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Punkt Digital

Handcrafted websites for artists and the organizations that support them.

March 16, 2019 By Alison Wilder

DIY WordPress Part 3: How to Build Your Own Artist Website

You’ve chosen a great web host, secured an awesome domain name, and installed WordPress. The hard stuff is done — time to start designing your new artist web portfolio!

The Big Picture

While WordPress is really simple to use in general, it’s got a ton of features and options that may seem a bit daunting at first. Here’s a basic rundown of what you need to know to get started…

WordPress has two sides: functionality and looks.

The “functionality” side is covered by the core WordPress software (which you should never touch unless you really know what you’re doing!) and/or by plugins, and the “looks” side is covered by your WordPress theme. More on both of those down the page a bit.

Front page layout is really important.

Tamara Roberts Music (Frontpage)While some themes have very customized front page options, you generally have two options for your front page: a list of blog posts, or what’s called a static page with a set layout. If you go to Settings –> Reading in your dashboard, you’ll have the option to set which of these you want to display on your home page. Here’s some more info about that. Again, some themes will have special front page templates (which is probably one of the things that attracted you to a particular theme), so do check your theme documentation if you’re not sure how to set up your front page.

Menu items are how visitors will find their way around.

Think about your the different reasons people will have for visiting your site. Did they just hear about your work and want to explore further? Are they looking to find learn specifics regarding your past experience because they’re considering hiring you? Be sure your menu items help each of these visitors get what they need quickly. Also, don’t imagine that visitors will dig through your site to find your best work — be sure to there’s always a clear path to your showcase.

To adjust the menu in the WordPress, visit Appearance –> Menus to edit which pages/links you want to appear, and in what order. Again, your choice of theme can affect how this works, so be sure to check out your theme documentation if you can’t figure it out.

Dealing with media.

Media is obviously one of the most important concerns for an artist webiste. In WordPress, the Media library holds your images, audio, or video. Recent improvements to the image functionality in WordPress have made it really fantastic for working with images — you can now crop, resize, drag directly into your posts, etc. It actually handles audio and video really well too, but we don’t recommend that you host audio/video yourself.

YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, and others have millions invested in infrastructure for that — let them do it! Whenever possible, embed these third-party media players. Besides, hosting your media on these services is a great way to build a cloud-based artist portfolio!

wp-help

Getting Your Hands Dirty With WordPress

I find that the best way to learn about this stuff is to dive in and get your hands dirty. Just go into the dashboard and start making posts and pages! Look at it this way: if you mess things up too badly, you can just reinstall WordPress and start over! (Of course, you don’t want to do this if you’ve gotten very far, but right at the beginning, it can be an attractive option.)

Google is your friend.

One of the biggest benefits to using a heavily-adopted system like WordPress is that there’s almost always someone out there who’s done what you want to do and written about it. If you have a question, Google (or Bing, or DuckDuckGo) it up! If you don’t find something right away, try rephrasing the question.

The WordPress Codex is your friend.

The Codex is the repository of all of the WordPress documentation, and if you really read through it and understand everything, you’ll be able to perform magic feats with WordPress. Fortunately, you probably won’t need to go that far, but it’s a great reference document. In fact, they’ve got a Where to Start document that’s a great extension of this tutorial.

Lists of tutorials are (sometimes) your friend.

A list like this one can be really helpful when you’re starting out — they can help show you what you don’t know you don’t know.

You’re on your way to developing your own WordPress-powered artist portfolio website! Next time in Part 4, we’ll be getting you acquainted with the power of WordPress themes.

Until then, feel free to send us your questions and thoughts about what you’d like to see discussed here at Artist Web School! #WordpressForArtists

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: websites, wordpress, wordpress plugins, wordpress themes

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What Our Clients Say

  • Peter Erskine, legendary drummer

    Working with Punkt Digital has been an enjoyable and productive experience. Communication with the design team was timely, fluid and responsive. My website’s design and functionality exceeded my expectations. While the site has a totally professional look and feel, the add-on/editing process is very “hands-on” and easy for me to do whether I am traveling or am at home. And, for those moments when gremlins come to visit, the Punkt Design team deals with them swiftly and effectively. In short, we are 100% happy with Punkt Digital, and I’m very glad that I made the switch to entrusting my website to them.

