The third in a 5-part series, together we will choose, install and activate a theme for your wordpress blog. You should have chosen and paid for a host, and installed the wordpress blog software by following the steps in the featured video.
Using the dashboard of your blog, from the ‘appearance’ box, choose ‘themes’ (I am assuming you have version 2.8, which is the current version at the time of writing). Here you will see all of the themes available for you to select right now. The standard wordpress installation provides only 2 themes; classic and kubrick, kubrick being the default. but kubrick is not very inspiring, so you may want to choose a better look for your blog.
Fortunately, there are literally thousands of different themes available to make your blog look great! This one of the advantages of using wordpress. And the dashboard themes manager will allow you to choose and activate any theme, immediately changing the look of your blog.
Once you have found a theme you like (I recommend trying several), download it to your PC, then upload it to your host server using your FTP software (I recommend filezilla). Ensure you copy your theme to the /wp-content/themes/ folder or directory on your host server. The theme will then appear when you select ‘appearance’, ‘themes’ on your dashboard.
WordPress has a showcase for theme ideas and blog designs. There are 378 featured sites when I looked. This is a great place to start. You can browse for inspiration and ideas on how you want your blog to look. The wordpress themes directory has 906 themes on offer when I checked. They are all free to download and there are some excellent designs. You will find different styles, 1, 2 or 3 column designs, different features, design options and purpose (ie, ecommerce, travel blog, magazine, etc).
If you can’t find a free theme you like or you want a unique and, perhaps, more professional look and feel, try some of the many premium wordpress themes. There are plenty to choose from, they usually cost between $50 and $150, and are designed by professionals.
Finally, if you want a customisable or configurable theme, because you want the design of your blog to evolve, I can recommend the thesis theme. The personal theme will cost you $87, but it’s worth it. It’s professionally designed, has lots of configurable features, is SEO optimised and has a thriving technical help forum.
This blog is based on the thesis theme.
In the next post we will look at WordPress plugins.
