As graphic design becomes more and more integrated with the Internet, designers are starting to look for new ways to promote their work to millions of potential viewers online and this is where WordPress truly shines.
WordPress is by far the most popular online content management system, allowing users to quickly and easily publish content to their websites. It’s easy to install, easy to use, highly customizable and can be integrated into any portfolio site design.
Many designers are recognizing the amazing flexibility and potential of WorPress and have begun integrating it into their portfolio websites.
The WordPress Portfolio Site
Since WordPres is so easy to use, many designers are using it as the back end system of their website. Instead of having to log into your server, download files, save files, edit and re-upload all you have to do is login to WordPress and write a new post, which you then publish and it will add the new content into your site design, based on the way you have styled it.
Not only is WordPress used to publish new work, but designer’s are also using it to post updates and news on their sites, to keep their fans more informed about their projects, shows and life in general.
Since WordPress makes life so much easier in terms of managing a site, designers are starting to make even more posts, adding fresh new content to their site on a regular basis, which in turn brings much more traffic to their sites.
This has led to designers actually running their own blogs to bring in additional traffic, which is then funneled to their portfolio site. Designers are seeing a large increase in freelance work, due to increased targeted traffic from adding more quality content on a regular basis and more designers than ever are working full time from home very early on in their careers.
Even More Benefits
WordPress also comes with another set of benefits called plugins. Many devlopers have created a vast array of useful plugins that you can install on your server and use with WordPress. They help with a variety of things such as spam prevention, increased user interaction, search engine optimization and much more. To view the many plugins available you can go to: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/. I highly recommend researching plugins if you plan to integrate WordPress into your site or if you decide to start your own blog. They are a priceless asset!
Other Useful Resources for Blogging Designers
Quality content is by far the most important part of any portfolio site or blog, but you will have to do more then just publish new content to achieve those high traffic numbers. I recommend the resources below to get started.
ProBlogger.net
If you plan on using WordPress for your site then you should start reading some blogging sites such as ProBlogger.net. they have articles on everything you need to know about the blogging world, including both beginner and advanced topics.
SEOMoz.org
Becoming more familiar with search engine optimization is also essential and a great site for everything about SEO is SEOMoz.org. Performing basic SEO on your site will help you increase the amount of traffic you get from search engines. This is essential to getting steady freelance work online.
StumbleUpon.com
Lastly a great way to start generating more traffic to your portfolio site or blog would be to use StumbleUpon.com. If people love your designs and posts then the traffic will come based on the amount of thumbs up and or reviews your site or posts get. Many designers and bloggers have seen tens of thousands of visitors come to their site because of a post becoming popular on StumbleUpon!
Keep Expanding Your Skill Sets
As technology improves and new software is developed, the role of the graphic designer and the designer’s skills change. Designers are no longer just designers. They have become, web designers, bloggers, search engine gurus and website marketing experts as well!
Designers are achieving worldwide recognition and making careers from online freelance work because of the power of the Internet and resources such as WordPress. This is why I recommend that you look into WordPress, it has honestly changed my life and the life of many designers and it could change yours too!
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