Drakenhart Studios

Art Blogs: A Definition

First, to detail what is a “blog”.
The term blog is a shortened form of a short form term. I kid you not. Blog stands for web log, which is the short technical term for an internet journal website. In the last several years blogging, or posting journal entries online where others may read them, has become hugely popular. Many companies have jumped on the bandwagon to their benefit, as blogging gives one the ability to reach out to clients in ways that the old standbys, opt-in email lists, show a weakness. (However don’t entirely discount opt-in email lists. That will be a different article.)

Next, covering what is an “art blog”?

An art blog is simply a website or blog-site wherein you share your artwork with people in a digital, journal-posting, environment. Generally the idea behind an art blog is a place where one can post about one’s own artwork and the various topics related to it. Primarily, you post finished art samples, WIPs (Works in Progress), and share you experience with working on a piece. However some artists have found that sharing other art-related content adds value to their art blog as well.

Every artist is their own expert after all. So art-related content, writing about art-related topics, sharing your ideas, hopes, dreams, WIPs (Works in Progress), and asking for critiques benefit not only you but others who follow your art blog. One is able to post about specials, sales, special commissions, ask for help from other artists and more. What goes into am art blog is entirely up to the artist themselves.

The comment section of your art blog allows for conversations about the topics your share, as much as it does just general comments, so there is the chance of interaction, communication, and sharing of ideas. One doesn’t get this benefit from opt-in email lists. The closet one gets to this level of interaction may be in an online forum, but such places aren’t as centered on an individual artist’s work. Art blog are more personal, and more focused on one particular artist and their artistic journey.

Benefits of an Art Blog

The benefits of an art blog are many. From personal satisfaction and the need to share, or in some cases show off, art blogs offer a marketing medium, interactivity, and do the one thing so many companies seek to do in their daily routine – attract business and build up a potential client base. Sharing of information, tips, tutorials, advice on art business, and more, art blogs offer a wide array of mostly untapped potential.

Focused Interactive Communication
Aside from opt-in email lists which are a staple form of communication online, and forums that do not focus on one particular artist’s works, art blogs are a powerful form of communication with other internet users. Art blogs let visitors and potential clients see the artist for the person and the professional they are in a “fresh” way.

It is similar to, but not the same as, being at an art gallery opening so folks can speak with one directly. Art blogs give users a chance to communicate with the artist and ask questions about the art, style, choices made, inspiration, and techniques.

Art blogs offer the artist a way of talking about their artwork even as they post samples of it. Many physical Galleries, as well as some of the online, digital-style, flat web site galleries, don’t often allow the artist to share information about their art aside from specific details (dimensions, print availability, medium, etc). Some physically galleries may offer pamphlets, flyers, or other means of physical sharing, but that isn’t true communication as there is no interaction between artist and viewer. Some of the community-style online art galleries offer communication, yet there is the competition for traffic one must deal with in those regards.
An art blog offers a direct, clean, clear cut way of communicating with an audience that is there specifically to see a particular artist’s works.

Unique way to Showcase Art
This is a much different style of posting art then it is when one uploads it to a gallery-style web site. With most normal gallery-style websites an artist leaves their comments in the description section with the art is highlighted by being left to “float” on its own. This is reminiscent of traditional gallery showcasing. The difference with some gallery sites is that the description can host more than just the flat basics of the artwork in question. The artist can leave a comment, thought, poem, and more as well.

However in many cases, from what I’ve witnessed, this is sometimes totally over looked.

As an observation, I’ve noted that descriptions which flow around the artwork as one might see in a magazine article, or have the artwork as part of the discussion as is sometimes seen within various art forums, seem to be read more often. From an aesthetic point of view, the blocks of text are broken up as the commentary flows around it. This can make it easier to read for the viewer. Art posted within the embrace of text offers the text more interest, especially if what is spoken about relates to the images shared within the post.

Think of your old grade school text books and how the images helped to explain, or gave importance to, bits of informative text. Remember the bit we learned in school from our art professors about how an artist’s “wins” with their artwork? Getting a viewer to stop, maybe double-check, pause, or otherwise slow down to truly view and appreciate the artwork? Adding a message around the art gives the viewer pause as they become a reader. The information shared within the text portion of the post offers the reader a chance to develop into a more interested viewer of the artwork. Win-win.

