Start Here: Using WordPress for Websites

WordPress for Artists: What you should know about using WordPress for Websites and this site

First Concepts

Artists are visual people; therefore presenting concepts via images with descriptive bubbles and instructional text fits more with the artistic process. Images are road maps with everything laid out as it actually exists in the real world, or the virtual world, as the case may be.

At WordPress for Artists you will learn how to use WordPress on this site with a multitude of instructional images and videos.

Please note that the images, videos and written instructions are geared toward installations of WordPress for Artbiz clients. But even if you aren’t an Artbiz client these lessons will teach you to work with WordPress.

The Great Things About WordPress are:

1. It’s easy to learn
2. It’s stable and relatively bug free
3. It’s used by millions of people around the globe
4. You can use it as a website only, without a blog.
5. You can brand your website and blog to look the same and manage both in one place.
6. You don’t have to have any knowledge of html, css and php to use WordPress to manage your content.

Note these tutorials assume that you have the standalone version of WordPress installed available from WordPress.org

Site Navigation

All tutorials are listed in the left sidebar with a menu that opens and closes. Only the section title page can be seen when the menu is fully closed. To open a section, click on the plus sign to the left of the title. The plus sign turns into a minus sign when the menu is expanded. To close the menu, click on the minus sign to the left of the title. At the top of the menu are links to open and close all.

Each section’s main page lists links to the tutorials within that section, along with a short description. At the bottom of each individual tutorial is a link to the next one. You do not have to follow the progression and can access any tutorial at anytime, as needed.

There’s a Sitemap (table of contents) that lists the entire content of this site.

For quick reference, watch the videos at the bottom of the tutorial page. Not all tutorials have videos, but most do.

Key items in the menu across the top of the page.
Prepare for your website provides a list of tasks to prepare, format and organize your content for a website and will ensure your website design is all you want it to be.

Support

Please use the site resources at your disposal and/or check for answers in the comments area at the bottom of each tutorial. If you can not find what you are looking for, post your question using the comment form. If you see a posted question that you can answer, please post it. By subscribing to the comments, you will be notified when an answer is posted and all future comments for that tutorial. You can manage your comment subscriptions by using the link under the comment area.

Artbiz will monitor all comments and reply promptly.

How tutorials are laid out

Available videos appear along with step by step written instructions and a number of image mark ups. You can work alongside the videos, pause and perform the task, then come back to the video and carry on to the next task. Most of the videos were made on a previous version of WordPress, so they may not look exactly like your install, but menu items and tasks are the same.

While the video covers the topic from start to finish, the images and written instructions are broken down to more detailed explanations. All videos can be enlarged to full screen by clicking the square at the bottom right corner on the video. To close the ads, click the X at the top right corner of the ad screen.

To work along side of the videos, pause it, go perform the task, then come back to the video and click play. It will start where you left off.

The steps for the required tasks are numbered on the images in the order that they are to be performed. These numbers correspond to a numbered list below the image with a full description of each task. Some images include a call out bubble with a short explanation.

About the images on this site

Since this is a fluid width theme (meaning the site expands and contracts depending on your monitor’s screen size) the images also expand and contract. For those with small monitors you can click on the image to enlarge it to see all the notes, etc.

All images will open via the WordPress default which opens the image over top of the current page enabling you to view it in its entirety, even zoom in and out. To get back to the page you were viewing simply use the browser’s back button.

The 3 Most Important Tutorials on this Site

Good images are the chief asset on any art website. If you do nothing else, following these 3 tutorials in order. It will save you a lot of work later on, when you realize that all the images on your website have been uploaded without any protection or optimization.

Resize Images for the Web
Watermark Images in NextGen Gallery
SEO for Artists

All three are available to download in Studio Store

Using this site if you are not an Artbiz client

I love artists; I’m one too and I want to help in anyway I can. That’s why I created the WordPress for Artists tutorials and that is why I’m not keeping it exclusive to Artbiz clients. If you are not an Artbiz Client, you still register for the Tutorials by choosing a membership option. All packages include the perks.

Saying that, it is important to note that the tutorials at WordPress for Artists are written for installations of WordPress, done Artbiz style, targeting Artbiz clients. That doesn’t mean that they won’t make sense to everyone; you just need a few added plugins. Please make contact and we’ll see what we can do to get you set up Artbiz style.

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