First you’ll need to purchase a domain name which is about $10 a year. You will also need to get web hosting which can be $6 to $15 a month depending on the hosting company and the plan you choose. I believe these expenses are investments in your art career and well worth the cost in order to promote you and your work. But I also know that for some artists just starting out these are expenses they simply can not afford.

If you are looking to create a web presence without spending a dime I recommend starting with WordPress.com. This is a completely free blog service that offers plenty of great features and customization all within a community of other users who are there to help you when you need it. You could head over to WordPress.com right now and have a website/blog up and running in less than 15 minutes without ever having to break out the credit card. This option takes away any excuse you may have for not having your own artist website.

The great thing about starting with WordPress.com as your website service is that the content you create on your site is easily transferred to a WordPress.org site when you’re ready for an up grade. Also WordPress.com offers paid upgrade options as well to improve your site without ever having to move it. Any time and effort you invest in WordPress.com is not wasted due to this ease of upgrade that is built in.

WordPress.com Vs. WordPress.org

If you are not familiar with WordPress you might be a bit confused at this point by the mention of WordPress.com and WordPress.org. They are two different blogging solutions. Simply put the .com version is a blog service and the .org version is a blog software.

WordPress.com hosts your blog or site on their servers for free and your domain name is something like artpalaver.wordpress.com.

WordPress.org offers software that you install on your own server you’ve rented from a hosting company and is then connected to your own domain name. It is what I use here on artpalaver.com.

WordPress.org is super flexible and can be customized in just about anyway you can imagine to just about whatever you need it to do. Right out the box it is very search engine friendly. There are countless themes and plugins available for free that help you change the look and function of the your site. And there is a large community of avid users found on blogs and forums around the web that will help you when you need it. Those are just some of the reasons I think WordPress.org is a great solution for a do it yourself” web presence. But I do understand that the approximate $120 a year price tag can be too much for the emerging artist.

Start with the completely free option and eventually move to the better self hosted .org option.

If you do start off on WordPress.com though one small expense you might consider is buying yourself a domain name. Scrape together the $8.88 needed to secure the name for a year and then have it forward to your WordPress.com site. myart.com is better than myart.wordpress.com.

Any questions?

WordPress For Artists | Create A Free Artist Website With WordPress.com is a post from: Art Palaver The Artist Marketing Resource.

No related posts.

But I know many artists who use WordPress never get around to activating Akismet because they get confused when it asks for a WordPress.com API key.

What is a WordPress.com API key and how do I get one?

Basically the API key allows your blog access to Akismet’s service to check if the comments appear to be spam or not. There are two simple ways to get your key. You can go to WordPress.com and sign up for a username only account or you can go directly to Akismet’s site and have them email you a key.

Does not really matter which route you take, they are both very simple. But I highly recommend that you do take this step of getting that Akismet plugin activated. It will save you a lot of time by weeding out the real comments from the ugly comments.

WordPress For Artists | Stopping Spam Comments On Your Art Blog is a post from: Art Palaver The Artist Marketing Resource.

No related posts.

The default answer when talking WordPress is “there is a plugin for that.” And that answer holds true for this dilemma as well. The one I use and recommend is WordPress Automatic Upgrade. Once installed this plugin does all the heavy lifting for you.

WordPress automatic upgrade upgrades your wordpress installation by doing the following steps.

1. Backs up the files and makes available a link to download it.
2. Backs up the database and makes available a link to download it.
3. Downloads the latest files from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip and unzips it.
4. Puts the site in maintenance mode.
5. De-activates all active plugins and remembers it.
6. Upgrades wordpress files.
7. Gives you a link that will open in a new window to upgrade installation.
8. Re-activates the plugins.

This little plugin really helps you keep your WordPress blog up to date. You can find it at:  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade/ Or search from it through the plugins page in your WordPress dashboard for a direct install.

WordPress For Artists | Staying Up To Date With The Latest Release Of WordPress is a post from: Art Palaver The Artist Marketing Resource.

No related posts.

I recommend using

Welcome to WordPress Wednesday!

Plugins are tools that you use to add function to your WordPress blog or site. Think of them as upgrades. There are hundreds of them and most of them are free. The following list is what I consider a good foundation for any WordPress based website.

