In this DIY Artist Website Tutorial, we will: ✵ Get a free Password Keeper ✵ Set up your custom domain and website hosting ✵ Set up a custom email address matching your domain ✵ Get a free SSL Certificate ✵ Install WordPress ✵ Make a Coming Soon Page ✵ Install a Theme ✵ Customize the theme ✵ Create Pages ✵ Make a navbar menu ✵ Add social media icons ✵ Take site out of Coming Soon Mode ✵ Next steps… ✵
TODAY’S LESSON: BUILD YOUR OWN ARTIST WEBSITE
*No skills required.
Well, hello!
[*Art Resourcery Librarian Spins around in fancy office chair and strokes Frida Kahlo mustache.]
Today, I’m going to walk you through creating your very own artist portfolio website with WordPress. Building an art portfolio website might sound pretty intimidating, but these instructions will walk you through the process step by step. IT HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER TO CREATE A WORDPRESS WEBSITE FOR YOUR ART. Just follow these orderly steps and you’ll have your very own professional-looking site up and running in no time! I should warn you that this is a pretty long post, but I wanted you to have all the information you need in the order you need it. My goal is that by the time you’re done with this tutorial, your brand new artist website will be up and running. If you get stuck, or confused, please feel free to ask questions! Grab a glass of water, follow along, and you can get your artist’s portfolio website live A.S.A.P. Sound good? Let’s go!
Quick overview, so you know what to expext...
A Professional Artist's Website
The only thing you need to buy is hosting.
I'd give you that for free, but I'm not a hosting company (just your friendly Art ReSOURCERY librarian), so it isn't mine to give. 🙁
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: EASY – MODERATE. No special skills needed other than focus.
TIME COMMITMENT: 2 HOURS – A WEEK, DEPENDING ON WHETHER OR NOT YOUR CONTENT IS ORGANIZED IN ADVANCE.
WEBSITE QUALITY: WORDPRESS LEVEL = INFINITE POTENTIAL FOR AMAZINGNESS
PRICE: $3.95 – 14 per month: Paid to a hosting company of your choice, so your website has somewhere to live. I link to the cheapest WordPress hosting plans that give great results. The one I use most is on sale for $3.95 a month at the time I’m writing this. That is the only necessary cost in this tutorial, and will get you a domain, hosting, and SSL certificate from most reputable hosting companies.
That’s really all you need to set up a gorgeous WordPress website! Of course there are AMAZING plugins you can buy all over the internet if you want to make things extra fancy, but you don’t really need any of those to create a professional artist website. Not ready to invest in your art? That’s okay! It won’t look as good, but you can get an art portfolio website without spending a penny: click here & do the Google Sites Tutorial instead.
So, are you ready to build your art website the professional way, using WordPress? You will have your own domain name and web hosting package. The method below gets you a professional looking art portfolio website without needing to hire a web developer.
Just one thing first: If you are planning to get an essential product anyway (like web hosting, for example), please consider using one of our (affiliate) links to make your purchase. You can often get discounts on useful products, and we get a small commission. These clicks are small gestures for you (literally), but they help us keep the Art Resourcery alive. Thank you! Now on with your free tutorial…
FIRST STEP
START A PASSWORD KEEPER (LIST)
The most important thing you can do during this process is stay organized. So before you do ANYTHING else, decide where you are going to store your passwords. There will be a lot of them and you can’t use the same one for each service, so you will need to keep track of them all in one place. You will need to keep a list or spreadsheet (either digitally or on paper) where you will store all of your LOGINS and PASSWORDS for this project. I’ve created a special password sheet that’s already set up with everything we’ll cover here today. Before we continue, take a moment to click here and get your own Password Keeper for free.
SECOND STEP
CHOOSE A HOSTING PROVIDER
You can choose any hosting company you like. I (your friendly Art Resourcery librarian) have built websites for my clients on most of the major hosting companies. Many of the popular hosting companies don’t keep up with the ever-evolving internet quickly enough for me. After a LOT of testing, my two favorites are Green Geeks and Bluehost. I can confidently recommend either of them. (I always choose GreenGeeks these days because they’re fast, eco-conscious, and compatible with my favorite plugin, Elementor).
