If you are a photographer or artist who relies on WordPress for your blog or portfolio, chances are you aren’t utilizing all the available tools or adhering to the best practices that could help your site stand out.  Below is a list of ten mistakes that photographers (including myself) make when using WordPress.

1. Non-readable image filenames

Image filenames are an important factor in optimizing for search engines. Below are a few examples of non-optimized filenames:

• DSC000234481.jpg
• picture1.jpg
• 20110301-tda-0023.jpg

The filenames above might work well when archiving photos in your image software program, but they are useless on the web.  Including descriptive keywords in filenames on the web will give search engine spiders a clue about the picture.  For example, here are a few optimized image filenames:

• shark-attacks-california-surfer.jpg
• libyan-rebels-fight-qaddafi.jpg

Don’t go overboard with keywords or you will dilute the value of each keyword included.  Use - instead of empty spaces, which show up like this in urls: %20.

2. Empty alt and title attributes

Search engines have a difficult time interpreting the content of images.  The more relevant text you include around the image itself, the easier it is for search engine spiders to interpret the content of the image.

The alt attribute provides some alternate text to describe the image if a browser has image loading disabled and is important to the usability of your website in case your visitors have poor eyesight or are using assistive reading technology.  In photography terms, the alt attribute is comparable to the image title metadata.  Google confirmed in 2007 that the alt attribute is their primary point of focus when trying to understand the content of an image.

The title attribute is displayed on tags when hovering your mouse over an image (also known as a “tooltip”).  It should provide advisory information about the image for which it is set.  Below is an image tag with optimized filenames, alt and title attributes:

Adding alt and title text to images in WordPress is easy. After uploading an image using WordPress’ Add Media button, click Show and you will see the Title and Alternative Text fields.  Click this screenshot for a larger view.

3. Squished images after changing themes

A common point of confusion is that changing the image sizes on the Media Settings page will resize all existing photos in WordPress.  It doesn’t.  WordPress creates thumbnails when you first upload the photo.  Chances are you set your Media Settings to a size required for your previous theme.  If you change themes, you might need to resize these previously uploaded images.

First, make sure that you have set your Media Settings to the correct size specified by your theme’s instructions. Then, install Viper007Bond’s Regenerate Thumbnails plugin.  It allows you to automagically resize all images that you ever uploaded into WordPress based on your new images sizes on your Media Settings page.  This will save you hours of work.

In some cases, the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin doesn’t work. This is typically due to the fact that you uploaded very large, sometimes even the original, image into WordPress and the plugin simply cannot process all of the large images.  If this is the case, ensure that your thumbnail sizes are set to the correct size according to the theme’s instructions and upload the photo again.

4. Website is not cached

Is a slow loading website hurting your photo business?  It could be.  Photography websites tend to load lots of large images, which translates into slow loading pages.  By creating a “cached” version of your website, you could speed things up to 10X faster.  Thankfully, there’s a plugin for that.

The W3 Total Cache plugin by W3 Edge will decrease the load time of your website, resulting in a faster page loads and happier visitors.  The W3TC plugin improves the user experience of your site by improving your server performance, caching every aspect of your site, reducing the download times and providing transparent content delivery network (CDN) integration.  While there are other caching plugins available, my experience is that the W3 Total Cache plugin provides superior results when configured properly.

5. No CDN

The closer your visitors are to your content, the faster it will load.  A Content Delivery Network is a team of servers located around the world containing copies of your static media content.  When a visitor located in New York loads your website, they will be served content from the closest data center located in, say, New Jersey, instead of loading the data from your web server located in Hong Kong.

The W3 Total Cache plugin contains an option for hosting all static media content at the CDN of your choice.  There are many CDN options available, but the most popular by far is Amazon Web Services’ S3 account.  It is cheap and integrates with the W3TC plugin.

6. Poor lead generation

Make it easy for your site visitors to call or email you.  Put your phone and email (or link to contact page) in the footer or sidebar (or header) of every Post and Page.  Better yet, include a short personal bio, with photo, to make your site a bit more personable.  Use the GPP About You Widget plugin to add a bio box to help generate leads and connect with potential customers.

