How To Build A Music Website cont...
How To Build A Music Website cont...
new window and you should see your site coming together. If it’ s not there yet, give it a few minutes to process and try again.
Now that you’ ve got WordPress set up, I suggest you take a few minutes to look around and get used to the Word- Press Dashboard. Everything is pretty clearly marked out, so get familiar with some of the tasks you can carry out.
If you aren’ t feeling particularity adventurous at this stage, no worries. We’ re going to walk you through the other stages of creating your music site anyway. You do however need to be aware that the menu of the WordPress Dashboard is on the left hand site, and this will allow you to sort out all the features on your site.
Installing A Theme For A Great Looking Website
Ok, you have a basic website up and running. Now, it’ s time to kit it out! The first thing you’ d need to do is add a theme to your site. A theme is a premade design that will make your site look great. You have two options when it comes to choosing a theme for your site:
You can get a free theme from the WordPress theme market place.
You can buy a premium theme.
I personally always buy premium themes for a few reasons:
They look better. Giving a good first impression is important in your music career, so having a good looking website is crucial. Free themes often don’ t look at good as the premium ones, as are made on a much smaller budget and by people who aren’ t as good designers. Your fans will notice the difference.
They can do more. Not only do these themes look a lot better then the free themes, but they are easier to use for your visitors, and you have a lot more control over how you can customize them. If you want to change the way your website is laid out, you can easily. This isn’ t always possible with the free themes.
You get support. Some free themes stop working as each new WordPress update comes around. This isn’ t the same with Premium themes however, which have a dedicated support team ensuring their themes are compatible with each new version of WordPress. They can also offer you personal support if you need help.
If you want to give the best impression to your potential fans, you need to invest in a good design. I personally use the Genesis Framework, which I have used to build Music Industry How To and many of my other sites. They have a lot of different designs to choose from, and can give a different feel no matter what type of look you want.
If you want to look at what free themes are available to you, simply go to Appearance on your WordPress Dashboard, then Themes. On the next screen you’ ll see a tab at the top entitled Install Themes. Click that. On the screen that comes up, you’ ll find the option to filter what kind of theme you want. Choose any options you may want( Or don’ t click any options if you want to look at all themes) then choose the Find Themes button at the end of the page.
Here you will find a selection of themes you can use. Install one and your website design will be changed instantly.
Adding Plugins To Make Your Site Do More website and add new features. Features you can add include a comments form, social sharing buttons, media players, picture galleries, broken link checkers, and pretty much any other feature you could reasonably want from a website.
I’ ll recommend some plugins to get you started, but first here is how to search for them and install them.
On your WordPress Dashboard, hover over Plugins on the left hand side menu, then click on Add New. You can then search the plugin you want, and on the next screen choose Install Now on your chosen plugin( If you aren’ t sure of the name of a plugin, you can search for a feature you want and you can find a relevant plugin like this). If you’ re not sure if you want it yet, you can first instead click the Details button for more information on what it’ ll allow your site to do, and only install it when you know it’ s what you want. It’ ll ask you if you’ re sure you want to install the plugin, and just click OK.
On the next screen it’ ll tell you your plugin’ s installed after a few seconds, and you simply click the link to activate the plugin. And that’ s it, the plugin is now installed.
Some plugins require you to edit their settings to your own personal preference( Which is usually pretty easy to do), while others will work straight away without you doing anything more.
As promised, here are some cool plugins you should install to get you started and used to the process. Simply search the plugin in the way mentioned above.
Contact Form 7. If you want your website visitors to be able to easily contact you, you can use the Contact Form 7 plugin. This will add a contact form to any page you require, and sends you an email once the contact form is filled out. This is extremely handy, and a plugin you should definitely be using.
While WordPress is a powerful website platform by it’ s self, it also allows you to update the amount of things you can do with it using‘ plugins’. Plugins are things you can easily install on your
Independent Artist Magazine www. indieartmag. com 31