Step 4: Organizing and developing online content
If you’ve done your homework, then you’re ready to organize and develop what your online content will be. Your content is very important as it will be used to promote you, your work and your website. The content serves a variety of purposes; displays PR, targeted marketing, and general information to build a platform for your product (your purpose).
One of the main items that need attention would be your biography. If you are an artist or writer, you will be asked for this relevant information each time you submit a submission or apply to enter a contest. Your biography is an essential piece of information that can often be seen before your job. Even if your target audience is publishers, agents, or clients, you only have one chance to intrigue them and make a good first impression.
There are several ways you can target your audience. If you want to be direct and personal, you can write in the first person, using “I” in your sentence structure. For example, “I was born in Silver Springs, Maryland.” If you want to have an overall sound or professional structure, you can write in the third person, referring to yourself as in this example, “Meilena Hauslendale was born in Silver Springs, Maryland.”
It really is up to you how you would like to address your audience. Personally, I prefer to write in the third person when referring to my work mainly because I feel it conveys a sense of professional etiquette. Create a press release persona that can hold your audience’s attention. However, if you prefer to write in the first person, you can do so and still have strength in your sentences. Either way, you want to pique your audience’s interest in you and your work.
The difference between a hobbyist or a professional artist or writer can simply be determined in how they are conveyed through the content. You want your prayers to have strength and power. Every word and phrase counts because they are performing a difficult task, representing you, when you are not there to do it. For example, you could say, “I’m an artist from Erie, PA. I’m trying to make a living doing art. I hope you look at my work.” This award hardly gives credibility to my name or my art. It conveys that I’m not really serious about what I’m doing, but I’d still like you to look at my work. That’s a big expectation I have of my audience when I don’t take myself seriously.
A professional award structure as an example, “Meilena Hauslendale was raised in Erie, Pennsylvania and began her career as a professional artist in 1997.” You want to say who you are, where you come from and what you do. You want your opening sentence to really state some basic facts about yourself and your work. This is not an easy task and perhaps one of the reasons many artists and writers put off biography. Perhaps one of the reasons why, as Alan Wilson Watts says, “trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your teeth.”
It’s quite a challenge to write about yourself and really stretch your talents. You have to convey your work and yourself almost from someone else’s perspective. Imagine yourself as a public relations specialist and you have just been hired to write about an artist or writer. What are some things you would need to know about that person? What strengths do you want to state about this person’s life and accomplishments? What active role does this person now assume?
You don’t have to be too personal, but you really want to give your audience a sense of who you are. Let them know how your career started. Write about your technique or your style. It is possible to be personal but also professional. You may have to work through several drafts until you get a good flow of words and a working biography. The time you spend writing this valuable information will be worth it by making people realize something very important to you, your purpose. So share your passion with your audience. You may find that your enthusiasm can be contagious.
You want to have a short version (100-150 words) of your bio and then a long version (500-1000 words). It is advisable to work on your long version first so that later you can easily copy a short version by taking excerpts. As an example, you can see my biography online: [http://www.meilena.com/portrait/?q=biography]. I had a shorter version published several months ago, but due to numerous requests to learn more about me, I had to rewrite it. You may experience similar feedback from your viewers. The long version will be for your website and the shorter version will be used for promotional websites that commonly limit their bio to 100-150 words.
You can also write a statement about your work. A statement is simply a personal statement about your work or perhaps about what inspires your work. Get creative here and just write what you feel you need to express about your creativity. I was asked for an artist statement in 1999. I had no idea what it was, but I wrote one. I have used the same statement ever since. You can view it online for an example: [http://www.meilena.com/portrait/?q=biography]
Take the time to really write about your talents and accomplishments, and don’t be afraid to express them in your content. The more people learn about you, the more they can relate to you.
Your challenge for this month is to create a full and short version of your biography. As a bonus, she can create an artistic statement if she wishes. Read the biographies of other artists or writers and ask yourself which ones interested you and then explain why. Which biographies had strong statements, which were weak? Then take that information and apply it to yourself. Evaluate what traits you want to express, organize an outline, and then write your biography.