    Peter Erskine, legendary drummer
  • David Balakrishnan, founding member of the Grammy-winning Turtle Island Quartet

    As we enter our thirtieth year of music making, we are well aware how important it is to keep a close eye on the current trends in the wide world of internet media. Working with Punkt Digital has been exactly what we needed to retain our pole position in the forefront of the chamber jazz music scene. We have our sheet music sales going strong, we can do our own updates on our site with ease, it looks great, works great, simple, no fuss, Turtles swimming smooth in the digital sea, thanks Punkt!!!

    David Balakrishnan, founding member of the Grammy-winning Turtle Island Quartet
  • Adam Roberts, Composer

    I went to Punkt Digital because I wanted to revamp my site, make it sleeker, more user friendly, and easy to update myself. Alison and Greg surpassed all of my expectations in terms of both product and process. Finally, the price is extremely reasonable. In summary, I couldn't recommend Punkt Digital more highly.

    Adam Roberts, Composer
  • Jeremy Gill, Composer

    I love my new website. Punkt Digital does brilliant, efficient, and sensitive work, and was able to integrate all my needs into a cohesive and aesthetically compelling whole. They also prepared detailed notes to guide me through the process of updating my site — something I have to do regularly. Truly an invaluable product!

    Jeremy Gill, Composer
  • Tamara Roberts, Musician

    I had a great experience working with Punkt Digital. Being not-so-tech-savvy, Alison and Greg were great at talking me through the site building process and thinking creatively about my unique needs. The site is beautiful and perfectly captures my style and personality. And it’s a breeze to update whenever I get new gigs or have media to share. I’d recommend Punkt Digital to anyone, especially artists who have a hard time fitting their work into existing one-size-fits-all platforms.

    Tamara Roberts, Musician
  • Adam Vidiksis, Composer

    Punkt Digital listened to my ideas and incorporated them brilliantly in their design. They are thorough, creative, and consistent. Punkt produced a site that really embodied the artistic vision for my music. I am very happy with the result.

    Adam Vidiksis, Composer
  • Joel Friedman, Composer

    Working with Punkt was a delightful collaboration from start to finish and I couldn't be happier with the result. In a market crowded with designers how many can boast being active artists, serious tech mavens, and have a terrific aesthetic sensibility to boot? This means they have the firepower to imagine, successfully execute, walk in your shoes, and shepherd your design from beginning to end. They earned my trust and appreciation. Wow.

    Joel Friedman, Composer
  • Jon Russell, Clarinetist

    Excellent on all counts. Punkt was always very responsive, in both the speed and thoroughness of their replies to any questions or requests. They also struck just the right balance between aiming to understand and fulfill my vision for the site, while also using their own expertise to offer suggestions for alternatives. They were also very patient and responsive when I (frequently!) changed my mind about what I wanted partway through the process.

    Jon Russell, Clarinetist
  • Deborah Sherr, Executive Director
Avaloch Farm Music Institute

    Let me sing the praises of Punkt Digital! Absolutely every aspect of their work has exceeded my expectations. From the first inquiry they have been extraordinarily responsive, positive, and SO smart. They understand every request, have a great eye for appropriate design, listen and guide with equal patience, and have created tutorials which are easy and intuitive. The platform they have created for adding and editing is terrific, so that even an amateur can maintain the website with ease. I have been extremely impressed with their commitment to an ongoing relationship, even months after they finished creating the actual website. Alison and Greg are the greatest!

    Deborah Sherr, Executive Director Avaloch Farm Music Institute
  • Judith Jennings, Art x Culture x Social Justice Network

    I love working with Punkt Digital! First, Alison and Greg Wilder are thoroughly grounded in the latest technology and constantly upgrading their skills and services. Secondly, they are visual artists with keen aesthetics and strong design talents. Most of all, they are great people who care deeply about the quality of their work and the satisfaction of their client and are willing to take extra time and care for the best possible results.

    Judith Jennings, Art x Culture x Social Justice Network
  • Peter Erskine, legendary drummer

    Working with Punkt Digital has been an enjoyable and productive experience. Communication with the design team was timely, fluid and responsive. My website’s design and functionality exceeded my expectations. While the site has a totally professional look and feel, the add-on/editing process is very “hands-on” and easy for me to do whether I am traveling or am at home. And, for those moments when gremlins come to visit, the Punkt Design team deals with them swiftly and effectively. In short, we are 100% happy with Punkt Digital, and I’m very glad that I made the switch to entrusting my website to them.