Unique Traffic
Traffic, be it foot traffic in a physical art gallery, highway traffic passing by billboards, or digital traffic visiting a website, is vital. If people don’t see the art, then to them it doesn’t exist. However you want to appeal to those who will better appreciate the artwork, so you want specifically unique traffic as well. It doesn’t help the abstract artist if those who appreciate realism visit their site, for example.

Blogs in general generate a lot of traffic on their own. The content is fresh, new, and constantly updated! The search engines, especially the big ones, love fresh content and an artist who posts about something specific (niche-marketing technique), or focuses their art posts to a more narrow category, will naturally drive amazing amounts of traffic to their websites.

Art blogs have a special bonus of visual appeal as they add artwork to the mix of text. Combine specific notes on a piece, along with some tips, advice, or a learning experience with images of the piece and the artist will find an increase in the number of unique visitors.

Should I Get One?

Generally every artist will benefit in some way by posting to a dedicated art blog. However, it really depends on the amount of time an artist puts into it, how thick their “skin” when it comes to negative comments, and how well they interact socially. Remember that online, public sites are accessible to just about anyone, even detractors and “trolls”. One must always show some level of professionalism when interacting with their blog followers, although stiff and overly formal isn’t required. One may put as much of their personality into their posts as they wish, but it must be tempered with the courtesy and respect one wishes to receive for themselves.

If you feel you have to defend your artwork, have a tendency to write inflammatory posts, or “argue” instead of having “professional debates” maybe an art blog isn’t for you. Such blogs attract more trolls and detractors, and showcase the artist as being overly temperamental and unprofessional. This can harm potential sales, drive away potential clients, and does not add value to an artist’s site.

Only you know you best.

On the other hand, if you are a social butterfly and are capable of handling negative comments without “fighting” with your commentators, then an art blog may be something you want to look into. There is inherent value in this form of showcasing one’s work, and it adds overall value to the internet as well. This is especially true when one is posting educational, informative, and/or helpful tidbits along side of their artwork.
In some cases, though not as wide spread as one might think, some artists forgo the typical “gallery”-style website and only maintain an art blog specifically for the purposes of sharing their artistic journey. Running an art blog is about what you want and what you can handle as an artist.

Art Blog Posting Tips

I have seen successful and not so successful art blogs in my time. So let me share with you just a few tips when posting to your art blog.

Focus:
The idea is to keep it as art-centric as possible, and to keep away from the “generic blog” feel.
Keep your art blog to a theme, or single idea. Also, keep in mind what sorts of art-related content you are adding to you art blog. The more focused the blog, the easier it is to find specific information and thus the more useful viewers find it.

Don’t lose focus and start posting non-art-related stuff to your art blog. Keep as much personal, non-art-related, posts out of your art blog as is humanly possible. Generally I mean posts that talk about what your cat fluffy did yesterday that you found funny. If Fluffy inspired you to draw a small cartoon of him/her then by all means add it to your blog, otherwise you clutter up the blog and make it harder for visitors to find what they want to view, read, and learn.

Think about what you want to accomplish with you art blog. Are you just sharing your journey? Are you trying to use it as a mode of advertising? Is the art blog meant to share tutorials and how-to’s? Are you offering advice on art business? Do you have years of experience in watercolor paints and wish to share tips and tricks on certain difficult techniques? An art blog can successfully focus on very narrow aspects of art, or mix a number of them together in a way that complements each other.

Personal:
Many art blogs come across as dry and overly stiff. Most of the time people want to see a little bit of the artist’s personality shine through. The way we write often reflects how we talk and act, and that adds a personal touch to any blog.

However, text is very neutral. Others can read into it meanings, reactions, or attitudes that are not actually there. So be careful of any jokes, or sarcasm that aren’t obvious. Even if you think it is obvious, don’t expect your visitors to know what you mean, understand a bit of sarcasm, or “get” a joke. The internet brings us globally closer together, and culture clashes can cause hiccups along the way.