Website vocabulary for beginners:
HOSTING is the virtual piece of land where your website lives. You rent it from a hosting company. They are the landlords of the internet.
THE DOMAIN NAME (or URL) is the address of your website. With this information, anyone can visit you from anywhere in the world. Instead of something boring like ’32 Main Street’ you get to choose any address you want (as long as it hasn’t been chosen already). For example, our address is artresourcery.com.
LET’S GET STARTED WITH A URL AND HOSTING
For this tutorial, I’ll be using Green Geeks because they’re eco-friendly, reliable, and compatible with the Elementor plugin I always use. (Again, you can choose any company you want, this is just my personal preference).
- Go to Green Geeks and choose the cheapest package to buy your domain/hosting. Once you choose a plan, you’ll see this:
- You can get a free domain or use one you already have.
MAKE SURE THE NAME YOU WANT IS AVAILABLE ON THE MAJOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
If you are getting a new domain name, make sure your name hasn’t been taken on all the social media sites you plan to use. It’s best to have the same username everywhere so your artist brand will be consistent. There is a free tool you can use to check if your brand is available. Click here to open the Namechekr tool in a new window (you won’t lose this page). Once you find a name that’s available, you can continue with your hosting set-up on the Green Geeks website.
- Choose your domain name, then click CONTINUE. You will have an option to add “whois privacy”. Unless you’re trying to maintain a secret identity, you probably don’t need this.
- A few minutes after your domain registration order has been received, you’ll get an email confirmation of your purchase. You’ll also get an email telling you “IMMEDIATE VERIFICATION required for yourdomainname.com”. Just make sure they have your address right. Click the confirmation link they sent you, and that’s taken care of.
THIRD STEP
CHOOSE EITHER A FREE OR PAID EMAIL ACCOUNT
You’ll need to have an email@yourdomain.com. Anything else is not professional. You can choose to do this with a paid option that makes everything very easy for you, or, if you are willing to do a bunch of extra steps (like me), you can accomplish this without spending a penny. So pick one of those now, then we’ll continue with the instructions:
A) It’s no big deal, I’d rather pay and keep things simple.
- If you selected A, you can get click here to get GSUITE, which is a feature-packed, extra fancy version of Gmail that’s specially made to help businesses. [It has a 14 day free trial to make sure you’re comfortable with it, but if you aren’t going to stick with it, don’t bother with it, because it’ll just create extra work for you.]
- After you follow their steps to set up your email address, enter your G Suite login info in your Password Keeper, then you can skip ahead to step 7.
B) I’ll happily do the extra steps to save money!
If you selected B, like me, continue with these instructions.
GET A FREE GMAIL ACCOUNT
How to get a Free Gmail Account that matches your domain name to keep everything organized and separate from your personal emails.
- Go to http://gmail.com, click CREATE ACCOUNT > FOR MYSELF (that’s the free option). Fill in your information.
PRO TIP: The first and last names you use here will show up when you send people emails, so choose carefully. If your brand has more than one word, you can spread them out as your name. - Verify your phone number.
- Remember to save the password on your password sheet (if you forgot to grab the free password keeper list for this tutorial, get it now.
- Gmail has a quick process to help you get your Gmail inbox onto your smartphone, which you should definitely do since you’re already there. In your gmail account there are links to help you figure it out easily. They look like this:
You’re doing great! None of this is hard, right?
In the next step, we’ll set this email account up to work in connection with your custom domain (URL).
LET’S STAY ORGANIZED
In your Password Keeper, enter your new email address, username, and password so you’ll have those for later.
NOW THAT YOU HAVE AN INBOX, LET’S GET A CUSTOM EMAIL ADDRESS TO MATCH YOUR DOMAIN.
First, let’s choose your custom email address. Ex: contact@yourdomain.com
- Log into your to Green Geeks hosting account (if you’ve been following along, the password is on your password list). Click DASHBOARD > CPANEL.
- Scroll down the page to the Email section and click EMAIL ACCOUNTS.
- Click the blue CREATE button to make your custom email address.
- Select your domain.
- Choose a username/password and save them right away on your password list.
- Choose storage space (I set it to unlimited to avoid any interruption in service).
- Leave everything else as it is and click the blue + CREATE button. Now your new email will appear in an Email Accounts list on Greek Geeks.
You are ready to set it up so that all mail sent to that address can be managed from your Gmail account.
NOW WE CONNECT YOUR CUSTOM EMAIL ADDRESS TO YOUR FREE GMAIL INBOX.
- Inside your GreenGeeks hosting account, Click the little 3 x 3 grid icon in the top left to go back to your CPANEL.
- Scroll down the page to the Email section and click FORWARDERS.
- Click the blue + ADD FORWARDER button.
- If the email address you set up in Step 4 was email@yourdomain.com, you’ll type email into the “Address to Forward” box, and select your domain from the drop-down menu.
- Under Destination, select “Forward to Email Address”. Enter the free Gmail address you set up in step 3. (If you’re using the free password sheet I gave you for joining my mailing list, you probably saved that in cell 4C.)
- Click the blue + ADD FORWARDER button. You’ll see a confirmation that looks like this:
All email sent to ”email@yourdomain.com” will now be copied to “yourdomain@gmail.com”.
LET’S STAY ORGANIZED
Now open your Password Keeper and copy that confirmation text they just gave you into cell 4F. That way, if you can’t remember how things are set up later, a quick glance will ease your mind and save you from trying to figure it out from scratch.
WHAT WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED AT THIS POINT:
You’ve set up a custom email address and made sure that all mail sent to that address will automatically appear in your Gmail account. Now we need to make sure that when you reply to emails from inside your /gmail account, people will see your customized email address as the one that replied, instead of the @gmail.com address. We’ll set that up in the next step.
LET’S TELL GMAIL TO SEND MAIL ‘FROM’ YOUR CUSTOM EMAIL ADDRESS
- * Click here and toggle the button to Allow less secure apps: ON
- Go to your Gmail Inbox, click the gear icon at the top right, then scroll down to SETTINGS,
ACCOUNTS AND IMPORT > Send Mail As: ADD ANOTHER EMAIL ADDRESS. - A pop-up window will appear. Enter your custom email address in the empty box, keep “Treat as an alias” checked, > NEXT STEP. Fill the next part in as follows:
SMTP SERVER: smtp.gmail.com
PORT: 587 or 465
USERNAME: The part of your Gmail address that comes before the @ symbol.
PASSWORD: Your Gmail password (type this, don’t copy/paste it).
SECURED CONNECTION USING: TLS for 587, or SSL for 465
*Troubleshooting: If you get an Authentication Failed error, make sure you did step 6 in the email account we just created and not in a previously existing Gmail account. If that doesn’t work, you can click this link to create an app-specific password, then try this step again.
- Once you submit that info, you should see “Congratulations, we successfully located your other server and verified your credentials. Just one more step!” Go to your email and click the confirmation link. When you see “The Gmail user may now send mail as yourname@yourdomain.com.” Great job!
- From inside your Gmail Inbox, click the gear icon at the top right, then scroll down to SETTINGS.
ACCOUNTS AND IMPORT > Next to where it says Send Mail As, to the right of where you see your custom email address, click MAKE DEFAULT and select “Always reply from default address.” - LET’S TEST OUR SET-UP AND MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS WORKING PROPERLY
Go to your Gmail inbox and send a message to an older email account that you own. When you get the email, reply with any word, then see if it arrives in your new Gmail inbox. [* If you didn’t have an email address before, send an email from your new /Gmail address to a friend, asking them to help you out with a reply to let you know if they got the message.] When you have confirmed that you can both send and receive messages, you know you’ve done a good job!
Congratulations! You’ve managed to set up an email address with your very own custom domain at NO COST!
WHAT WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED AT THIS POINT:
You can now handle all your website’s email from inside of your Gmail account and it will all appear to be done from your professional, custom email address. And you have a domain and hosting, so your new website will have somewhere to live.
GET AN SSL CERTIFICATE
WHY DO YOU NEED SSL?
Google flags all sites that aren’t using SSL. If someone clicks on your website link from your Instagram bio and you don’t have SSL, people are told that your site is unsafe and they aren’t able to see it. Not great for business. So let’s get a free SSL certificate installed.
- Set up SSL by following these easy instructions from Green Geeks. At the end it tells you to Install the really simple SSL plugin, but we’ll do that a bit later. I’ll tell you when.
INSTALL WORDPRESS
WHAT’s GOING ON IN THIS STEP?
WordPress is arguably the best CMS (content management system) in the world, and it’s free! Once you install it, you ‘have a website‘. After that, it’s just playing with details until you get your website to look and function the way you want it. WordPress is like the foundation of your house. We’ll organize it into rooms, paint the walls, decorate, and bring in the furniture later. This step is just to get the base of the structure in place.
If you used a different hosting company, check their support area for instructions. It should be pretty similar, but each host varies. How do you create a WordPress website with Green Geeks? Read on!
- Log into your to Green Geeks hosting account (if you’ve been following along, the password is on your password list). Click DASHBOARD > CPANEL.
- Scroll down the page to the SOFTACULOUS APP INSTALLER section and click WORDPRESS, under WordPress, click the blue INSTALL NOW button. Now you have a bit of information to fill in. I suggest the following settings (you can always change these later):
Software Setup: Choose the highest number, so you’ll have the most current version.
Protocol: https:// (this is the secure version of your site), your domain, and leave Directory blank.
Site Settings: Site Name is your brand name, Description is your very short slogan or bio. You can leave it blank if you don’t have it written yet. “Tools and resources to help artists create a professional online presence.”
Admin Account: Username should be your brand name or public identity, and the password should be a good one. Fill in the admin email with the custom email address we created earlier. Make sure you record this info on row 13 of your password sheet!
Select Language: Choose the language your website will be written in. (You can always change this and add more languages later).
Select Plugins: Check Loginizer. It will help protect your website. Leave the rest unchecked. You can add plugins later.
Advanced Options: You can opt in to get free automatic backups and updates with these settings: 
Select Theme: Don’t worry about finding the right theme now. We’ll choose a good theme later.
- At the bottom of the page, you can enter your email to get installation details sent to you, then click the blue INSTALL button. Stay on this page until you see the word Congratulations. It takes less than a minute. Keep your Green Geeks page open in your browser for the next step.
LET’S STAY ORGANIZED
Copy the installation and admin info that appears into cell 13F on your Password Keeper.
LET’S FINISH SECURING YOUR SITE
In your Dashboard (yourdomain.com/wp-admin/), click PLUGINS > ADD NEW.
Type Really Simple SSL into the search bar. When you see it, click INSTALL NOW, then click ACTIVATE.
In your dashboard, click SETTINGS > SSL.
At the top, if you see a button that says “Reload over https” click that. You’ll be asked to log in again. (It’s okay, your WordPress password is in your Password Keeper.)
Click GO AHEAD, ACTIVATE SSL.
Navigate to ‘ELEMENTOR >TOOLS >REPLACE URL and enter your old site address (http://yourURL.com) and your new site address (https://yourURL.com). Click REPLACE URL.
Go to the GENERAL tab and click REGENERATE FILES > SAVE CHANGES.
Now your SSL certificate should be working.
To confirm, you can type your URL in HERE, and make sure the grade you get is an A+. If you see this…
… you’re good to go!
WHAT WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED AT THIS POINT:
You now have your very own WordPress website installed and secured by an SSL certificate. It isn’t ‘finished’ yet, but it does exist, so, congratulations! Now all we need to do is put it in Coming Soon mode so nobody sees it until you’re ready. Then we’ll design and customize it with your content. This is the fun part!
