A Theme Is Expected to Make your Content Look Good
First Steps In Blogging: Choosing Your Theme
I have been blogging ever since 2004, and for the greater portion of that time I have used WordPress for the platform (although I have also used others including Blogger). I’m one of those experimenters who is always changing things around, so I have used countless theme templates for my blogs.
I know it can get confusing sorting through the thousands of template choices, which seem to do a hundred different things, so I thought new bloggers, or people thinking of setting up their own blogs might benefit from some of my experience.
WHAT YOU WILL FIND HERE:
A quick rundown on what it takes to start blogging, and then a look at some of the types and choices of themes that will help you forge your online presence.
Start with a simple theme that best serves your site’s purpose. Or go with a professional theme that gives lots of support through forums, etc. Once you are used to the way a designer structures the themes, especially if there is an underlying framework (like Genesis), you will find your way around it and get it to function for you through familiarizing your self with the way that particular theme works.
This won’t tell you that any particular designer is the best, but just to give you, the new blogger, a beginners guide to sorting through a huge playing field of theme designs.
5 Blogging Decisions
Top 5 Website Decisions
Choose your platform
Choose your theme
Choose plugins
Write content and decide frequency of posting
When and how to monetize your site
These are the most important decisions to make when you begin a blog.
Choose The WordPress Theme For The Purpose Of Your Site
Because WordPress is one of the most popular platforms, it has been extended through themes and plugins for all sorts of special uses. Some themes have special plugins incorporated right inside to make things wonderfully flexible and useful.
It used to be that each theme had its plugins for common features like slideshows, etc.
The prevailing wisdom is to allow those features to be handled by plugins as they are commonly used: separately.
News, Food, Photos? Ecommerce?
Most of the professional lines of WordPress theme designers have a whole slew of specialized themes all ready for you to create the exact type of site you want.
Photo blogs need to highlight their great pictures. Art blogs are similar. Portfolio highlights which have images instead of text for entries or large images with minimal text serve these sites well.
For most blogs a typical 2 column style with either a left or right hand sidebar is the classic theme choice.
WordPress blogs are so versatile that they can look like almost anything and function for many purposes from ecommerce to community sites (with the addition of buddypress or bbpress). The more complex the use requirements the more likely the theme will be highly complex and probably professional, costing a fee.
Those themes are a far cry from the early ones that had just a small number of templates.
What Is a Template?
The structures inside the theme which create posts, pages, contact pages, 404 pages, archives, etc.
How to Install a WordPress Theme in your Hosting Site
https://youtu.be/HE1Vy3kXtBM
Your Blogging Experience
Free Or Professional Themes For WordPress?
In blogging, one of the first things you will decide is the platform. This is the general software that supports your blogging site. WordPress is one of the most popular today, and can be both self-hosted (you pay for your hosting and run your blog on the server space of your hosting plan) or free, through WordPress.com.
Other platform examples:
Blogger
Typepad
Tumblr
Drupal
But since you have made the choice for WordPress, the next big decision is how you want your site to look and act, and that “frontend” experience is dictated by your “theme”.
Themes can be both simple and extremely complex, they can be free or professional (themes that you buy) also known as “Premium themes”. When I first blogged, I used only free themes. I now need more features and I have purchased professional themes.
Once You Decide on WordPress, the Fun Begins
At first it might seem there is little difference between free themes and pro, especially if you can find a free theme with support, with a community centered around troubleshooting and guiding newbies. There are even free themes with complex features, and a great look.
But generally, a pro theme will have a higher level of design expertise, good code, and be kept up to date in compliance with the many upgrades that WordPress has engineered in recent years. In the case of the “Hybrid core” themes: the themes are free, but the support forums and articles require a paid membership.
I found many years ago that keeping up with the complexity of code, features that I wanted, and time to design were just too much for me as an individual blogger. I broke down and purchased a Pro theme membership.
Membership- what’s that?
OK. In professional themes there are often two ways to go:
Buy a single theme for a set amount of money OR buy a membership to a design company you like and have access to many themes and the support of experts. The choices are yours (choices, choices!).
Always Changing
The internet, and thus the type of writing and the look of websites, is always changing. The one thing that impacts wp theme choice today is the transition of web users to mobile phones. No longer is the desktop the primary way we access the web. This has resulted in another choice that we ought to be making:
CHOOSE A RESPONSIVE THEME FOR YOUR BLOG.
A responsive theme is one that looks good in a variety of size screens, and adjusts well to mobile users.
