Questions to ask yourself when choosing a template

Questions to ask yourself when choosing a template

by Ali Hussain · 27 comments

If you’re a novice blog­ger, feel­ing extremely over­whelmed by the num­ber of tem­plates avail­able on the Web, here is small lists of ques­tions to help out choose the appro­pri­ate tem­plate for your blog. While this it’s def­i­nitely not an exhaus­tive list and you may have some­thing dif­fer­ent in mind, should you feel need a place to start, this can help you define basic require­ments. Also, don’t make the obvi­ous tem­plate mis­takes like other new­bie blog­gers, try and stand out.

1. Do you want a theme-based lay­out?
With more and more lay­outs based on themes relat­ing to car­toons and films, it is absolutely up to you to choose whether or not you want them. If not, you can eas­ily elim­i­nate a lot of templates.

2. Do you want a two– or three-column lay­out?
Plenty of tem­plates with both type of avail­able, but know­ing how many columns you want and most impor­tantly, the place­ment of the columns (right– or left-aligned) will help you sift through tem­plates already.

3. What is your ideal font type and size?
You have to con­sider an opti­mum font size and type which is not impos­si­ble to read. Keep­ing the opti­mum size in mid will help you elim­i­nate more tem­plates. [Although the font size could be changed from the style.css]

4. What color scheme would you like for your blog?
Search­ing by colour on blog tem­plate web­sites can save you a lot of has­sle. How­ever, remem­ber to elim­i­nate tem­plates with a light-colored font on a light background.

Go to top

Article by Ali Hussain

Hi, i am Ali Hussain. A young 17-year old part webmaster, part webdesigner. I love blogging and sharing. I started Techuse for Internet Geeks all around the World Wide Web

From Planning to Earning

A free course that explains all you need to know about maintaining and building a powerful, money making blog.

Information is delivered through a beautiful web guide & a 10 day email course (+ a weekly newsletter). Sign up, or learn more!

Blog Income Report February 26, 2009 at 6:19 am

I think you’ve made a typo in point 3 :)
Otherwise this is sound advice, picking a theme can be tough, especially when the blog is important to you or is your main blog. I know I tried to pick a theme that met all my needs but am still having second thoughts about it, so anything like this to help is a real bonus.

Reply

Ali Hussain February 26, 2009 at 6:23 am

Oh! The f got replaced by a d :)
Thanks.

Picking a theme could be a hard job, but be sure not to make those obvious mistakes.

Reply

Dean Saliba February 26, 2009 at 8:42 am

When I’m picking a theme I try to use one that is not going to look like 100,000 other blogs out there and one that looks professional.

Those are my main two bullet points when looking for a theme.

Dean Saliba’s last blog post..Beware Of CEOAds

Reply

Alex February 26, 2009 at 8:04 pm

Like Ali said, there are tons of free themes out there for you to use. :) Picking a free theme can be really hard regardless of how many thousands of blogs are out there. It’s hard, because the one thing you want your blog to have is originality; a form of branding your blog on the internet. By using a free theme, it really takes away from that. That’s why, like you said, have to find one very uncommon to see on the internet.

Good luck finding a theme Dean. Let us know what you come up with. :)

Reply

Ali Hussain February 26, 2009 at 8:44 am

That is not a problem. Thousands of free themes have been released

Ali Hussain’s last blog post..25 Tips to Make Your Blog Work

Reply

Alex February 26, 2009 at 3:24 pm

A big thanks to Ali for guest posting. Short and sweet post, we appreciate it!

Reply

Ali Hussain February 26, 2009 at 3:27 pm

Your welcome. Wait for more from me

Ali Hussain’s last blog post..25 Tips to Make Your Blog Work

Reply

Evan February 26, 2009 at 4:42 pm

Good post! My question is, are there big differences between “premium” themes and the regular themes that you see on theme sites for blogs such as WP?

Reply

Ali Hussain February 27, 2009 at 1:11 am

Yes and No. It is all about uniqueness. Good Premium templates are hard to find, as most of them have a free alternative, in a way of free themes. Use the theme that is most unique in way.

Ali Hussain’s last blog post..25 Tips to Make Your Blog Work

Reply

Janith February 27, 2009 at 5:40 am

Firstly let me say; Thank you for your guest post here at Blogussion, Ali ~ hope we will see more of your work around here :)

The questions you’ve raised in this post are really simple and straight to the point, and even though some of them are dead-obvious people tend to overlook it (maybe ’cause it’s so obvious, that’s pretty ironic) It’s a great reminder, and well done on your behalf – hope to see more of it in the near future ;)

Also, this is a great-follow up post to my 8-Free WP Themes ;)

Thank You once again, Ali!

