The theme of your WordPress blog is crucially important to your blogs success, as it showcases your work and in doing so, enhances it. As there are thousands upon thousands of themes out there, how do you chose the right theme for your blog?

This article is about choosing the right theme for your blog, and is written from the perspective that you do not know how to build a theme of your own, which is fair enough as most bloggers do not.

So what are the options?
In essence you have two options, you can either find a free theme and adopt it, which is what I have done, or you can buy a premium theme. The themes in Wpthemesplugins.com, have good examples of both. You can also change or upgrade your themes via the themes option under the heading appearance, which is normally located on the left hand side of the dashboard.

Choosing the right theme is not about choosing ones you like the look of, but more ones that help create a mood. So if your theme is one for a jazz music, you may feel the theme should give an air of being in a jazz club, or a record parlour. A cookery site may want to give an image of an industrious kitchen, or an elegant restaurant.

My site, which is a site that is primarily about my work as a freelance writer, ( www.teahon.co.uk ) uses the Lightword theme. This was a free theme, and I liked it because it gave an image of reading into the night time, as the charcoal color scheme reminds me of the night. The theme has gathered many plaudits, and I get constant enquiries about where I obtained it, mainly from other writers.

The point I am trying to make is that the theme is about creating an atmosphere, which will make your blog more authentic, and make it more enjoyable for your readers who are the important people.

All WordPress themes are customizable, and this is one of the beauties of the platform. There are hundreds upon hundreds of plugins to enhance your blog, many of which are free to use, though making a donation or at least a link to the site that created it is polite. The ones I have on my blog, and ones I would recommend are:

Platinum SEO pack- Everything you could want to make your blog search engine ready. Be sure to read all the options carefully.

Google XML Sitemaps- Makes an XML sitemap of your blog which can then be accessed by Google’s webmaster application. This helps your blog from an SEO perspective.

WP captcha – This is a must have plugin which is quite simply the work of genius. It auto detects whether the commentator is human or bot, and if it’s the latter, asks them to enter the code to post on the site. All works on timing and is quite simply, brilliant.

Google Analyticator – This plugin allows your blog pages to be read by Google Analytics, so you can get an accurate picture of what posts and pages are the most popular.

There are many other plugins to choose from, and many specific to certain kinds of blogs, such as music.

Upgrading, or uploading?

When upgrading your theme or version of WordPress, remember that should they may not be compatible with one another, which can lead to disaster, and you will have to delete the theme off your web domain server to get access to the dashboard.

Also, when installing a plugin, make sure that the ones you choose are compatible with your WordPress version.

Above all, have fun, and don’t be afraid to experiment.

WordPress themes and web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a concept that arguably does not exist. Despite this somewhat inconvenient fact, WordPress with its customisable themes, embody what is in essence web 2.0.

Over at www.dreamtemplate.com, there is an article in its blog section called “Web 2.0 and web design”, in which it explores the design concepts behind Web 2.0. This is well worth a read. If you think about WordPress, it has become the embodiment of web 2.0. Therefore when you are customising or choosing a WordPress theme, by looking at web 2.0 design concepts, could help you get the most out of your WordPress theme.

Social networking on WordPress is arguably better than facebook from an industry and interest perspective, as it has tighter scope to connect people in similar industries and interests. This is most noticeable on adding posts to discussion blogs and discussion forums. In fact this element which is also a major feature on myspace.com, has become one of the benefits of blogging, from an SEO perspective. It is no secret that the number of inbound and outbound links a site has, pushes your WordPress blog up the rankings on search engines such as Google.

The customisable WordPress theme is another outstanding development in web 2.0. The creative element to this has led to a new industry of creative themes being developed and sold on for cash. This website makes money from doing this, as do hundreds of others.