Most web designers are creating their frameworks and themes to be responsive now, but if you have made a previous decision, check to be sure your present one has “responsive” features.
My Own Challenges
I write lots of content and the field I blog in is crowded, and getting more crowded every day, so I need something that will stand out. One of the biggest problems for me has been the pagespeed, or time necessary to load a page on your computer screen. The template is going to impact these challenges.
CHILD THEMES ARE RECOMMENDED
The updates for WordPress result in the need for the templates to update, as well. When that happens many of the customizations are lost. Some themes have an interface which helps to preserve your changes either through use of an area to add your css or to add a “child theme”. I like it when the designer adds easy customizations to the backend or admin are of the theme.
Tips To Help You Choose The Right Theme
Make a List. Do you want a blog, a gallery of photos or art? Need a portfolio for clients or e-commerce possibilities? What do you want people to do on your site?
Check how much support is given for the theme. Is there support from creator or forum? How satisfied are the users of the theme? Take note of these things and add it to your decision.
Check structure and flexibility of the theme. Does it have the type of pages you need? Are the style and your content a good fit?
About The Major WP Theme Players
Who Are They? What Are Their Benefits?
Some of these well known designer companies started with free themes. I used them in the past. This is not a definitive list, just some comments about the ones I know enough about to have opinions about their themes. The first two are theme platforms (theme structures that support many different styles).
Divi Is ET’s Cadillac Theme
Divi is their premier theme.
Elegant Themes
The following information is outdated. Elegant Themes has almost exclusively concentrated on its DIVI theme and it has so changed and updated it that it is very user friendly now. The only thing I wish I had realized at the beginning is that when building posts and pages in their builder, the coding shows up if you ever want to with to another format. The way this is given a work-around is to then install the divi builder as a plugin.
DIVI is the one I ended up paying for, probably because I am kind of artsy in my predilection for theme looks, and Elegant themes has one of the most artful, and just plain pretty, looks to their themes.
Elegant Themes, by Nick Roach, are a bit complex, but made easier with the back end epanel that automates most decisions of style and action. Support is so-so, but I don’t have other experience to compare it with. The entire line of many themes- all sorts of styles and basic purpose (they have a dynamite portfolio page) themes to choose from.
I have some affiliate links, if you decide to buy their themes and want to possibly support me in some small way. Note: I became an affiliate after I liked their themes, and am not advocating because I am an affiliate.
It seems like many of the best free themes went professional, and some of theme have limited free versions available. “Platform” Pagelines is one of those, look for others.
Platforms are the software that run the blog. WordPress is a platform for blogging. “Framework” is the basic structures under the “parent themes”, underneath those are the”child themes”. The platform runs all the functions and bells and whistles in the background, the theme or the framework has the basic and not so basic features that creates the look and use of the site. A parent theme is alone or under the child theme, which “sits on top” and is called for creating the specific look of the theme- the colors, graphics, and typography, as well as special templates. It can completely change the way the parent theme is experienced by visitors.
Not all themes are built apart from special frameworks, but many of the pro theme are, and the looks are usually the result of child themes. Look for Thesis and Genesis family themes to have this type of setup.
Best Theme? Review And Advice
What Are The Big Changes In Themes?
Mobile friendly has gone from a suggestion to mandatory. This is driven by the shift of users from desktops to their phones for most internet use.
Design plainly favors a “flat look” that is directly related to its good looks on a phone screen.
Functions increasingly move from inside the theme to a separate plugin.
Style ranges, but a light modern look reigns. Alternatively, handcrafted, like watercolor elements has grown in popularity.
Clean interface and fast loading becomes ever more important for a professional site.
Thesis Theme by DIYThemes
Thesis is used by some of the most successful bloggers, but so is Genesis. It has a more open look.
At first this was the premier theme platform that all the serious bloggers wanted, Genesis has since caught up.
I used the designer’s, Chris Pearson, famous ‘Cutline’ theme for quite awhile on one of my blogs. His design technique is clean and he was known for his beautiful typography. The Thesis theme has a distinctive clear grid that supports all sorts of features. I have not purchased it. Some love this theme, others found it complex to work with (word on the street of bloggers I “follow”.)
Personally, I would consider working with it just because of its nice open feel.
Genesis Theme
I used Brian Gardner’s themes before he started “Studiopress” and loved them. If I had been ready to buy a theme at that time, I would have stayed with and bought what turned into the “Genesis” theme. I am still considering it, although I hate to switch from themes I am familiar with ( learning curve when starting to use a new type of theme).
