Why You Probably Shouldn’t Start A Blog

Why you probably shouldn’t start a blog

You’ve been clicking around the internet, looking at how you can start your own blog, but now you want to know if there are any reasons why you shouldn’t start a blog.

Hello!
There are so many reasons why you shouldn’t start a blog – where should I start? As with any venture, there are pros and cons, but too often the drawbacks are glossed over by the most vocal proponents. So here are three reasons why you might find that blogging isn’t for you.

Now, let me stress that I’m talking about a commercial, for-profit blog – not a personal blog that’s meant only for fun, friends or family.

Reason 1 – You already have a life.

If you’re like most people, you already have a life. You’ve got some kind of social life, some kind of family life, and likely some kind of job.

Blogging can quickly turn into a full-time job, trust me. If you want to do everything properly to give yourself the best possible chance of building a successful blog, you’ll end up doing a lot of work.

Wait – scratch that – blogging is actually more like five full-time jobs.

There’s writing, taking photographs, creating graphics, posting on social media and sorting the technical aspects of web hosting including search engine optimisation. Then you’ll have to do the admin – negotiating with clients and sorting payments.

If you’re not doing these yourself, you’ll probably end up paying someone else to do them somehow.

You’ll end up squeezing all your blog jobs into that busy life, and probably squeezing something out of it. If you don’t want to stay up late/get up early/put your life on hold to pursue a full-time career that you were promised you could do in your sleep, well, think carefully about it.

You know, you probably shouldn’t start a blog if you’re not prepared to view it as a real job.

Reason 2 – You’ll end up mining your life for material

Instead of just enjoying that meal, you’ll have to take a picture of it.
Instead of just reading that book, you’ll have to type up a quick review of it.
Instead of just having a chat with your partner, you’ll end up conducting an interview.

You’ll end up so caught up in picking out things to write about that you’ll end up living in the third person – thinking about yourself doing things and picking the right words to describe them.

This gets old, and very oppressive, very quickly.

You should definitely think twice about how much of your own life you put into your blog, and how personal you want it to be.

Reason 3 – You’re not guaranteed to make money

Did someone tell you that you could rake in the money just by writing a blog?

Well, you could also win the long jump at the Olympics. It’s a possibility.

Lots of bloggers make money, but it’s not easy money. There are also lots of bloggers who have been slogging away at it and not made a penny.

It can take years to earn a living from a blog – just because someone says they made so many squillion in their first month doesn’t mean that you will, even if you did the same things they did.

There are things you can do to help boost your earning potential or remove roadblocks to earning, but as with any form of self-employment, it’s not guaranteed. There’s always the element of risk.

So ask yourself, “why are there so many bloggers writing about blogging?”

It’s because you’re prime customer material – you probably want to believe.

You will click on their affiliate links for web hosting, domains and “how to blog” books and courses. Blogging about blogging is big business!

Am I saying this because I’m a jaded, unsuccessful blogger? Well, I actually do make money from blogging, and yes, I do have affiliate links for web hosting and domains. I do think that blogging is an exciting, challenging and rewarding industry to be involved in, and I wish I’d known what I was doing back in 2007 when I set up my first website!

I do believe that making a living as a blogger is similar to making a living as an artist – it’s not easy and what works for one person won’t work for another.

You still want to write a blog, don’t you?

You’ve read all of that but you still don’t care – you’re here because you want to write a blog, and you’re gonna jolly well do it no matter what anyone says.

Fine, be that way! But seriously, if you’re determined then that says quite a lot about your chances of going the distance – just don’t be taken for a ride by the promises of easy riches, thousands of visitors overnight and followers beating down your door.

Here are some positive signs that mean blogging might just be ideal for you:

You’re prepared for the work and to learn as you go on
You know it might take years to get where you want to be
You’re enthusiastic about your subject and love talking about it
You want to help your readers

What if it’s not for you?

