How To Make An Art Blog: A Complete Step-By-Step Beginner's Guide

How To Make An Art Blog: A Consummate Step-By-Step Beginner's Guide

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Artists have to much to offer by sharing their noesis on a blog.

Tutorials, videos, and tips all assist aspiring artists learn faster. And get-go artists tin even share their journey in a blog to become an inspiration for others.

All of this is possible with an fine art blog. Once yous get a blog online & running it'southward actually quite fun!

The toughest part is actually launching your blog and getting it configured properly.

My goal here is to help you get from A to Z with a brand new blog. I'll prove you how to get a domain + web hosting, install WordPress, customize your weblog's design, and how to edit the default settings to create a web log you're truly proud of.

So let's dive and and encounter what the process looks like.

Starting An Art Blog: The Nuts

You probably already know what blogging is so I'll save you my rant on how much it rocks.

Only there aren't very many artists in the blogging world. So are is ane surface area that truly feels defective on the web.

Whether you specialize in digital art, watercolors, characters, blitheness… all of information technology deserves more coverage online.

A blog is the perfect conduit to share your cognition with the earth and help other artists learn from your experience. Simply the cardinal to starting a dandy blog is to be different from others.

Fill up a void that doesn't exist however. Or practice something better than other websites out there.

Or even employ your weblog every bit a marketing tool to help sell yourself & your piece of work.

No incorrect ways to web log, just opportunities. And in the art space in that location is a lot of opportunity.

To setup a web log yous have two options: a free platform similar Tumblr or a paid spider web host running WordPress(as well costless).

If you're serious about blogging and so you really should go with a web host(fifty-fifty a cheap one) because the value is at least 10x better.

With something similar Tumblr you'd be limited to their platform and their themes.

With a hosted WordPress site you command your site's branding, blueprint, and content structure. You can cull your blog's .com name and you accept more room to monetize your web log too.

Now, why WordPress?

It currently powers 29.7% of all websites online. Not simply blogs, all websites monitored by W3Techs.

That'southward a sample size of over 10 million websites… and 30% of them employ WordPress!

Hopefully that says a lot but I'll share my reasons for using WordPress:

• WordPress is free forever
• Most WordPress plugins & themes are gratuitous
• It has the largest support customs with the most help guides online(for costless!)

Even if you lot've never used WordPress before information technology'll still be the easiest option to option up & acquire for blogging.

You can find tons of free videos, guides, and manufactures on practically every aspect of the WordPress dashboard. It'due south the de-facto blogging solution and I don't think anyone could propose anything else for launching an fine art weblog.

By now you're probably wondering ane thing: what does the whole process look similar to become a blog online?

First you need a domain and spider web hosting. These are the only 2 things yous should pay for. Free hosting is worse than a Tumblr blog and free domain names don't really exist.

However once yous get your domain & web host you'll exist 50% of the way washed.

From there I'll show you how to customize your WordPress blog with the best settings correct out of the box. And so I'll help you install a new theme and some free plugins for extra functionality.

Lastly I'll share some tips almost blogging that you can take with you into your journey running a new art weblog.

So without further ado let's become it on!

Get Your Domain & Hosting

Before moving forward please some time and think of a few names for your blog.

The domain is of import and it should match your blog'south name too, then it helps if y'all can think of names you really like.

Your domain will be the .com address for your blog. Yous might use something under your own proper name if you want to combine this web log with a portfolio site, in which case I recommend following our portfolio setup guide instead.

But if you want to build a standalone blog and then y'all'll want a great domain.

Concept Art Empire's domain is but conceptartempire.com. Uncomplicated and very articulate.

Try to call back of 2-3 names for your art blog that might have a .com available.

You tin can check to come across if information technology'south available past entering the domain into your browser to run into if a website loads. Or yous can apply a domain tester similar Namechk.

In one case you take at least 2-3 ideas for your web log's name and then allow's register with BlueHost.

This is the only host I recommend for anyone launching a new weblog or website.

Their back up team is superb and for everything you get it's one of the most affordable options.