7. create an opt-in, opt-out mailing list

One of the best ways to piss off past or potential clients is to send unsolicited email.  Even worse, if your email doesn’t contain an unsubscribe link, amongst other things, your well-intentioned email marketing campaign is technically, well, spam.  The CAN-SPAM Act is a must-read if you market your business to a list of email addresses.  Not surprisingly, there is a plethora of email marketing services available.  Here are a few that integrate well with WordPress so so you can turn site visitors into regular readers and potential customers:

• Campaign Monitor:  We use this.  Designer friendly.  Nice user interface.  Not cheap.  Plugins for WP available.
• Mail Chimp: Popular amongst designers.  Not cheap.  Plugin for WP available.
• Subscribe2: Free WordPress plugin for sending email to site subscribes. Limited support. Plugin available.

8. Resize images before uploading

If you are uploading your original, high-resolution images in WordPress, you have essentially just given the entire world access to your digital negatives.  Any image that you upload to the internet can be downloaded, period.  Resize your images to the maximum size required by your theme before uploading them into WordPress.

9.  Forgetting to assign Featured Images

WordPress 2.9 introduced the ability to assign “Featured Images” to specific Posts, Pages, and Galleries.  Many themes now use this feature for creating thumbnails on the homepage and archive pages.  If are using a theme and you can’t figure out how to give your posts a thumbnail, chances are you haven’t set a Featured Image.

WordPress 3.1 hides some screen options (including Featured Images) on Posts & Pages edit screens by default.  To show the Featured Image box, click the Screen Options link in the top right corner when editing a Post or Page and check the Featured Image box.  Here is a video tutorial that shows how to use Featured Images in WordPress.

10. Don’t use Flash

Flash is like a black box to search engines.  It looks nice, but isn’t searchable.  If you choose to use Flash content on your website, make sure you have included a description in HTML nearby your Flash content that describes the content contained inside the Flash.

If you’ve never done it before, the idea of building a computer from the ground up can seem very intimidating—but it’s one of the most satisfying projects a Tech enthusiast can take on.

Being more of a software gal than a hardware geek myself, I was the only Lifehacker editor who had never built a PC from scratch. So when I needed a new PC late last year, I took the plunge and built my custom system. I’m so glad I did—the project turned out to be one of my proudest accomplishments of 2008. If you’ve cracked open your PC before to install a new hard drive or TV capture card, but you’ve never built a whole new system from the ground up, it’s not as difficult as you might think. Here are my notes for first-timers who want to build instead of buy their next computer.

Why Build Instead of Buy

“But computers are so cheap these days,” you say. “Why waste the time and energy building your own system when you can get a great machine fully assembled and shipped to your door?” that’s a great question. Building your own PC will not save you time. It might save you money, but that’s not even the best reason to do it. For me, it was a fantastic hands-on educational experience. It gives me a deep sense of satisfaction every single day when I press the power button on my tower, watch it light up, and know that I plugged in the wire that goes from that light to the motherboard. Building your PC takes the mystery out of what’s going on inside that black box you spend hours on per day.

There are other good reasons to build instead of buy, too. With your own build you can customize your system just how you like and make your perfect media center or gaming machine. You can save money if you already have some parts (though see my warnings on the dangers of a “Frankenbuild” below). Upgrading your PC in the future becomes easier and cheaper since your parts aren’t tied to a particular manufacturer. With a custom build you can do fun stuff like overclock your CPU and get more bang for your buck, or install OS X where it was never intended to run.

In short, building your own PC makes you feel like a badass.

What You’re Getting Into

Don’t get me wrong, though: building a PC (for the first time especially) takes research, time, gumption, patience, and a willingness to deal with several WTF moments. If you’ve never cracked a PC’s case and installed parts, like a new hard drive or a video card, start there first. If you’ve got that experience under your belt, you might think that building a new PC is just a matter of snapping together a few parts. It is, but building from the ground up takes much more than an hour or two. My build took two full days, one online order, one returned motherboard, two trips to Fry’s, one condescending sneer from a sales associate when I asked a newb question, and one trip to Radio Shack. If that sounds like a lot, well, it was, and there were moments in the process when I wished I’d just bought a Dell. But when it finally all came together, all the sweat makes the results even sweeter.

Where to Start: Researching and buying Your Parts

You scared off yet? No? Good. Let’s get down to it. There are a gadzillion articles on the internet about building your own PC, but many are way out of date, or just don’t get specific about what exactly you should buy. When I had to start researching what parts to purchase, of course I turned to savvy Lifehacker readers to help me out. Several readers mentioned Ars Technica’s excellent system buyer’s guide, which breaks down exactly what parts you’d want for one of three levels of computer: a “budget box,” a “hot rod,” or a “God box.” The 2008 guidepublished last fall; make sure you use the most recent one when you start your research. I started by plugging parts from Ars’ “hot rod” system list into Newegg to get a sense of price and see if there were any deals, coupons or upgrades. In the end I didn’t use Ars’ exact recommendations, but it was an awesome, up-to-date, jumping-off point.

