Free Coloring Book Pages - from Bob Ostrom Studio

I've recently posted a whole bunch of free coloring book pages on my website to support my upcoming appearance at the Eva H Perry Library in Apex on April 19th. I will also be dropping off free printouts at the library prior to my appearance. If you're interested in downloading any of the free PDF coloring book pages here's the link:

I WANT MY FREE COLORING BOOK PAGES.

If you do a good job coloring them please send me a copy and I'll post it here on my site.
Have fun and see you on the 19th... oh yeah and did I mention it's all free?

"How to Draw" Library Appearance coming up in April

I will be making an appearance at the Eva H Perry Library in Apex NC on April the 19th from 10:30- 11:30, where I will be drawing with kids ages 4 and up. If you would like more information please contact the library's website.

Sign up will begin March 31st, and is limited to 50 so be sure and sign up early. To download a copy of the announcement flyer click here

Searching for job listings on Monster

As you know from reading this blog I am an artist. Like most of us from time to time I check job listing sites to see what's available out there. For some reason artists jobs are difficult for many of these sites, but here are some results from Monster that really left me puzzled.

My Search: Art Director / Lead artist

Here are the results:

Checking out Technorati

Technorati Profile


No reviews yet only that there is this spelling error on my site. I've fixed it three times and for some reason it always reverts back to the original error. I might just have to rip down the post and start all over. How frustrating.

This site looks like it has great potential for a small business guy like me. I guess the litmus test will be if I can figure it out anyone can. My goal here is to find sites that will help generate traffic and thus boost sales and or referrals. I hope by reading these posts you can avoid the social sites that are just a waste of your time and target the ones that will actually help you to improve your business.

So there you have it the everyday man's completely useless review of Technorati. I'm sure anyone unfortunate enough to read this review will simply roll their eyes and move on but if you're still with me...I'll come back to Technorati in a week or two and let you know how things are going.

Next review: Datatalentbase.com

Next Year's Promotional Art for Bob Ostrom Studio

Wrapping up next years promotional art. I'll be posting them here as I complete them. These are the first two.

Using StumbleUpon to Generate Traffic

Do you have a StumbleUpon account? I do. This month it brought in the majority of my site's traffic. I'm not exactly a pro when it comes to this SEO stuff but I figured I'd try a little experiment. Here's what I did.

My website had been in a partial phase of completion for the last six months. I figured it was finally time to finish the build. It took a little while but I was able to squeeze it in between projects. Once it was finished I was so proud, naturally I wanted to get the word out. I figured Stumble was as good a way as any so I grabbed a couple of images I thought might generate some interest and popped them up on my Stumble page .

The initial results were very encouraging. Each time I posted a new image I would get a bump in traffic. By the end of the month I had gone from 133 unique visitors (in November) to 1290 (in December). Not such a bad thing.

Now here's the catch (and there are two of them) Stumble is not a passive site. What I mean is you have to interact. The more you interact the better your results. Catch number two... you can't review the same site over and over again. I guess the idea is to offer as many different websites as possible (I will be trying a new site called MIXX next month, that does let you do just that....I'll let you know how it goes).

I am by no means an expert on Stumble but if you would like to find out more about it I would strongly encourage you to head over there and start playing with it. One word of caution: Stumble can become quite addictive so use your time wisely.

Working Hard on Bob Ostrom Studio Site

I've been working hard on updating my website. Last night I added a whole new section to the art pages. I've also added a concept illustration page, resume and the tutorial I mentioned in the last post.... Now am I leaving anything out? Oh yeah new front page too.

It's Promo Time

Time to start working on next years promo. I've set up a tutorial on the home site for anyone who is interested. Check it it out by clicking the link below
Bob Ostrom "How To" Tutorial.

I Recently Designed a New Logo for Answers for Freelancers.

So I recently redesigned the logo for Answers For Freelancers. Why? Well although I like the old one I wanted something a little punchier. So I decided to try something else.

Original Logo

















Fun, illustrative but not too wild about the background colors.
The blue gray is a little dull and the character is a little busy.















Problem solved.......
oops not really, a little dark and not everyone
knows what A4F is. So let's tell them and make it
easy to find us.
















Final solution.
I think this one is pretty fun. The colors are nice and strong and it reproduces
fairly well. I think we'll try it out for while and see what people think.
If you have an opinion please share it I'd love to hear from you.


All logos shown here were designed by Bob O's Logos
and are property of the Creative Independence Network -
owner and producer of the podcast Answers For Freelancers
© creative independence network 2007

Is your Blog Easy to Subscribe to? If Not it Could be Costing You.

Tonight I wanted to learn more about new media marketing so I went onto Google blog search and tried to find some blogs that would help me out. I found a couple right off the bat. I was on my way or so I thought.

I visited the first site. It was good, full of tips to help me increase visibility, up my search engine score and learn how to use word tracker. Great, just what I'm looking for. Now to find the RSS feed and move onto the next blog. What? no RSS feed? Are you kidding me? Really? A blog about increasing traffic, optimization and web marketing tips and no RSS feed?

It must be me... so I search again. Nope can't find it. Maybe it's here, maybe its not but it didn't matter to me because this blog had lost all credibility. How can you seriously be offering me tips on marketing my blog and not have a simple (and easy to find) RSS button? NEXT !!!