If you’re debating whether or not to start a blog, but you know your heart isn’t really in it, it might be because you’ve been told that you have to blog in order to promote your business. It’s true; blogging is a great way to drum up noise around your business and products, but when it’s just a necessary evil, it can be hard to gather the enthusiasm to blog in a way that’s meaningful enough to make a dent.

I’ll be looking at options for blogging when you don’t really know what you’re doing, and as I’m an artist, I’ll be approaching it from the aspect of promoting an art business.

Male Muscle Studies – Charcoal Sketches

Male muscle studies – new charcoal sketches available.

I’ve released some charcoal sketches in my “muscle study” range. I’m quite pleased with these drawings – they’re simple but convey a sense of elegance combined with power… and the power of transformation.

All of these drawings are mounted to A5 size – 15cm wide x 21cm high.

Muscle Study 4 by Lee Devonish — Muscle Study 4

First releases of male figure drawings

These featured drawings are mounted to A5 size, and more A4-mounted drawings along this theme are also available.

Muscle Study 5 by Lee Devonish — Muscle Study 5

Muscle Study 6 by Lee Devonish — Muscle Study 6

Muscle Study 7 by Lee Devonish — Muscle Study 7

Original drawings at affordable prices

Originals are available from only £75, but to receive a discount on all work in my store, sign up to be a Patreon patron! Discounts start at 10% – that makes it amazing value just for a very small outlay (as low as £1).

Creating My Home Art Studio

Creating my home art studio:

Since moving house I’ve been chipping away at getting my new studio ready. By ready I don’t mean simply ready to work in – oh no, I mean ready enough to be shared with the internet.

A few months in and I’ve decided that it’ll never be that ready, so I might as well force myself to start sharing pictures of the work in progress.

Upcycling and Frankensteining

I did a lot of work on my lime green desk, which is the only furniture project that’s “done” so far. After painting it all (with paint left over from my last house) I waxed it (with furniture wax left over from 2011). Then I covered most of it up with canvas shoe holders salvaged from the side of two canvas wardrobes.

I’ve also been working on making a storage unit/light box out of an old demi-lune table and a drum kit. It’s in use at the moment but I’ll add pictures once it’s closer to finished.

Finding room for everything is a challenge

With a conservatory pressed into service as a studio, the main challenge is the lack of wall space. What’s brilliant about it is its main drawback – three of the four walls are mostly made of glass – but I dare not complain about anything at all about my studio. I love it!

Still, I need more desk space to paint on. I’ve got my eye on my current dining table which is due to be replaced soon and will afterwards migrate into the studio.

Right now, there seems to be a lot of space taken up by fabric and craft materials that I don’t use in my fine art practice, so I need to spend some time zoning areas and prioritising space for painting, carving and printmaking.

Getting around to making new work…

Getting used to a new house and finding a place for everything is very time consuming, so all my work has been put on hold for a while. Now that things are settling down, it’s time to get back down to business!

How Artists & Designers Can Get A Free Domain Name

How to get a domain name and website free for a year.

If you need a website to showcase your artwork or your design portfolio, this deal might just be perfect for you.

Now you can get a .co.uk or .uk TLD free for one year.

And if you want to drive home the nature of your creative business, you can get a .design TLD or a .ink TLD for just $5 per year.

Both of these offers are from trusted registrars that I’ve used myself – Porkbun and Names.co.uk.

What’s a .design or .ink domain all about?

A domain that ends in .design or .ink functions the same way as a domain that ends in .com or .art.

Even though they may be ideal for designers, they’re not exclusive; there are lots of applicable uses for .ink and .design.

Ideas for .design and .ink websites

Having a .design or .ink TLD is great for:

graphic designers
illustrators
artists
fashion designers
interior decorators
tattoo artists
students promoting their portfolios or end of year shows
art schools showing off their courses
lifestyle bloggers

Extra perks

It’s not just having the domain for a year, though; the offer includes a free SSL certificate (so you’ll have a secure site with https) automatically with the website builder, which allows you to easily create a site and blog powered by Weebly in minutes.