Genesis themes have a distinctive blocky look that is eye-catching and easy to navigate. They can be highly customized (in my experience). They are very well supported.
What are the assets and liabilities of these choices?
Free
Pro
Costs nothing
Costs a fee
unlimited styles,some great,some poor
pro styling
sometimes supported, usually by fans
usually supported, by experts
often has built-in links to theme creator
links can be deleted
What Was I Using?
Past tense because I bought a premium set of themes that did not live up to the promises. Caveat emptor.
Both Elegant Themes and Studiopress have proved reliable.
I also purchased and used Elegant Themes, and Studiopress, which I had used in the past. Each one has a learning curve to use, but they also provide forums and support.
Presently, I use Elegant Themes on almost all my sites, but still experiment with the latest free WP theme that comes shipped with the software. A few are on the Genesis platform.
Become A WordPress Ninja
I WISH I HAD A GUIDE IN THE EARLY YEARS OF STARTING A WORDPRESS BLOG
There is no reason for a steep learning curve with all the great learning resources available today. A book will condense all the important steps so you can start the important part: writing all your great content.
Don’t let your WordPress blog just sit there, learn how to develop it into a powerful online presence. Even if you are starting from zero knowledge, a guidebook like this can take you quickly through all the steps.
The big three for many people starting a WordPress blog: build a good site, get readers to come and stay, make some income.
Get To Know Your Theme
Go to the forums or get some initial support to know what your theme can do for your site. It will save you lots of time and otherwise you may not use all the features.
Why should you care about your website theme or plugins? And I’m not just talking about WordPress, but those for any platform, including Joomla. At any point when a plugin or a new theme is called for, they all do just one thing: They Solve A Problem The gist of it is that when you want a type of layout, or certain functions in your website, or ease of custom features, you will (eventually) Â look for a theme that will give you what you are looking for…
Some of these themes will include the plugins built-in (sliders, anyone?) More and more, these problem solvers will simply be plugins.
Do you wish to have a recipe that can be indexed and printed? There are plugins for that,
Would you like to reduce the size of your photos automatically? Plugins will accomplish that task.
Need help with the mysteries of SEO? Plugins can solve this problem.
In fact, this is why there are so very many of them available, and they are both free and premium in just about every blogging platform: they do all sorts of coding and create answers to your need for everything from an ecommerce site to adding easy ways to post to social media.
Just.About. Everything.
The difficulty is choosing the best ones to add style or function to your own blog.
Quickly, what to look for?
Ratings. Â See what users think about the themes and plugins you are considering.
Updates. Plugins can have vulnerabilities, and need to be kept updated if at all possible.
Support. If there is good support from a community or developer, it can help trouble shoot when not working right with your site. What good is a plugin that doesn’t work or causes problems… or becomes unusable after platform updates?
Function. It does what you need without unnecessary bloat. Plugins, too big or too many, can slow your site.
So basically that is what your theme, with its built-in plugins and setup, and the plugins themselves will do… they are meant to solve your problems and meet your needs. Blogwise, anyway.
This is a checklist of sorts for setting up a blog that will work well in the longrun.
Permalinks
First, change the permalinks from the default setup.
At first the blog will have a permalink address based on numbers. It looks like this:
http://www.yourdomain.com/?p=123
The permalinks left like that will not be good for SEO, since urls are important keys in determining what the page is about. Yoast, a well known WordPress expert who develops very useful plugins (a word about those later in the post), recommends simply using the
/%postname%/
He also has a tool and instructions for those of us who set up their blog long ago. Change Your Permalinks Structure in WordPress. which I followed, just today, in fact.
Mine involved adding a line of code to my htaccess file (which is a little scary for non-coders like me).
So my best advice for you, if setting up your blog for the first time is to make sure your permalinks use the post name choice unless you are a news magazine of some sort.
Themes For Your Second Setup Task
Pick a theme. This could be harder than it seems, due in part to the sheer number of them, and the fact that a good theme for you is one that caters to the way you will use WordPress.
I think one way to save time is to sign up with a major theme developer. One of the best is Studiopress, with their Genesis framework. I used them in the beginning and sometime’s wish I had stayed with them, although I am also happy with my present Elegant themes choice.
Of course there are good ones that are completely free, and I tend to use the ones that ship with the new updates for the WP.
After choosing which one, follow these steps to install it.
The Old Way
Download and unzip the theme.
