Throughout the week, I like to share interesting links for artists on my Twitter profile. Here is a list of the links I tweeted about last week:

• RT: @abstanfield Sitting for hours at a time leads to slower metabolism and other problems. Yikes! I’m outta here. NYT http://nyti.ms/aF6pyL

• Reading: 4 Ways to Jump Start Your Art Career!- http://ow.ly/1bULB

• RT: @TheCraftsReport Stop playing the Etsy numbers game- http://bit.ly/dnJoGN

• RT @mashable: The Science of Building Trust With Social Media – http://bit.ly/aUlnnc

• Reading: How to Remove a Web Page From Google- http://ow.ly/1baiQ

• Reading: The Secret to Growing Your Blog Following and the Pitfall You Must Avoid- http://ow.ly/1bE4C

• RT @GuyKawasaki: How to add Google Analytics to your Facebook fan page http://u.nu/8ean6

• Reading: The Secret to Etsy Sales http://ow.ly/1bdKA

• Reading: 6 Tips for Running Promotions Within Facebook’s Guidelines- http://ow.ly/1bizZ

• Reading: 4 Ways to Use Twitter to Capture Customers- http://ow.ly/1blFo

• Reading: 7 Ways to Improve Your Blog in 2010- http://ow.ly/1aiul

• Reading: Communication Breakdown: How Clear Are You About What You Do?- http://ow.ly/1ak1u

• Reading: 10 Steps for Creating a Successful Business from Your Art- http://ow.ly/1ak01

• Reading: Successful Guest Posting Strategy in One, Two, Three- http://ow.ly/1aY0V

• How does your email stats measure up? Email Marketing Benchmarks and Stats (Open Rates and Bounce Rates) – http://ow.ly/1aRdL

• Reading: Networking At Trade Shows : Retail Minded Blog- http://ow.ly/1aywD

• RT @ArtByChrysti: RT @ecstewart: RT @entreprenette What are the best-kept secrets to finding new wholesale accounts? http://bit.ly/cUQS4e

• Reading: 13 Ways to Move Your Facebook Fans to Action- http://ow.ly/1aI6B

• Funny…but true: Top Ten Ways to not Make Money at Craft Shows- http://ow.ly/1aJ2s

• Reading: Top 10 Reasons To Start A LinkedIn Group- http://ow.ly/1aj6e

• RT @mashable: This You????: Yet Another Phishing Attack Hits Twitter [WARNING] – http://bit.ly/9U6lbb

• Reading: Social Media For Business – Five Truths- http://ow.ly/1aj7P

• Reading: 4 Things Your Outgoing Orders Should Contain- http://ow.ly/1abGb

• Reading: Top 5 Ways to Market Your Business With LinkedIn- http://ow.ly/19ZHp

• Reading: Newbies. Here’s why you’re not selling yet. http://ow.ly/1aicC

• Reading: How To Price Art Prints- http://ow.ly/1a1Bi

• Reading: Are You Ready for Consignment? Part 1- http://ow.ly/1a1yb

• RT @wayrustic: 7 Ways To Beat The Challenges Of SEO For Ecommerce- http://bit.ly/dqXcx2

• Reading: What to Know Before Sending Out That Next Promotional Package- http://ow.ly/19QgH

• RT: @wtek Reading: The Hidden Art of Achieving Creative Flowing http://bit.ly/9cDRQp via @zen_habits

• Reading: 4 Tips To Get More Blog Exposure Via Twitter- http://ow.ly/19PJ5

• 12 Great Things Every Handmade Artist Should Blog About- http://ow.ly/19Pgu

• RT @TheCraftsReport: 4 strategies to help struggling entrepreneurs out of debt- http://bit.ly/9yvcMH

• A great article on real life results from SEO- SEO for Artists Example- http://ow.ly/19Pnc

Like this link list? Visit my Twitter profile and follow me to get these links daily!

Do you have a blog? How dressed up is it? I’m not just talking about whether it looks pretty or not. I’m also talking about things that will make your blog an effective marketing tool for promoting your art. What are some of must-haves you need for your blog? Here’s the most important things:

1. A domain name- a domain name for your blog whether it’s a separate name from your main website or a subdomain of your website (eg: yourwebsite.com/blog) is an important part of branding your blog. Even if you are using a blogging service like Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress.com (NOT Wordpress.org…you can find out how they Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org differ here), you should still get your own domain name for your blog. It looks so much more professional than yourblog.blogspot.com.

2. A custom banner- While the generic banners you get with your blog templates work just fine, you can dramatically upgrade the look and professionalism of your blog by using a custom banner. If you’re not any great shakes with Photoshop or Gimp, then you can hire someone to do a professional banner for your blog for about $50 or less.

3. A sign up box for your mailing list- If you have a mailing list for customers or potential buyers, make it easy for them to sign up for your mailing list by putting your sign up form on the sidebar of your blog…even if you already have one on your website. If you don’t have a mailing list, you can learn to set one up by getting a FREE copy of my article series “How to Plan and Start a Great Email Newsletter “.

4. RSS subscription buttons- A lot of people like to read blogs through a feed reader like Google Reader or Bloglines. Make it easy for them to keep up with your blog by putting on some RSS feed buttons or links on the sidebar of your blog. If your readers prefer email, consider using a service like Feedblitz or Aweber to deliver your blog posts via email. And please remember to offer full feeds to these folks as well.

5. Links to your website and other social networking sites- If you have a main website or an Etsy or Artfire store, you definitely need to have links to those places on your blog. If you are an Etsy user, there is a free widget that you can place on your blog that show pictures of the items that you have in your store. Be sure to add that widget to your blog. Also, if you are a Twitter user, have an account on LinkedIn, or have a Facebook fan page, you should also have links or widgets that link to those places so people can follow you or fan you.

