he best thing you can do for your career is to get involved online. If you don't have a blog, I would seriously consider starting one. It does several things for you. It helps you network with others in your field. You build relationships with people you can trust and ask for advice. It helps your search engine results. Chances are if you have interesting content, people are going to link to you, therefore your search ranking are going to go way up. It allows you to play more. By this I mean do some just for fun or experimental pieces. The more positive feedback you get, the more confirmation you have that your work is good. I have a folder in my email program listed "FAN MAIL." Every week I get some sort of fan mail. People like my work, my Becoming and Illustrator story has helped them, etc. When I have blah days, I go to that folder and read some emails. It's an instant ego boost. Leave comments on other people's blog. I try and leave 5 comments a day to help encourage others since I like the encouragement. I also urge you to participate in things online. There are many great sites out there. Take a look in the sidebar under "Get active & Participate." If you have a good idea, start a site yourself. I did with Big and Little Art.

Blogs are very easy to set up. I personally use blogger and haven't had any problems. Since I know web design, I customize my page from scratch, but you can easily add in your own banner, change colors and make it your own if you don't understand the back-end.

So, if you are reading this and you don't have a blog, go set one up now. Traffic will be slow at first, but keep on posting!