Well, in my previous post I asked whether I should rename this blog to help it gain a bigger readership. I had three excellent, helpful comments (thanks to Victoria, Jerry & Vix) plus others that came to me direct.

The answer was pretty unanimous – keep the name but optimize the site. And there was some great advice about how to do so.

It’s amazing how my thoughts have cleared since I wrote a few days back and I now feel ready to take the blog to its next stage. That will probably mean a new look to the site. I like the current style, but need more structural flexibility as the blog expands.

It will also mean slightly rewriting earlier posts so that creative is featured less and words like art and artistic are used more often. Having said that, I really like the phrase suggested by Vix, creative development instead of personal development, which a few people found a bit of a turn-off. I’ll have to investigate that a little more.

Reader Demographic
Just as a matter of interest the blog is currently receiving almost twice as many visitors from the U.S. compared to the U.K. ( where it’s written), with Canada and Australia coming in third and fourth. The blog has been read in 77 countries over the last month. It’s not called the world-wide web for nothing, is it.

A Welcome to Sheffield Writers.
I just received my copy of the Sheffield Writers’ newsletter The Inky, which has a short piece introducing The Creative Instinct. Welcome. Please explore the blog and tell your friends!

Writers from Sheffield and South Yorkshire can learn more about The Inky here: http://www.signpostsonline.org/index.htm

Now don’t get me wrong, I love the name of this blog. The trouble is the search engines don’t. It’s not literal enough for them, and that word creative causes all sorts of online problems because of the I.T. company of the same name.

I’d be truly grateful if you would read this post and gift me your opinions in the comments section – even if you are echoing previous comments.

Finding the Right People

So here’s the challenge – this blog is all about offering personal development insights to a broad spectrum of artistic people – tools of mental attitude and practical effectiveness to help artists of all kinds enhance both artistic output and the quality of their work.

I have previously used the words creative and creativity because whether you are a writer, poet, painter, musician� well – they seemed like a good common denominator, a uniting factor that pulled together the often disparate artistic communities.

I realise now that these words aren’t doing the jobs I need them to.

1. They aren’t helping enough of the right people to find and grow the blog
2. They are not ‘product friendly’ in terms of adding the right commercial resources to the blog.

That second point is just as important as the first. I do need some income flow from the blog if I am to continue offering the free content I hope will always remain at its core.

The Key Word Challenge

If my target audience was more tightly defined I guess it would be easier – if I were talking just to visual artists, or just to writers, for instance.

But I really don’t want to narrow my audience if I can avoid it.

So the big challenge is to keep offering the personal development content and offer it in such a way that people from all artistic backgrounds feel included.

Are phrases like artistic community and artistic people as inclusive as creative community and creative people?

If I want to address the wider group of creative people I’ve talked about – what words and phrases work for you?

I’m assuming here that I am right to be inclusive in this way – that personal development techniques for, say, painters, are also relevant to poets, digital artists and conceptual artists. Am I right in that assumption?

I really do need your help and feedback about this – so please do take the time to have your say.

• Am I right in keeping my artistic audience as broad and inclusive as possible?
• If so, what are the umbrella words and phrases that work for you?

Please help me take The Creative Instinct to the next stage by responding to this post.

If you enjoyed this article please vote for it on Stumbleupon by clicking the button below. Thank you.

Stumble It!

If you are reading this then I guess that like me, you’ve been having a bit of trouble getting your head around RSS. I can’t believe how tough it’s been for me to fully grasp this – until I saw the two brilliant Videojug videos below – after which it all seemed ludicrously clear. The only thing I couldn’t understand then was why I’d struggled with it previously.

I’ve read loads of explanations that only partially cleared my RSS brain-fog, so I’m not going to add another – apart from saying this:

• Email updates – if you wish to receive email updates from this blog, place your email address in the subscription box (top right) and clicking subscribe.
• If you want to keep up to date – but not by email, then RSS is a way to check your favourite blogs and websites without having to visit each individual site.

I find that a mixture of both options work for me. Some blog posts I like in my email, the rest in my RSS feed reader.

The Videos

The first video explains the concept of RSS – the second explains the practicalities. You are just a few minutes from understanding both.

VideoJug: RSS In Plain English

VideoJug: How To Use RSS Feeds

Now I’ve finally got The Creative Instict freebies online and sorted (with help) and also fixed a fair number of glitches on the site (with more help), I’m now ready for the next stage (cue trumpet fanfare) – promoting the site.

So far I’ve not promoted The Creative Instinct at all. As a result my readership numbers are still quite low. I find it best to think of The Creative Instinct as it is just now as something of a hidden gem. Well – I want to make it even more of a treasure – but definitely not hidden.

Your Help, Please

That’s why I’m asking for your help. Please pass on The Creative Instinct to everyone you know who might be entertained, inspired and helped by it. And especially tell those ‘people who know people’ – creative people who network or work with other creative people.

The Future Of The Creative Instinct

My vision is for a site that is founded on substantial free content and resources. I’d like to see The Creative Instinct become the authority on enhanced creative practice through up-to-date personal development knowledge. And I’d like creative people like you and me be able to gain from the site without having to spend a single penny/cent.

At the same time I do need to gain some return for the time and effort I’m putting in. So there will be some commercialisation in the future. My aim though is to always keep the free content and free products at the core of the Creative Instinct.

Please Subscribe

Finally, if you are reading this but haven’t subscribed to the blog, please do. The subscribe form is top right. You’ll get my posts as soon as they’re published, your email address is never passed on, and it’s really easy to unsubscribe (heaven forbid).

Please enjoy both of the new downloads – and please remember to let your creative friends and colleagues know about The Creative Instinct.

Cheers – Andrew Leigh

See also:
Stop Being Your Own Worst Critic – Download

I am very, very pleased to announce a free download exclusive to this site. How To Stop Being Your Own Worst Critic is designed to help combat that tendency in most creative people to be their own most damaging faultfinder. It’s an easy and quick 17-page read – including 7 powerful sequential techniques to blow those ‘worst critic’ tendencies out of the water.

A Long Time Coming

Good grief it’s taken some getting here. I actually started this part of my project back in August. Somehow the thing grew and grew and I ended up with an ebook (watch this space). However, I now also have the original free download I was aiming for. It might have taken me longer than I ever planned for, but I did end up with two things instead of one. So that’s alright then.

Even with my massive overwrite I still expected to complete by the end of November – but then the gods of Information Technology obviously got a bit cheesed off with the delay and decided to wade into the action themselves. Aarrgh!!!!

Luckily I am not a quitter. I persevered and my precious free download is now on the site and available to all. I hope you find if of value.

Download #2

I’ve also added another free download to the site – the wonderful How To Be Creative by Hugh Macleod. I really love this – it’s witty, succinct and full of amazing insights. Inspiring stuff. Thank you, Hugh, for making it available.

You can also visit Hugh’s own site by clicking the cartoon below.

Don’t forget to have a go at banishing your own worst critic – and if you know someone who would benefit from it, please tell them about the site.