Reply

Ali Hussain February 27, 2009 at 5:46 am

Thankyou for the appreciation. I saw a lot of blog posts with these mistakes so i ought to post ‘em up

Ali Hussain’s last blog post..Why Guest Post?

Reply

Dennis Edell February 27, 2009 at 7:10 pm

Very timely, thanks! I’m about to start all sorts of work on 3 different blogs…new themes is in order.

Dennis Edell’s last blog post..February Link Review – Blog Review Winners – TC Contest March – Guest Posts Wanted – I’m Outa Here!

Reply

Alex February 28, 2009 at 8:34 am

Sounds like quite the project Dennis. :) Good luck starting them up.

Reply

Dennis Edell February 28, 2009 at 2:42 pm

A whole lotta work, yes. lol

These are the 3 that are already in play, although a 4th may be emerging as well. :)

Dennis Edell’s last blog post..February Link Review – Blog Review Winners – TC Contest March – Guest Posts Wanted – I’m Outa Here!

Reply

Ali Hussain February 28, 2009 at 5:29 am

Good Luck

Ali Hussain’s last blog post..How to write a guest post

Reply

p@r@noid February 28, 2009 at 6:15 am

Nice article…
This might help me to select the new template for my new blogs

p@r@noid’s last blog post..How to get an email address with @googlemail.com address

Reply

Ali Hussain February 28, 2009 at 9:40 am

Not Might, it WILL help you

Ali Hussain’s last blog post..How to write a guest post

Reply

WPThemeKid - Daniel March 5, 2009 at 2:19 am

Nice post Ali, I really do like this kinds of posts as they get you thinking and really are interesting to read. Personally, I pick whatever looks nice and fits into my niche, if it doesn’t – why use it?

My favorite themes would have to be 3 column magazine themes, the free ones of course ;)

WPThemeKid – Daniel’s last blog post..Create Cool 3D Text!

Reply

Janith March 6, 2009 at 7:35 pm

“If it doesn’t look nice, why use it?”

I think that sums up everything we need to know about theme-selecting! haha, well-said Dan.

Reply

Frank Carr March 7, 2009 at 9:00 pm

I usually modify existing themes to my needs or create a new one from a basic template. Since I currently have over 100 niche topic WordPress blogs in addition to my two flagship blogs I need a lot of variety in themes.

The most important thing I’ve found is understand how to adjust the theme to the type of visitor you expect. When you know who to expect you can tailor your design for them and your objectives for their visit, be it commenting and subscribing to your feed or clicking an Adsense ad.

Frank Carr’s last blog post..Earn Online Cash With WordPress: Info Magazine Themes

Reply

Alex March 7, 2009 at 10:41 pm

I can’t stand working off of other people’s code. The only theme I don’t mind working off of that isn’t mind is the Thesis framework – that has a brilliant back end to it.

Over 100 blogs? Hope you don’t run them all yourself!

Your niche has a big effect on your design, and having the skill to determine what needs to be done is invaluable. I’m talking to someone on MSN who runs a sports blog, but doesn’t feel like the graphics and style used on his blog would really pertain to an audience of a sports blog.

Thanks for the comment, you brought up some interesting ideas!

Reply

Frank Carr March 8, 2009 at 5:00 pm

Yes, I do run all 100 blogs. To be fair, most of them might more properly be termed mini-sites than full fledged blogs although WordPress is the content management system behind them. Their objective is to get visitors from search engines and convert this traffic to affiliate sales or Adsense clicks.

Frank Carr’s last blog post..Earn Online Cash With WordPress: Info Magazine Themes

Reply

Ali Hussain March 9, 2009 at 12:08 am

I thought they were called niche sites.
I do the same too ;)

Ali Hussain’s last blog post..What Is Blogger’s Block

Reply

aks December 14, 2009 at 6:27 pm

thanks for your tips and suggestion after a long time i read this type of article. thanks again.
aks´s last blog ..Real Estate Loan , Real Estate Loans

Reply

aks December 15, 2009 at 5:16 am

thank u for sharing. this one the interesting article which i read about theme and u gave all answer of 4 question. thanks again for this.
aks´s last blog ..Real Estate Loan , Real Estate Loans

Reply

Career Outlook August 14, 2010 at 7:13 pm

I never thought about that much before choosing a theme for my website. But, I think these suggestions are very practical and will save you from changing the themes again and again if we choose theme using your suggestions.
Career Outlook´s last blog ..Mechanical Engineer Career Outlook

Reply

Leave a Comment

CommentLuv Enabled

1 trackback