I’ve written a complete article about this at my Sites that Soar! website. You’ll see more screenshots there to make the solutions simple.

In a nutshell, here’s one way to deal with the problem if you’re using WordPress 2.5 and Branford Magazine (or Mimbo) for your art-related website.

1. In your WordPress admin panel, go to Manage > Categories.

2. Roll your cursor over the name of the category for which you need an ID number.

3. Look at the bottom of your screen. At the lower right corner, you’ll see a line that looks like a URL. The Category ID number is at the very end of that.

In the screenshot above, the Category ID number is 4.

For other solutions to this problem, see my article, Category numbers and WordPress 2.5, at Sites that Soar!

MORE LIKE THIS

If you like the website design at this site, The Business of Art, and you’d like a similar design for your own website, it’s easy!

Get a copy of my book, Sites that Soar!, which explains how to install (free) WordPress and the (free) Branford Magazine theme.

It’s filled with easy, step-by-step instructions for NON-techies.  I even include screenshots (like the one above) to show you exactly what to do.

UPDATES

If you bought my book, Sites that Soar! and want to know when I’ll add WordPress 2.5 information:

As soon as the dust settles on the new WordPress 2.5 design, I’ll update the book with a complete section just for WordPress 2.5.

Right now (April 2008), new plugins are being developed, older ones are being updated, and I think we’ll see changes in WordPress 2.5 shortly.

This is why I recommend WordPress 2.3.3 (the previous version) until at least June 2008.  If you have a choice*, use the older 2.3.3 version of WordPress.  (Link to the free, zipped version of WordPress 2.3.3 – click here to download.)

If you have no choice — for example, if your hosting service only installs WordPress 2.5 — the major steps in my book apply to both WordPress 2.3.3 and WordPress 2.5.

*If you’ve already set up your website with WordPress 2.5, do not overwrite it with WordPress 2.3.3.  I tried it. It’s complicated.

So, let’s say that you threw tags onto your posts and–over a dozen posts later–realized that the tag would look better as ‘Portsmouth NH’ not ‘portsmouth nh’.

You could try to change the tag on each post.

Chances are, WordPress would ‘correct’ it to the original, lower-case version.

Or, you can download a useful plugin, Advanced Tag Entry. When you manage any entry, you can scroll down to the Advanced Tag Entry panel, and correct the tag in the section called Create New Tag or Edit Existing Tag.

Bingo, the tag is fixed in all entries that used the older version.  Or, it should be. (I’ve just started using this plugin, so I can’t yet say if it’s totally glitch-free.)

Anyway, this is saving me hours of re-tagging.  Life is good! 

And, since WordPress was created as blogging software, it organizes sites by date, or by date within a category. It wasn’t planned as a content management system (CMS).

The problem is, date order and simple categories are not intuitive for a first-time site visitor, when dates aren’t really relevant. Not when a site is huge, anyway. And, with sub-categories, the sidebar can expand to a ridiculous height.

So, here’s what I’m working with, until someone comes up with a better way to use WordPress as a CMS. All of these are plugins and generate content and site updates automatically.

- A folding navigation system

- A tags list

- A popularity list

- A search form (already in the template)

- A sitemap

All of these are available, free. Generally, I find them through WordPress’s own Plugins lists. Some need minor PHP or CSS tweaking. Some don’t function completely with Branford Magazine (and probably not with Mimbo); that’s okay, they work well enough.

I am learning as I redesign my larger sites. The smaller ones have been easy, but the larger ones–and planning for sites (such as this one) that may expand, big time–is still a learning experience for me. I’m sharing the most important notes with you, so nobody’s reinventing the wheel.

It will get easier.

Since so many of us are using WordPress as a CMS, I’m confident that better plugins will evolve over the upcoming months. And, with WordPress 2.5 scheduled for release soon (March 2008), some plugin developers may be waiting for that.

