Basic Tips on Choosing a Blog (Wordpress) Theme

Recently, I decided to revamp my blog in preparation for the launching of my online Christian gift store and I find that before I even do anything with regards to the logo, product design etc, just choosing a blog theme requires much thought!

For a start, there were a few things I was not too pleased with my old blog:
1. 2 column instead of 3-column - with a relatively long lists of blog roll, the links in the blog roll get listed in a 2 column theme til it requires scrolling beyond the contents displayed on the page. That I felt is user unfriendly.

2. Page navigation located at the top of the page rather than at bottom of page - Again, it is quite troublesome for people to read finish the entire page of say 5 blog posts, want to read further and find themselves having to scroll all the way back to the top of page for older entries

3. No sub-page displayed on the page menu - although I have not created any sub page, I foresee requiring to do so as I will be incorporating a shopping cart into my blog (and have no idea how to do it now, will share with all when I get to that).

Thus, I ventured to a techie territory that I have not been before - installing a new blog theme; I went to wordpress.org and selected Atahualpa theme. This theme is good because:
1. 3 column instead of 2
2. Page navigation at the bottom of the page, although it can only show as 'older entries'/'newer entries', instead of page number
3. Sub page allowed on page menu bar
4. White background, with flexible customization for hyperlink, side bar, header and logo areas and many other sections of a post, such as the header, byline (section after header that usually state the date of post), footer (section after post that usually says how many comments so far)

Naturally, what works for my blog does not necessarily mean it will work for you; the main thing that I like to share, especially with women like me is that there is nothing scary with choosing a blog theme. Just go to wordpress.org, filter the list of free themes by key words such as number of columns, white or other color background, available plug-in and preview the theme before installing. All your original posts will still be there even if you installed the theme and chooses to go with another one later :)

I'll share more on the available customization available in a separate article, in the meantime, have fun choosing the right blog theme for your site!