Your research into parts is the most important stage of the process. For first-timers it can be bewildering, and you will have questions. Just keep reading, take notes, consult with forums or sales associates, and remember that if you make the wrong purchase you can always return it for the right one. In the photo to the left you’ll see my build’s case, motherboard, power supply, CPU, and RAM. (I had a video card, DVD drive, and a hard drive from an old machine I planned to use in my new build.)

See this entire comment thread for more resources on deciding what parts to buy for your budget.

Get Down and Dirty

Once you’ve got your hot little hands on all the parts you need, the real fun begins. There are two stages to your build: the hardware stage, and the software stage. Adam’s already covered how to install each individual hardware component. Here’s the list:

• Install the motherboard and CPU
• Install your RAM
• Install the video card
• Install the hard drive and DVD drive

Once you’ve got everything plugged in and mounted inside your case, leave the case sides off and plug in your keyboard, mouse, monitor, and power, and press the On button. This is the moment of truth. The first time you see the lights come on and the system setup appear on-screen, you’ll feel like you’ve just arrived at the top of Mount Everest.

If the machine doesn’t power on, or there’s no video signal, or the keyboard doesn’t work—just unplug everything and check your connections. It took me a few hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing attempts to get my new build to boot properly. If it doesn’t work the first time, take a breath, unplug it all, and try again. Don’t cry; that won’t help.

Once you’re into the machine’s BIOS setup, key around and make sure the motherboard recognizes your DVD or CD drive and your hard drive. You’ll need those working in order to install your operating system. Everything there? Now set your boot sequence to check your optical drive first. Insert your operating system’s disc into your CD or DVD drive, and restart the machine. Now your operating system’s setup will launch on boot, and you can install away.

In the meantime, blast very loud rock music, strut about the vicinity, arms upraised, and revel in your greatness.

Mistakes I Made That You Can Avoid

When you build your first PC, keep a few things in mind I wished I’d realized before I started.

• Beware of the “Frankenbuild.” A great way to save money on your new PC is using parts that you’ve already got around. But I was overly optimistic about what items from my very old Dell tower would work in my new system. I assumed my hard drive would work (it did, but it was an IDE drive, which I wound up replacing with a faster SATA model), I hoped my video card would work (it didn’t), and I thought my DVD drive would work (it did). In the end I wound up buying parts I thought I’d be able to reuse, so my total price wasn’t as low as my initial estimate.
• Expect mishaps. I bought the wrong motherboard. Well, not the wrong one, but one that didn’t have a FireWire port, which I wanted. Well, I had a FireWire card, but it didn’t fit into the motherboard. Anyway, I figured all this out after I installed the CPU, which meant I had to remove it from the board, break the thermal compound seal, and ship the motherboard back. When I got the new motherboard and reinstalled the CPU, because the thermal compound left there didn’t work anymore, the machine would start and within 10 seconds overheat and shut itself off. Next thing you know I’m scraping hardened thermal compound off the CPU with Goof Off and a credit card, and reapplying fresh from a tube I had to pick up from Radio Shack. Lesson: there will be mishaps. Expect crap to go wrong. Be confident in your ability to fix it after you Google the solution to the problem hundreds of people have had before you did.
• Read the frakkin’ manual. With years of tinkering in my PC’s case under my belt, I went into my build eager to start working and only skimmed the user guides and online howto’s before I started. Don’t do that. Open and read the full-on manual that comes in the box with every single one of your parts. If you’re not sure about something said manual includes, do your research before you plug anything in.
• Buy locally if you can. My initial parts order was from Newegg, which was great price-wise, but really sucked when I had to return my motherboard, because I had to pay shipping fees and a restocking fee. With a Fry’s down the road, I regretted not just buying everything at the store itself from the get-go to to make returns easier.
• Give yourself lots of time. I wrongly assumed I’d be able to finish my build in a day, but it took two whole days and stressed me out because they were work days. Don’t build a new PC when you’re on deadline or otherwise pinched for time. Give yourself a whole weekend and a clean and spacious work area that you can leave filled with packing debris and electronic parts strewn about for a few days.

Have you built your own PC? Are you considering taking the leap? Let us know how it went or what you’re thinking in the comments.