1 18-25 years old
Factor 8.2 26-35 years old
Factor 8.3 36-45 years old
Factor 8.4 45-55 years old
Factor 8.5 56 and older
Factor 8.6 Information not available
9. Which of the following best represents the bloggers race or ethnicity (please check
the about section for a photo of the blogger or connected Facebook page)?
Factor 9.1 Non-Hispanic White or Euro-American
Factor 9.2 Black, Afro-Caribbean, or African American
Factor 9.3 Latino or Hispanic American
Factor 9.4 East Asian or Asian American
Factor 9.5 South Asian or Indian American
Factor 9.6 Middle Eastern or Arab American
Factor 9.7 Native American or Alaskan Native
Factor 9.8 Other
Population and Sample. The population of texts for analysis was defined as artist blogs that
are currently available on the Internet.
This population was determined by an actual count as follows. This count was the result of
a search on the Internet with Google using the words “Top Artist Blogs.” The first five pages
with a total of 50 listings were scavenged to find all top artist blogs. After the first five
pages of the Internet search the pages started to repeat with the same information and web
pages. This led to a total population size of top art blogs of 435 available to review. The
population was 435 top art blogs which the random calculator determining that a sample
size for that population at a 95% confidence level must be 204, this was with a confidence
interval of + or – 2.18% (Creative Research Systems, 2012).
Population: 435
Sample: 204
Coding Process & Training. All four coders were selected for convenience (the researcher,
wife, daughter and son). The coders were given a data sheet to record their reviews of 51 of
the 204 top art blogs. Coders went through all nine specific influence markers entering
their review for each factor. Each coder was given a different list of 51 so all-204 top art
blogs were reviewed. There were a total or 38 factors to apply to the top art blogs, but

11. 11
while completing the coding we realized that factor 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 were to specific. The
blogs were sometimes updated in varying time spans and had to average the time between
uploading new content to review those factors. When coding the top artist blogs we also
noticed that coding demographics was difficult because most blogs did not display pictures
of the bloggers. This led to a majority of the bloggers to be rated as other (factor 9.8).
Results of the Textual Analysis
The research concluded the majority, 46% (factor 1.3) of top artist blogs were not visually
appealing. Most blogs 55% (factor 2.4) were not updated regularly with new material only
being added on a monthly basis. Most blogs did not list their total subscribers giving us an
unreliable 75% (factor 5.1) of the blogs having zero to 10 subscribers or followers. An
astounding 77% (factor 6.1) showed that most of the top artist blogs offer free information
and downloads for their readers. Demographics were difficult to measure because the
personal information of sex, age and ethnicity were not usually available. Out of the 60% of
the blogs we were able to identify the sex (factor 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3), 58% were female with
41% being male. Top artist bloggers rarely add additional comments after they have
uploaded material to the blog. This was measured by looking at all the comments added by
readers to see if the blogger would get involved in the conversation. Only 4% (factor 4.1)
of the time did the blogger respond to reader comments posted on the website.
Discussion
The data collected was very telling but what was more telling were the low percentages we
received in measuring certain factors. If the blog was visually appealing does not seem to
be important. What seems to be more important is the artwork itself, and what style of
artwork is displayed. This might indicate that stimulating information loaded rarely can
still lead to a successful blog and the frequency of new material being added is not as
important.
Table 1
Top Artist Blog Coding Results
Coder 1 Coder 2 Coder 3 Coder 4 Totals
Factor 1.1 7 8 6 9 30 15%
Factor 1.2 15 15 14 16 60 29%
Factor 1.3 24 23 22 25 94 46%
Factor 1.4 2 1 1 2 6 3%
Factor 2.1 4 2 3 3 12 6%
Factor 2.2 9 9 7 11 36 18%

12. 12
Factor 2.3 9 8 8 9 34 17%
Factor 2.4 26 30 27 29 112 55%
Factor 3.1 21 20 22 19 82 40%
Factor 3.2 26 28 25 29 108 53%
Factor 4.1 2 2 1 3 8 4%
Factor 4.2 46 46 45 47 184 90%
Factor 5.1 38 38 37 39 152 75%
Factor 5.2 1 4 0 5 10 5%
Factor 5.3 3 2 4 1 10 5%
Factor 5.4 1 0 0 1 2 1%
Factor 5.5 1 0 1 0 2 1%
Factor 5.6 0 0 0 0 0 0%
Factor 5.7 4 4 5 3 16 8%
Factor 6.1 40 39 41 38 158 77%
Factor 6.2 9 9 11 7 36 18%
Factor 7.1 14 22 15 21 72 35%
Factor 7.2 14 11 13 12 50 25%
Factor 7.3 20 15 21 14 70 34%
Factor 8.1 1 1 0 2 4 2%
Factor 8.2 6 3 3 6 18 9%
Factor 8.3 7 4 6 5 22 11%
Factor 8.4 3 4 5 2 14 7%
Factor 8.5 1 1 0 2 4 2%
Factor 8.6 29 35 27 37 128 63%
Factor 9.1 13 8 14 7 42 21%
Factor 9.2 1 2 0 3 6 3%
Factor 9.3 0 0 0 0 0 0%
Factor 9.4 0 0 0 0 0 0%
Factor 9.5 0 0 0 0 0 0%
Factor 9.6 2 1 0 3 6 3%
Factor 9.7 0 0 0 0 0 0%
Factor 9.8 33 36 34 35 138 68%

