How to add an image to your WordPress sidebar

Author Jim Ament is getting ready to publish his first novel. He emailed me to ask how he can add a picture of the new book’s cover to the sidebar in his blog.

Thanks to Corrinda Campbell of Small Business WordPress Services for showing me how to do this:

1. Resize your image to about 200 pixels across. Save it as a jpg file. (I use Snagit’s photo editor.)

2. Go to your WordPress dashboard and create a new page, which we’ll call Samples. “Publish” it as a private page, which will make is invisible to anyone visiting your site. (You’ll find the private setting under “Visibility” on the right side of your screen.) You might also need this page for similar projects in the future.

3. Upload your image using the image uploader on the toolbar. Publish it to the page, selecting the size you think will fit in the sidebar. (I chose the thumbnail size, 150 x 150.) You can always resize it if you have to.

4. Add any copy you want. Click update to save the changes.

5. To add links to the image or the text:

Image: click on the image and select the edit icon (picture). Change the link URL to your desired page link. Save your change.

Text: Highlight the text and click the link button on the toolbar. Add your desired link. Click update to save your changes.

6. Copy the html code for the widget. To get the html code, click on the HTML tab at the top of the composing window. You’ll see the html code. Copy it (hit control + C) and close that page.

7. Go to Widgets under the Appearance tab on your dashboard. Decide where you want your image to appear in the sidebar. Drag a text widget to your desired location. Paste (Control + V) your html code into the widget. Save your changes.

Check out Jim’s cover for his upcoming book, Waiting for Zoe.