Lisa Call

Structures #9    ©2002    31"x31"

Alyson made the following comment on my Blogging as Popularity Contest post last week:

… Your blog works, your blog is popular precisely because you share in an authentic way. It’s accidental marketing, if you will. And it works so much better than forced sales speak…

That might be true. Maybe my blog is a useful marketing tool even if I don’t think of it as such. Although none of my readers have yet ponied up thousands of dollars to buy my large artwork so I’m not necessarily convinced. [But please, I’m open to the idea of someone proving me wrong so don’t let my opinion stop you from buying some large abstract textile art for your loved one for the holidays. How’s that for marketing? har har…]

 
Alyson continued, in response to this comment of mine: "I write my blog for me - because it helps keep me focused and on task, because I learn about myself and my art by writing about it, and because I’m basically a geek and this is the socially acceptable way for geeks to communicate", by asking:

But would it keep you on task if no one was reading it? Would it be the same if you were writing the same by hand in a journal? Or does it work precisely because so many people are reading it?

First, there is no way I would do this if I had to write it out by hand. The inability to easily edit would be a problem. It is partly my new ability to embrace the revision process when writing these posts that has improved my writing over the last few years.

I do keep a personal journal that I write in about 3-5 nights a week. The focus of the journal the past year has been about gratitude and appreciating the people and world around me. I also work through personal issues, which I rarely write about in my blog, in those pages. I do believe there is value in such a journal but that is not the focus or purpose of my blog.

I think the piece that was missing in my last post is that I also blog for the community that comes with the territory. I implied that in my "I’m a geek and this is how we communicate" comment but it was probably a bit cryptic. I’ve been on the internet since 1983. In 1984 I started reading and posting to the usenet newsgroups and I’ve been involved with online communities ever since.

This form of seemingly private but really public conversations is part of my social, creative and emotional support structure. While I am still a member of 1 email mailing list the majority of my online interaction with other artists is now through blogging and private emails that ensue. I pick the conversations I want to read and those that care about what I have to say can come and read my posts. It’s a great system.

As to the keeping on task, I do think that publicly stating goals gives me a bit of extra incentive to meet those goals. Although I believe in holding myself accountable for my own goals and I don’t post them every week or even every month, yet behind the scenes I’m still working on them. I’ve never tracked it but I suspect I do about equally well with staying on track the weeks I post my goals and the weeks I don’t.

I have to admit I totally failed to meet my goals the last few weeks. I decided to toss them all out and just spend time with my kids before they left. So I did little more than attend kid events and hang out with my kids the last few weeks. We have a new favorite board game called Ticket to Ride. Both the kids and I really enjoy it and noone has to be talked into participating. Or bribed - I used to offer to pay them if they could beat me playing blokus. They won once and now they won’t play anymore, which is a bummer because I really like that game.

My kids are now in Europe (my son says he’s eaten the best indian food ever their first day in London) so I now have 3 months of kid free time to really focus. I’ll get back on track with my art and business goals in a few days but first I’m spending time with friends who I haven’t had much time for given my year, and wrapping up some holiday and personal chores.

 
Paula made the following comment on my last post about goals:

Isn’t having a goal just the same thing as wanting something?

I absolutely agree and it reminds me of the quote I posted a while back:

Discipline is remembering what you want.
- David Campbell

Having the goal is the first part. I find it important to write down what I want.

The second part is the follow through. I find it helpful to break down my goals into small steps to actually achieve them. I find I have the discipline to complete smaller sized tasks and when a goal is huge and parts are unknown I am more reluctant to start working on it. Much of what I post about here are the smaller chunks I break down my goals in to.

 
I didn’t want to have another long wordy post with no pictures so I found some artwork I’ve never posted online. This 5 year old piece was made for a specific exercise in a Nancy Crow workshop years ago.

Structures #84    ©2007    7"x23"

 
Over at Laketrees, Kim Barker has compiled a top 101 artist blog list, based on technorati rating.

A blog’s rating/ranking is calculated as follows (or was when I last saw a note about how this was done): For each in bound link source, 90 days old or less, a blog gets 1 point - total up the points and that’s the blogs "authority rating". The "technorati ranking" is where a blog falls in the big list of all blogs. These numbers go up and down daily as the inbound links age and new ones are added.

I check technorati every so often to see what the inbound links are around in case I miss an important tag (I still owe a 5 random things about me list for stacers). But I never paid much attention to how I ranked in the specific world of art blogs. According to Kim’s list my blog clocks in at #9 of the blogs she identified as being by an artist.

Did I need to know this information? Did I want to know?

 
If I drop down in the list does it mean I’ve become boring? If my rating goes up does it mean you like my new haircut? Do I write and link to others just so they write about me and link back to me? The pressure.

Should I jump on the art link cloud viral tagging started by Casey over on the colorist to get even more links even if it’s not about content and just a link farm?

Okay - I admit - I’m clearly bad at the marketing game - maybe this is what we are supposed to do.

 
Instead I’m going to try to ignore this and just write what is authentic for me to write and not worry about who might or might not link to me as a result. This is the advice I give others - don’t waste time worrying about all that linking and concentrate on content. I believe it is content that keeps people around - not marketing hype or popularity. I read blogs that I find interesting, not ones that other people find interesting. Content is king (or make that queen).

I write my blog for me - because it helps keep me focused and on task, because I learn about myself and my art by writing about it, and because I’m basically a geek and this is the socially acceptable way for geeks to communicate.

If all my inbound links disappeared tomorrow I’d still blog. If noone read what I wrote ever again, I’d still blog (although I’d probably spend less time fixing typos and poor grammar).

This blog, while I suppose a potentially great marketing tool with my popularity, will never be thought of as such by me. I know Alyson, I just don’t get it.

 
The above piece was made a few weeks back when I was making small work for the holiday art market at the arvada center. I hadn’t yet hit upon the idea to make 9 similar pieces and was playing around just having fun.

In my dreams all 9 pieces will sell opening weekend (it opens thursday) and they will call me up and ask for more work, and I’m all ready with new pieces. Maybe if I did more marketing (like sending out the flyers that feature my work to my mailing list) I’d succeed in my goal. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy.