Choosing a Blog Theme Template – Part #2
This is the second post in a series about choosing your blog theme template. Please read Choosing a Blog Theme Template – Step #1 to get up to speed on the series.
1. Custom Features – Worth the Investment?
As you take steps to get your new blog up and running – and monetized – you are probably concerned with keeping your expenses to a minimum. While I certainly understand the need to economize, I also think that now is the time to add custom features or a custom look to your blog. In my experience it’s always better to have your final theme in place before launching your new blog rather than to change the look and feel after the blog goes live.
If you are not well versed in modifying PHP, CSS or XHTML code then you probably want to involve a custom WordPress theme developer to help you customize the look or feel of your new blog. If you are relying on a theme template that you have already chosen your web developer should be able to make minor changes to the layout or functionality for a modest cost. On the other hand, if you expect a major revision of the theme then these costs can certainly increase quickly.
2. Layout Decisions
How do you want your blog to look? The choices are really endless. Aside from the overall appearance, however, you need to be concerned with some practical issues as well. Do you intend to monetize your blog with advertising? If so, then a fairly standard two or three column layout will probably be advantageous and will allow you to easily insert standard advertisement links and images in the future.
If your blog is going to be photo intensive, then you should explore and investigate a theme that is designed from the ground up to include photos and photo galleries as part of the theme design. Adding a photo gallery feature can certainly be done after the fact, but to be honest it’s much better to start with a theme that was designed to accommodate multiple images in a structured format.
Most blog themes are structured to show a chronology of posts in single file. If your needs are different, you may want to consider a magazine style theme that lists content in a more visual and less chronological manner.
3. Choose a Theme Designer Carefully
Your choice of a blog theme designer is terribly important to the success of your new blog. Some things to consider when choosing a theme designer:
- Is the designer experienced in custom WordPress blog themes?
- How does their own website look, feel and perform?
- Is there a portfolio or other list of reference work?
- Does the theme designer adhere to accepted web design standards?
- Will the blog theme work correctly on multiple operating systems and multiple browsers?
- Is the theme designer easy to reach and communicative?
- Are you emails or phone calls answered promptly?
- Will the designer support the theme and resolve issues after the install?
- Does the designer also provide support services such as WordPress installation, database setup, future upgrades, etc?
There are literally tens of thousands of theme designers available from which to choose. By following these simple tips you can help insure that your final choice is well suited for your blog theme needs.
About the Author
The Amateur Blogger is just that - new to the blogging game, but interested and willing to learn more. In reality my name
is David Zemens. I own a small website development and web
consulting firm called 1955 Design.
If you are so inclinded you can follow the real me on Twitter. You can also follow 1955 Design on Twitter.
[...] Choosing a Blog Theme Template – Step #2 [...]
If you’ve got a blog, and you’ve taken the time to choose yourself a template for it, you may as well learn some basic CSS in order to modify the markup file. This way if you want something basic like a colour to be changed, you can easily do it. Lots of themes do come with backend customizers which let you change most aspects of it, but once the time comes, you’re going to find something you can’t change unless you know how to modify it correctly.
Good point Justin. Learning simple CSS is quite easy, and it does afford the site owner some simple flexibility.
Sometimes your needs are greater than your knowledge, however, and in those cases you should consider hiring an expert in blog theme design and development.
You are so right about this, and I am learning the hard way. I have installed themes on my blog that have custom options that I have no idea how to take advantage of. The learning curve for me is quite steep for me also considering my young children are more technologically inclined than I am already. I love learning new things, but this is proving to be a real challenge. I just want to install a theme and be done already!