13. 13
Results
I was able to write and produce two artist blogs as a result of completing the CFP and TA.
The artist blog is called the Furious Painter and the two stories are titled What The Sketch
and To Blog or Not to Blog. I used the online program that blogspot.com offers to create a
blog platform. The blog offers places for readers to comment, subscribe, link to other
readers, link to my website BrandonOrbanoskyArt.com and find out more information
about me. The blog also lists all the blogs entries for readers to find different stories they
might be interested in.

14. 14

15. 15
Tuesday, April 24, 2015
What the Sketch!
Sketched out the “Crabby” painting on canvas…that was fun and took me about an hour. I
videoed myself drawing out the sketch on canvas with my GoPro camera.
Three quarters into sketching out my drawing the camera beeped. It was telling me the
memory was full, so I patiently stopped drawing and took the camera over to my computer
to download the video.
I had set the camera on photography and not video, this was my first frustration. Not the
worst mistake, I can still make a time-lapse video from the photos because the camera was
taking pictures automatically in one-second intervals. I grabbed all the pictures off the
camera and put them into iMovie on my Mac…it said it would take 5 hours to download.
Whatever, I can let it run all-night and then put the movie together in the morning. I quickly
erased all the pictures off the camera and went back to drawing.
I was almost finished and the camera beeped again, I was a little frustrated but not a big
deal, I can download the video and finish the sketch in a few minutes. I grabbed the camera
and noticed it had turned off. The beep was telling me the camera was shutting down, not
that the memory was full. I turned the camera on and noticed there was only one photo
taken. Long story short, I must have changed the settings on the camera when I reset it, and
now I was furious. I almost threw the camera to the ground, but stopped myself…mostly
because my wife was looking at me with a disappointed look.
Here is the sketch on the canvas and quick video of me showing my frustration.

16. 16

17. 17
Thursday, April 16, 2015
To Blog or Not to Blog
To blog or not to blog that is the question I have been asking myself recently. Well, I guess
you can tell what the answer was. Currently, I am finishing up my degree in
communications with a minor in art and now need to start looking for a job. I’m not sure if I
picked the best career field in the current job market, but that was not the point. The point
was doing something I really enjoy. Not to start out bragging or anything but I am actually a
much better painter than writer, as you can probably tell.
My first idea was to write a blog about painting along with the famous Bob Ross. I was
planning to complete each of his paintings and describe my angry fits when it did not go
well. Oh, and I was gong to call the blog “Angry Painter” but the name was already taken
hence “Furious Painter.” It even went through my brain to call the blog “Happy Little
Paintings” or something but that would have probably just caused more problems than it
would have been worth. At this point, I am just going to start writing and painting and see
where it leads.
I just finished painting a painting of paintbrushes. Say that three times fast. I used oils and
it took me about five or six ours to complete. I only threw my paintbrush, no wait it was my
pallet knife, once. I was in the backyard so it really didn’t make a mess. Anyway here is a
bad photo of it…

