I witnessed the gross-est thing this afternoon. I saw a man spat out of his lorry window, but the mucous, or phlegm, or whatever, got stuck on the outside of the lorry door, and “the thing” was sliding down the door.. GROSS..
A couple of days ago, I asked you guys what were the “things” you looked for when choosing a blogging platform and I listed some of my criteria. And one of the reasons I chose WordPress was because of the HUGE amount of pretty themes which can be downloaded and installed for FREE. I love to browse the WordPress Theme Viewer because it has thousands of nice and not-so-nice themes and I can shortlist the themes by ticking the options on the left sidebar — 2 or 3 columns, white or black in colour, fixed or fluid width, widgetized or not, etc.
So how long does it take for you to decide whether or not you like a particular theme? Do you test run all themes and shortlist the prettier ones? It takes me only a GLANCE to tell whether or not I like a particular theme. If it doesn’t look pretty to me the moment I set my eyes on it, I’m on to the next one. But sometimes I’m such a pain when it comes to choosing a WordPress theme.
I’d prefer a 3-column theme. Both sidebars must go side-by-side, though I’m not fussy whether they’re on the left or right. The main column must not be too small. The sidebars must not be too narrow either. The font must be nice to MY eyes. The whole theme must only need minimum tweaking because I can’t spend a lot of time playing with it. Links in posts must be indicated in any way, because it makes things easier for people who are visually-impaired. And when hovered, the links must change in some ways — any way at all. Ouh, and I like colourful themes.
But one thing I’ve realized is that I’ve constantly fallen in love with themes that are orange-in-colour, but I’ve never used one. Maybe I should, one of these days :) You just watch out :D
So what are the things that you look for when selecting a WordPress theme? The RSS button must be VERY visible? It must contain at least 5 colours? Single column?
I wrote a page of
commonly-asked questions about the Blogathon, and most importantly, how you can sponsor me at The Giving Hands. And yesterday I wrote about a couple of ways in which you can sponsor me — whether you’re in Malaysia or not. Come on guys, it’s for a good cause! :)
Hmmm. Have tried both the 2-3 column styles. Currently with a 2-column style for less clutter.
Colors of course must appeal & fit what your niche or writing is about
Migrated from blogger to WP about 4 months back as wanted to concentrate more on writing & for less hassle-free maintenance/tweaking of appearance. (Well since blogger allowed more tweaking thus one gets a-tweaking. Heh ;)
As for a RSS button, it’s good to have at somewhere reasonably visible but not really that important
stev: I found a 3-column theme to accommodate my clutter instead of “controlling” it, hahhaha :D
I like a three column theme also I recently switched to having the two sidebars side by side. It takes only a glance to decide if I like something, but it’s taken me a while to settle on something I actually like. I still need to do some tweaking with my current theme, but basically it’s finished.
Opal: WOW.. We do have a lot in common, don’t we? :)
No doubt looks plays a very important part, but when a theme that is coded well with all the valid codes and well optimized for search engines, I will forgo the looks. No point looking good outside while the inside is no good right? :)
I am not sure about you guys but I love WordPress a lot, for its ease of use. However it does have a lot of limitation in terms of SEO compared to other softwares.
Although, pelf… Too much clutter lah even for your 3 columns. BTW, you optimizing for Adsense or what?
I generally look at how it’s going to fit my pictures, text, and minimise clutter. As it is I’m procastinating on migrating from WP.com to .org, as my bf and I both don’t quite have time to do so.
But I’ve shortlisted some themes and plugins that I want. Generally, I prefer two column themes to keep the clutter in control, and would probably create an extra page to see all the extensions I have.
Ah Pek: Definitely!! But since I’m not a developer, and neither am I someone who is familiar with SEO or what-nots, I’m doing whatever I can to make it look good on the outside! :) A good impression is half a battle won, right? :)
Daniel: Hhaha, I know about the clutter, I’m trying to revamp it now. And don’t worry about the Adsense ads, I’m actually considering removing them because they aren’t doing good, though I’m going to donate all my Adsense revenue..
Pat: I’d suggest you move over ASAP because there will be more work after the moving and all, so the longer you put it off, the longer it will take you to do the post-moving stuff.. The themes and plugins, for example, they all need some trouble-shooting and/or tweaking :)
And yes, there is a plugin that enables you to list all the plugins that you use in a page. I think Edrei is using it. It’s automatic, and you don’t have to manually change it if you happened to deactivate a plugin :)
I go for looks then functionality in that order. Yes I’m superficial LOL… But a theme must look good right? Else what’s the point? And I prefer ones with larger fonts or darker fonts coz they are easier to read and I like 3 column themes because they organize better. I think your present theme looks nice. The links are easy to identify which is a bonus. In some sites I don’t even know if there’s any link because the colours all blend in.
ParisB: Yeah, the links in the posts are highlighted because somebody mentioned that people with impaired vision cannot see the difference if the links are of a different colour. They need more obvious visual cues, so that was why I had my links dotted-underneath..