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WordPress in Plain English... themes part 1

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Services for Real Estate Pros with garaughty.com

marti garaughty, The Art of Marketing YOU

 Hi guys, and welcome back to the next part of the WordPress in Plain English series  For those of you who are just joining us, you should probably be following my Build a Better Blog series as well. The topics compliment each other and will fill in a lot of the gaps that cause so much of the confusion when setting up a blog either here on ActiveRain, WordPress, Posterous or just about any platform you can name.

 

marti garaughty, The Art of Marketing YOU

 Since I began the WordPress in Plain English series I've probably received more questions and inquiries about themes than anything else. I'm gong to break this topic down into several easy to digest parts answering most of the basic questions I've been asked like...

- what exactly is a theme?

- what themes cost, from free to $$$$$$$

- premium themes

- finding and installing themes

 

 Then we'll look at a few more advanced topics you might have heard about or at least should be aware and I'll be sharing some advice from my years in using and developing WordPress blogs including...

- which themes I recommend and use for my own projects and on client's sites/blogs

theme frameworks and child themes

- how I would create a custom looking blog if I only had $100 or less

 

marti garaughty, The Art of Marketing YOU

 Basically a theme is like clothing for your blog or website. The most visible parts of a theme are the colors and graphics. Beneath that is something called PHP files and CSS code that controls how your content is displayed in a browser i.e. sidebar placement, blog header size, etc...

 

example, the default WordPress theme Twenty Ten

marti garaughty, The Art of Marketing YOU

 

a highly customized version of Twenty Ten using custom graphics and CSS

marti garaughty, The Art of Marketing YOU

 

a work in progress, another customized theme built on top of Twenty Ten

marti garaughty, The Art of Marketing YOU

 

marti garaughty, The Art of Marketing YOU

 Like everything else in life you usually get what you pay for, themes are no different but as you'll see in the next few tutorials, you can create beautiful, professional looking themes without having to empty your bank account.

 If you're setting up a WordPress blog/site for the first time, you don't need a fully custom designed theme to start with. Most of us don't buy a $1,000,000 house as our first home or a Ferrari as our first car. It's the same with themes, you don't need the most expensive thing out there to get your WordPress blog off the ground.

 Prices for themes range from...

- free themes... there are literally thousand of free themes available for the WordPress platform

- premium themes... range in price from as little as $20 or $30 to hundreds of $$$

- custom themes... can range in price from a few hundred to thousands of $$$ depending on the complexity of the project, amount of custom graphics to be created, if content has to be moved from an existing blog or site, etc...

 

marti garaughty, The Art of Marketing YOU

 FYI, don't be misled by the word "premium", even tho most premium themes have features built in to make some general customizations easier, you still have to know how to use CSS and create custom graphics to really customize the look of your theme.

 Premium theme sellers don't usually point that out. That is why 90% of blogs using Thesis for example (a very popular premium theme) look more or less the same.

 So the reality is that if you're not a designer, premium themes can give you the ability to customize themes to a degree but... as you'll see in the next few tutorials, many free themes offer the same options as premium themes.

 In an upcoming tutorial I'll be showing you 3 of my favorite themes that have enough premium features for most users and don't cost a penny!

 If you're confused about anything or if you have any questions about this tutorial, just ask me in the comments.

 

marti garaughty, The Art of Marketing YOU

If you have additional topics you'd like to see covered or would like more information about custom graphics, themes or to book a 1 on 1 consultation to create or customize your WordPress or ActiveRain blogs, you can reach me here Later...

For more info about how we can help you stand out from the crowd, contact GiselleStCyr@garaughty.com

garaughty.com

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garaughty, abstract art, graphic design, WordPress consultant, branding, marketing

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Comments (56)

Tammie White, Broker
Franklin Homes Realty LLC - Franklin, TN
Franklin TN Homes for Sale

Marti, I am in the process right now of adding a new website. I'm anxious to get this theme info. I'm not tech savvy and really appreciate the "dumbing down" of this valuable information. Can't wait...

Nov 11, 2010 04:30 AM
marti garaughty
garaughty.com - Montreal, QC
a highly caffeinated creative type...

Chris... definitely, once set up it's super easy to update for the end user, that's why I also use WP now for standard sites not just blogs.

Tammie... totally my pleasure, it's not that difficult just a bit overwhelming at times with so many options.

 

Nov 11, 2010 04:30 AM
Sarah Rummage
Benchmark Realty LLC, Nashville TN 615.516.5233 - Nashville, TN
Love Being Realtor® in the Nashville TN Area!

Thanks for the good information.  Seems to be that WordPress can be as elaborate and complicated, or as simple as you want it.  Just like regular websites.  There is a lot to learn about it.

Nov 11, 2010 04:39 AM
Lawrence "Larry" & Sheila Agranoff. Cell: 631-805-4400
The Top Team @ Charles Rutenberg Realty 255 Executive Dr, Plainview NY 11803 - Plainview, NY
Long Island Condo and Home Specialists

This is great info, but what are we missing. Can't understand how Twenty Ten becomes feng shui manhattan or your garaughty? Thanks so much for your help.

Nov 11, 2010 05:56 AM
marti garaughty
garaughty.com - Montreal, QC
a highly caffeinated creative type...

Saran and John... exactly and from a usability, tech and design point of view, I prefer simple for so many reasons.

Larry and Sheila... those are 2 examples of "child themes" built on the Twenty Ten(parent theme) framework. I'll be talking more about that in themes part 2 or 3.

