How to Select a Theme for Your WordPress Blog
By Janet Barclay, MVA
So, you’ve decided to start a blog to let the world know what’s going on in your professional life, to share your expertise or your opinions, or to showcase your business. You have something to say, and you’re ready to say it!
If you’ve chosen WordPress as your blogging platform, once you installed it on your website, you may have been disappointed to discover that there are only two very basic themes to choose from. You needn’t worry, as these themes are fully customizable. However, even if you don’t have the necessary skills, or several hundred dollars to invest in a custom design, there are over a thousand options, right at your fingertips! Many designers are willing to share their work with other bloggers, and have posted their themes at http://themes.wordpress.net. All of these themes are available for you to download and install on your own blog, and most can be customized to suit your needs.
You may be thinking, “That’s all well and good, but how on earth can I make a decision when there are so many choices?” Now comes the fun part!
The Theme Viewer website allows you to choose from a list of options to narrow down your selection, and you can select as many options as you wish. These options fall into the following basic categories.
Columns
Most blogs have one sidebar on either the left or right which includes links to past entries, other blogs, and so on. If this layout appeals to you, you should select “2 columns.” Please note that in some cases the information appears at the bottom of the page instead of the side, but it is still considered a column.
If you want to include affiliate links or other additional features, you need a second or even a third sidebar to fit everything in - in this case you should choose “3 columns” or “4 columns.” If you want a clean, simple look, and are not concerned about providing navigation links, you should select “1 column.”
Colors
If you plan to customize your theme, it may not be critical to find one using the color of your choice, but it can certainly help to narrow down your options!
Width
With a fixed width theme, your blog will generally appear the same, regardless of the user’s browser, monitor size, or screen resolution, which is a real advantage. With a fluid width, the contents will automatically adjust to fit the width of the user’s browser, so in very narrow or very wide screens, things may not appear as you intended. On the other hand, if you choose a fixed width that is quite wide, if the user is reading your blog on a smaller screen, he or she will have to scroll from side to side to see it all.
Plugins
Plugins are programming scripts that allow you to enhance existing features or add new ones to your blog. Although intended to be user friendly, if you’re not very technical, you may need some assistance setting these up.
An options page is a screen which will allow you to configure your plug-ins without any Wordpress expertise.
Widgets
Widgets are self-contained pieces of code that allow you to easily control the contents of your sidebars. If you plan to change your theme from time to time, you’ll find a widget-ready theme especially valuable, as you won’t lose any customized content you’ve created for your sidebars.
Rounded Corners
If you’re not a big fan of straight lines, you might like to choose a blog theme with rounded corners. Rounded corners may give your blog a more polished and contemporary look.
Sidebar
You can select a left sidebar, right sidebar, or both.
No Images
Many themes include a photograph or graphic in the header, which can usually be replaced with your own image. If you specifically want a theme with no images, you can specify this in the options menu. Please note that in most cases you will be able to add images when customizing your theme.
Viewing Your Search Results
The search options checklist is followed by three drop-down menus. The first controls the order in which you want the themes to appear on your screen: by the date they were added to the site, alphabetically by title, by number of downloads, or alphabetically by tag. The second allows you to sort them in ascending or descending order.
The third drop-down menu allows you to indicate whether you want to display themes that match ANY of the criteria you’ve specified, ALL of the criteria, or ANY OR ALL. This is a very important step, because if there’s a feature you particularly want and you haven’t selected ALL, you may find yourself falling in love with a theme, only to discover that it doesn’t do everything you want it to.
Viewing Your Selections
Thumbnails of 12 search results will appear on your screen at a time. Click on the thumbnail for information about the theme, including the title, the name of the designer, the number of times it’s been downloaded, and user comments. To see how it will look in action, click on “Test Run.”
Unless you’re extremely decisive or know exactly what you are looking for, it’s unlikely that you will choose the first theme that you look at. To keep track of those you’re considering, you need to bookmark the theme’s information page. Bookmarking the Test Run page won’t work, as the URL is the same regardless of which theme you’re viewing.
Using Your Theme
After you’ve installed the new theme, you’ll want to play around with it a bit. Unfortunately, sometimes themes have coding errors which prevent them from looking or acting the way you expect it to, and you might need to choose a different one.
Once your theme is in place, you will probably want to customize it in some way. If you don’t have the time or the expertise, consider hiring a professional to look after this for you. This is a great way to get a unique look for your blog at a fraction of the cost of a custom design.
Enjoying Your Blog
Choosing your blog theme is just the beginning! There are all kinds of enhancements that can help you interact with your readers, including tools that display your Google page rank, the most recent visitors to your blog, who has recently linked to your blog, and much much more.
But of course, the most important part of having a blog is writing! Posting to your blog regularly will keep you in front of your potential customers and help you to establish your online identity.
About the Author
As a Master Virtual Assistant and the Founder of Organized Assistant, Janet Barclay offers Wordpress blog customization as well as other administrative and website services to small business clients. Learn more about Janet and her business by visiting her website http://www.organizedassistant.com and her blog http://www.janetbarclay.com.
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Great tips Janet! These were the things I considered when picking my new theme.