How to Choose a WordPress Theme
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Now that you have a blog setup, the next step is to install a WordPress Theme
What is a WordPress theme / template?
A WordPress theme is your superhero costume for your blog. Themes are pre-built templates / designs which defines the look and feel of your blog. They can include additional functionality like slider bars, social media plugins, email opt-in, mega menus and many more.
Where to find WordPress Themes
There are literally thousands of themes out there, both free and paid. Just do a simple google search for “Wordpress Themes” and you will get a ton of results.
Free Themes
For people who are just starting, you can download and use free WordPress themes. Many of them are actually quite good and very easy to use.
Here are some of my favourite places of where you can find some awesome free wordpress themes
Consider a Premium Theme
However to really stand out from the crowd I recommend buying a Premium Theme. A free theme has it perks but lets face it, there are 165 millions of blogs on the internet and 97% of them probably use the same free themes that everyone else is using.
For serious and professional bloggers I highly recommend purchasing a premium theme.
For this blog I personally use a theme called Tribe. I chose this theme because of its simplicity of use and minimalist look and feel.
In addition it was a theme that I thought represented me the most, simple, down to earth and no-frills type of person.
One of my favourite places to buy WordPress themes is from a website called ThemeForest which is created by Envato, an Australian company.
They had over 1.5 Million trusted buyers who have used them and one interesting fact about Envato is that they have been voted as one of the coolest company for women to work for, which I think is pretty damn awesome! (You can read the full article here)
Tips on Choosing a Great theme
1. Searching for a blog theme is really easy, one of the ways I do this is by thinking of what type of theme I want my blog to be like, it could be a food blog, travel blog, fashion blog or whatever. Then in my search query I simply type the following keywords “Food + WordPress Themes” etc.
2. If you are buying a Premium Theme find a reputable seller like Theme Forest to ensure you get the best quality, care support and competitive pricing.
3. When choosing a theme, the first three (3) things I look for are ratings, reviews and the number of sales.
I generally only buy themes that have a rating of 4.0 or higher and positive reviews.
Also when you are looking at the ratings, make sure it was reviewed by more than one person. I generally look for themes who have at least 7 or more reviews.
In terms of the sales numbers, I use this as an indicator of how popular it is. Generally a popular theme means it is of high quality.
In terms of reviews, you should read all the negatives reviews, sometimes a theme can be rated high in its early days but as it gets older it might become outdated and becomes a problem.
4. In today’s world your theme must also be responsively designed. Ok this is kind of a technical term! Basically this means the theme must look good, users are able to read and navigate easily on various devices like your phone, tablet or computer.
If you check out my blog on any of your devices, it should look pretty good. In general, if a theme is responsive, the developer will mention this in the description.
5. Always check for when it was created and last updated. The reason that I do this is because you want to ensure that you have the latest theme, it is up to date and compatiable with the latest WordPress version. Otherwise this may cause issues when you install the theme.
Try to look for themes that are less than 12 months old.
6. Lastly find something that you like. Something that represents you and something that you will feel proud to share with the world.
11 Awesome Blog WordPress Themes
1. Impose
Impose is a beautifully designed fully responsive wordpress theme. It comes with 10+ different blog layouts.
2. Josephine
Josephine is an elegant lifestyle blog theme. It is visually stunning and comes with five (5) different variation. It has a built in portfolio allowing you to showcase your works.
3. Grateful
The Grateful is a responsive fashion blog theme. It supports the ability of unlimited colours and up to 500+ typography
4. Broden
The Broden is an excellent lifestyle magazine blog theme. It is retina ready and is fully responsive.
5. Lamadone
Lamadone is a theme designed for lifestyle bloggers.
6. Avocet
Avocet is a responsive multi-purpose theme where it can be used as a lifestyle, food, travel or fashion blog.
7. Hipsteria
Hipsteria is an elegant fashion lifestyle responsive theme. It is designed to be simple and minimalist.
8. Maverick
Maverick is a versatile and powerful multi-purpose blog theme.
9. Solstice
Solstice is a beautiful responsive and multi-purpose blog and magazine theme.
10. Street Style
Street Style is a stunning fashion lifestyle theme.
11. Hemlock
Hemlock is a theme designed for the creative at heart.
How to install a WordPress Theme
The first thing you need to do is to download the theme and save it onto your computer, it should be in the format of a zip file. (themename.zip)
You have three (3) options available to you
1. Wordpress
2. FTP
3. Professional
1. Installing WordPress Theme via WordPress
a. Login to WordPress
b. Navigate to the menu item Appearance->Themes
c. Click on Add New Theme
d. Click on the Upload Theme Button. Find where your theme file is and upload. This might take a bit of time as the file can be quite large.
f. Click on the Activate button
2. Installing WordPress Theme via FTP
To install your theme you will need a ftp client like Filezilla (free) and a FTP account which you can create on your hosting account.
a. Extract the theme zip file. Please ensure that you preserve the directory structure. Don’t change anything.
b. Using your ftp client, access your hosting account (web server) and go to the following directory. wp-content/themes provided by WordPress
c. Upload all the Theme files
d. Login into WordPress and Navigate to the menu Appearance->Themes where you should see your theme.
e. Click on the activate button.
3. Professional
The last option is to get a professional IT Guy/Girl to install it for you.
Let me know if you require any assistant with installing your theme and be happy to help you.
The only thing I ask for in return is a simple word of thanks or if you want to do more, like me on my Facebook Page or you can shout me a coffee.
I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial on How to Choose a WordPress Theme and How to Install a WordPress Theme. If you have any questions please leave a comment below.