Nov 11, 2010 06:13 AM
Melissa Zavala
Broadpoint Properties - Escondido, CA
Broker, Escondido Real Estate, San Diego County

Marty: It does seem that lots of people really like Thesis. That's what I use for all my stuff because I hired someone who recommended it, but I never understood why.

Nov 11, 2010 06:55 AM
marti garaughty
garaughty.com - Montreal, QC
a highly caffeinated creative type...

Melissa... Thesis is a great theme, I've used it on a few projects myself but unless you're a designer, it's not something that the average user can easily customize themselves. That is why so many Thesis based blogs look the same or have 1/2 of their sidebar disappearing on the right side of the screen.

 There was a lot of hype about Thesis for awhile re "SEO". The reality is that most SEO rankings come from content and back links, not a theme. There are no magic beans.

 The brilliance of Thesis was how it was marketed thru A list bloggers i.e. Chris Brogan. Now Chris is pushing Genesis and in a few months it will probably be something else. Nothing wrong with that but Thesis is just another decent theme framework.

Nov 11, 2010 07:29 AM
Robert Hammerstein
Christie's International Real Estate - Hillsdale, NJ
Bergen County NJ Real Estate

Marti - looking forward to the great mystery of what 3 themes you think are the best... I saw Bills post awhile back where he told everyone which one he thought was the best and the cost... I guess I'm cheap....lol

Nov 11, 2010 09:07 AM
marti garaughty
garaughty.com - Montreal, QC
a highly caffeinated creative type...

Robert... hi there, actually my 3 recommendations have nothing to do with price but everything to do with usability. This series is for WordPress beginners not designers so I'm trying to keep things simple. ;-)  As I mentioned a few times in the comments, Thesis is great but not the best choice for non-designers.

Nov 11, 2010 09:20 AM
Donough Forde
Only Way Realty - Mauldin, SC

Thanks for the info,

In your estimation is it better to go to a service like Realty Soft and get an all in one website/idx solution/hosting package or is it better to find a host, make your own wordpress site and hook up with idx broker or some similar company?

I'll hang up and take your answer off the air.

p.s. If you are kind enough to answer this question, I will reward you with a gift card to Starbucks, or some other appropriate bribe of your choice, because after reading online for about 12 hours have reached an impasse with myself! I need a smart cookie to push me one way or the other.

Nov 11, 2010 05:17 PM
marti garaughty
garaughty.com - Montreal, QC
a highly caffeinated creative type...

Donough... hi, actually that's the 2nd time I've received that question this week. ;-) I can't comment on specific vendors but here is my general advice.

 Getting "married" to anyone's proprietray platform can make it difficult to move your site/blog if you ever need/want to. Which is why it's usually a better idea to use an open platform like WordPress installed on your own webhost.

 Also there are literally thousands of WordPress designers and consultants available if/when you need help and since it's an open platform, it's much easier to move your site/blog if you ever want to change webhosts.

 

Nov 12, 2010 04:33 AM
Teresa Cooper
Home Solution Real Estate Services - North Charleston, SC
SC Lowcountry - Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley

Love Wordpress -- use it for my personal blog.  Also am experimenting with the new Netfirms Realtor® website template - also Wordpress.

Nov 12, 2010 05:18 PM
marti garaughty
garaughty.com - Montreal, QC
a highly caffeinated creative type...

Teresa... same here, I'm converting all of my sites over to WP, static html sites now feel like a relic from another era.

Nov 12, 2010 05:37 PM
Lisa Broadwater
Cascade Sotheby's International Realty - Sisters, OR
GRI, CDPE - Bend, Sisters, Tumalo, Redmond

Marti -- I've been tinkering with my WP site (www.SistersOregonHomes.com) since a friend helped me set it up this spring. Tried once to change themes and averted total disaster by what I'm sure is a very narrow margin. So I'm thrilled to have discovered your series. Too bad it wasn't ready BEFORE I spent 100 hours pondering which theme to try next (I had to abandon the two I selected -- way too advanced for me). Thanks again for sharing your expertise. It's greatly appreciated.

Nov 13, 2010 11:43 AM
marti garaughty
garaughty.com - Montreal, QC
a highly caffeinated creative type...

Lisa... I'm glad you found this series too, better late than never. ;-)  A lot of people start off with themes that are too advanced, that's why I usually recommend a well designed, well optimized theme like Twenty Ten (the new WordPress default theme) to begin with.

 With some slight customization like you see in this post, it looks great and has all the features most people need. A blog's success ultimately comes from quality, on target content and building an audience, not the technology itself.

Nov 14, 2010 01:44 AM
Robert Schwabe
Herron Real Estate - Orange Park, FL
Orange Park Real Estate

Marti - Great post! I can't wait to see what are your 3 favorite themes.

Nov 14, 2010 08:53 AM
marti garaughty
garaughty.com - Montreal, QC
a highly caffeinated creative type...

Robert... hi there, the themes I normally work with and design on will probably be my next post. ;-)

Nov 14, 2010 10:01 AM
suzanne welch
Coldwell Banker - Croton on Hudson, NY

plugging along...loving this....still waiting on my transfer but have a temp url....pysched! thanks!

Dec 22, 2010 01:05 AM
marti garaughty
garaughty.com - Montreal, QC
a highly caffeinated creative type...

Suzanne... cool. psyched as well. ;-)

Dec 22, 2010 05:00 AM
Karen Fiddler, Broker/Owner
Karen Parsons-Fiddler, Broker 949-510-2395 - Mission Viejo, CA
Orange County & Lake Arrowhead, CA (949)510-2395

Interesting! Thanks for the post, I'm working on a new site and need all the info I can get. 

Mar 05, 2016 07:33 AM