Selected number two. Good design, RSS tag right up top easy to find. Not quite what I was looking for but maybe future articles will prove useful. I subscribe using my Google reader.I continue the search. Same story for the next 5 sites. I subscribe to the easy to find RSS and dump the ones that make it difficult for me.

I just learned marketing lesson number one. Want people to subscribe to your blog? Make it easy for them.

Lesson two. Uh oh...Was MY site easy to subscribe to? No, not really.

So it looks like lesson number three is to learn how to fix that. Hopefully it won't be too big a deal. I'll let you know how it goes next time. See you then.

Can You Really Make Money from Blogging?

As I've mentioned earlier I'm kind of new to this whole blogging thing. I mean I'm no stranger to the world of blogging but I've never really been much on keeping up a blog or commenting on the blogs I read. I finally started subscribing to a few of my favorites earlier this year by using Google home page. As I read, I learned that more and more people are making money off their blogs... and we're not just talking beer money here. Some are actually quitting their jobs and blogging full time. I had to find out more.

The mission: Learn more about blogging income.
The solution: Subscribe to pages that teach about blogging.

I subscribed to the top ten blogs dedicated to making money through blogging. The number one rule mentioned on every single site was do not be a passive reader. Get involved become part of the community. Start your own blog, comment on other peoples blogs, but whatever you do, do not be passive.

Sounded like good advice to me. So I went out and commented on a few of my favorites. Nothing too wild. Just a few comments here and there. Then I sat back and waited for the money to roll in.

Ok, ok...even I know that's not how it works...but it did. It worked. The money did come rolling in. I know what you're thinking but it's true...here's how it happened.

I posted a comment on my favorite blog sites Problogger. It was a story about work spaces. I sent in a silly cartoon and it was posted on the site. The next day I got an email from a really great guy in Isreal who wanted me to do some artwork for his blog, Codswallop (my new favorite blog). Suddenly I was making money from blogging and not only that but I was international. So does commenting on blogs pay off? You bet it does. Will I continue to comment? As often as I can. Is this typical for people who post comments on blogs? Who cares... it worked and that's good enough for me.

If you've had a positive experience commenting on a blog or writing your own blog I'd love to hear about it. ..and remember the number one rule don't be a passive.

Updates for the week of November 5th.

Blog Update: After much consideration I've decided to leave this blog alone and keep it as an info updater and nothing more. So rather than change it to a tutorial, I plan to start a brand new blog for that.

The new blog is set for launch some time towards the end of Novemeber possibly the beginning of December. It will be dedicated specifically to budding freelance artists. I am really excited to be working with a great team of very dedicated and talented professionals on this one. Please check back for an official release date and site address.

Show update: Lot's of behind the scenes work going on with A4F. If all goes according to plan the A4F podcast will be just a small piece of what is on the way... again please check back for updates as things progress.

Studio update: Extremely busy right now. Wrapping up a project I've been working on for the last couple of months. A really fun book about a sassy cat and a crazy dog.

Still plugging away at the 7 reader book series. The art work is coming along great and I can't wait to see this one in print. Scheduled to finish up some time towards the end of February.

Will be selecting art for next years promotion in the coming weeks. Looks like I have a lot of really fun stuff to chose from this year. Going to be hard to narrow it down.

New A4F Logo Hoodie...

Get em while they're hot...

A4F logo
by
answers4freelancers

Get this custom shirt at Zazzle

A4F Logo Shirts !!!

Answers-Logo
by
answers4freelancers

Get this custom shirt at Zazzle

Attention Palms Daddies...

You know who you are. If you're a Seth Harwood fan like me, I've got something special for you. Check out these smokin' new logos I've done for Seth. If you think they're as cool as we do.... pick one up on a shirt, hat or even a poster... just click on the big Harwood button below and follow the links.

If you haven't heard Seth's pod-cast, Jack Palms 2- This is Life check it out. He'll be at Dragon Con next week so be sure to say hello.

Answers for Freelancers

Well summer break is over and we're back in the recording studio. Hope you all had a great summer and took a little time off too. If you haven't already, please come check us out at:

Answers for Freelancers.

For more on my art check out my websites:

Bob Ostrom Studio

Bob O's Logos

The Logo Site is Up.

Well it took a little longer than I had hoped but it's finally up and running. Had a few deadlines that required my attention before I could finish. Anyhow for those of you who are interested, here's the link:
http://www.boboslogos.com

Starting a new logo site.

I've decided to start a new logo design website. The idea here is to begin marketing logo design separately from the illustration website. Although my logo design is based heavily on illustration the feeling was the logo design was different enough to separate the two. The website will be going live later this week. I'll post a link as soon as it's ready to go.

Late One Tonight....

Getting busy again....
Got a some late nights ahead.
Started a new google group for freelance artists.
If you want to check it out try this link:

A4F-Google Groups


Don't forget to post....

This Seemed Like a Cool Idea

Although this has nothing to do with my own art it seemed like a pretty cool idea.
Check it out:
Bum Rush The Charts – Can The Wisdom Of Crowds Beat Out The Music Industry… Again?
http://bumrushthecharts.blogspot.com/