Well, I’m officially a blogger now!  What an adventure it’s already been!  The learning curve is steep, especially for someone like me who had no previous skills in this area at all.  I know there are lots of other people starting blogs, and I’d love to compare notes, get ideas, and learn from the folks actually in the new-blog (and old-blog) trenches.

So in this section of Mantel and Table, I’ll share that journey.

I hope you comment a lot and let me know your challenges and successes as well!

 

Things I Didn’t Know

One of the major things I wish I’d known more about before I started, was what makes a theme really unique! Why choose one over another?

I was reading that all the themes were “Fully Customizable” and you could change just about anything on them, so I didn’t really understand why there would even be different ones!

Now before you roll your eyes too much, let me say that I actually consider myself reasonably intelligent. I just don’t have an innate feel for technical things like a lot of people do. (But ask me again next year – I feel like I’m learning so much so fast that anything’s possible!)

 

My Theme

Let me say right off that I love my theme! I love the way it looks now, and it works exactly the way I want it to.

 

There were several reasons that I chose my theme – Market by Restored 316:

Several of my favorite blogs used it

I wanted Mantel and Table to look and function a certain way. So I checked out a lot of blogs and found the ones that looked &/or acted the way I wanted mine to do. Then I looked down at the bottom of the page, or read the blog owner’s explanations.  I kept running into this company, and this particular theme over and over. That’s a pretty good recommendation. So I looked more closely.

 

I liked the company website

The Restored 316 site had lots of information for new bloggers, which was really helpful for me.  I learned a whole lot before I ever bought anything! 

There’s a “Just Starting?” category on their top menu, and just seeing it there made me feel understood somehow!  There were lots of detailed instructions for installing the theme.  Those were particularly useful. Plus it’s a really pretty site.  That was reassuring too!

 

Customer Service is great!

After I bought it, I realized that I hadn’t understood what was actually involved in customizing my theme the way I wanted it!

Restored 316 does have excellent tutorials about how to do lots of these things.  But several of them involve changing code. This is really no problem for most people, but as I mentioned, I am seriously technically challenged. Me getting inside the nuts and bolts of my site was NOT a good idea.

So I contacted Restored 316 and told them what I wanted. My tech was great! She made several of my changes for free, and walked me through several others that I could do myself. She also somehow understood what the heck I was trying to explain.

So I bought a half hour of her time and she took care of the rest. She was fast and thorough – things I really appreciate!

 

TWO MAJOR THINGS I’VE LEARNED ABOUT THEMES

So the whole deal with different themes? They’re already set up to act and look a certain way!

You CAN change them. But if you’re like me and really just want to get going without messing around with code, you’d be wise to choose one that already has the elements you want.  If you want to plug and play, here are two things to keep in mind.

Fonts

For instance, the main thing I wanted changed was the fonts.  See – that’s the part I didn’t get the most.

The FONTS are a major component of the theme you choose!  It’s not a cinch to change them for someone with no technical ability.

Layout

Also the layout. If you don’t want to touch the code, there are often only a few different layout choices per theme.

(Some themes have more layout options than others.) That might be a problem if you had something different in mind.

So make sure the theme you buy already has the layout you want now, and what you think you might want in the future.

There are lots of other things to consider when you’re choosing a theme, but those were the two that really slowed me down.

 

Other Functionality to Care About

A theme has to do a lot more than just look good!  You need to consider all kinds of things about the functional side of your website.

I did find lots of great information on the web about that part of things. Just Google “How to choose a WordPress theme,” and you’ll get a ton of info.

 

What Theme Would Be Best for You?

Restored 316 has this fun and informative quiz you can take to help you decide.  See what you think!

 

 

How did you choose – or are you choosing – your theme?

Leave a comment!  I’d love to know what challenges you have and how you’re getting along!

 

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