Setting Up A Wordpress Website For Artists - Free Course

Geoffrey Gordon

Hi All

I have received quite a lot of questions and queries regarding setting up a website from the community. I wanted to get a feel from everyone if there would be interest if I developed a course for everyone interested here.

My reason for doing this is 2-fold, first to help members of the community here and secondly to create my own first online course which I have been meaning to for years.

My expertise is WordPress, so this is the platform I will be doing the course in. However once setup with the right tools, you will pretty much be able to do your own website without having to know a single line of code. Everything will be drag and drop and visual live editing.

I can also add a support form like this one where one can ask questions and give suggestions.
This will be the basic outline of the course:

PHASE ONE

Module One: Getting Started
a. Getting a Domain
b. Setting up your hosting
Module Two : Getting Setup
a. Installing WordPress
b. Installing base theme
c. Installing key plugins
d. Creating key Pages
e. Setting up a placeholder page
Module Three: Gathering Content and Building your website
a. General Guidelines
b. Your Portfolio Page
i. Preparing images
ii. Naming images
c. About Page
i. Writing an intro statement
ii. Benefits of working with you
iii. Adding Credibility
d. Services Page
i. Explaining wehat you offer
ii. Presenting what you offer
e. Books Page
i. Layouts for a single or multiple book page
ii. Adding key links
f. Contact Page
i. Entering key information
ii. Adding agent information
iii. Adding a contact form
Module Four: The final touches
a. Connecting social media accounts
b. Basic on-page SEO
c. Testing for mobile
d. Connecting Google analytics
e. Launching your website
Module Five: Website Maintenace
a. Backing up your Website regularly
b. Security for your Website
c. Maintaining Your Website

If this is well received, I would like to add phase 2 which focuses on adding a store to your website, this is just a rough outline.

PHASE 2:

Getting your shop area setup
Adding payment gateways
Adding shipping
Adding products

PHASE 3

Setting Up Your Blog
Structuring Blog Posts Correctly
Categories and Tags
Catchy Headlines

HOW MUCH?
In terms of cost, was thinking artist from my experience of being here and other forums don’t always have good cash flow because of the nature of the job, especially when starting out. As they get established that changes… So, I am going to put a tip jar as part of the course. So, you can tip me for my efforts if you like or if you don’t want to that’s okay too.

HOW LONG?
It will probably take 2 months to develop and iron out the kinks before we launch.

Over to you, your thoughts and feedback.

korilynneillo

@Geoffrey-Gordon

WOW! All I can say is THANK YOU for getting this set up! What a cool project. It definitely fills a niche that's... pretty empty right now - it's been very difficult to find resources to build a site from scratch as an independent illustrator. I definitely look forward to the launch!

NessIllustration

@Geoffrey-Gordon That's amazing and I think very needed. Honestly, you should sell this! The value it's providing is big!

Geoffrey Gordon

@NessIllustration I considered that however, one of the most important thing I am learning in art is relationships. I don't have many as I am new to this realm. I want to be genuine and open and help others, I believe it will come back to me in some shape or form. I will probably learn some lessons from this exercise that I can apply in the future.

idid

@Geoffrey-Gordon said in Setting Up A Wordpress Website For Artists - Free Course:

Insta

Thanks Geoffrey! I saw on your website that you plugged instgram in. Is that also part of this tutorial ? if not, how does that work?

Have you tried google Sites? vs Wordpress? I wrote a few html/css scripts and used them on Google site, but apparently they on purpose made it difficult to plug in certain types of galleries ......

Nyrryl Cadiz

@Geoffrey-Gordon Thank you!

j.sienkowski

@Geoffrey-Gordon This would be amazing!

Geoffrey Gordon

@idid Yes that can be part of the course too, it's easy to implement and you won't even need to know any code, just your username. WordPress makes this easy

idid

@Geoffrey-Gordon
maybe also a little bit of scripting/coding for those programs, particularly if there is any cons/limitation of their scripting interface or scripting function. thanks much!

LauraA

This is really cool! And well-organized! Thank you!

Griffin McPherson

@Geoffrey-Gordon I would definitely be interested in this!

Neha Rawat

@Geoffrey-Gordon This is soo amazing! Thank you!

xin li

I am very interested. I am considering re-build my portfolio with wordpress. Thank you for doing this and let us know when it is ready. Looking forward to this.

Julia

Hello!! The agenda looks fantastic ! I am highly interested!
I am more of a tourist here* (real amateur doing art on the side) but tried (and failed) to build my own website. Would I be eligible to participate? I can throw some dollar amount into the tip jar!

(*) well... touring for 2 years now!!

Geoffrey Gordon

Thank you all for your comments, there is definitely a need, so I have begun the process of creating this resource. @Julia yes this course will be available to all in the SVS community. I will update progress bit by bit as I create this course.

Coley

Absolutely! Sounds wonderful.

burvantill

Oh my gosh yes!!!! That would be unbelievably generous and helpful and so welcome!!

Geoffrey Gordon

@burvantill Thanks, as one of the moderators, I will need your help to notify all members on the forum that it is available once completed. This will be open to everyone here on the SVS forum.

Geoffrey Gordon

I am pushing hard to have it ready by the first of October.

Rachel Horne

Wow that's amazing and so generous!