On Day 4 of the Booming Business of Blogging Experiment, I need to put my mark on this blog. That means selecting a theme, starting a theme from scratch or somewhere in the middle. Here are some of the points I took into consideration when choosing my theme.

Overall Design

One of the first things that you will probably look for in selecting a wordpress theme is the overall look and feel of the theme. Is it dark and moody, cool and sophisticated or fun and funky? Does the page layout suit my blog? I knew that this experiment meant I needed a theme that allowed the space for advertising and so I looked specifically at three column themes. Keep in mind that you can make changes (like colour or font style changes) to the theme if you have access to the code and so not everything needs to be absolutely just how you want it. The important thing to look at is the design layout and make sure you check this for all pages - archives, categories, single post, home page, search and comments.

Excellent Navigation

You will notice that many themes have the same elements in the same place on the page. For example, the list of categories in the sidebar, links to next post at the end of each post and links to pages in the header. This makes it easier for readers who will feel immediately comfortable with the layout of your blog. I know that I get frustrated when I can’t find a link to the Archives on a blog. It’s just something that I expect and when I can’t find it, or it takes me a long time to find it, then it detracts from my overall enjoyment of their site.

Cross Browser Compatibility

While the majority of readers of your blog will be using Internet Explorer (approximately 83%) it is important that your blog supports all popular browsers. The usage share of Firefox for example is increasing all the time. Make sure you check your blog in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera (at the least) to ensure all page types in your blog render well in each browser.

SEO Optimized

Search Engine Optimization is a broad subject on it’s own. But in short, a SEO friendly WordPress theme should have excellent search engine readability, must emphasize on content, pass HTML validation and should display post excerpts on archive and category pages.

Additional Features

Some themes have great features inbuilt, like the displaying of related, latest posts or recent comments in the sidebar. Such features will attract visitors to read more and stay longer on your blog. Look through many different themes (even those you don’t like the look of) to see what features are available. Also, if you’re a novice, you may need themes that allow you to change colour schemes and fonts easily via a preferences page rather than manually editing the code.

I chose the three column theme Redie 3.0 - a premium theme with lot of new features and 100% SEO friendly.  I’ve made quite a few tweaks here and there and I think it’s nearly just right.  Remember, whichever theme you choose, you will have to look at it for a long time - you will probably see it far more than anyone else - so at the end of the day it’s a decision that you have to be happy with, it’s not one that you can rush.