Enhancements:
Videos are very popular right now. You may want to make a video tutorial, or show a work in progress as it is worked on. This can be incorporated into your art blog without losing its focus. One can either upload Video (or podcasts, or both) to one’s artblog or talk about what the video is about.

There is even the option of further narrowing your focus by simply hosting a vlog (Video Blog) and nothing more. This goes over well for sites that are specifically focused on art tutorials, or offer advice on techniques.
Photography of inspirational sites, people, places, and things (keep in mind trademarks and copyright issues when posting photos of certain things) can be posted as well.

Such sites offer a range of benefits to the art communities as a whole, especially as a reference site for other artists! Such sites that boast photos often is an inspiration to other artists. Photographs of WIPs are popular, as seeing a work as it progresses often helps other artists to understand a technique or style. Many non-artists like seeing photographs of paintings in frames, or images of sculptures being worked on. Many businesses that create objects to sell may post WIPs to show potential clients the level of detail they are offering in their work.

In fact a Photo-blog is a form of art blog in and of its own! These can range from a professional photo portfolio, to travel pictures of favorite destinations, and into a collection of references. A Photo-blog may even offer tutorials of how to capture the best picture.

Just be sure you have a policy in regards to the photographs you take to post, and to the copyright issues for posting such on your art blog.

Policies:

Make sure your policies, copyright, trademark, and such information is easily accessible and openly public. In many cases mistakes are made that cause untold headaches for you and others when this isn’t made painfully obvious to your visitors!

Overview

An art blog is a way of sharing your art in a unique, non-traditional manner that requires a little bit of fore-thought. If done well it adds content to the internet that is compelling, fresh, and new.

Keep in mind that art blogs are public, and may require a few stiff but professional reminders as to your rights as an artist. Enjoy it but don’t abuse it.

Above have fun with it!

Needs and Online Life

Online life is an interesting one. The needs of those who spend their time online are even more interesting. We seek connection. The success and the power of the various social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace are evidence of this powerful need to interact.

We have a deeply in-grained need to socialize and interact. Humans are a very group-oriented creature, built to be social on many different levels.

The internet both draws us farther apart and hides our lives as much as it exposes us to everything and anything that companies, communities, and/or individuals throw at us. But, unless it is securely hidden behind firewalls and encrypted passwords, anything that is posted to the public can be accessed eventually, even years later. (See: The Way Back Machine)

Voiced opinions, hobbies, and affiliations are more easily dug up online then it is offline. Google anyone’s name or handle and you may be surprised what you find. The more unique the name or handle, the more likely you’ll find out information about someone they may not want know to, say, a potential employer or employee!

We feel we have a unique freedom in general when it comes to the internet, but unless we self-censor in some way it could be detrimental to our professional side. But more on that in another article.

The internet serves our needs as social creatures. It indeed serves it well.

Fame and Need

Some people crave fame, others abhor it but recieve it anyway for various reasons. The net feeds the needs of those who seek fame as well as those who seek the famous. Being in the limelight is hard for anyone, even those used to it as one life it scrutinized as if under a massive social microscope. It doubles in intensity when one is online.

Fame and popularity can be more of a bane then it is in the real world. At least in the real world people who stalk your house can be instantly arrested for trespassing. Where as online stalkers can grab a different email address, then sign up in your forums from a different location. They can do this over and over and over again.

Those who are famous have an immense power over many others, be it offline or on it doesn’t matter. People will look up to, try to emulate, or have a special respect for those who are famous (or infamous even in some cases). Those who are well known, are known because of something they are, something they’ve accomplished, something they’d said or done, or they may be famous because of events in their lives that move us emotionally, mentally, or socially. But online the reaction/response can be tripled or more.

Examples
I have seen what this can do in the art world among fantasy illustrators. An Artist who has issue with another can inadvertently start a “war” between the fans. Even a small issue made public can cause all sorts of problems that weren’t originally expected. This is based on a sad fact that some users are “Trolls”, these “battles” between the fans can get ugly because of them.