18. 18
Discussion
I am a painter through and through, but in the world we live in you must do more than just
paint to get your artwork noticed. As an artist, I enjoy creating new works, and my
creativity comes from being able to see the world through a different perspective and the
need for others to see that perspective. I receive joy and fulfillment from my work when
people are able to view my creations. My success in selling paintings though has been
limited, only selling a few paintings in last year. If I want to continue to work solely as an
artist I must sell more. Recently, I was selected to display my work at the Pacific Grove Art
Center for six weeks. I exhibited 25 paintings but was only able to sell one. This fact made
me realize that either my artwork is not marketable or I have not built a market for my
artwork. The art market can be complicated, but it is similar to most business models, you
must build a want or need to buy your product. The more people know about you and
about your product the more likely you are to sell that product.
As my art exhibit was ending, I was faced with completing my final project in my senior
seminar course for communications. The final class I needed to complete my bachelor’s
degree. I was confronted with a major decision. What should my project be about? I did
some brainstorming and decided the project had to do with communications, public
relations, and art since that was the focus of all my studies. The idea was sparked from a
few places. Recently, I have been talking with my brother in law about his furniture
business that is struggling. He asked me for some advice because he also was not selling
many of his pieces. I suggested that he should start blogging about his furniture business.
Write stories about each piece he was building and show his work in a blog to create more
interest in him and his product. I would have never thought about offering this advice if I
had not seen the movie Julie and Julia. The movie is about a writer who decides to cook all
of Julia Child’s recipes and blog about the experience. This led me to the idea of writing a
blog about my artwork and myself. I could kill two birds with one stone, finish my senior
project and build a market for my artwork with a blog.
First, I needed to do some research and develop a plan to build an interesting and
successful art blog. I completed a text analysis on 435 top artist blogs to see what made
them tick. I quickly realized, for an artist blog to be successful it needed interesting and
beautiful artwork and really stimulating stories to go along with them. Keeping the blog
updated with new and fresh material was also important. Pretty simple just be interesting.
That’s frustrating. All that work and that is was all I found, there has to be more. In further
research, I found some credible articles that gave me some great points to think about. One
article I found to be very helpful, “Why Most Artists’ Blogs Fail” stated that the blog must
set an example for the readers and stand out for something that resonates, “…leads them to
somewhere that they also want to go” (MacLeod, 2010). The readers of the artist blog will
not read it because they are thinking of buying my paintings. They will read the blog
because they enjoy the way I approach my work and appreciate the funny stories and
problems I encounter while producing the artwork (MacLeod, 2010).

19. 19
The next step would be writing some form of paper that my professor would accept. I
decided I would write a whole bunch of blogs and put it in a paper, but that did not meet
the project requirements. My professor gave me the idea to write a Call for proposal (CFP).
This ended up being a great idea and helped me decipher and understand all the aspects of
writing, building and producing an art blog. In the CFP, I created a problem statement
where I realized that the primary goal of this project was to accumulate a large following of
readers for my art blog. In the background statement I realized that creating images from
what I see in my everyday life should be the inspiration and would be the reason people
would read the blog. In the scope of work section of the CFP I realized that the information
presented on the blog should include short articles on what I have been up to daily,
photography of sketches and current paintings, and short time lapse video clips of me
drawing and painting. In the audience analysis, I also realized that people would read my
blog because they enjoyed the way I approach my work and appreciated the funny stories
and problems I encountered while creating my paintings. You must also have an easy way
for readers to subscribe to the blog and the blog must be connected with all the latest social
networking sites.
In this project, I learned more about public relations and what it takes to create and
manage a public relations program. First you have to create and interesting subject but
that’s not all, you must continually manage the program and continue to transform the
subject to meet the publics’ interest. This has finally led to the creation of the Furious
Painter artist blog. I have written and produced nine blogs to date, and I do not want this
just to be a project for class but a project for life. Writing and painting takes practice to
become a true professional and a professional is what I want to be. My goal is to continue
this project as a career and see where it takes me. Completing this assignment has taught
me that with any project you must persevere and overcome obstacles, but this will only
happen if you a willing to receive support from others and listen to those who have come
before you.

20. 20
Annotated Bibliography
A Brief History of Blogging. (2011, March 14). Retrieved April 16, 2015, from
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/03/a-brief-history-of-blogging/
This article is about the relatively short history of what we now call blogging. The article
gives us the first possible blog created back in 1994 by a Swarthmore College student by
the name of Justin Hall. It goes on to tell us that blogging was originally called webloging
and later the name was shortened to blog. It also describes different variations in the types
of blogs from mainstream blogs to microblogs and tumblogs. The article finally describes
the future of blogging and possible growth and innovation in method in which their content
is found, delivered, and accessed.
Budge, K. (2012). Art and design blogs: A socially-wise approach to creativity.
International Journal Of Art & Design Education, 31(1), 44-52. doi:10.1111/j.1476-
8070.2012.01713.x
Art and Design Blogs: a Socially-Wise Approach to Creativity. This article explores artists
using social media in the form of a blog. The article describes an alternative to the normal
depiction that artists focus on themselves. It describes a new way of creating art, and
having the community be part of the creative process. The article also describes the
bloggers slash artists use social media to help build environmental and ethical awareness
instead of focusing on profits and market share.
Davey, B. (2015). ✱ Art Marketing News - Art marketing advice for visual artists
since 2005. Retrieved April 16, 2015, from http://artmarketingnews.com/
This source is a top rated artist blog about art marketing. In the blog Barney Davey gives
advice on little known secrets that successful artist use. The latest blog dated April 16,
2015 starts with the idea up in coming artist should study other successful artists. By
studying the artist he acknowledges three rules to help build a successful art career. One is
to concede to stop flying by the seat of your pants: two is to constantly improve and ramp
up your career; three is to track what you are doing. This could involve tracking sales, what
type of work of yours is selling, cost of customer acquisition, and which marketing efforts
are paying off.
O'Brien, T. (2010). Tighten up: Sure you can blog, but can you write?. Public Relations
Tactics, 17(2), 19.
Tighten up: Sure you can blog, but can you write? This article describes what it takes to
write an interesting blog. First, you must have something to say, or know what you want to
say. Second, don’t put your first draft on the Web. Third, make sure that your posts are self-
contained meaning that the reader is not sent to other websites with links in your blog text.
The article further describes writing do’s and don’ts.