When y'all sign up you get five costless email address and a costless domain name for your first year of hosting. So you're already saving money if you lot become with their basic plan.

It also comes with a few built-in custom installers so it makes WordPress a breeze to setup.

To get started visit their master signup page and click the "get started" button.

From hither yous'll find iii plans to choice from.

I highly recommend the "bones" plan because it's the cheapest and comes with everything you need.

And if you lot're launching a new art blog you lot take no idea how information technology'll do in the first yr. There's always time to upgrade your web hosting after so for now stick to basic.

On the next page you'll enter the domain proper noun you'd like to annals.

If you lot enter i and BlueHost says it'due south already taken so y'all'll have to attempt another.

This is why it'southward crucial to have a few ideas because you never know if your top pick has already been registered by someone else.

All you do is enter your domain(without the .com) into the box on the left-hand side. Then click "adjacent" and if it works you lot'll motion onto the checkout screen.

If you exercise go an error bulletin don't worry!

Just effort a different domain until you find one that's available.

You lot could besides cull a .net address merely I really recommend searching through names until yous find a .com that's available.

And then on the final checkout screen there's a few things nosotros desire to modify.

Showtime await for "Package information" and the first option should exist your business relationship plan. Change the default 36 months downwards to 12 months.

This winds up being a little pricier per month but you're paying mode less upfront.

Underneath this section wait for "domain privacy" and make sure it's checked. This will keep your personal information out of the Whois database, an international register of contact info for all domains.

Past default every new domain proper noun needs a contact name & contact details. It'south just how the Net domain arrangement works.

With domain privacy your blog'due south domain will but show BlueHost'south contact details instead of your personal details.

Most artists value their privacy so that's why I advise domain privacy right from the start.

After that make certain to uncheck all the other options. You won't need anything else and the other stuff is mostly extras that you won't e'er utilise.

In one case you've made those changes just scroll down and enter your payment details. Click "submit" and let it all load.

You lot should wind up on a confirmation page maxim your new club is complete. Hurrah!

At present the terminal step earlier we become into WordPress is to set your new BlueHost account countersign.

This is the password y'all'll use to log into BlueHost for contacting support, checking your server wellness, checking invoices, etc.

Once yous do that you're all set to move onto WordPress.

Typically the WordPress install is a tricky process. Just cheers to BlueHost information technology'due south probably the simplest part.

Just another reason why I always say new bloggers should go with BlueHost.

Install WordPress

Afterwards the password input screen you'll country on a folio with a "log in" push button.

Click that to access the BlueHost onboarding process(don't worry, it's easy).

If you lot observe yourself lost somewhere during this process you lot can always check your inbox for the email that BlueHost sent to your electronic mail address. That should take a link that'll take you right back to the WP setup.

On the very offset folio it'll enquire y'all to selection a theme for your new blog.

I suggest skipping this for at present because we'll expect at themes a bit later in this guide. And then just scroll to the bottom and click "skip".

On the next folio you lot'll meet an install link.

If you click that link BlueHost will automatically install a brand-spankin' new re-create of WordPress on your server.

It ordinarily takes anywhere from 15-60 seconds to complete. Merely with a one-click install information technology's hard to complain about any time spent waiting.

Once information technology's done you'll run into a big blue "showtime building" push.

Click that to access your WordPress dashboard. It'll come with quite a few default plugins installed by BlueHost, withal nosotros tin get rid of those to make clean up the interface a bit.

Right away you'll see a startup screen that looks kinda like this:

You'll have two options for an auto-optimization feature: business organisation or personal.

I advise non clicking either and instead clicking the "I don't need assist" link underneath.

My goal with this guide is to help you setup the cleanest art web log from scratch and so you probably don't need BlueHost'due south auto-setup.

Once you click "I don't need help" you'll go into the main dashboard. Right away y'all should find a minor blue button labeled "Launch".

This is part of a plugin installed past BlueHost to help new webmasters edit their site earlier putting it online.

