How to Build an Artist Website with Wordpress

How to Build an Artist Website with WordPress from cory huff on Vimeo.

UPDATE: A few of you have asked me for a written version of these instructions. I had someone transcribe what I spoke. You should be able to follow along with the written transcript and refer back to the cleaned up, written version. Let me know if you have questions! Click on this link to get the written transcript.

How_to_Build_an_Artist_Website_with_WordPress

One of the biggest pieces of feedback that I received from the ArtEmpowers.Me courses was that there was a LOT of content to go through. People need a simple win.

I put the above video together to show you how you can create a simple, clean artist website in just 10 minutes. This video takes you through the steps of signing up for hosting, installing WordPress in Bluehost, adding a great art template, adding pages, and configuring your menus so that your site is presentation ready.

There is a lot more that you can do with your artist website, but this video will show you how to get the very basics. For in-depth tutorials, as well as help with marketing and selling your work online, check out ArtEmpowers.Me.

What is WordPress?

You can see my short video on WordPress above, but the the even shorter version is this: WordPress is a free, open-source software that allows you to build websites without learning all of the difficult coding work that professional web developers know. If you already know some of that stuff, WordPress takes care of much of the grunt work, and leaves you free to focus on design.

Want Some Hands-On Help Building Your Site?

Check out Done for You Artist Websites. I help you get the site set up, work with you to create a plan for marketing your site, and you get one-on-one coaching access from me. It’s a win-win-win!

Tagged as: artist websites, selling art online, websites for artists, wordpress, wordpress for artists

ElenaSeccivonDeck 5 pts

Hi, Cory. Thanks for the very clear and illuminating instructions... I'm not as quick as you are but my site is under construction and I hope I'll be done quite soon. I have only one question: I would like the posts page to show images only and not part of the written content too, but I can't find out how to do this. Can you help? BTW, the theme I chose is WP Twenty Ten 1.3.

Thanks in advance

elena

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CoryHuff 9 pts moderator

ElenaSeccivonDeck Thanks for stopping by Elena. Glad it was helpful. I offer individual consultations for situations like these - click on the Home page for info on individual coaching for your site.

painterskip 5 pts

Thanks for the very helpful video. I've built and maintained my own sites for several years but used Dreamweaver and have grown weary of trying to keep up with that technology (instead of painting for a living). And for years, I've been looking for something to use for some new sites. I've tried Joomla 4 times and failed:-) Tried Drupal today...nope. And I even tried WordPress quite awhile ago and didn't do so well. But I think your video made the difference. Thanks!

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flora.doehler 5 pts

Hi Cory, I thought I had posed a question, but I don't think it worked! First of all, thanks so much for making the video and for sharing your information. I've considered moving my wordpress site to a private host but I had a question that I would like to ask you. How do you find the 'themes' for wp. As you know, on the free site, they are all there from the dashboard. Does Bluehost also have free themes? Also, does Bluehosted sites have stats counters? Thanks. I look forward to your answer.

Flora

flora.doehler There are 2 ways to find themes. There's a search box within your WP dashboard, or you can Google them and download a zip file, which you then upload to your WP dashboard. Either way, it's super easy. Instead of using a stats counter from your web host, just install Google Analytics. It's free. The Google Analyticator plugin will do the installation work for you after you create your Google Analytics account.

kokomeezer 5 pts

CoryHuffflora.doehler You can go to Wordpress.org and search themes as well. I recommend that over googling it as many times you have no idea who wrote the theme and some people write WP themes with hidden code in the footer that can have nasty stuff in it.

kokomeezerCoryHuffflora.doehler Thanks Cory, thanks Koko!

I took the leap and got myself a hosting site....in my case I went with @HostPapa because they are Canadian, and I liked the idea of the servers being in my country.

I bought 2 themes from @ThemeTrust and i LOVE the one I'm using. I think it is perfect for displaying my paintings. http://floradoehler.ca

Both ThemeTrust and HostPapa have be really good about giving support and answering questions within 24 hours.

I (think) I am using Analytics, but I still miss seeing the numbers in the sidebar.

JohnGregory 5 pts

Hi Cory,

Thanks for the WordPress overview. My question is why do you need a host, such as Bluehost. I signed up and created a blog site on WordPress for free. Is the premium WordPress worth buying? Thanks, John Gregory

JohnGregory great question John. Wordpress.com is a free blogging platform, like Blogger. Wordpress is a software that you can install on a server and own your own website. There are a number of reasons to own your own website, but essentially, it comes down to having ownership of your web presence. Wordpress.com, Blogger, Tumblr, and all of the other blogging sites can turn your site off for no reason, and they don't have nearly the functionality that you'll need to create a proper site.

Thanks Cory for the quick reply. I hear people are leaning toward GoDaddy over Bluehost for hosting. I'm doing some research in that I would like to sell art through my site. JG

CoryHuff

JohnGregory GoDaddy is indeed very popular - but I personally use Bluehost. That's why I recommend them.

JohnGregoryCoryHuff BlueHost or perhaps Hostgator is WAY more WordPress friendly than GoDaddy. Also I've waited 30-40 minutes to get tech service for GoDaddy--never had that happen with Hostgator. When I used Bluehost, had no reason to contact them. I found that the Hostgator help can help even if the issue is not hosting but with WordPress, which is very nice when you are starting out. At the time I used Bluehost, that wasn't true then, but it was a couple of years ago. Hosts change and Bluehost was going through some growing pains at the time.

Barbara J Carter 5 pts

This is great information! One question: how do you sift through all the possible themes out there? Even just limiting yourself to the free ones, there are so many!

Barbara J Carter There are indeed a ton of themes out there, but most of them aren't good for artists. There are really only a handful that do a good job of creating a gallery style layout for all of your images. Perhaps I'll publish a list of the ones that I like.

CoryHuff That would be tremendously helpful!

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December 14, 2011 at 5:01 am

[...] 3. Word Press is a great free resource. Although you can blog on wordpress.org, you should download WordPress software onto your own site, which can easily be done. If you want to make a simple art website in just a few minutes, check out this article from Abundant Artist on How to Build an Artist Website in Ten Minutes with Word Press. [...]

Technologies Mutation of Art | My Blog stylistic landscapes says:

February 2, 2012 at 7:24 pm

[...] the intricacies of using BlueHost and WordPress to set up a blog and website. He has a video, http://www.theabundantartist.com/how-to-build-an-artist-website-in-10-minutes-with-wordpress/, suggested to me by art consultant Carolyn Edlund of Artsy Shark, explaining step by step how to [...]