For instance, if one has enough skill as a hacker, the offending artist’s website could go down (this is an extreme example). Otherwise blogs are filled with detritus, dirty laundry, and more. People craft websites of hate and disparaging remarks, or may start “groups” united against this other artist.

I’ve seen it get more moronic then that.

But why?
The difference in this and the real world is that the online world is, again, far more accessible. Where as such groups are sure to exist in the real world, online it’s very easy to find them with but a mere search query!

The Power behind Need

Need can drive some people to organize. It is how many countries rose up in rebellion from the status quo of their ruling country and became an independent countries of their own. Needs, whether perceived, believed, or real, drive us.

Some newer legislation for air-travelers rights in the US were started by ONE person commenting in other blogs and on news sites. A woman made a difference for her and other airline passengers because of her need for satisfaction over a set of poor choices that put herself and other passengers in a very bad situation!

There was an issue that involved passengers not disembarking from their plane even though they were at their destination. There were a set of events that caused a super-long delay, as they sat on the tarmac and waited for hours longer then they had either food, water, or toilet accessibility. This is not a common occurrence to be sure, and it wasn’t something the airline had anyway of realizing might happen. But happen it did, but the reparations paid by the airlines were little to none.

Her plane was the second within a span of years to have this trouble.

So she searched online and found news reports, blogs, and the like. Leaving comments she began networking. She asked people to contact her, and eventually set up a website about it. Within months, rather then years, she was able to get enough signatures and voices to force NY legislators to do something about the problems some airlines were having. Google “Air passengers rights”. You’ll be surprised.

This woman had a need. Offered information free of charge as well as offered the ability to get something done.

Spoken of by Others

Trent Reznor is an amazing artist of the music industry (in my personal opinion). I recently discovered that he has done what so few other companies did, and that was to immerse himself into the online “world” directly. In order to learn how to market himself, NIN, the works of his band, and more, he decided to get to know what the social networks and interactive communities online were like, personally.

He discovered the power of the social networks because he directly interacted with them in such a way as to be a part of the massive, world-reaching online community. There was an aspect that he figured out, and it’s a bane that I wish more companies would wise up towards.

Spam.

It’s been around for years in the both the offline and the online environment. However, most companies don’t seem to understand that the old forms of advertising cannot be “tweaked” to fit online. They are ignored mostly by the online population, because they don’t offer anything in return.

Those who are part of the online communities want one thing really, and that is to be engaged and to interact with the things that most interest them. People will buy stuff that either entertains them, engages them, interacts with them, teaches them, or otherwise gives them something in return.

The many blogs, sites, and marketing places I’ve stuck my nose in has offered this bit of advice time and again. In order to get, you have to give. Content is more then just filler fluff or copying someone else’s articles. It’s more then re-tweeting, or re-posting, or re-hashing the same old topics. It’s about real meat and potatoes sort of content, and understanding that in a time of tight money that leads to a tighter grasp on one’s wallet. You can’t expect people to pay for things they don’t need.

“Anyway, we’re in a world where the mainstream social networks want any and all people to boost user numbers for the big selloff and are not concerned with the quality of experience.” ~ Trent Reznor

It’s the quality that counts. It’s what you offer that counts. This is not about numbers, this is about knowing what the consumers need. It is about what they really want. They don’t want fluff, or fizzy-drink ads, or other such stuff.

From AKA Marketing comes an article that is almost 3 years (and counting) old. Everything in there is valid even today. Let me further expand on what I mean.

“… be sure that your content will have specific appeal to your target audience.”

This is the basics of niche marketing. In fact this is what niche marketing’s whole main directive is about. Finding a specific “thing”, be it a product type (fine art), a service (theme creators), an information site (Wikipedia), how-to site (birthday cake recipes), a community (fans of insert-something-here), and the like, narrow it into a very focused ideal, and most of the marketing will be done for you!

“Next you want original content, if someone asked me what I considered good content I’d say that it was content that’s different and unique and not the same as the content on the other website I just came from.”

This is the Power of Need. Even if it is a perceived need, it drives us to want more then what many companies or individuals are actually offering. Those that supply that need, that cater to the real needs we have for information, education, understanding what we are looking at or preparing to buy will draw more people to them.