I personally propose disabling the plugin which will immediately put your site online, then you tin edit equally y'all go.

There are amend plugins for adding a "coming soon" page to your site and those are probably easier to use too.

So click on the "plugins" link in the left-manus menu and await for all the plugins with a calorie-free blueish groundwork. You'll desire to deactivate all of them because none of them are totally worth using.

The MOJO Marketplace plugin is the i that adds your custom launch page. I don't think information technology'south worth keeping whatsoever so y'all tin can even delete all four of those plugins if you want.

Same with "Hello Dolly" since that just adds a minor quote into your dashboard, information technology basically does nothing.

Actually the only plugin you may want to keep is Akismet which helps to filter spam comments. If you want comments on your weblog then keep Akismet.

Just note that Akismet requires an API fundamental which you get from WordPress. It's totally free simply will take almost v-x minutes to setup.

Cheque out this guide for more than details, or just wait 'till later in this guide where I'll prove you lot how to setup the Akismet plugin stride-past-stride.

With or without Akismet we tin start moving forrad with the residue of the setup.

First you tin check if your site is online by visiting the URL in your browser, although it tin accept up to 24-48 hours to fully go visible to the world.

That ways now is the perfect time to dive into your WP settings folio and brand a few changes to get your weblog looking sharp.

Tweak Your Web log Settings

Find the "settings" link in the bottom role of your WP admin menu.

Hover that link. Y'all should run into a flyout menu with more links.

Click "full general" at the peak.

Right off the bat you lot'll run into a couple settings you probably desire to alter.

Most notably the site name and tagline which are used all throughout your blog.

By default your site name should match whatever your blog proper name is. And then that you might go out lonely.

But the tagline doesn't need to be anything if y'all desire it blank. Only make sure to delete the default considering information technology starts with "just some other WordPress blog".

That'll expect pretty bad as a tagline on your super-unique fine art blog.

Besides look only underneath those fields to find your admin electronic mail address.

You'll want to make certain that's a good e-mail to attain you with web log updates. Information technology's the primary assistants e-mail and so it's basically the global contact for your weblog if annihilation happens similar automated WordPress updates.

Now gyre to the very bottom and before saving expect for the "Cache Level" setting.

By default BlueHost installs a custom caching setup.

This is great but I prefer using the W3 Total Cache plugin instead.

And so I suggest changing the cache level from ii to 0 and then hit save.

Once that's done have a expect at the settings card again but this time click the "Discussions" link.

On this folio yous tin modify how comments piece of work on your weblog and which criteria need to be met for comments.

The peak iii options are crucial for irresolute your web log'southward beliefs. I'll explain them quickly:

• The first choice attempts to ping other blogs that you link to your blog. It's OK to leave information technology checked but I like to uncheck because information technology's not necessary.
• The 2d option displays pings from other blogs linking to you. Again it'southward OK to exit information technology but I always uncheck this because it's just annoying.
• Lastly is the choice to allow comments on your blog. If you want to let people comment then make sure it'southward checked, otherwise uncheck.

All the other options on this page should exist fine by default.

Nonetheless they're pretty straightforward so read through the other items in instance you want to check(or uncheck) annihilation.

In one case you're done scroll to the bottom and click "salvage".

Then await towards the settings menu again and find "permalinks".

By default all your WordPress links will expect really ugly. They're just ID numbers and probably the worst possible link style.

Y'all should pick basically whatsoever other link way from this listing other than plain.

I recommend "Post Proper name" because it keeps your URLs curt and sweetness. That's exactly what I look for in great links: short and like shooting fish in a barrel to digest.

You'll notice this link way on Concept Fine art Empire if you look at our links.

One time y'all select a URL style just click "save" and it should update automatically.

Now the final thing we want to exercise is reset the default photo sizes. Wait back under settings and click "media".

On this page you'll see three prototype sizes: thumbnail, medium, and large.

Set all of them to 0 and click save.

This forces WordPress to change your thumbnail sizes based on whatsoever theme you install.