HIDE YOUR DIY ARTIST WEBSITE UNTIL IT'S READY
NOW THAT YOU HAVE A BRAND NEW WEBSITE, LET’S MAKE IT PRIVATE WHILE WE WORK ON SETTING IT UP FOR YOUR NEEDS.
Before starting this section, CLICK HERE and set up a free Elementor account. (Don’t worry, it opens in a new window.) Remember to put the login info into your Password Keeper.
Let’s continue with the instructions:
- Click the administrative URL [it should be in this format: yourdomain.com/wp-admin/] and you will be taken directly to the dashboard of your new WordPress website! Only you can see this dashboard, but we need to temporarily hide your website until we finish designing it and customizing it for your needs.
- On the left side of your WordPress dashboard (yourdomain.com/wp-admin/), go to PLUGINS > ADD NEW.
- In the search bar, type in Elementor and press return. When you see the image below, that’s the one you want.
- Click INSTALL NOW, then when the words on the blue button change, click ACTIVATE. (insert image)
- You are directed to a page where you can learn more about Elementor:
[https://YOURDOMAIN.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=elementor-getting-started]
But you can look at this later. - For now, just look on the left side of the screen under where it says Elementor. Click TOOLS, then click the Maintenance Mode tab.
- Choose mode: COMING SOON.
- Who can access: Logged In.
- Choose Template: To enable maintenance mode you have to set a template for the maintenance mode page. Select one or go ahead and create one now. (Click CREATE ONE.)
- Add Title: Coming Soon (or anything you want), then click PUBLISH.
SO FAR…
You now have your very own WordPress website, and when the public goes to your URL, they will see a ‘coming soon’ page. But that page looks really bad. So let’s fix it.
IT’S TIME TO CUSTOMIZE THE COMING SOON PAGE.
This is your chance to get a small taste of how fantastic the free Elementor plugin is.
- Push the blue EDIT WITH ELEMENTOR button.
- Click the gray folder.
- Under the PAGES tab, search for “soon”. Elementor has some premade coming soon templates here, so click the one you like best and push the INSERT button. It will ask you to connect to the template library. Just follow the prompts and log into the free Elementor account you created at the beginning of this step.
- On your Coming Soon page, click the little cog at the bottom left of your screen. Switch the page layout to Elementor Canvas.
- Now you can style that template and add any information you like for your Coming Soon page. To do this, just click on anything you want to change and use the editor box that appears on the left. This is a great way to give a call to action to anyone who happens to stumble upon your page before it goes live. When you have everything the way you like, click UPDATE. When the update button turns gray, you’re all set. Close the browser window.
- Now, go back to the other tab you have opened that shows the dashboard.
[Location from admin panel: ELEMENTOR > TOOLS > MAINTENANCE MODE.] - Refresh the page (by clicking the URL in your browser and pushing Return on your keyboard).
- Choose mode: COMING SOON.
Who can access: Logged In.
Choose Template: Select the one you just made. It will be the only option here at the moment. - SAVE CHANGES. You’ll know it worked because you’ll see this “maintenance mode on” notification at the top of your WordPress dashboard:
WHAT WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED AT THIS POINT:
You now have your very own WordPress website installed.
You have a fabulous Coming Soon page, and now you get to choose the layout!
CHOOSE A THEME FOR YOUR ARTIST WEBSITE
Now let’s decide which design template to use for your website!
- From the left-hand side of your WordPress dashboard, select APPEARANCE > THEMES > ADD NEW. You will see a huge archive of pre-designed themes. You can search them by features or layout, or you can just go through the catalogue until you see a layout that makes sense with your work. There are more than 5,000 free WordPress themes to choose from!
FYI: You can change themes anytime you like. ADVANCED USERS ONLY: If you are comfortable in the digital realms, you can design your website exactly the way you want it from scratch by searching for and installing a blank Elementor-ready theme called HELLO.
- Once you have a favorite, hover over it and press install, then click Activate. You have now applied your theme to the website.
Landmark Achievement!