Examples

#1 Article sellers:

Selling your article to a million article buyers dilutes your articles uniqueness and will eventually hurt those who buy them from you. This in turn has a domino effect. The less they are effective, the more your articles are labeled as “non-sell-able” and the less money you make on them. If you are going to sell articles, pick and choose who you sell to carefully. Some individual sites will offer anywhere between $50 and $200+ dollars for original articles. This keeps their sites full of original content, and keeps money in your pocket. Win – win situation!

#2 Peat and Repeat:
“Peat and Repeat were walking along. Peat fell down and who was left? Repeat. Peat and Repeat were walking along…”

Don’t do it if you can help it. It’s one thing to find an article that you’ve found engaging and want to share that with your personal networks of friends and family. That’s natural, but don’t copy. For one reason it’s plagiarism and thus illegal.

On another side, with how visible the net is in the long run, eventually you’ll get caught and your “authenticity” will suffer for it. Black Listing is a favorite subject in the online world. I know. I’ve watched in in action since 1999. Not pretty!

Another reason, though by far not the last, is that copying someone’s idea reduces the quality of it. It is the same reduction in quality that selling your work to a million article buyers does to a single article. If there are a number of copies online, the search engines aren’t going to know who’s article is best, because they are all the same.

However, discussing it, reviewing the article, and putting your own spin on it is much better for the article itself. Linking to it rather then directly quoting it alone, or offering both quotes and links are by far the better choices. Doing such is the power of “By Word of Mouth” in action!

There is more on this topic and if you Goggle it you’ll find this same information repeated so many times that it becomes almost it’s own mantra. “Content is King”!

GIVE back to the online community, don’t just try to take.

Overview

Need is a much more powerful selling point then companies seem to realize. They try to market stuff as “items you need” and forget that many of their consumers are smarter then that. I don’t NEED a new car when I have public transportation, for example.

Don’t waste the time of site visitors and users. Give them something of interest related to what your site is about if you want to sell them something. Be real, be helpful, be honest, and above all don’t be a troll. *nods sagely*

Don’t repeat content. Passion is the key and if you have passion for something it will show through! Discuss topics rather then cut and pasting them to share. Share links instead of copied text. Pass on the information, sure, but do it thoughtfully.

Share. Share your thoughts in a constructive way and you’ll find more people following you!

Love. Love what it is you write about and share that love and passion with the world. You’ll soon find others that share that passion and who will link you into still others they know. It’s a positive domino effect, done in exponentially ever increasing numbers.

Welcome to Themes

Themes, also known among some as “skins”, consists of the html, css, and images that make a site look the way it does. Those UI (User Interface) designers who do not do a lot of back-end coding can, feasibly, work up a Theme. One doesn’t need a lot of design skill, not with all the tutorials and help sites out there today. But taking that Theme from Image Mock-up to final product requires a little bit more effort.

What it requires is the ability to understand a given CMS (Content Managemnt System) and how it outputs the data it manages. The level of difficulty in doing this depends entirely on what you are trying to accomplish.

Levels of Complexity and Difficulty

Making a skin using the defaults that come with a CMS is the easiet way of handling this. Because so many designers want something unique, the defaults are rarely seen as much as one might come to believe. But this doesn’t make the site look or feel unique even if the defaults aren’t used as much. It still seems like a re-colored clone.

The next level consists of designing an entire site the way you want it to look, while taking into consideration the “parts” that the CMS Outputs. For instance WordPress outputs a header, footer, content area, and sidebars (if they are enabled). Since this is automatic to any given CMS, you need to design with these sections in mind and determine what goes where as you work.

The next level consists of tweaking the existing code either by applying small hacks or re-arranging how things show up on a given page. You may wish to change the front page into a semi-static landing page with RSS feeds that show up in the sidebar, for example. This requires an understanding of how the CMS’s system handles such extras, if it does at all, and how outside code might effect the final output. Any good designer knows well that a small bit of stray code can cause havoc in how a site looks when it is viewed!

