Sticker Robot: Blog Post #3 Purpose

   

     The blog that I have selected is Sticker Robot blog. The main goal of this blog is to make money by driving traffic to their main web site that sells products such as pre-made or custom stickers. The artists at Sticker Robot design, produce and sell their own stickers or readers can mass produce their own design. This blog serves many other purposes in the process.

     When we compare the main Sticker Robot page to the blog we can see that these two pages are practically identical except for the banner at the top of the page which states: "This is a Blog," in large yellow block letters.


     This is a relatively new blog that was created in August. The blog entries are not posted with any regular frequency. Sometimes there is a 2 week gap between the posts and other times there are multiple posts in the same day. Let's take a look at some of the other purposes of this blog.

10 Questions With...

     An important recurring part of this blog is that the authors use a template of 10 questions to create artist profiles about other sticker artists from around the world. These profiles are not only entertaining, they fulfill several other purposes. These 10 question profiles provide information about people who are active in the art community. A lot of the profiled artists offer small pieces of advice to teach readers how to make stickers and how to use the stickers to express their thoughts and feelings. One of the 10 questions is: "Tell me 3 websites you like". This question gives the artists a chance to drive web to their own sites or to sites that they wish to promote.

Change the World, Take Action

     The majority of these stickers are fun and entertaining. The authors of this blog are also very conscious of the fact that stickers are an effective way to spread a message through the medium of street art. Therefore, some of the stickers are designed to raise awareness about more serious issues. 

     You may have heard of Pussy Riot the recently incarcerated all-female punk band trio from Russia. The three women are featured on the Sticker Robot blog here, in a post that gives some background about Pussy Riot and then offers free stickers to readers. The author briefly explains that these women were arrested for hooliganism and that the goal of distributing these free stickers is
to raise awareness and support for the band. The author takes a firm stance against the arrests of the three members of Pussy Riot. 

     This blog post is both informative and expressive. The author states that the goal of this free sticker campaign is to: "hopefully help start a conversation or two about freedom of expression." The authors want to change something that is happening on the other side of the world. The authors are reaching out to people who share their values. They are encouraging everyone to think about and discuss this issue. I think that this is a great way for Sticker Robot to give back to their readers. I like how their ethos is pro-Pussy Riot more than it is anti-Russia. I think that this demonstrates the integrity of the author and of the blog in general.

Entertaining and Building a Community

     When you scroll through the first dozen posts on the blog you will notice that the content is pretty cool, hip and inspirational. There are some posts about artists who work outside of the sticker medium. Here is a post about an artist who knitted an R2-D2 slipcover to transform a concrete barrier. This blog is inspirational in teaching others how to be creative. Although the blog itself does not provide instructional materials, a reader can view the content and then be inspired to create their own unique stickers. Just a click onto the Sticker Robot main page and then the reader can submit a design, choose the specifications of the sticker and then order a bundle of custom stickers. It is on the main Sticker Robot page, outside of the blog, that most of the instructional resources are found. 

     The bottom line is that this web site is making money. A Sticker Robot blog is a very effective extension to the web site. This blog serves to educate and inform the customers while simultaneously inspiring them to be creative. I believe that Sticker Robot is building a community of supporters who will care about them and engage with them. Most of the people who started reading my blog post are probably surfing through Sticker Robot right now and they haven't read this far into my post. Either way, I believe that this blog plays an important role in Sticker Robot's balance between making money and giving back to the community.