April 2008 update: I upgraded this site and a couple of others to WordPress 2.5 and I’m not happy about that. Many of the plugins don’t work well, yet.  I know that the plugins will be upgraded as time permits, but — until then — I can’t recommend WordPress 2.5.

For me, using ‘plain vanilla’ Branford Magazine isn’t an option.  Plugins are essential to my design!  So… take my advice and don’t install WordPress 2.5 unless you check the plugins first (and the WordPress Forums for wails) to be sure that everything will play well together.

One of my websites is on another server. And, like most good hosting services, they automatically installed WordPress when I asked them to. It was a fairly recent version of WordPress, so I didn’t update it before installing the Bradford Magazine theme myself.

Big mistake. My Categories didn’t work correctly. Four hours later, I ended up uninstalling WordPress. Then, I had my server reinstall it, and then totally overwrote everything (from the standard WordPress upgrade files) except the config.php file. Yes, I even overwrote everything in wp-content.

After that, I installed the Bradford Magazine theme. Then, step-by-step, I added the tweaks that I’d made in the original template. (I general change sidebar.php, index.php, header.php, style.css and ui.tabs.php. I also create my own header graphic, and sometimes a page background graphic as well*.)

Finally, I changed the Permalinks and header.php, as recommended in WordPress Search Engine Optimization. And, after every step–even tiny ones–I double-checked my site to be sure that everything was still working okay.

If you have a Categories problem after installing your theme, don’t spend four hours trying to fix it, as I did. If it doesn’t resolve with a few simple tweaks, rebuild from scratch.

While I’m talking about WordPress, here are a couple of other tips: If you change the Permalink to the recommended Custom link, your new .htaccess file goes in the WordPress root-level folder.

If you’ve never written an .htaccess file and there is none in your WordPress root folder, create a blank document. In it, paste the code provided on the WordPress page where you made the Permalink change. Upload that to your WordPress root; generally, you’ll call the created file .htaccess.html and then, after upload, rename it to .htaccess (If this sounds like a totally foreign language, do not change the Permalink, unless you can get someone else to handle the .htaccess issue for you.)

I am getting better at this process, and feel more confident recommending both WordPress and the magazine-style themes. Remember, I knew HTML and some (very limited) CSS before this, but I had zero PHP experience.

It’s taken a lot of trial-and-error to get this figured out, but… well, if I can do it, most people probably can. Then again, that’s why I wrote Sites that Soar, so no one has to reinvent the wheel.

—

* Yes, you can apply a background image and overlay a header (branding) graphic as well. That’s in the CSS. Just get the repeats right, or it’ll look funky.

This morning, I stumbled onto a blog post in which Robert Plank shares some very good tips for customizing WordPress so that it’s more friendly for search engines. (And, after all, if nobody can find you at Google, Yahoo, etc., you’re missing a lot of potential visitors.)

So, go check out this post: WordPress Search Engine Optimization

Note: If you change your file names as he suggests, remember that you’ll also need to change the HTML for any links to them, if you’ve mentioned them elsewhere.

(Like Mr. Plank, I’m also using the All-in-One SEO Pack plugin now, as well.)

And, while I’m talking about this, here’s another WordPress tip if you didn’t figure it out yourself.  (This pertains to many WordPress themes, but especially Mimbo and Branford Magazine, linked at the foot of this page.)

When you’re making a post and you need to include graphics for the homepage (if it’ll automatically show up there), it’s easy to get the code for images that you use repeatedly. (For this post, I wanted to use the little desktop icon thingie again.)

There are at least two ways to do this. One is to keep a list of the URLs in a Notepad (or other text file) that you keep open on your desktop. Cut and paste the relevant code into your Custom Fields values section, and you’re all set.

Or, if the image is already in your WordPress files:

1. In WordPress 2.3, go to the Upload section of your Post panel.  (In WordPress 2.5, click on the Add Media icon that looks like a dark box inside a white box.  The rest of these directions are for 2.3, but the general idea works in 2.5 as well.)