You'll relieve a lot of infinite on your server by limiting how many prototype sizes get cropped.

That's the primary goal of updating those thumbnail settings, although you can go out them alone and your blog will part simply fine.

With that said we're all done here! Permit'southward move onto your blog's design.

Find A Great Blog Theme

About everyone judges a book by its cover at first glance. It's human being nature.

That's why your blog'due south blueprint is crucially important. People gather a showtime impression within the start 1-2 seconds of landing on your website.

You want to brand that first impression a expert one.

With WordPress you accept two options for theming: gratuitous and premium.

If you're just getting started I really propose doing a complimentary theme. You tin ever upgrade later to a premium choice if you desire, but it's not necessary for a brand new site.

Check out the free WP themes directory and try searching for blog themes.

There are thousands of costless themes out at that place with plenty to dig through. You can spend hours looking at themes—and in many cases that might be a good idea to make sure yous really like the i you choice.

Only theme installation is basically the same beyond the lath so once you know how to practice it you'll never forget.

Just click the "Advent" link in your WordPress admin panel menu. This will take you lot to the themes folio with a listing of all the currently installed themes.

On this folio you'll observe a small "Add New" button near the top.

Click that to become to the install page.

WordPress is actually awesome considering it can automatically find, download, install & actuate a theme with merely a few clicks.

Y'all don't need whatsoever technical know-how to install WP themes.

For example let's say I desire to utilize the Clean Blogging theme.

Visit the "add new" folio in the WordPress dashboard from the "advent" themes page. Then do a search for "make clean blogging". It should appear automatically as the first result.

Then hover that theme to click the bluish "install" button.

It'll take a few seconds to download & install but once it'south done that blueish button should read "activate".

Then clicking that link will at present make the theme live on the blog all from this one page. Pretty absurd!

Most WordPress themes back up some customization settings only they're all totally different based on the theme.

It depends on the theme'south creator and how many features they back up. The best mode to learn the customization menu is to go in and try stuff because at that place isn't really a ane-size-fits-all guide to customization.

Just if yous're not sure where to beginning with theming here are my suggestions. These are all free themes that can work well on an art web log:

• Clean Blogging
• Whirlwind Weblog
• Weblog Way
• Blog Expert
• Web log Zone

Super like shooting fish in a barrel to launch a great blueprint and in that location are then many choices to pick from.

Spend as much time equally y'all need to find a theme you like and get it up. You lot tin e'er go back and tweak settings or change the colors/layout/logo design for the theme. So don't worry too much about the nitty-gritty stuff for now.

Plus your web log is brand new so yous don't have to worry much near screwing it up.

Nobody volition encounter information technology until you start publishing content anyway. Take as much time as you lot demand for installing & getting a theme y'all like, then let's move onto plugins.

Add Some Useful Plugins

The basic WordPress install doesn't come with much. Merely this gives you lot a clean starting point to add new features with plugins.

The WP community has thousands of free plugins covering a broad array of great features.

Everything listed in that plugin directory is totally free then you won't exist paying a cent for anything.

Experience costless to search around and see if annihilation grabs your attention.

But there are four plugins that I always recommend for new bloggers and they're certainly useful on art blogs.

• Yoast SEO offers an all-in-i SEO plugin
• Clean Up SEO removes the backlog bloat from Yoast(this helps a lot)
• W3 Full Enshroud is the plugin I mentioned earlier for better caching
• Contact Form 7 is a free contact form plugin and then your readers tin can contact you lot without publicly sharing your email address

The process of installing a plugin looks about exactly the same as installing a new theme.

You click on the "plugins" link in the sidebar and and so expect for the "add new" push near the height of the page.

You'll see in the screen to a higher place that I actually deleted all my other plugins and so right now my site is empty.

Just you may still have some plugins in your site, but deactivated. That's totally okay.

Deactivated plugins have a low-cal grayness background while agile plugins are colored lite blue. That'south an easy way to tell at a glance which plugins you currently have running on your web log.

At present on the "add new" page look for the search bar and type the name of all four plugins listed above.

