Wordpress for Artists
July 15, 2009
Caleb and Toulouse
Recently I have received several inquiries about my website. I am using WordPress. However I don’t know enough about it to adequately answer questions. I decided to seek out information from a reliable source. I went to see the person who set the site up for me, Caleb, at Seven North Web & Graphics in St. Petersburg, Florida. Here is the Q & A that resulted:
Me: Caleb, tell the artists who might be reading this a little about yourself.
Caleb: I’ve been a self supporting artist for 20 years. I’ve been using WordPress since it’s beta in 2002.
Me: What do you do here at Seven North? Put together websites for all kinds of businesses and individuals?
Caleb: I do graphic arts including web design and social media consulting for all types of businesses and individuals.
Me: Including artists?
Caleb: Yes, it all started with artists. Actually I treat artists as small businesses. I also treat small businesses as artists. The needs and principles are all the same whether it’s a construction contractor, restaurateur or an artist.
Me: You mentioned WordPress. What is that?
Caleb: Originally it was blogging software but due to growth it is more aptly called a C.M.S. (content management system). It’s open source and it’s free!
Me: Open source? What is that?
Caleb: Open source means the code is open for inspection and modification by anyone. Each project, such as Wordpress, is maintained by a community of users.
Me: What is a WordPress Theme?
Caleb: A WordPress Theme is a way to change the way a blog looks, it’s mostly cosmetic. It’s the php front end for a MySQL database.
Me: Like a template?
Caleb: Yes, the correct terminology is “theme” but for all intensive purposes the words are interchangeable.
Me: Why do you recommend WordPress to your clients?
Caleb: It is self-hosted.
Me: Why be self-hosted
Caleb: So you’ll have your own domain. And so you’ll have complete freedom to do or say whatever you want. There is no censorship which is great for artists. This way your weblog can be the hub of your social media universe.
Me: So that’s really the modern infrastructure for self-promotion isn’t it?
Caleb: Absolutely, all media outlets are using the same web info and the same search techniques as you are. Just by being there you can become a resource, be mentioned and get noticed. So you want to be prominently listed in search engines. That art is called S.E.O. (search engine optimization).
Me: So how can one achieve high S.E.O. rankings?
Caleb: Google loves fresh content daily. Google loves incoming links from authoritative sources. Google loves weblogs.
Me: So what do I need to do to move up in the rankings?
Caleb: Provide fresh content daily which includes, in natural language, the key search terms which are relevant to your site. Also get people with established web pages to link to you.
Me: How do I do that?
Caleb: Call them up and ask them. Follow other blogs and comment frequently and intelligently.
Me: Can artists do more than blog with WordPress?
Caleb: Yes, there are numerous plug-ins for managing galleries.
Me: What about E-commerce?
Caleb: Yes, you can have a shopping cart and the whole nine yards but you’d be better off using a storefront for that.
So there you have it. The low down on Wordpress and why you should look into it. I hope that was helpful. In the near future I will look into what options artists have for storefronts.
(author’s note: This is a disclaimer added after the fact. Although I did use this gentleman’s services to set up my site I no longer endorse those services. I do, however, continue to endorse the use of WordPress.)
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