2. Scroll down to the Upload section and click on “Browse All.”

3. Click on the image that you want to include.

4. When the image opens in that part of the panel, click “Edit” and then place your cursor in the field where the image URL is.

5. Hit the “End” key on your keyboard.

6. Highlight and copy everything after /wp-content/uploads/ in the code.

Example:

The desktop icon image URL is

http://arts-careers.com/success/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/desk75.jpg

The code that I copy is just 2008/03/desk75.jpg

Additional note: I add “75″ to image names of all of my icon-size WordPress images. Then, if I have multiple copies of the same graphic, in different sizes, I’m sure that I’m using the right one. (Also, the 75×75 images tend to be the smallest sizes. The desktop one is 4k.)

7. Paste that into the Custom Fields values section.

The latter sounds a whole lot more complex than it is in real life. I just wanted to make the steps very clear so that you can follow it easily. After you’ve done this once, it’s almost on auto-pilot for the future.

All of this — and a lot more — is in my ebook, Sites that Soar!

Using this as a content management system (aka CMS) makes it possible for me to update my sites in about 1/3 the time that it used to take me.

However, if you’re still learning HTML, I can’t recommend trying to learn the PHP and CSS code necessary to tweak one of these themes.

That said, WordPress is pretty easy, so you could pay someone else to set up the theme, and–with that installed–you can manage the site through WordPress.  (I’ve also written a book to show you how to do this, step by step.  It’s called Sites that Soar!)

As I write this (early March 2008), I’m still tweaking the design and some of the code, so it works for my writing style. But, I think you can see why I’m so enthusiastic about this system for managing websites: it’s easy and largely automated.

Here are the links, if you’re comfortable with code or have a webmaster who can handle this for you:

WordPress: http://wordpress.org/

Branford Magazine

Demo:
http://www.wp-themes.der-prinz.com/magazine/

Download page:
http://www.der-prinz.com/2008/01/20/download-branfordmagazine/

Installation and configuration info (scroll down to it):
http://www.der-prinz.com/2008/01/20/wordpress-magazine-style-theme-branfordmagazine/

Mimbo

Demo & download & some installation info:
http://www.darrenhoyt.com/2007/08/05/wordpress-magazine-theme-released/

Tweaking the template (most of this works for Branford Magazine as well):
http://www.darrenhoyt.com/2007/07/24/in-praise-of-wordpress-template-tags-part-ii-the-magazine-layout/

My own tips (speaking as someone who knows zero PHP and only a little CSS):

1. Use the Mimbo sidebar.php rather than the Branford Magazine one. For some reason, the Mimbo version is more idiot-proof if–like me–you want to modify it.

2. Remember to change the /wp-content/ folder CHMOD to 0777 so that you can import and upload images in your “write post”panel. (The images are uploaded in the “Upload” section.)

CHMOD is usually set via FTP. In FireFTP (a free Firefox utility), I right-click on the folder and select “Properties” to change the CHMOD.

Some people feel that there can be security issues with CHMOD 0777. Many people change back to 0755 after importing the images they’ll need. But, others aren’t concerned about selected use of 0777.

3. In Branford Magazine, here’s the “cheat sheet” to remember which images (and image sizes) go where.

In the Custom Fields section…

leadimage is the large-ish picture in the main story near the top of the page. It can be any size that looks good to you. The demo site shows an image that’s 300 wide x 200 high.

featuredarticleimage is the field for the horizontal images associated with the article excerpts in the left column of the homepage. Each image should be 255 x 88.
rightcolimage is the field for the icon-type images in the right column. Each image should be 75 x 75.

To understand the radio buttons in the Custom Fields section, visit http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Image_and_File_Attachments and scroll down to “Inserting Images.”

Note: In my WordPress panel, the value for the image is everything after the uploads/ section of the image URL. So, for the icon-style image of a desktop, my value is “2008/03/desk75.jpg” (Your values may be different, but this is worth trying if you’re having problems.)

4. The files you’ll probably tweak: The index.php has the info for the left column and right column. The sidebar, at the far right side of the page, is in sidebar.php.