Another significant step WordPress themes and web 2.0 has brought about is indeed the blog. Everyone has a say now through their blog. Many say this is a long time in coming and is only doing what the web was, and should have been doing years ago. They are probably right, but nonetheless, now that it is here, everyone has a blog. It is strange to think that nobody used the word blog until a few years ago in this way. Now the concept of “Joe Bloggs”, to mean the man or woman in the street, has faded away.

Perhaps what was not so foreseen was the money a good blog can generate both directly, and indirectly. If SEO’d, they can be great traffic pullers. This is why nearly every company has a blog for that very reason. The other fact is that everyone likes an interesting blog, and so these kind of blogs attract people. This in turn leads to advertising revenue being generated, which lets face it, is always nice for the recipient of it.

As blogs can feature video streaming, WordPress themes and web 2.0 can notch this up as a success. The video blog is becoming more popular and more useful. A demonstration can speak a thousand words.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with web 2.0, here is a definition of it, as stated on wikipedia.com.

“Web 2.0″ refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.”

In fact Wikipedia can be said to be a product of Web 2.0.

Whether or not web 2.0 really exists there can be no doubt that WordPress, and its customization capabilities, have embodied every idea and concept behind web 2.0. If you look at the definition shown in Wikipedia, nearly everyone aspect of web 2.0 is in WordPress to some degree.

If you use these concepts in your WordPress theme and web 2.0 design, you could well come up with something a little bit special.

Choosing the right WordPress theme is something that most bloggers consider much before their blogs are even put up. With the increasing popularity of WordPress themes, there is a vast variety of choices from different authors to choose from. This would be dependent on various factors like how much time and effort can be spent on customizing it to fit your individual needs. Price constraints and your knowledge would also contribute in deciding the right theme.

If you are using CSS style sheets and codes, you would already have a template set up with your desired design and colors. However if you are new to blogging and don’t understand the codes that drive images and designs, it would be best to use one of the themes that have already been set up. These could be free or premium themes. The following are some guidelines to think about when you are choosing the right WordPress theme for your blog.

Price – If you have price constraints, the best option for you are the free WordPress themes. These free themes only require you to leave a link to them in the footer. However premium themes don’t require you to do so. Most free themes are also not supported. Therefore if you are not comfortable hacking your own theme, it is best to invest in a premium theme which would be a supported theme. Finally the risk of sponsored links or malicious codes showing up is much lesser in premium themes.

Color and Design – Think over the images and write ups you are planning to put up on your blog. If you are writing about crafting or painting or such topics which require creativity it is best to use soft pastels with floral and other designs. If your blog is about technology and scientific research, use a bleak black and white color scheme.

Layout – The layout of the blog page should also be taken into consideration. Most WordPress templates have an option of including one or two columns in addition to the body of the posts, along with a header and footer. If you want something else, you will have to work on the code yourself or spend some time looking for a theme that is different and suitable for your needs. For the majority of applications, the simple two column layout works best.

Your Target Audience – Before choosing the right WordPress theme, it is also advisable to think over what kind of traffic would visit your blog and what would they like. The demographics of your target audience could help you in choosing the right theme. Make sure the theme would look just as great on a small screen as it would on a large one. Plus, all features of the blog would work with all browsers.

SEO Ready WordPress Themes – There are many WordPress theme templates that are available for hosted domains that are SEO ready. These are ideal for new bloggers who don’t have much knowledge and information in this area. These SEO ready themes may come with nifty widgets and plug-ins which are just a click away from becoming visible to visitors. SEO friendly themes are usually the easiest to monetize and are often created with the necessary options and space to add links and banners.

Getting started with blogging with the help of a WordPress theme can be reasonably easy and swift if you choose the right theme. There are many choices obtainable but it would take some time and research to find the right one for your needs. However important the theme is, one must know that it does not hold the content. Changing the theme would only change the way in which the information is displayed. It is advisable to choose a simple and decent theme for blogging in the beginning. As your knowledge grows, change the theme as and when it is required. This is all key to choosing the right WordPress theme.