Use a ftp client (Filezilla is free) or your file manager to upload the theme files to the wp-content/themes
Login to the admin section. Click on “Appearance” then click on “Themes”.
Look for the name and picture of your theme. You can either preview the theme or activate it from there.
Customize it if you wish by choosing the “Customize” link.
You can also search for and upload new themes directly on the Appearance/ Themes page. I prefer this way:
Now, The Recommended Way
Go to the “Appearance” tab in the admin sidebar. Choose the “Themes” tab, choose “Add New”, then,
Choose a zipped theme file from your computer and upload it.
Customize. That’s it!
If you want a template that goes the distance, use one of the fine professional ones listed here (affilate link).
Adding Plugins
Plugins vastly expand the things your blog can do. They add function without the need to know code, and go digging around in Php pages. From free to premium, these plugins can do many things from creating an ecommerce store to sitemaps. I use many plugins, including those which serve up recipes, protect my blog, and the jetpack group.
The one caution is to not install too many or untrusted ones. They can slow down your site, unnecessarily or open vulnerabilities.
Beginning or advanced bloggers who are building their WordPress site rely on plugins to make their blog do what they want it to. How do you find the best ones and what are the potential problems?
Plugins Grow Powerful
It used to be that the theme brought special functions to a WordPress platform, but increasingly the power has shifted from both the core installation of the WordPress software and from the theme to an array of plugins.
Plugins are the preferred way to expand function. This pullquote is by way of a shortcode plugin.
A plugin makes it easy to add the code necessary to do something either very simple like make a list of recent posts, to something very complex like adding a community system (i.e. “Buddypress”).
The WP team has increasingly decided to make features reside in something outside the core.
Remember
Too many plugins can cause “bloat” and slow down your site. Try to limit to your “most needed and wanted”.
Almost everything needed to find the best plugins are right within the dashboard of the latest version of WordPress. Simply find the button for “Plugins”, Go to “add new”, and search. Helpful categories such as “popular” and ratings will guide you to beginning the addition of plugins which expand the power of your blog.
Problems With Plugins
Most of the problems that arise with plugins revolve around “conflicts” with other functions or plugins, and “vulnerabilities”, or ways that hackers can get into your site through the code of the plugin.
With all problems from this source it is important that the plugins be updated. If you have updates in your wordpress installation, don’t delay implementing them. WordPress platform has made that easy.
What is more difficult is when you don’t know something is vulnerable or it needs updating when bundled into a theme.
Best practices that are now advocated by developers is that plugins handle many functions and that they “stand alone” instead of being introduced on the inside of a theme.
Recently, a well known, much used photo slider had been compromised in a very dangerous way. It was inside many themes, and alerts were put out, but there are many, many sites that probably go on without correction of the problem. Read about this here.
This isn’t to strike fear into your heart, but to educate you. Be aware of what to watch out for in a WordPress installation.
Things To Watch
Watch for conflicts between plugins or with your theme. If something isn’t working turn off all and then turn on one at a time to see if that is the problem.
How To Add A WordPress Plugin To Your Blog
Which Choices Out Of Thousands?
There are the basics, the features, and those for specific tasks.
Akismet is one of the basics. It prevents spam.
Although I changed around a bit, I use Yarpp (Yet Another Related Post Plugin) which brings up related posts for further discovery of your posts. This is an example of a feature: something your blog will really benefit from, but not a basic concern.
The third example of plugins that I like are those which add a function or feature that I need for a specific purpose. an example of that is one for recipes, or reviews. Adding social icons, or my favorite, an editorial organizer like “WordPress Editorial Calendar”.
Specialty Purposes
For recipes I like “Easy Recipe“, although there are others that probably would work as well. If I were a food blogger, I would want to research what worked best for my needs, and possibly buy a premium version.
Book blogging also has a choice of a number of special plugins for reviews. I like “Book Review Library” by Chris Reynolds the best.
I’ve tried a number of Adsense ones, but they had issues, so I’m now using Google Publisher for Adsense. It sometimes has problems with my theme, but is better than other ones I used previously.
The amount of this type is huge, and the best way to find what you want is to read reviews and find the recommendations of the users who test them. I like reading WPTavern blog for ideas about new ones.
Plugin
Feature
Price
YARPP
adds a group of related posts to keep readers interested in your content
free
Yoasts SEO
Powerful functions to help your SEO
free
BruteProtect
Secures against security attack
free
Dealing With HTML And CSS
I know how to use these, but many don’t. But despite the fact that I can customize my site and add tables to pages does not mean I want to have the headache of doing all the work ( espeically when it comes to building tables.
Never mind, Beginner and Expert alike! There are plugins that prove very handy for these chores.
TABLES
WordPress posts benefit form visual aids like tables. They are an easy way to organize information. The trouble is that a complex table can be hard to get set up. “Tablepress” is the plugin I use, it is an improvement on an older plugin that I have used on my garden site , and it works like a dream.
Shortcode is the name for easy additions of blocks of code that do specific things. It used to be mainly built into themes, but now you can have numerous plugins that create boxes, insert Facebook like buttons, make image sliders- all sorts of things.
There is no single plugin that does this, but I like Elegant Themes shortcode plugin, not the least because I use their themes.
My Experience
I’ve had some trouble with plugins over the years. Some cause conflicted- even breaking my theme. If you have trouble with your theme or even your whole site breaks after updates, go through your plugins to see if that is the culprit.
METHOD:
Turn off (deactivate) all the plugins. Turn each one back on,, individually and check to see if one was causing the problem. Unfortunately, you will probably have to delete that one until the developer fixes it.
Many developers provide support and answer questions or run a forum where problems acan be addressed and fixed.
SOMETIMES IT WORKS UNTIL IT DOESN’T
If it worked and then suddenly doesn’t do what it used to, it maybe that you will have to find a similar plugin to do that feature. Authors don’t always keep them updated.
Or sometimes you find the occasional one that does something (secretly) that you don’t like, monetizers that take some of your income without your permission. Though usually it is through defaults you were not aware that you needed to change. This happens less with the newer plugins, which tend to cost something upfront.
I had an old blog (from 2003) that had lots of good rep and some google rank just on the fact that it was OLD. I waited for years to move it from Blogger to WordPress on the basis that I really didn’t want to lose the ranking that it still held onto.
Well, due to the fact that I am a total amateur, I went through some very damaging steps because I simply didn’t know what to do. First I used a v-e-r-y slow meta-refresh to transfer people from the old Ilona’s Garden Journal to the new Home Garden Companion site.
Not a good idea. Besides being slow, it is seen as a malicious script.
I tried turning all 1000+ posts into drafts and taking the blog private. I felt like that was shooting myself in the foot!
So, finally I got serious, looked up how to make a proper 301 redirect and bit the bullet.
For those of you who don’t want to do all the really messy, bad stuff that I did…here is the really useful, clear page of instructions complete with the code you will need to make these happen.
~From WP Beginner, great info for anyone trying to work on a wp blog.
The redirects appear to work well. I don’t know if I will recover the Google ranking after all my shenanigans, but it was Bing Webmaster tools and Google info that helped me realize the importance of creating proper redirects when moving a site.
Be sure to use Bing and Google webmaster tools (both of them). They are free, don’t take much of your time, and prove extremely useful when you need to know insights about your blogs.
Hope this helps someone else trying to move their large site from Blogger to WordPress.
This is the step, AFTER migrating the posts over to the new blog.
I found that step to be pretty easy because I used the included import plugin in the WordPress installation. It worked extremely well and IÂ only had to upload some missing pictures. Which was relatively easy.
The new way to customize themes is increasingly centered inside a plugin. That is what I am using with the theme that comes with the present WordPress, Twenty Fourteen . Â I decided to try out a child theme for it.
The child theme is called ‘Sequel’, and relies upon a couple plugins. After the child theme is chosen and the plugins are installed, it is a matter of cycling through a large number of choices that will then customize the look to conform more to what you desire.
I liked the look just fine before I started changing it, but wanted to try out this child theme and see how plugins create changes. Among the things that I didn’t have access to previously is the Googlefonts . I love fonts, and have the hardest time deciding which one is best for a site, but eventually my “trial and error” method will conclude with a basic look.
I tried out at least six that I like equally well, and have a general wish for the font to convey the fact that this is a personal site with tidbits of information. Nothing heavy and imposing or too stiff, as though we are taking ourselves too seriously here.
The capacity for using different fonts adds unique character to a site.
We just want to have fun blogging and setting it up. We like to get quick troubleshooting for common problems. that is what I am writing about here, because that is what I most appreciate.
Does your theme have Googlefonts included for customizing? Â Do you like the choices or would you rather have the typography taken care of and brand your site in other ways?
If you want to try it out, the “Styles” plugin is available in the WP repository. Styles
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