Please Refer to the Earlier Post for Details

I’ve added a few new posts since I set up this site, so please see my original post that explains about using the WordPress platform for your web site.

 

AnnRan Web Site Overhaul

I finally got fed up with running parallel web sites at my main site, so I decided to launch the WordPress.org version. There are still some pages on the old html platform, but I’ll get those changed over eventually. For now, if content is on the old site, there’s a link from the new site. The old pages will be the ones with green or gold backgrounds. I’m very pleased with the new look and functionality.

 

Other WordPress.com Sites

Here are four sites I’ve set up using WordPress:

Appeals for Art (this is one of my projects, site maintained by me)

Newcastle Art Studios Tour (I’m one of the participating artists, site maintained by me)

One Root Festival (converted to WordPress from an html site that I took over, site maintained by the client)

Connections (site maintained by the client)

 

I’m also working with the WordPress.org platform

I’m in the process of upgrading my own web site to the WP.org platform. It’s been an in-progress job for quite some time, but I’ll get there eventually.

The difference between the .com and .org versions is that .org is “self hosted”, meaning you need a site hosting service. If you go that route, you have to pay for hosting service (which you don’t need for the free .com platform), but you also have more flexibility for site design and options. You can see my beta site here: annran.com

Find out more about the features you get with the WordPress.org platform

 

A Blog Can be a Web Site

This is a sample blog set up to function as an art web site. The benefit of this is that the basic WordPress.com blog (like this one) is free. A web site requires a hosting service plan. A typical web site hosting plan costs at least $8 per month. Of course unless you set up the blog yourself, there is still the initial cost to pay the designer to set it up, but once that’s done, annual costs are minimal. Update 2018: WordPress now includes ads on their free sites. To be ad-free, there’s an annual $48 cost. You can upgrade for other features as well: WordPress.com upgrade pricing

You can also register a domain, http://www.janeartist.com for example, that can be set up to automatically forward to your blog. That way, on your business cards, press releases and other marketing materials, you can say: “find my work at http://www.janeartist.com” and people won’t have to remember your janeartist.wordpress.com site address. Domain registrations are approximately $12 a year.

I set up this sample blog to show how it could work – I’ve had artists ask me about creating web sites for them. I really like this concept. It’s less expensive for the artist and more efficient for me, since the artist can do many of the site updates (events calendar, announcements, add new images, etc.) on their own with little or no training, depending on how much they already know about blogging. I enjoy creating web sites, but do not want the burden of the regular updates. And if the artist can make those updates themselves, they’re not having to pay someone else to do that job, and not relying on the web master to do it in a timely manner.

Find out more about the free plan and other plans.

If you’re interested in having me create a site for you, please send an e-mail: annranlett [at] gmail.com

 

Trying Out WordPress . . .

. . . seeing how it will work as an art web site. I often have artist friends ask about setting up a site for them. From what I’m hearing, WordPress will be easier for my clients to edit than a standard web site. Which means less work for me. I enjoy designing and setting up sites, but don’t want to handle the updates.