They'll announced only like on the themes folio. So you can click the "install" button to add them onto your site.

I also recommend activating all 4 plugins right away.

Yoast, Yoast Bloat & W3 Total volition automatically activate with the best settings possible. You can ever go through Yoast to change some of the SEO settings for different pages or athenaeum, but the default is more than plenty.

And if y'all don't understand basic SEO settings like noindex then yous may stop up doing more harm than good.

If you want to larn some basic SEO for your web log and so bank check out this awesome guide to learning Yoast. Everything in the plugin is totally free and honestly pretty simple to sympathize.

So if you follow that guide and learn what y'all're doing you shouldn't run into whatever trouble.

One other matter to mention is that W3 Total should non run alongside BlueHost'south caching.

Call up that setting we turned off earlier when nosotros set Caching Level to "0" in the settings card?

Information technology's worth double-checking just to make sure that really is disabled.

You'll find that in Settings -> General towards the very bottom of the page. Make certain it'southward set up to "Level 0" if you want to utilize W3 Total.

Caching is a circuitous topic and it'due south not worth explaining here. Suffice information technology to say W3 Total is superb right out of the box and information technology'll really help to speed up your website.

But you lot can inquiry caching on your own if you want to larn how it works.

The Contact Form vii plugin is a little tricky to setup merely I'll show you how to practice that before we get to Akismet.

One time you activate the plugin you should run across a "Contact" link in the sidebar kinda like this:

Click that link to see a list of all contact forms.

By default you go ane class and that'southward probably all you'll need. If you do need more forms you can brand them on this page.

For now hover "Contact form i" and yous'll run across an edit link underneath. Click it.

On this folio you tin can edit the class'southward design and the overall content you lot receive whenever someone emails y'all from your blog.

It's pretty easy to mess up stuff in here but I'll guide you through one quick customization.

Click the "Mail" tab at the peak and wait for the "Bailiwick" field which should be 3rd downwards.

I like to change my email subjects so they're easier to find in my inbox. That manner I know which emails were sent directly to me vs which ones came through my contact form.

To do that I change the subject then it has a small prefix before the sender'due south subject. Here's a basic discipline template y'all can copy & paste into that field:

Art Blog Message "[your-subject]"

Just change the text "Art Blog" to the name of your weblog.

This mode you'll e'er meet emails with a prefix "Fine art Weblog Bulletin" and the user'southward subject will announced inside the quotes. That'due south why you see foursquare brackets with [your-subject] because it'south a dynamic field(it's OK if y'all don't understand what that ways!)

So if yous change the discipline line click "salvage" in the top-correct corner. And then look upwards towards the top of the folio and you'll come across a long blue strip with a small lawmaking.

If you click once on the blue strip it'll motorcar-highlight the code for you.

Then you tin CTRL+C or CMD+C to re-create it and add that into a new contact folio.

To do that brand certain you've copied the code first. And then look towards the side menu and hover "Pages" for the flyout menu, and then click "Add new".

On this new folio you'll come across a lot of stuff. Don't worry! This will all go more familiar as you utilize WordPress.

Click in the top title field and enter "Contact" without quotes.

And so expect lower on the folio for the large text box.

In the upper-right corner of that big text box you'll discover two tabs. By default you'll meet the "Visual" tab selected simply I advise clicking "Text" but for this page. Then paste that lawmaking inside the text box.

Altogether it'll look something similar this once you're done:

Now merely click "Publish" and your new contact folio will go live.

To come across the folio you lot tin click the hyperlink underneath the title field at the summit.

The default contact form style should exist OK for almost blogs. If you lot want to customize it y'all can read through this guide simply it gets into some CSS code that you probably won't like or want to larn.

All four of my "master" suggested plugins should wait expert and be active on your site.

You might want to make some basic customizations under Appearance -> Customize but that volition take a flake of fourth dimension.

Definitely feel free to spend some time playing around in at that place 'till your web log looks good enough to kickoff publishing content.