Beyond this is the Intermediate to Advanced coding techniques that can transform how a given CMS outputs entirely. This often requires an innate understanding of how the system handles data, and may well require a non-coding designer to learn more then their fair share of coding. The options here for most UI designers are to either learn how to code in depth, learn the basics and stay away from the more advanced coding tricks, or hire someone else to do it for you! What a designer chooses is entirely up to them and there is no “wrong way” of doing it, as long as the site looks good and does what you want it to do!

Wire Frame FIRST!

Even before the Mockup comes the Wire Frame. What this looks like is entirely up to the one doing the design. Personally I work out a flow chart first, and as I work on this I doodle ideas into the corner of my notes. From this flow chart and doodles I make a rough wireframe that gives me an idea of the general layout and feel of the site.

Wire frames helps you to see the flow of the site, and to get an idea of what you are going to need in what areas. It is essential for the final mockup in the same way an outline is essential for a good research paper!

Once you have your wireframe (and notes!) then you can get to working on the mock up itself!

Mockups

A mockup is a graphic representation of what you want to site to look like. This includes the base body design (the elements that won’t change), the look of the individual pages and their content (Lores Ipsum fills in text nicely in case you aren’t sure of what to write), and what images are being used for each! Each individual page should have a mock up. Layer them all properly and name them (if the graphics program you have allows you to name your layers). This will reduce the wasted time from searching for a particular element later.

Mock ups should be of the final size, and take into consideration the different browser sizes. Yes there are some people who still use older monitors whose max resolution for websites are 600×800. Thankfully they are in the minority now, but you need to keep in mind that they do exist and keep the important information in the center. Anything non-essential to your site (advertisements, links outside of the site, etc) can be on the “wings”, but the main product and content needs to be easily accessible.

Make the Mock Up into Code

So now that you’ve decided on what to do, and how far into the code you are going to go, what’s next? Take the mock-up and write the base markup and CSS. I cannot stress enough how important this step is for keeping organized and focused on the final goal! Do all of your mark up first, make sure it works, try to break it to find out what happens, test the css in different browsers, get friends to test it in other browsers, do what ever you need to make sure the design code itself is functional.

Why? When something goes wrong later you can be certain, at least, that it’s not something in the design code that is malfunctioning! Also, this framework gives you the foundation you need for making Themes look good. This is what the site is suposed to look like after all, right?

After this, then you can get into the nitty gritty of dividing up the sections of a site into the parts needed as per how the CMS handles outputting. This part can be a little bit tricky depending on what your overall scheme for a site is and how you are going to handle it. Generally many sites rely on PHP in order to output. Understanding how PHP works will be a great help to any designer who finds themselves working with it.

W3Cschools section on PHP is a great place to start! There is also PHP.net which is more of a walk-through tand explains a lot more in plain language (until you get into the more technical stuff). Tizag has a lot of beginner tutorials and explanations. I found them to be slow, mostly because I was too excited to start with the basics. But I have to enforce, baby steps, learn the basics first. When you are looking at the CMS output code you’ll at least be able to read it! That is the first key to successfully tweaking the PHP output code!

Once you get the repeating sections done (header, footer, and sometimes but not always the sidebar(s)) you can work on how the content in the main content section will output. This can change from page to page. So keep in mind what your intents for each page are, and always refer back to your wireframes and mockups! I relate this habit to checking my algerbra notes during a test! By checking your mockups and wireframes you keep focused on the end result rather then get lost in the code.

By the time you get all the sections coded, it’s time to test it. (If you have a Windows Vista Machine I highly suggest you DO NOT try to install a virtual server unless you KNOW exactly what you are doing!) Best way to do this live is to have a mock-site set up, with a live database, et al. This way you can test it in a live environment.

It is highly suggested that one does NOT just upload the site to it’s final home for testing. This can cause problems on a number of levels! It can interfere with user experience, as well as cause problems with the site’s database in case something in the code is messed up. The Search engine spiders and bots could crawl your site and come up with poor reactions, and you wouldn’t even know it until later when you check your statistics! You could even drive traffic away from your site as well.

It’s a messy process. Find a place or way to test it before setting the site live.

