She’s already blogging on WordPress.com, so I suggested she use a self-hosted WordPress installation as her portfolio site. It will be easy for her to update, she can add functionality as her site grows and it’s much, much more search-engine friendly than her old Flash site.

One of the easiest ways to get started with WordPress is to customize a pre-made theme or template. I pointed Tricia to ThemeForest, which I’ve used before, because the themes there are inexpensive and high quality. She chose one called PhotographerDream.

It features a nifty rollover effect on the home page, where it automatically displays the most recent images added to the portfolio. The top navigation displays a lits of categories, as well as pages and a link to Tricia’s blog.

The theme as purchased was purple and pink, but Tricia preferred a more understated black and grey scheme. I showed where to edit the stylesheet to make the changes, but being tech-savvy, she did all the customization herself.

The whole thing was completed in a weekend.