6. Share links- Finally, make your blog easy to share by adding social networking buttons so that people can easily share your blog posts to their friends on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites. You can use a service like Feedburner’s FeedFlare, AddThis, or Share This to add these buttons to your blog. Or if you’re running Wordpress on your website you can use the Sexy Bookmarks plugin.

These tips came from my free e-course “50 Blogging Tips for Artists “. To get more free blogging tips like the ones I just shared simply click here to sign up.

So your turn! What additional bits do you put on your blog to make it more effective? Leave me a comment and let me know!

If you’re looking around for a place to start your blog, chances are that you’ve heard about Wordpress. And if you’re like alot of people, you’ve might have experienced some confusion because there is actually more than one Wordpress. There’s a Wordpress.com and a Wordpress.org

The short explanation is that Wordpress.com is a blogging service, where you sign up for and account and start blogging. Wordpress.org is where you download the actual blogging software to run on your website.

But what does that mean exactly? Is one choice better than the other? Is one easier than the other? Which one is best for you? To help cut the confusion, I made a video that takes you through a tour of both Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org, points out the differences between the two, and gives you some guidelines on which to choose. You can watch the video below:

Throughout the week, I like to share interesting links for artists on my Twitter profile. Here is a list of the links I tweeted about last week:

• Now Reading: Be A Blogging Olympian http://ow.ly/1928L

• Now Reading: The Missing Ingredient in Most Social Media Strategies- http://ow.ly/17Wpl

• RT @TheCraftsReport: How your “slowest” seller could actually be your best marketing- http://bit.ly/bY7Ug0

• Now Reading: 99 ways to Promote your Blog- http://ow.ly/192cr

• Now Reading: How to Overcome Creativity Blocks by Making These 8 Simple Changes- http://ow.ly/192fD

• Now Reading: 4 Highly-Portable Portfolio Ideas: Is Your Art Ready to Show?- http://ow.ly/191Xk

• RT @robinpedrero: RT @Yemoonyah: How to Package Flat Products Beautifully by @meylah http://is.gd/8GYR8

• Now Reading: 7 Reasons Not to Put All Your Eggs in the Twitter Basket- http://ow.ly/192A5

• RT @phyllismufson: RT @InterviewAngel: Top 10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Using LinkedIn http://b5m.cc/acQm via @abbylocke

• Now Reading: 15 Things an Artist Should Never Say- http://ow.ly/190Mi

• Now Reading: Color Theory for Designer, Part 3: Creating Your Own Color Palettes- http://ow.ly/192hz

• HOW TO: Integrate Google Buzz Into Your WordPress Blog- http://ow.ly/18OKL

• Now Reading: How To Have a Successful Craft Fair- Information Round Up- http://ow.ly/18BbT

• Now Reading: Tips on pitching your items to monthly magazines- http://ow.ly/18kQi

• Now Reading: How to Plan, Show and Promote a Photography Exhibit- http://ow.ly/18BdI

• Now Reading: Six Things You May Be Doing That Are Screwing Up Your Business- http://ow.ly/18kOZ

• [Video] How Bloggers Should Use Twitter (a Darren Rowse Interview)- http://ow.ly/18n49

• Now Reading: Setting up your business to accept credit cards- http://ow.ly/18e6Z

• Now Reading: 7 Tips for Driving Targeted Traffic With Twitter- http://ow.ly/17Wor

• RT @mashable: “How to Deal With Negative Feedback” – http://bit.ly/9u01r1 by @catone

• RT: @GuyKawasaki What would happen if the Internet collapsed? http://tr.im/Osjb

• RT: @abstanfield 10 tips for selling art in today’s economy. Art Biz Blog http://bit.ly/95VVVB

• Now Reading: How to Handle Rejection of Your Art- http://ow.ly/17U0Z

• RT: @AGoodHusband Web designers agree – Flash is NOT the best way to create an image gallery. http://ow.ly/17Xiw

• Now Reading: Relationship Marketing Principles for Business Bloggers You Must Know- http://ow.ly/17RLh

• Now Reading: Business 101 And The Three Year Big Picture Game Plan- http://ow.ly/17mmy

• RT @robinpedrero: RT @abstanfield: No ideas for your writing? @OriginalImpulse has a FREE e-course http://bit.ly/9K3USo @Claydybug

• Now Reading: Overwhelmed in the Studio? Check Your Work Habits! – http://ow.ly/17xyU

• RT: @GuyKawasaki 10 commonly overlooked tax deductions- http://om.ly/fNDV

• RT @wtek: Olympic Designers – Who Are They?: http://wp.me/pdz32-nQ

• RT: @mashable Google Buzz Gets Some Serious Privacy Tweaks – http://bit.ly/bszQaW

Like this link list? Visit my Twitter profile and follow me to get these links daily!

Have you set up your Google Profile yet? Before you start groaning about keeping up with yet another online thing, relax. Setting up your Google profile is pretty easy, and once you set it up, there’s really not much daily upkeep to it. Google profiles are your public face on the Google website. With a profile you can add a brief bio about yourself, photos, and links to your website.

Big deal, you might say, I already have profile on Facebook and Myspace. What makes having a Google profile so great?

• It provides another link to your blog and/or website. Incoming links to your blog and/or website is good for search engine rankings…and because the link is coming from Google, you know that Google is going to rank a bit higher.
• If you’re using Google Buzz, it will make it easier for you to share your Buzzes
• Profiles are searchable. So this provides another way for people to find you and your website
• It’s simple to do and it’s free

To see how simple it is, check out the video tutorial I did on how to set up your Google profile. And of course check out my Google Profile when you’re done!