Crazygood artists
April 18, 2009 by cynthia
I’m in the middle of about six very different web projects right now, all of them centered on making WordPress (the software that drives this blog) stand up and do tricks. My latest personal site, crazygoodartists, popped up this week, and I thought I’d ask you guys what you think.
Far too many people think of a blog as a serial diary that runs on and on like literary diarrhea (OK, no cracks about yours truly). In fact, however, blogging software has evolved into one of the most sophisticated and easy to use content management systems out there.
Add the fact that it’s virtually free, and you get an incredible, low-cost website tool for organizations that don’t have a dedicated web team. (Or for many that do, but that’s another story). Instead of adding a blog to the website, though, I’m suggesting that the blog BECOMES the website.
It helps artists, for example, get around the single biggest barrier to entry for an effective portfolio site: The need to either learn HTML yourself, use a limited number of commercial templates supplied by your host, or hire someone to build your site and keep it current.
Difficult concept to get across, but I’ve been putting together a series of testblogs to show how versatile WordPress can be. And I found a really cool template, Threat to Creativity, from a guy named Max, that I needed to do SOMEthing with.
So I grabbed a cheap domain, installed WordPress and the theme, made a few small modifications, and started uploading content. Whole process took maybe 30 minutes…and crazygoodartists was born.
Personally, it’s a great way to bookmark the sites of my favorite artists, and maybe also give them a minor web traffic boost. It’s also a fast way to share them with others. Click the browse menu on the right to select a medium or type of work you’re interested in, and you’ll see only artists working in those areas.
Whenever I get a chance I’ll be updating and modifying the template–I have a lot of ideas about it–but I’d love to read your opinions. What would you do with this site?
(Oh, and check out some of the artists. They really are crazy-good.)
Related posts:
- Moving sentiment Ever wondered where this blog went? Me, too. My old...
- There will be a short intermission… ...while I update and check this massive blog into its...
- Life in the deadzone For those of you who couldn’t find the blog, or...
- At last! A blog of my own! So, about three months ago I decided to implode the...
- Keep them cards & letters a-comin’… Sometimes I think I'm becoming a dear abby for glassists,...
Hey Cynthia,
I really like this concept that you’ve put together.
What about adding a feature to allow people to submit artists they think are crazy good? I know you have a feature for artists to submit their work for review and consideration. This would just be an extension of that for people to recommend other artists they admire. My submission would be for a pastel artist, Riva Sweetrocket (http://www.sweetrocket) as an example.
Maybe a members only area, where those artists you have added could go for information about how tos on html, blogging, website management?
Or having an area with your latest techie finds, like the one you mentioned here about Threat to Creativity. It’s always good to know about new things that are out there in cyberspace.
Just a few ideas. I’m glad you’ve done this.
Kathleen
Kathleen: Top of the screen, left-most menu item. Does just what you want. Oh, that Cynthia thinks of everything…