The tabs below the navigation bar are in ui.tabs (The navigation bar is a list of Pages, which you create in “Write Page” in WordPress.)

—

Those are my best tips, and I hope that they save you some time.

However–and this is important–I can’t answer questions about PHP, CSS, HTML, WordPress, or using templates.

For almost any question that you have, you can find answers online if you search on the most likely words. Each of the templates have their own FAQ-type pages and forums, and the WordPress site has massive documentation and forums.

Or, you could spend $12 for my book, Sites that Soar!, and save yourself a lot of time and headaches.  I mean, you can figure all of this out yourself, especially if you’re accustomed to WordPress and know enough PHP to get by.  But… why would you, when my book shows you the steps that I took to create this site?

(Okay, there is the $12 price, but I wish I’d had this book when I was setting up this site.  It took me more than 40 hours — a full week — to sort everything out.  Now, I can set up a site in a little over an hour.)

Everyone knows that Google is probably the most important search engine to be in. You’ll want to be ranked highly on their pages, to attract lots of visitors to your website.

But, did you know that Google generally doesn’t care what keywords are in your META code?

Judging the book by its cover… and what’s inside

First, they look at the words in the title of your webpage, and then they look at the words on your webpage itself, how often they’re used, where on the page, and so on.

They also see how many high-powered websites link to you, and–if rumors are true–how good your own outgoing links are. And, how long your website has been around, as well as which other search engines include you.

(Yes, this is a bit complex… just focus on the things that you can do something about, such as keywords.)

Keyword magic

Late in 2003, I learned which keywords to use on my homepage webpage (and others), based on what people are looking for at each search engine, including Google. And, my website hits soared. By mid-2004, www.aisling.net got over 2.5 million hits/year… and the numbers have kept growing as I’m fine-tuning my website.

(My mid-2006 website spinoff project may drop my Google ranking for awhile, but this was a necessary improvement.)

It’s easy to find out which words to use on your webpage to rank more highly at Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. The secret is a website called Wordtracker.

Wordtracker works

I’m using Wordtracker.com to find out which words to use on my pages. They’ll give you a “test run” for free, with the focus on a lesser search engine. That will give you an idea of how it works.

If you’re serious about getting more traffic to your site, you’ll want to get more useful information from them.

Here’s how it works: You pay Wordtracker.com a fee to have access to their files for one full day (or more, if you have a lot of research to do). I can usually find out everything that I need, with just one day’s research. It costs less than $10.

I have three major websites, so I make a list of all the possible subjects that people might be interested in, when visiting my sites. I use those words as the starting point, at Wordtracker.com. And, I print out everything… even if it seems not-that-useful when I look at the list they give me. (You can also get Wordtracker to email the results to you, but the emails aren’t as easy to read as a printout from the actual search at their site.)

Wordtracker.com will tell you which words are the most popular, AND how much competition you’re facing if you focus on those keywords.

Focus and specialize

I’ll warn you right now: In the category of art, you can either be a very small fish in a massive pond, or you can narrow your focus to capture a good spot in one corner of the art scene.

It’s all about specializing… or crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. If you’re starting with “art” as your only search term, expect to be shocked by how huge the competition is, at the search engines.

I’m sharing this tip because we’re each going to have to focus on a different area–not compete with each other–if we have any hope of appearing near the top in our respective Google categories.

See my other article, Choose your niche.)

What people search for, in general

Want to know the top five words used at search engines in December 2003? Here they are, in order: Sex, Google, ebay, porn, jokes. What about December 2004? Loans, Christmas, Dr. Phil McGraw, Paris Hilton, followed by Google.

I did another check in May 2006. The top five words were: Google, MySpace, lyrics, Yahoo, American Idol. In March 2008, just before St. Patrick’s Day: magical lizzy, danny boy lyrics, helen keller, henry hill, times square explosion.

