Building an artist website
Building your own artist website can seem like an intimidating task if you’re not tech-minded. If HTML, CSS and Javascript sound like words from an alien-language – never fear! The great news is that it’s possible to get your site up and running online quickly and easily with no technical skill or knowledge, and at very little cost. In this, the second series of tutorials that make up The Ultimate Guide to Creating Your Own Artist Website, I’ll take you step by step through the simplest options for building a portfolio website using a few straightforward solutions. Once you’ve worked your way through, you’ll have a slick, professional artist website online and ready to showcase your work to the world.
How we’ll build you site in a nutshell
- We’ll be buying a domain name from Bluehost.com, which is also where we’ll get our web hosting.
- From there, we’ll install WordPress – the most versatile and user-friendly platform for building a website with no technical knowledge needed.
- We’ll then upload a WordPress theme (the theme we use in the tutorials is Klasik from ThemeForest.net – see DarenRedman.com for an example of the theme in action) and a Gallery plugin (Justified Image Grid) which provide a stylish and contemporary framework for the site.
- After a bit of customisation with your own choice of colours and fonts (to give your site a unique feel), we’ll create the pages of your site.
- Domain name and hosting from Bluehost.com: $4.95 (Approx £3.00) a month
- WordPress installation: FREE
- Klasik WordPress theme: $45 (Approx £27)
- Justified Image Grid Plugin: $29 (Approx £17.50)
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What’s covered in Building your artist website?
Chapter 1 – Registering your domain name & hosting your site with Bluehost
In Planning your Artist Website we talked about choosing your ideal domain name. I’ll take you through how to register that name and get reliable hosting for your site all in one place at a very low cost. Then it’s on to how to actually build a portfolio website!
Chapter 2 – Installing WordPress
WordPress is a free content management system (used by a fifth of the top websites in the world). It’s what will give your site its framework. Having secured reliable web hosting, by the end of Chapter 2, you’ll have installed WordPress on your host server.
Chapter 3 – Uploading your theme
In Planning your Artist Website you decided on the look you wanted for your site and found a WordPress theme that helped you achieve that. Now it’s time to get that theme up and running on your site.
Chapter 4 – Basic WordPress settings
There are some general settings that need configuring in WordPress to help your site run smoothly. The process is quick and easy when you know how. Note: From this point on, the tutorials focus on creating a site with the Klasik WordPress theme; see an example of the theme in action at DarenRedman.com.
Chapter 5 – Customising the look and functionality of your site
Once you’ve completed Chapter 5 you’ll have set strong foundations for the style, look and functionality of your site using the built-in options that come as part of the Klasik theme.
Chapter 6 – Creating your Home page
Here you’ll discover how to build a beautiful homepage that will show a selection of your best work to visitors as soon as they land on your site.
Chapter 7 – Creating your About page
By the end of Chapter 7 you’ll have created a slick layout for your About page that makes the information easily digestible and attractively presented.
Chapter 8 – Setting up your Gallery pages
The most important aspect of any artist website is their gallery; it is where they display their work. Here, we’ll go step by step through the process of showcasing your images in a stunning portfolio using a combination of the Klasik theme built-in functionality and the WordPress plugin Justified Image Grid.
Chapter 9 – Creating a Contact page
There’s just a couple more steps left to complete your website. Here we’ll go through the process of setting up your Contact page so that people can quickly and easily get in touch.
Chapter 10 – Setting up the navigation of your site
The last thing left on the list is making your site easy for visitors to navigate; that means implementing a slick menu at the top of the site with clear, inviting page titles. [/ezcol_2third] [ezcol_1third_end]
What to be aware of before you start
Chapters 1-4 can be applied to any WordPress theme. They cover the basics of registering a domain name, setting up hosting for your site, and installing WordPress. Chapters 5-10 deal with building a beautiful artist portfolio website. In order that I could be thorough and direct in my instructions, if you want to follow along with these tutorials you’ll need to use the Klasik theme from ThemeForest.net. You can see this theme in action on the site I built for textile artist Daren Redman – DarenRedman.com.
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