21. 21
Pearson, C. (2011, April). How Much Should a Web Design Cost? Retrieved April 24,
2015, from
http://www.pearsonified.com/2006/06/how_much_should_a_design_cost.php
The article “How Much Should a Web Design Cost?” helped me verify a range for proposed bids
to build a blog from scratch. For the proposals to be considered all the bids for the Furious
Painter blog should be in the range of $1,500 to $3,000. These web-blogs should include current
CMS Platform (WordPress, MovablType, Drupal, etc.) and have unique styling elements.
Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Have an Art Blog. (2015). Retrieved April 16, 2015,
from http://www.lightspacetime.com/art-blog/top-3-reasons-why-you-should-
have-an-art-blog/
This blog is attached to an online gallery called Light Space and Time. The blog describes
three reasons why you should have an art blog when you are an artist. The first reason is it
will increase the traffic to you website. The thinking behind this is that it can create more
interest in your art and ultimately direct visitors to your blog to your website. It goes on to
describe that successful art blogs will contain art articles and posts and have guest art
bloggers provide related content. You could also have experts contribute articles about
specialties in the art field and you could also allow and encourage comments from visitors.
Finally, you should have art related links to other blogs and websites.
Wilmot, T. (2015, April 14). Original Watercolours by Tim Wilmot. Retrieved April
16, 2015, from http://wizard-systems.typepad.com/tim_wilmots_paintings/
This is a blog written by a watercolor painter by the name of Tim Wilmot. This blog is about
the art and a description of each piece of art he posts. He is very frequent in adding new
material to the blog, posting ever few days with new work. The blog also offers information
on past blogs in an archive, profile section, photo to painting service and a section to buy
paintings. The blog does not focus on the techniques or stories that occur while he is
painting. This blogs seems more like a website store front rather than a conventional blog if
there is a conventional blog.
Now that I have collected all this information, I am more interested in doing further
research to find more information on creating a successful blog. Just by doing the searches
for resources for my project I now have a focus on what needs to be accomplished in
creating a blog, and where I can actual set up the blog. The information I found has also
answered questions as to what I should and should not write about. The artist blogs I found
focused more on the art and not on the techniques to create it and the stories that go along
with problems and successes while making art. I want the blog to be about art but I also
want the blog to be about fun stories of my personal experiences creating it.

22. 22
References:
A Brief History of Blogging. (2011, March 14). Retrieved April 16, 2015, from
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/03/a-brief-history-of-blogging/
Budge, K. (2012). Art and Design Blogs: a Socially-Wise Approach to Creativity.
International Journal Of Art & Design Education, 31(1), 44-52. doi:10.1111/j.1476-
8070.2012.01713.x
Creative Research Systems. (n.d.). Retrieved May 5, 2015, from
http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm
Davey, B. (2015). ✱ Art Marketing News - Art marketing advice for visual artists since 2005.
Retrieved April 16, 2015, from http://artmarketingnews.com/
J. (2014, January 12). Jenny's Noodle. Retrieved April 16, 2015, from
http://jennysnoodle.blogspot.com/
Macleod, H. (2010, January 14). Why most artists’ blogs fail. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from
http://gapingvoid.com/2010/06/14/wmabf/
O'Brien, T. (2010). Tighten up: Sure you can blog, but can you write?. Public Relations Tactics,
17(2), 19.
Pearson, C. (2011, April). How Much Should a Web Design Cost? Retrieved April 24, 2015,
from
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pearsonified.com%2F2006%2F06%2Fhow_much_should_a_d
esign_cost.php
Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Have an Art Blog. (2015). Retrieved April 16, 2015, from
http://www.lightspacetime.com/art-blog/top-3-reasons-why-you-should-have-an-art-
blog/
Wilmot, T. (2015, April 14). Original Watercolours by Tim Wilmot. Retrieved April 16, 2015,
from http://wizard-systems.typepad.com/tim_wilmots_paintings/