The subject of LiveJournal.com comes up regularly, in terms of marketing.

Important: It’s in LiveJournal’s terms of service that you can’t use your LJ membership as a blatant marketing tool outside of your journal itself. Be sure to check this if your primary interest in LiveJounal is PR.

(Related rules can be seen at LiveJournal’s Abuse Policies)

But, as a means of self-expression and networking, LiveJournal may be a great choice for you. Then again, it may be a “time sink” and/or a tabloid.  (LJ’s management changes starting in late 2007 are a separate issue.  For this article, we’ll ignore those.)

For self-expression

It’s one of the largest, most reliable, and easiest-to-use online journaling communities. If you want to post your life amid a sea of others’ journals–either to “hide in plain sight” or connect with like-minded people, LiveJournal is a good choice.

As a networking tool

I’ve been at LiveJournal (aka “LJ”) for since 2000, and I’m a Permanent Member. But, some people join, start a journal, create a few communities, decide that it’s not as much fun as they’d hoped, and they’re gone in a blink. This is fairly routine.

You may want to try it anyway. Add a few people to your Friends list, read their LJs and see how you like LiveJournal as a way of staying connected. You’ll find many familiar faces behind the usernames listed among my Friends list and Eliza Badurina’s.

You also have added controls at LiveJournal. You can filter your posts so that only selected people see them.

You can set an individual entry so that the whole world sees it (”Public”) or so only those who’ve you’ve noted as friends (”Friends-only”) see it. And, in LiveJournal’s “Custom Friends Groups”, you can filter your posts even further.

For those of us who work alone in our studios, LJ can be a great amazing. That’s why some refer to it as a “tabloid.”

It’s okay if you keep a cool head

I’m still at LiveJournal (as aisling), so–obviously–I like what I get from it. I don’t post there as often as I used to, but I stil use LiveJournal as a way to connect with many real-life friends as well as online acquaintances.

But, if you join LiveJournal thinking that it’s all nice, chummy people… Well, it can be a rude discovery the first time you’re the butt of jokes, or discover that something you said wasn’t kept in confidence.

Add a dash of common sense

LJ user Kate Johnson’s advice is good: Use LiveJournal to talk about your art, the weather, and light personal info.

Use it to keep in touch with friends, and other professionals in this field. Speak from your heart if you like, but don’t bare your soul there.

Avoid sarcasm, and sarcastic humor. Often, people don’t realize that something is supposed to be funny; they’ll take it at face value. The results are often unfortunate.

Never expect to enlighten others by pointing out the error of their ways. It annoys them, and they’ll build it into a flame war to get attention.

I repeat: Don’t think that all 5+ million people at LJ are nice OR chummy, or even who they appear to be.

Use it to connect with people you know offline, and perhaps a few you’ve gotten to know very well online. Have fun with it, but never take it too seriously. And… LJ can be a h-u-g-e time sink! Be sure that the benefits outweigh the liabilities.

Bottom line for business use

Is LiveJournal a good PR tool? It can be. Some artists at LiveJournal get most of their business through their daily or weekly posts there.

With a large enough LiveJournal audience–which takes time to build–you can promote your online shop, your eBay auctions, and offline exhibits and sales, too. I know people who swear by LiveJournal as the best promotion tool.

But, while I have wonderful and loyal friends there–many of whom collect my art–it’s one of many potential PR tools if you aspire to earn a living from your artwork.

To get an idea of your blogging options, use any search engine to find “free blog hosting.” Sites come and go. In 2006, the top sites were Blogger.com, LiveJournal.com, MySpace.com, plus free software sites such as Wordpress.com. Since then, the list has expanded to include arts-related sites and more.