Mapping out a new blog: Choosing a great theme and some killer plugins

Hundreds of blogs are made everyday. There are the bloggers who take time to prepare a blog by doing things like planning out a marketing strategy, writing posts for the future, and finding all plugins. Then there are bloggers who do not take those important steps. A successful blog will take more than 5 minutes of planning. Whether it be 5 hours, 5 weeks, or 5 months. 5 minutes just won’t cut it.

Finding the theme for your blog

It’s boring to use the default WordPress theme on your blog. The theme kind of sucks in my eyes after seeing it so much, and I am certainly not the only person who thinks that. You have to find a theme for your blog, whether it be custom or premade.

Finding the best premade theme for your blog

A premade theme is a theme made by another that is either released free, or for a fee. It is more common to see a premade theme then a custom theme IMO, because many new bloggers either don’t have the experience, money or knowledge to get a customized theme.

Great free premade themes

• WordPress.org themes
• Themes from Design Disease
• Smashing Magazine’s list of 100 excellent WordPress themes
• SkinPress WordPress themes

The one downside to having a premade themes is it won’t be unique to you. Other will be allowed to use the theme, so in that aspect it doesn’t make your blog 100% unique.

Finding yourself a custom WordPress theme

A custom theme is unique to your blog, and you will be the only person to have it. You can get custom themes through freelancers, or you can do it yourself for free.

Great places for a custom theme

• Freelance designer James McDonald from Flockey.com makes amazing web designs, and he has been designing a lot of blogs recently. I believe he is still running his Christmas Special where he is offering WordPress design for $200. Check him out.
• Unique Blog Designs is an extremely popular blog design company that have done many blog designs. They have worked for people like John Chow, ShoeMoney, and so many more. They do a great job, and if you’re getting really serious about your blog, then you can’t go wrong with UBD.
• Design the theme yourself with no CSS/HTML/PHP knowledge needed. I found this really cool WordPress Theme Generator. It has a lot of great features with a live preview, so when you change something it will show you what the changes look like. It is limited in some ways of what it can do, but at least you can say you made your theme!
• Kolakube will design a theme. Tsk tsk for shameless self promotion, but I do offer custom WordPress themes from the Services page.

Fitting the right plugins into your blog

Plugins are made to alter your blog. Whether it is adding new features to it, or increasing the user interactivity of your blog, plugins are a must have for any blog.

I believe that there are two kinds of categories in plugins. The first category are plugins with relation to your blog. For example, if you ran an educational blog, it would be smart to find plugins that have relation to whatever subject you talk about.

Then there is the second category, and that is the plugins that every blog must have. Plugins that help your SEO, or improve post structures, and so much more. These plugins are found on tons of blogs all throughout the blogosphere, and are used effectively to help you become a better blogger.

Category 1: Plugins with relation to your blog

There just too many blog niche’s to make a list of plugins for, so I have compiled a short list for you on how to find plugins related to your niche.

• Check out what other bloggers use in your niche. While there is a fine line between copying and getting inspiration, there are always a few popular plugins within every niche.
• Browse through the WordPress.org Plugins directory. Just go through some pages and look at all of the plugins. Look farther than the description of the plugin, how can you use that specific plugin to do something unique and different?
• Just because the plugin says it does one thing, doesn’t mean it has to do just one thing. If you can think of an idea to use a plugin for more than what it says, implement it in the best way possible. If you need to edit the code, try paying an experienced programmer to do so for you. If you need a few other plugins to do it, then get those plugins. The plugin system WordPress has is limitless, and there’s really nothing you can’t do!

Category 2: Plugins every blog must have

Besides having plugins with relation to your niche, there are plugins you must have in order to create a better blog. Whether those plugins are for SEO purposes, or just make the blog more user friendly, they are absolutely needed. Out of those plugins, there are 7 in particular you should have. You have probably seen most of these before.

• Akismet Anti-Spam System. Protects your blog from spam. This is the best spam plugin around, and the only one you will ever need.
• WP Super Cache. Speeds up your blog. Some say it can make your blog Digg proof, and the plugin even claims it. I always wondered if it were really true.
• Google XML Sitemap Generator. Creates a sitemap of your entire blog. A must have SEO plugin, has many options and is explained well so even the most inexperienced user can use it with ease.
• WP-DB-Backup. Backups the database whenever you want, you can get backups sent to your email if you want.
• FeedBurner FeedSmith. Redirects all users to your FeedBurner RSS Feed so you can get a more accurate number of subscriptions.
• Platinum SEO Pack. An SEO plugin that does everything All In One SEO does, but has even more options.
• WordPress Automatic Upgrade. Automatically updates your WordPress version. This is on the list because so many people complain about upgrading too often. This cuts the time it takes to upgrade in half.

Final Thoughts & Wrap Up

So to briefly go over the post, themes and plugins are necessary for your blog. There are many ways to get them both, and many ways to customize them. If you run a blog without either of them, then you won’t have a successful blog. The design is there to make your site appeal to users, and to display your content in an organized way. Then there are plugins, and their purpose is to add new features to your blog.

So how important do you think a good theme and plugins are? Let me know, I’d love to hear from you!