Generally most computer OS (Operating Systems) can’t or won’t parse PHP. Windows NT was the server version of Windows and will display PHP. There are virtual servers you can set up and configure on your machine, but in such cases you should always back up the computer you will be using to do this in case something bad happens.

Once things are tested and working, it’s go-time. You should have a functional site that looks good and works!

More in this Series:
(tba as posted)

I love making dynamic menus of all kinds, and trying to find ways to merge various forms and sorts of dynamic menus. What I don’t like is making menus that rely on any code other then CSS. It’s a personal preference of mine as I find that it keeps site speed faster. Now understand, often it doesn’t scrape off a lot of time, but for image-heavy sites every little bit counts.

There is a nifty version of the horizontal menu called a “Sliding Doors” menu. In this the background image(s) are set up so that they grow or shrink with the size of the text. This keeps your Menus looking beautiful and retains their dynamic styling even when text is expanded greatly.

A List Apart, one of my favorite resources, has an interesting take on the sliding door menu style. Yet as I was working on the newer version of my own menu, I decided to test the CSS to make sure everything validated properly. I was surprised to find that in the CSS 2.1 validation that an error occurred. It wasn’t a critical error and was more of a specific need for the CSS level of validation as per the W3C rules for CSS 2.1, but it was enough to make me wonder.

For me to validate “clear” (with no Errors at all) I had to add a width selector to part of the CSS Style for the menu. Apparently a float requires the width selector to be within the same style.

#main_nav li {
float : left;
width : auto;
margin : 0;
padding : 0;
background : url(../images/right_menu_border.png) no-repeat right bottom;
}

In the tutorial from A List Apart this wasn’t listed, and to be honest it’s not entirely necessary (at the time of this article) because leaving it out doesn’t effect the code’s function. It’s merely needed in order to validate the CSS for level 2.1 in the clear.

By Adding auto to my width selector I filled in the requirement for clear validation without effecting my layout.

What is SMO?

Well, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all about setting your site up to be a grand winner in the search engine “races”. You work on meta tags, descriptions, word-density in your static pages. and so much more. But is SMO related? In a way yes, but in a very different way.

SMO is a term to describe the use of Social Networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, My Space (and to some lesser extent ever YouTube) and more in order to further expanded an individual’s or business’ marketing reach. By using these sites to advertise their products or services, they end up reaching new audiences. Many individuals and businesses will create their own profile, or build a business profile and then have others in the greater community link to them, subscribe to them, favorite them, and more dependent upon what the particular social network uses.

Examples of How this Works

LinkedIn, for example, is a professional’s social network. This place is an example of the original definition of the term “networking”, outside of the digital web. People search through their list of contacts for other contacts in companies or groups in order to make new contacts. Doing this gives people a broader perspective and a much greater reach when it comes to new jobs. Many jobs would prefer people who come recommended by a current employee, rather then search through submitted resumes from job-listings.

So how does SMO effect a strict social network like LinekedIn? Groups, associations, profile advertising, and discussion boards.

People in certain groups will advertise their services. If done once or twice, especially when you are new to the group, this is a good thing. It lets people know not only who you are but what you offer in the way of skills. Just don’t repeat your profile or resume, since they can view that if they wanted to by clicking on your profile link. But, this can become spam-ridden and may annoy many of the groups members if one posts repeatedly the same thing, or even versions of the same thing. It is also an easy way of loose a group’s membership as people leave it for other similar groups, so it’s best to do this with caution and a dash of common sense.

Also, in group discussions, I’ve found people tend to offer their services as a way to “help”. Or they will offer their services, or examples of their services, in discussions in order to try and illustrate a point. This is okay is some few instances, but shouldn’t be a regular reaction as it looks very self-centered and unprofessional. There are ways to advertise your skills without making it look painfully obvious, but more on that in another post.

MySpace is a place where individuals or businesses can put up their own MySpace account. This allows for all sorts of communication and self advertising. If people want to friend the account, they can then get updates through MySpace’s PMing (Private Messaging) System, or by following the accounts updates. They can even leave comments and have discussions with others who follow the same company.

This can also become spam-filled as some businesses PM or send updates that are generally not necessary. So think before you advertise. Please.

