Having Difficulties Choosing a Theme from WordPress?

Not sure what theme would work best and what options they have? Should you pick a responsive theme or not? What one would fit with your plans and look professional?

Are these some of the questions running through your head as you’re trying to choose from one of their free themes? I know it’s something I had trouble with as a newbie to building websites. I wasted a ridiculously long time trying to figure out which one to choose.

Yes, I’m guilty….

Now that I’ve been doing this for awhile I’ve learned a little bit about what to look for when choosing a theme from the thousands of WordPress themes.

One thing I’d like to mention first is to keep in mind what you’d like your site to look like.  It’s easier to pick something that at least looks close to what you’d like it to look like before you get too far into it. Of course, you can always change your theme over quite easily, but there’s always those irritating little adjustments and tweaks you’ll most likely have to make once you do switch.

I’ve done that before…well, actually I’m in the process of switching my first site to a new theme. I should have done it a long time ago, but I didn’t. Now, I’m regretting it. There’s a lot of freaking tweaking I’ll be doing still on it since I have a lot of content, codes, images, etc. that won’t look right once I switch.

Oh well… live and learn. The next time I’m not thrilled with the way a theme is looking compared to what I want it to look like, I’ll be changing themes ASAP!

Anyways, here’s what I’ve been doing now when choosing a new theme….

What to Look for in a WordPress Theme

• Design – is it designed mainly for bloggers, news, business, art, photos, etc.
• Columns- how many does it support
• Sidebar Widgets
• Footer Widgets
• Layout – responsive, fixed, or fluid
• Customizable Header, Logo, Background, Accent Colors
• Reviews (if any)
• Downloads – how many times the theme has been downloaded by others
• Preview – check this out to see what it basically looks like
• Last updated
• Support – is there a lot of issues? Are many of them resolved or not?

Of course, you don’t have to use or check all of these…

Like I mentioned before, you can always change your theme if you find you don’t like it. This is just something I like to do to find a theme that will work out better for what I have in mind for the type of site I want to build.

One thing that has helped me a lot in figuring out how to do things with my WordPress themes is using a test site. By using a test site, which is running the same theme as my main site, I can try out new themes, plugins, etc without worrying I’m going to break my website or lose any of the hard work I’ve spent countless hours working on already.

Now, How do I Go About Having a Test Site, You Wonder?

Well, I’ve heard you can use a subdomain of your site  as a test site, but I’ve never done that before. At least not yet, anyways. In fact, I’m not sure whether you’d need to purchase a domain in order to have a subdomain or not to be honest.

But, anyways….here’s what I do.

I use is the free website builder from Siterubix.com to start a test site. Afterwards, I’m able to pick out one of the free WordPress themes right there. It’s very simple to use and you can have your site up in no time. Hosting is provided at no charge through Wealthy Affiliate, for up to two of these Siterubix websites for Starter members.

Plus, they’ll give you the guidance and training you need to be successful, which is one of the reasons why they’re my #1 Recommendation.

Have any suggestions on great WordPress themes? Is there one you’d recommend? Let me know in the comment box below…I’d love to hear what YOU think! And, if you have any questions, please let me know. I’ll be happy to help you out!

Best wishes in your success! 🙂 -Sherry