WordPress is a great platform for businesses and blogging. In fact, there are many wonderful ways to add media, content and photos to your WordPress website that will aid in growing your business. When you have a blog, there are many ways to engage your audience. One way is to add visuals.  You can add photos, or you can add a slideshow. If you have a WordPress website, you can typically do this one of two ways: by using a WordPress plugin for slideshows or by doing it manually yourself. Adding a slideshow manually all by yourself is not as hard as it may sound. It really is relatively easy if you follow these quick and easy steps.

Step 1: The first thing you should do is log in to your WordPress account. Then, go to ‘Posts’ and then click on ‘Add New’ This will open a new blog post that will be the blank canvas for your new slideshow.

Step 2: After you open a new post, you want to begin getting your images ready for a slideshow. So at this point, you will click on the ‘select media’ icon. If your images have not yet been uploaded to your account you would then select ‘upload files.’ Choose the images you would like to insert into a slideshow and upload them. Be sure to choose stock photos, or photos that you own copyrights to, so that you are not infringing upon any copyright laws.

Step 3: Next, you should see that all the images that you have uploaded are selected with a check mark. If you choose not to add an image to your slideshow, then you would click on the check mark to unselect it. Once you are sure of your images, be sure that you are in the Media Library tab and click the ‘Create Gallery’ icon in the left top corner. To finalize it, click ‘Create A New Gallery’ at the bottom right corner.

Step 4:  To add captions or reorder your photos, or make any other necessary changes, be sure you are in the Edit Gallery section. If you would like to add captions, simply just click the caption box beneath the images. To reorder your images just drag the image to the desired spot you would like it in the slideshow.

Step 5: Once your slideshow looks polished and ready to go, you need to go under ‘Gallery Settings’ and under ‘type’ to then click ‘slideshow’. Finally, click ‘insert gallery’, and your slideshow is ready to go live.

Slideshow Plugin

If you prefer to have a slideshow plugin, you can search WordPress plugins for different types of slideshow creators. Some of these plugins are a lot of fun. Once you find the slideshow plugin you like, just install the plugin and follow the instructions to create a perfect slideshow. Typically it’s a lot similar to creating a slideshow manually, however, some plugins give you various features that you may not have manually.

Whether or not you create a WordPress slideshow manually or with a plugin, be sure to create unique and engaging content that will draw in the type of audience you are looking for to your WordPress website. And don’t forget to have fun creating it. The beauty of using WordPress is that it allows you to be creative in the design and materials that you give to your audience. It might be a little bit of work, but the rewards are worth it.

While we’re talking about WordPress, do you have any WordPress tips you’d like to share?  Are there any types of plugins you’d like us to research and write about? Let us know by commenting below.