Think about it: eBay was the third most-popular word that people were entering at the search engines in 2003. (Why someone would enter the word “google” in a search engine… escapes me. In 2006, it was still one of the top search engine requests, and in early 2008, it’s popularity had increased among search terms.)

That meant that a whole LOT of people were interested in eBay at that time. (eBay was a very good place to be selling to Christmas shoppers!)

But, during the holiday season in 2004, loans were on web browsers’ minds instead.

Of course, these words probably won’t help you unless you’re making Christmas loans or have some connection to Dr. Phil and/or Ms. Hilton. So, you’re going to want to research the most popular words related to your particular site’s focus.

If all you do is change the words on your homepage to make the most of your “niche” market, you will increase how many people visit your website from search engines. I promise.

Wait three weeks

This is pretty much the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to getting the best possible placement of your website at the search engines. But, it’s a very good start.

It can take three weeks (or more) for the spiders to discover your new keyword strategies. But, in just one month I doubled the traffic to one of my lesser websites, simply using keywords better.

So, don’t pay one of those services that promises to get your site placed in the top ten at Google. You may be in the top ten… but is it a category where anyone’s looking? Instead, for about $10 you can do the research yourself, fine-tune your website, and see a fabulous surge in visitors.

Really.
Related link: www.Wordtracker.com

But, AdSense is still a good choice if you need to supplement your website income. Today, success can depend upon how you use them and where they’re placed on your webpages.

The good news is, Google makes that easy.

You control the size of the ads. You control the color scheme, too. You can even block ads for specific domains that compete with you, or simply annoy you.

If you have a website, you can sign up for this program, FREE. Google will provide a page where you can design the ad sizes, colors, and content that you’d like.

Then, you just cut-and-paste the ad to your webpage (or webpage template, for easy use).

Google checks the words on your webpage when someone visits that page, and automatically places relevant ads on the page, that may interest your visitors.

Once a month, when you’ve earned at least $100, Google pays you. (I selected their Direct Deposit option to make my life simpler.) If your account hasn’t reached $100 yet, Google rolls your earnings over to the next month.

I received my first $100+ Google payment after three months with the program, and my AdSense income increased every month after that, for over two years.  I still earn checks from them, most months, and it’s still a worthwhile program, but your income will vary considerably with the content of your website, how many pages feature AdSense links, and whether or not your visitors use ad blocking software.

Click on the button below to learn more. It costs nothing to sign up. I just wish I’d known about this program sooner! (If the button doesn’t show up, use this text link:
or just visit www.google.com/adsense/)

DOMAIN NAMES AND HOSTING SERVICES

GeoCities and Fortune City may be great places to start, but to look professional and really earn money, you need your own domain name and your site should be professionally hosted.

• How to choose a domain name
  Choose a name that’s easy to remember, but makes your URL stand out. Amazon.com‘s name has nothing to do with books, but everyone remembers it. Yahoo and Google are also quirky names that everyone remembers.Among artists, Lesley Riley uses LaLasLand.com, and I never forget that name. Claudine Hellmuth has CollageArtist.com, which serves her well at search engines.

  If you don’t have a clever name in mind now, start with your own (offline) name (such as JaneDoe.com) and sort things out from there.

• How to register a domain name
  To buy the use of a domain name and get hosting, you can start with www.GoDaddy.com because they’re cheap, reliable, and fun.(To register domain names, I also use DirectNIC.com which is more expensive, but offers different features if you’re a pro at this. I also like NameCheap.com for absolutely basic registration.)
• Website hosting
  Who should host your new website? Get recommendations from friends. A hosting service that is great now may be hugely disappointing in six months.Many new webmasters use www.GoDaddy.com .

  However, I also use WebsiteSource.net for most of my websites. Their fees are low, and their tech support people are American, intelligent, and speak English.

  When I want speed and reliability–at a slightly higher price–I use Omnis.com.

LEARNING HTML

I’ve had websites since 1995, but I can remember how overwhelming it seemed at first. For example, I remember how excited I was to learn how to change text colors.

When you’re starting out, there is no need to learn HTML.