You’ve mastered the INCOGNITO SPELL.
Hooray! Your website exists, it’s got style, it’s protected from unseen forces, and best of all, it’s invisible!
WHAT WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED AT THIS POINT:
The foundation for your website exists, you’ve installed a theme, and you’ve set up a Coming Soon page on your website. Anyone besides you who goes to your web address will see only the Coming Soon page you made. Now you are free to play with the design and add content without anyone seeing what you’re up to. You even have a little lock icon next to your website’s name in the browser bar, which shows people that your site is secured by an SSL certificate. The urgent business of getting started (and private) is finished and from here you can proceed at your own pace.
This is an excellent time to brew up a nice cup of coffee, or some bubbling eye of newt so you can fuel up for the next steps, in which we’ll wave our fingers over the keys and continue to sit for a spell…
Plugins are like apps for your website. They give it extra features and abilities. To install plugins, while logged into the dashboard of your WordPress website (yourdomain.com/wp-admin/), on the left side of the dashboard, Click PLUGINS > ADD NEW. Type the name of the plugin you want into the search bar and push return (or enter, if your not on a Mac). When you find a plugin you like, push INSTALL NOW > ACTIVATE. That’s it! Your plugin is installed.
While logged into the dashboard of your WordPress website (yourdomain.com/wp-admin/), on the left side of the dashboard…
- Click APPEARANCE > THEMES > ADD NEW.
- LOOK AT OPTIONS
You can search through the theme catalogue, where they have thousands of themes. You can sort through them, narrow down your options with a feature filter, or just look at everything until you feel that AHA! moment. - CHOOSE YOUR THEME
When you find a theme you like, push INSTALL. That’s it! Your theme is installed!
All the themes are slightly different, so do a Google search for “[theme name] documentation” and it will take you to the theme designer’s set-up instructions. There, you should be able to find details about all the design options that come with your theme, and detailed instructions about how to control them.
Welcome back! Now it’s time to take a look at how everything works and create the pages you’ll need and customize the appearance of your theme. In the column on the left, you’ll find a quick reference box to remind you how the important things work. On the right, we’ll continue on with this tutorial.
CUSTOMIZE YOUR THEME
All themes are slightly different. Some of them place a getting started link in your WordPress dashboard. If you see a link or prompt to set up your theme, click on it and follow the steps. If your theme doesn’t do that, continue with these instructions.
- From your WordPress dashboard (located at (yourdomain.com/wp-admin), on the left, click APPEARANCE > CUSTOMIZE. This will open a special panel where you can do things like add your logo, choose the layout and menu settings of your website, and control certain elements of the design.
- Remember to add a copyright to the bottom [in the ‘footer’ area]. You can copy/paste ours. Just remember to change it to your own info:
© Art Resourcery 2019. All rights reserved. - Make your selections here, then click the blue PUBLISH button to save your changes.
- Clicking the X at the top left takes you out of the customizer and back to your dashboard.
- GETTING THE THEME TO LOOK BETTER: Your site probably doesn’t look anything like the demo website for your theme just yet, and that’s okay for now. All the themes are slightly different, so the best way to get this perfect is to go straight to the source. Do a Google search for “[theme name] documentation” and it will take you to the theme designer’s set-up instructions. There, you should be able to find details about all the design options that come with your theme, and detailed instructions about how to control them. The documentation will tell you which plugins your theme needs, how to get portfolio posts to appear in your theme, and how to get it all working perfectly.
CREATE THE PAGES OF YOUR DIY ARTIST WEBSITE
Now it’s time to start adding page structure and content! This should feel pretty familiar because it’s pretty similar to typing an email.
- From your dashboard, click PAGES > ADD NEW.
- When you see this, you can fill in your page title and text:
- If you are building an artist website, you might like to start with the BIO page, where you will tell people a little bit about who you are. Other common artist website pages are Statement, C.V., Portfolio, and Contact. Anytime you click that little plus sign at the top left of your page editing screen, you can add different sections to your page (like text, a video, or an image gallery to show off your art).
