Dayton Visual Arts Center December 15, 2012 Steve Betts

 Steve Betts ◦ Senior Software Developer at GD-AIS ◦ 24 years software experience ◦ Many many websites ◦ Photographer

 To promote your art  To connect with your fans

 Biography  Artist Statement  Portfolio  Contact Information  News

 Static ◦ Everything on the web site is fixed before displaying the web page ◦ Changes require user to code them ◦ More difficult to maintain  Dynamic ◦ The web page is created when requested ◦ The content is stored in a Content Management System (CMS) ◦ Pages may change based on the date, or the user, or some other criteria ◦ Easier to maintain

 Free is never free  Introductory pricing – know what it will cost  Technical Support – who you gonna call?

 Find a hosting service ◦ Look for inexpensive but reliable service ◦ Check  Get a domain name ◦ Use your artist name in the domain  Get an address ◦ Make it easy to use, like or

 Hosting should be about $5/month  Domain names cost about $10/year  Most hosting services include a domain name and , but some don’t

 Wordpress is software that manages the web site for you  You determine how the site should look using themes and plugins  Themes are designs for a website  Plugins are additional functionality  Vibrant community  Free! 

 Places to get Wordpress hosting ◦ hosting.html hosting.html ◦ ◦ (costly)

   (not free)

  There is a plugin for everything  NextGEN Gallery – show your pictures  BackupWordpress – back up your website  Facebook Photo Fetcher – get images from Facebook  Flickr Manager – get images from Flickr

 When putting images on the web ◦ Make them web sized  2-3 inches at 300dpi  pixels ◦ Watermark them

 Start with what is there  Add little bits at a time  Everything can be changed  Play!