    Peter Erskine, legendary drummer
  • David Balakrishnan, founding member of the Grammy-winning Turtle Island Quartet

    As we enter our thirtieth year of music making, we are well aware how important it is to keep a close eye on the current trends in the wide world of internet media. Working with Punkt Digital has been exactly what we needed to retain our pole position in the forefront of the chamber jazz music scene. We have our sheet music sales going strong, we can do our own updates on our site with ease, it looks great, works great, simple, no fuss, Turtles swimming smooth in the digital sea, thanks Punkt!!!

    David Balakrishnan, founding member of the Grammy-winning Turtle Island Quartet
  • Adam Roberts, Composer

    I went to Punkt Digital because I wanted to revamp my site, make it sleeker, more user friendly, and easy to update myself. Alison and Greg surpassed all of my expectations in terms of both product and process. Finally, the price is extremely reasonable. In summary, I couldn't recommend Punkt Digital more highly.

    Adam Roberts, Composer
  • Jeremy Gill, Composer

    I love my new website. Punkt Digital does brilliant, efficient, and sensitive work, and was able to integrate all my needs into a cohesive and aesthetically compelling whole. They also prepared detailed notes to guide me through the process of updating my site — something I have to do regularly. Truly an invaluable product!

    Jeremy Gill, Composer
  • Tamara Roberts, Musician

    I had a great experience working with Punkt Digital. Being not-so-tech-savvy, Alison and Greg were great at talking me through the site building process and thinking creatively about my unique needs. The site is beautiful and perfectly captures my style and personality. And it’s a breeze to update whenever I get new gigs or have media to share. I’d recommend Punkt Digital to anyone, especially artists who have a hard time fitting their work into existing one-size-fits-all platforms.

    Tamara Roberts, Musician
  • Adam Vidiksis, Composer

    Punkt Digital listened to my ideas and incorporated them brilliantly in their design. They are thorough, creative, and consistent. Punkt produced a site that really embodied the artistic vision for my music. I am very happy with the result.

    Adam Vidiksis, Composer
  • Joel Friedman, Composer

    Working with Punkt was a delightful collaboration from start to finish and I couldn't be happier with the result. In a market crowded with designers how many can boast being active artists, serious tech mavens, and have a terrific aesthetic sensibility to boot? This means they have the firepower to imagine, successfully execute, walk in your shoes, and shepherd your design from beginning to end. They earned my trust and appreciation. Wow.

    Joel Friedman, Composer
  • Jon Russell, Clarinetist

    Excellent on all counts. Punkt was always very responsive, in both the speed and thoroughness of their replies to any questions or requests. They also struck just the right balance between aiming to understand and fulfill my vision for the site, while also using their own expertise to offer suggestions for alternatives. They were also very patient and responsive when I (frequently!) changed my mind about what I wanted partway through the process.

    Jon Russell, Clarinetist
  • Deborah Sherr, Executive Director
Avaloch Farm Music Institute

    Let me sing the praises of Punkt Digital! Absolutely every aspect of their work has exceeded my expectations. From the first inquiry they have been extraordinarily responsive, positive, and SO smart. They understand every request, have a great eye for appropriate design, listen and guide with equal patience, and have created tutorials which are easy and intuitive. The platform they have created for adding and editing is terrific, so that even an amateur can maintain the website with ease. I have been extremely impressed with their commitment to an ongoing relationship, even months after they finished creating the actual website. Alison and Greg are the greatest!

    Deborah Sherr, Executive Director Avaloch Farm Music Institute
  • Judith Jennings, Art x Culture x Social Justice Network

    I love working with Punkt Digital! First, Alison and Greg Wilder are thoroughly grounded in the latest technology and constantly upgrading their skills and services. Secondly, they are visual artists with keen aesthetics and strong design talents. Most of all, they are great people who care deeply about the quality of their work and the satisfaction of their client and are willing to take extra time and care for the best possible results.

    Judith Jennings, Art x Culture x Social Justice Network

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