- *TIP: If you click on the EDIT WITH ELEMENTOR button, you get way more advanced options.
- Click PUBLISH at the top right when your page is done. (Don’t worry, your website is still private.) Or, if you’re in the EDIT WITH ELEMENTOR screen, you’ll save by clicking the green UPDATE button.
CUSTOMIZE YOUR MENU
- From your dashboard, click APPEARANCE > MENUS
- There is a visual drag and drop editor that is very intuitive. Just check off the items you want to add to your menu and click ADD TO MENU.
- To delete something from the menu, under MENU STRUCTURE click the arrow next to it > REMOVE.
- Clicking the arrow also lets you change the text of the menu item.
- When everything looks just right, click SAVE MENU.
- At the top left of your screen, where you see the name of your website, you can click that and > VISIT SITE to see the changes live.
CLAIM YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS
…and keep track of them on your Password Keeper. You’ll want to do this fairly quickly before someone else thinks of the same idea and claims your name. All of these are free. You can just click through and claim the name that matches your domain name (without the .com).
And while you’re there, feel free to like & follow us for more helpful tips and tutorials in your feed.
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
OPTIONAL
Etsy (you only need this one if you plan to open an Etsy shop) – When you click this link and open your Etsy shop, you and I both get 40 free listings! The catch: they only give us both the free listings if you click this link, complete the set-up process, and list your first item all in one sitting, so be ready with your info before you begin! If you aren’t ready to do their whole setup process now, save this task for later.
ADD SOCIAL MEDIA ICONS TO YOUR ARTIST WEBSITE
This is done differently in each theme. You probably came across these in your customizer (APPEARANCE > CUSTOMIZE).
If you don’t see them there, try APPEARANCE > WIDGETS. And if you don’t see them there, refer back to your theme’s documentation [Google ‘your theme name’ documentation].
TIME TO MAKE YOUR DIY ARTIST WEBSITE PUBLIC
You’ve done SOOOOO much, and it’s almost time to launch! Let’s just take a quick moment to look at your website. Click through and make sure that all of your links and menu items are working. Make sure that you didn’t forget anything. Make any last-minute adjustments, and then whenever you are ready, follow the next steps to take your site out of maintenance mode and go public.
- go back to ELEMENTOR > TOOLS > MAINTENANCE MODE.
- Choose mode: DISABLED
- SAVE CHANGES. You’ll know it worked because you won’t see the red “maintenance mode on” notification at the top of your WordPress dashboard anymore.
Landmark Achievement!
YOU MADE YOUR OWN ARTIST PORTFOLIO WEBSITE USING WORDPRESS! FANTASTIC JOB!!!! Pat yourself on the back! YOU DID IT! You’re well on your way to world-wide-web wizardry! Read on for next steps, so you’ll know what to do now that you have a brand new website.
NEXT STEPS
Remember that a website is always a work in progress. Keep it updated with new art shows and artwork, and if you have a blog on your website, remember to post regularly! The more you put into your website, the more you will get out of it. Now that your site is live, let’s let the world know.
DO THIS FIRST…
- Add a link to your site in all of your social media accounts.
- If you have a mailing list, let your contacts know that you have a new site, and invite them to interact with you about it in whatever way you feel comfortable.
- Share the good news on social media and tag @ArtResourcery! Tell all your friends!
THEN DO THIS…
- If you haven’t already, join the Art Resourcery mailing list and get actionable tips for presenting and promoting your art, free in your inbox.
AND IF YOU WANT TO…
- If you used any of these steps to build your website, you’re invited to join and post a link to your site in our private Facebook Group for artists. I’m sure our readers would love to see what you were able to create!
I hope you found this tutorial useful!
If you did, I’d really love to hear about it in the comments below (feel free to include a link to your site). Having links to your site from reputable sites helps improve your search ranking!
If you share this post with other artists who need a website, tag us! @artresourcery / #artresourcery
You can also support us on Patreon to join our community and get access to more resources for organizing, planning, presenting and promoting your art online like a wizard.