Facebook has it’s groups that a user can become a “fan of” and follow their updates. One can set up an individual account as a business account instead.

Online Forums related to your site’s content are another place you can get your socializing groove on and get more interest in what you do.

Twitter, and it’s like, can alert people to new events, or you can add twitter to your site in order to keep people up to date just on what you are doing. (Good for clients.)

Any community or online tool (like YouTube and Flicker) that allow commenting or comment sharing can in turn be used to drive traffic to your site.

Even your Blog, if you allow comments to your posts, can be used as a powerful marketing tool. You could just as easily link to other posts (or help promote a friend by linking to their posts) as a reply to a comment on your own blog.

Other’s Blogs offer the same benefit in return.

The options are endless if you know what to look for in a Social Network.

So what is Social Media Optimization?

I’ll give you 3 guesses and the first two do not count.

SMO is about promoting your site, business, project, or product (what ever it is) by infiltrating the Social Media Networks. Then through trial and error, finding the best ways to get these various sites to work for you. Please take heed that what may seem the more obvious way to manage this, may in fact be an over-used, spam-like way instead. Do some digging to see how other businesses do what they do and take notes to later compare.

Now, this has a variety of positives and negatives to be taken into consideration, including search engine requirements.

This can give you outside links from other out-side sites, which does help a little bit in promoting your site in the search engine wars. This however can also be detrimental, as many of these social networking sites may not be related to your site’s content. Also, you’ll need to check and make sure you are getting that link-back power by comparing old site stats to current sites stats.

It can also offer another form of “free” advertising. You just need to make sure that the Social Network will allow such advertising, as some may be more restrictive of something they are not getting a revenue share out of when often many social networks do not charge end-users for their services.

My Opinion?

Networking lands us job, tips offs, advice, suggestions, help, mentors, new friends and more. The internet has always been just an expansive network, so this is merely another way of using it as a powerful tool to make those important connections to others.

In my opinion it is the accessibility, making the world both a much smaller and larger place. It is the ability to share information, media of all kinds, ideas, and communicate in a more direct, faster, and more intense way. This is what makes social networking, and the communities that pop up around such sites that cater to their needs to connect with each other, that make up a lot of the differences.

Yet, this can create yet another form of spam. In turn this can hurt your site.

So how do you combat it?

1. Know you Social Media Network Platform: Forums, twitter, and more are all similar in that people can connect and interact, but they all have different issues when it comes to optimizing your interaction with them for your best effort.
2. Contribute: IE. Don’t be a troll or spammer. Offer something of use to the community in order to expand your network of contacts and connections.
3. Watch your links! Too many of them from any one site or place can cause you to loose footing in your SEO. Don’t threaten those standings by silly mistakes.
4. Socialize: Depending on what your Niche is, generally speaking, will decide where you go to interact. Be polite, professional in many cases, but be yourself. Don’t sell yourself as something you are not or you’ll be labeled a faker.
5. Interaction: Politeness, and understanding that text-based communications doesn’t always offer us an insight into one’s personality, is key in many of these communities. Don’t judge. Get to know people and be polite about the questions to toss at folks. Watch how you write the words you use. Also remember to not read into what someone has typed, as cynicism and sarcasm can be overlooked and the text read as aggressive instead of “funny”.
6. Be real: Don’t expect to throw a few links or un-helpful comments at a network and expect to get returns. Like word of mouth Social Networks that are used poorly can backlash in ways that are crushing. Treat them with respect, sincerity, honesty, and not a purely marketing mindset. Be real, because such abuses will get you labeled and those labels will follow you for a long long time to come.
7. Try not to use it as a marketing tool alone! See #6. Social networks are for networking, getting to know people, and interacting with people. Not for trawling for more traffic. Please. Do. Not. Trawl.
8. Content: Yes Content. You’ll see me “preaching” content quite often because that is really what a user wants to see. Meat on the bone and not plastic, fake, toy-that-looks-like-meat.

Above all treat your networks with respect and don’t expect them to give you what you need and then not give back. That will also be remembered. Share, help, offer services, advice, knowledge, information as much as you can without crippling your business.

Resources:

• Infogle: What’s different about social-media optimization.