1. WordPress Database Backup – This plugin simplifies and automates the back up of your site’s database. The database is where most of your site’s information is stored. Having regular automatic back ups can really save you when things go wrong.

2. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – Every time you post to your blog this little guy will look at your past posts for ones that relate and add links to them after the post. This helps your visitors to keep reading and stay on your site longer. That is a good thing.

3. All in One SEO Pack – SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and good SEO helps people find your site and you through organic cost free searches. This plugin boosts the SEO of your whole site and blog posts. If you do use this one I suggest checking out the plugin’s site to learn how to really get the most out of it.

4. SEO Friendly Images – Properly handling the images you post to your site can really increase traffic to your site. (As previously mentioned.) This plugin does some pretty geeky stuff to improve your images in the eyes of Google.

5. SEO Slugs – If you can’t tell already SEO is important and you want to do all you can to improve it. This plugin removes common words like ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘in’ from post slugs. Trust me the last thing you want is an ‘a’ in your post slugs.

6. Google XML Sitemaps – One more to help search engines find you. This plugin creates a file that makes for easy reading if your a search engine robot.

7. WordPress Automatic Upgrade – WordPress is great but there is always room for improvement. Which is why every so often new versions will come out that contain bug fixes and feature upgrades. This plugin does all the heavy lifting for you when it comes to keeping your site up to date.

8. RSS Footer – Many people will be reading your blog via RSS. That means they will rarely visit your blog. This plugin allows you to include a signature in every post that you can use to brand your posts or to market something specific. If you’re reading this post via RSS you’ll see what I mean below. If you’re not reading this post via RSS you can subscribe (For Free!) by clicking here.

9. What Would Seth Godin Do – Funny name but a great plugin. This one allows you to give a specific “hello” to new visitors who have never been to your site before. A great way to grab their attention and encourage them to subscribe to your content.

10. Gurken Subscribe to Comments – Pretty self explanatory. After someone comments they can get an email when there are follow up comments. Help encourage dialogue between you and your fans.

This list is by no means an end all be all list, just a foundation. Like I said there are many plugins out there that do a wide range of things. I am always on the look out for new ones so let me know of any you’d put on a list like this.

WordPress For Artists | Ten Essential Plugins For Your Art Blog is a post from: Art Palaver The Artist Marketing Resource.

No related posts.

Welcome to WordPress For Artists!

This series is just getting off the ground so I thought I would start with some of the basics by answering the most common questions I get about WP.

Who do you recommend for a host of my WordPress site? I use and recommend Site5 for any of your hosting needs. Because I work with artists developing their sites I have experience with a broad selection of internet host providers and I have found Site5 to be the most reliable and offer the highest level of customer service. Site5 offers “one click” install of WP which is the easiest way to get started.

What theme do you recommend? A theme is the foundation of your WP site. It defines not only the look of your site but also the function of your site. As well as helping or hurting your chance to be found by search engines. I have experience with countless themes because of all the sites I have built over the years. It is important to pick a theme that suits your unique needs and one that you are comfortable working with. But I have landed on Headway as a theme that I have been using on almost every site I’ve built recently. It is a “premium” theme so it will set you back $87 but it can easily be customized without knowing any code and also has great support from the developer, so you’ll get the money you spend back in the time you save.

But there are thousands of themes out there. You can either search for one directly through your WP dashboard, on the WordPress site, or by doing a Google search. There is usually a bit of trial and error when picking themes so be ready to invest some time in the process. But once you have your theme set it will most likely last you a long time.

What are some good places to look for information on WordPress? Art Palaver of course. But I realize the WordPress information on this site is just getting started so I need to point out some other good sources. When you are new to blogging and WordPress the best place to go is Lorelle on WordPress. Or if you want to cut right to source The WordPress Codex is also good. Feeling stuck and need to ask someone a question? Head over to the WordPress support forums. Chances are someone already asked your question and someone else already answered, so do a search for you problem. Finally if you really want to tap into the vein of all things WordPress subscribe to the WordPress developers blog.

I have found that WordPress has an amazing community of people who are willing to help and share information when you need it. One of the best ways to find answers is to enter your WP question in a Google search. 9 out of 10 times you’ll find what you are looking for.

WordPress For Artists | Getting Started is a post from: Art Palaver The Artist Marketing Resource.

No related posts.