This means that even if you feel daunted by WordPress or coding, you can still create a professional web presence, and fast!

I currently run this site on WordPress and definitely recommend it, but after trying to talk others through the process I concede that it’s not something that everyone is willing to tackle, as there is a learning curve to be navigated. If that extra investment of learning time isn’t something you can afford, then using the Weebly-powered website builder is a perfect option for you.

Click here to register your .design domain name.

Free .co.uk websites

You can also register a .co.uk or .uk website for free for one year through names.co.uk. This is great for those who don’t feel as though .design is right for them. This offer provides a single static page for free with their Weebly website builder.

Again, compare to see which registrar is right for you, and take advantage of a fantastic deal for the first year of your blog!

Making Art That Fits Your Life (Instead Of Fitting Your Life To Your Art)

What do I mean by making art that fits your life?

A while ago, I wrote about the cycle of burnout that I’ve experienced by trying to achieve too much in too short a space of time. I took a quote from that post and put it on Instagram:

Another artist commented, “Ok. What does that look like?”

Fair question! Here’s what it looks like for me:

My circumstances limit me, but that’s ok – they also make me

When I dove back into fine art by resuming my degree, I was overwhelmed with how much “catching up” I had to do in order to get back to where I would have been a decade before. I didn’t have many gallery shows to put on my art cv, and I couldn’t apply for residencies as I was a single parent. Every job, opportunity or event I applied for had to fit in around the school run, vacation times and babysitters.

I was anxious to get things right, so I did try to hit the ground running after I graduated – I took my son to school and drove for hours to a stately home where there was a callout for a site-specific commission. After the tour and presentation, I raced back to the school to pick my son up. It was an exhausting day… and ultimately I didn’t get the commission. Of course, I was disappointed, but in hindsight it was clear that the opportunity was just that bit too far away for me to realistically manage.

For a long time I seemed to come across exhibition callouts, commissions, jobs and residencies that I couldn’t do. I kept on seeing the residencies, unpaid internships, weekend work, socially engaged practice commissions, day-long networking meetups and other opps that I just wasn’t cut out for. Most of it came down to the fact that I was a single parent, and that was not going to change.

Eventually I came to see that I was defining success in terms of recreating what my career would have looked like if I’d never dropped out of art school, moved across the Atlantic and had a child. But if none of that had ever happened, I wouldn’t be me today. I would never trade having my child for anything, so why should I compare my life with him to a life without?

I believe that many women face the same situation, as women still bear the primary responsibility for childcare in most households and experience the physical interruption of their careers when they have children. Of course, there are some men who find themselves in a similar situation as well. What I’m suggesting is not to deny oneself the right to aspire to ambitious projects or work, but to accept the fact that your limitations are not necessarily negative, just because it doesn’t fit the picture that you may expect.

Circumstances that limit us can be seen as parameters in which to function and perhaps flourish. Of course, if something is within your power to change, and you want to change it, then do it! Shortly after my experience with the failed commission bid, I moved to London – a pretty big move for my family – to work and study. It meant that I seriously stretched the boundaries of my limitations and ultimately, I gained a lot from it.

Looking at what I could do instead of what I could not

Unpaid internships – I had a child to care for, so no thanks. Weekend work – no childcare and no desire to miss out on all that time with my son. Networking – only during certain hours. Socially engaged art and workshops – I had no experience and frankly, no real interest in them.

I felt as though I was facing a brick wall of “no”. Fast forward several years and I have very different circumstances, and with them a different set of limitations… but I also have a lot more contentment than I used to, and that’s integrated with focusing on my opportunities. Seizing the opportunities that were available to me meant I gave a lot of energy to work that I could do from home, and it led to the creation of my tiny online empire!

Now, I sell my art on Etsy, run several blogs and work part-time in art education. I’ve also started to develop a course to help artists who feel a bit derailed by life’s limitations, especially financial limitations. You can find out more about that over on artandmoney.co.uk.

I’m a lot happier and a lot more productive because of creating the right environment in which to make my work – making the work that fits my life!