How To Build an Artist Website Using WordPress
Do you know you can make an artist website using WordPress?
So, you want to make your website as an artist, but you don’t want to spend too much money, and you don’t consider yourself skilled when it comes to coding. This is where WordPress comes in – it is an amazing platform where you can build your website with way less effort.
If you are not sure where to start, don’t worry – we have prepared a step-by-step list of how you can build your webpage using WordPress and promote your artwork in the best way possible.
Why would you want to build your WordPress custom website?
WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) platform where you can update changes to your webpage without needing any knowledge in coding.
You don’t have to know anything about coding – if you were using markup and programming languages for building your website, you would have to understand at least some basic principles. Not to mention that those basic principles are just the basics for building a well-designed webpage.
They are pretty affordable – other than buying a domain and getting hosting for your webpage, making a custom webpage in WordPress saves you some coins. If you acquire some basic skills in website building, you won’t have to rely on other companies to do it for you.
You should be aware that there are two options for WordPress – wordpress.org and wordpress.com. The first is an open-source version without hosting, where you can download and install WordPress for free and host your website on your server. It gives you more control over your website as well.
WordPress.com is paid and includes hosting and limited free options for templates. However, if you want your website to be ad-free, have your domain and have a custom design, you have to pay for these premium features.
What pages will your website need?
As an artist, you want to express yourself and your work in the most transparent way possible. There is almost no webpage that doesn’t have the ‘About us’ or ‘About me’ page, where users can learn more about you. Here’s where you can briefly talk about what you have done so far and what your future goals are.
If you want to get more personal with your followers, you can write short ‘how-to’ blogs to explain how you create your artwork. For example, a quick tutorial named something like Simple mouth drawing for beginners or anything similar is a great way to showcase your skills and personality.
Steps to making your WordPress website
We finally got to the steps you need to take when making your webpage using WordPress. You need to think of the website’s name or domain, find a company to host it so it is visible to your clients, install WordPress and choose your theme as an artist.
1. Register a domain
Similarly to naming your own company, registering a domain is choosing your website’s name, which will represent you as an artist. It is what your potential clients will type in when they search for your webpage. Owning a domain usually doesn’t cost more than $12 per year.
You can pick domains like .org or .net. However, it seems that the .com one is the one that is used the most. However, there are country-specific domains if you want to focus on one country only. Check online and see which domain suits the country you work and live in.
2. Hosting
You need a hosting to make an artist website using WordPress. Hosting means putting your webpage on the Internet for everyone to see. This is typically what hosting companies do – they host your webpage on their servers. Sometimes they can help you get your domain as well, since this is something you do before you set up hosting.
The most famous hosting companies for WordPress are Bluehost, DreamHost and SiteGround. Bluehost offers free domain names, email, etc., with a 1-click installation.
Similarly to Bluehost, SiteGround offers tools like 1-click installation, managing updates, and 24/7 customer support. SiteGround has three types of offers for its clients. Here are some of their key differences:
- StartUp is the cheapest option that is currently running with the price of 6.99$ per month. It includes 1 website, unmetered traffic, ~ 10GB of web space, 10,000 visits per month, etc.
- GrowBig costs a bit more ($9.99 per month), but it offers unlimited websites, ~25,000 monthly visits, 20GB of web space, etc.
- GoGeek is the most expensive one, with a price of $14.99 per month. It includes much more web space (40GB), ~100,100 monthly visits and unlimited websites
3. Install WordPress and SSL
In order to make an artist website using WordPress, you need to set up WordPress. When you sign up with WordPress, you will get the option “Start a new website” and fill in all of the necessary info. Then, your hosting company will send you your Admin URL, where you can log in to your WordPress website, as well as your username and password.
Secure Sockets Layer or SSL is a protocol for establishing encryption-based internet security. In other words, it adds a layer of security to your webpage. You do this by going to your hosting company’s account and choosing an option to encrypt SSL on your domain name.
4. Finally – build your website
Now you need to decide on the design of your webpage. When using WordPress, you might not have unlimited options for templates to use, but you will be able to choose the majority of things that will be visible on your webpage.
With WordPress, you can pick:
- Images
- Color palettes
- Fonts
- The position of call-to-action buttons
- Drop-down menu content and design
Another major thing you want to have for your webpage are WordPress plugins. They are a package of code made by developers that you “plug in” to your website to get new features or widgets on your webpage. You can look up some of the plugins on wordpress.org and type “art” into the search bar.
Some plugins for artists include photo galleries and albums, sliders for displaying content on the webpage and artist’s profiles with bio, photo and contact information. Some of them even include Google Maps and templates with short codes if you want your webpage to include advanced features.
That’s it. This is how you can make an artist website using WordPress. If you find this article helpful, please comment and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
If you’ve any queries, mention them in the comment section below.
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