You can use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) program which allows you to create a webpage with no HTML skills at all.

I like a free program, Nvu, which offers WYSIWYG features.

You can also use Netscape Composer. It’s free, too.

Download Netscape install it. (You don’t have to use Netscape as your browser; you can leave it inactive.)Then, click on Start–>Programs, and find Netscape; in that folder, click on Composer. It’s pretty easy. The code isn’t as clean as I’d like, but the whole idea is to get online ASAP. You can learn HTML later.

(Mozilla browser users already have Composer with their browsers. Mozilla is the company that develops Netscape’s programs.  This is also the foundation of Firefox, which I use.)

There are many resources for learning HTML when you’re ready. One is the website, HTML Goodies, but there are many others. Use Google to find them.

If–like me–you prefer to have a printed guide in one hand while you’re learning something like HTML, I like Dummies-type books. I’ve linked to two of them on the right side of this page.

Later, when you are learning HTML and using it on your pages, the older HTML editing program, 1st Page 2000 is good, if you can find a free copy. It has Beginner through Expert levels, which can help when you’re learning. This program saves time if you write your own HTML, as I do.

I used 1st Page 2000 to write almost every webpage at every website from 1999 through 2007.  I still use it to rewrite code for many of my sites.

Or, if you can afford it, many designers say that nothing beats Dreamweaver. But, Nvu, linked above, comes pretty close… and it’s free.

WEBSITE DESIGN

I like clean, easy-to-navigate websites. Some artists want a site that’s not so tidy, but gives an overwhelmingly “artsy” image. There’s probably a happy medium.

For website design, I like the advice that you’ll find online at sites such as Strum’s ‘Webbery & Nettery’ and Art and the Zen of Websites.

I also love the free, navigational flow chart featured at PrecisionArts.com

FTP – GETTING YOUR SITE ONLINE

FTP means “file transfer protocol,” and it’s how you get your new webpages from your hard drive to your hosting service’s computer. There are many free FTP programs that work very well, such as Smart FTP, FTP Commander, and CoffeeCup Free FTP.

Your browser may already include an FTP program, or if you’re using Mozilla’s browsers, you can get a free FTP extension for it.  In Firefox, get the FireFTP plug-in.

Your new hosting service will tell you how to set up your FTP program so that it sends files to your new website. It’s easy. Really.

BELLS AND WHISTLES

Even when HTML is new for you, you’ll probably want some of the “fancy stuff” for your website. Start small. Don’t overdo it with flashing text, pop-ups, and so on. 1st Page 2000, mentioned above, includes many basic JavaScript texts that you can add with one easy click.

You can also find many free, easy JavaScripts at sites such as JavaScript Made Easy.

SHOULD YOU HIRE A PRO?

Maybe. Decide if that’s an effective use of your time.

I mean, if you can make $35/hour for your regular work (writing/art) but pay your webmaster $15/hour and he/she is good at it… it’s hardly worth it to do the work yourself IF you are working full-time.

But, chances are you aren’t making $35/hour and working a 40 hour week. So, follow my advice and create your own website right away. Once you’re making good money at it, you can hire someone to maintain your site in the future.

Really, if you don’t have your own website yet, start one now. Don’t expect to learn everything overnight. Try to learn a little more each week.

It will take you a while to get a good spot at the search engines such as Google. We’ll talk about that later. For now, just get your website started. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be making money from it.

I used to do this myself, using simple JavaScript code copied from Live Journal.

The entries were automatically fed to a webpage that looked like the rest of my website.  You’ve probably seen this at people’s websites and didn’t realize it.  It’s that seamless.

If you filter any posts at Live Journal–make them “Friends Only” for example–the post will NOT show up at your website.

Also, if you feed your LJ entries to your website, remember that people can’t comment directly at your website, and they don’t see your subject line from LJ, either.

This technique doesn’t send them to LJ, away from your website.  If you’re actively posting at LiveJournal or any other blogging community, consider embedding your posts at your website as well.