Only earlier we wrap this upwards I'd like to cover the Akismet plugin to aid you lot fight spam in mail service comments.

Annotation: if y'all don't want comments on your blog yous tin skip the next section.

Akismet Plugin Setup

Akismet gets installed with every new WordPress site.

Akismet is owned & supported by the aforementioned people who created WordPress(Automattic). So as you can tell it's heavily linked with the WP ecosystem.

To get started with this plugin make sure it's installed. If y'all deleted it you lot tin can click "add new" on the plugins page and search for Akismet.

Then in one case it's in your plugins list click "activate".

That should turn the plugin groundwork light blue and y'all'll come across a notice to confirm your Akismet activation.

To practice that click the "settings" link underneath the Akismet link on the plugin page.

It'll take y'all to a new folio where you can sign up for an API key.

Click the "become your API cardinal" button to open Akismet's website in a new window. You'll need to sign upward for a free account to go the plugin working properly.

Thankfully information technology all runs through the WordPress website and it'south totally gratuitous.

On Akismet's main WordPress page click "sign up".

That'll bring yous to the main WordPress website. If you already have a WordPress.com account y'all can log in using that.

Otherwise create a new account(it's gratuitous).

From there you may need to confirm your email address to validate the account but it shouldn't have more than 1-2 minutes, usually no more than 30 seconds to get the confirmation electronic mail.

From there yous'll be directed to a page that lets you log into the Akismet site.

If you don't get a login screen so but get here and click "get API central" again.

Y'all should already exist logged in then it'll take y'all to a new folio where you enter your credentials.

You'll want the "Personal" license for Akismet which you can get for complimentary. It does have some limitations but nothing you'll ever striking for a small-scale-to-midsized weblog.

If the donation defaults to a set amount but bring it downwardly to $0. Then click "subscribe underneath that field.

You lot still get the personal license without spending any money so it'southward perfectly OK to get this totally free.

It'll take a second for the page to load but in one case information technology's done you should get a confirmation message. Click "OK" and you'll see your Akismet dashboard.

From at that place wait for the "add site" link.

Click it and enter your domain name in the popular-upwardly window. So click "add".

You'll go a new popup confirming your API key. Finally washed!

Well, almost.

Copy that API key and bring it back to your Akismet page in your WordPress admin console.

Then paste that API cardinal into the field and click "Connect with API central".

Note: if you ever need to find your API key again only log into Akismet and go to your main account. It should be correct at the top of the folio.

One time yous see the green message at the tiptop of the page you're all gear up! Your blog is officially being protected from spam comments.

At present you can publish content with user comments enabled and never worry about spam.

Simply brand certain to check the Akismet spam filter every so oft. Sometimes it'll flag 18-carat comments as spam and so information technology's always squeamish to whitelist those.

Tips To Grow Your Art Blog

By this bespeak you've got a web log online and it should be set for some crawly fine art posts.

The just thing left is to publish lots of not bad content and build your audience.

A lot easier said than washed!

The good news is that once you get your blog online you don't need to do information technology once again. So once you complete this guide yous'll be gear up to showtime blogging and really make a name for yourself in the fine art earth.

My final tips are simply to build great content and create a brand for your fine art blog.

This ultimately comes down to adding value into people's lives.

Write tutorials on how to get started with oil paints or how to setup Photoshop for concept art paintings.

Think at that place is no unmarried "right" way to blog.

It'south more about finding an angle that hasn't been covered and doing it meliorate than anybody else.

I'd debate a weblog'due south success comes down to four primal points:

• Fantastic content
• Branding
• Edifice a loyal audience
• Connecting with other bloggers

The more you write the more comfortable y'all'll go with the procedure.

And the more you share your stuff the more likely people are to see information technology.

There's millions of artists in the world all with 1 goal: to improve their artwork.

If you tin brand a blog that'll inspire, educate, and encourage artists to push themselves & improve and then you'll run into a lot of success as an art blogger.

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mitchelllostow.blogspot.com

Source: https://conceptartempire.com/start-an-art-blog/

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