MB Challenge: Set Up Your blog
Hey everyone, welcome back to the MonkeyBlogger Challenge!
We’re going to be talking about Creating your Blog over the next week or so. Now, I won’t go huge into depth about actually installing and setting up Wordpress, which is what we’re going to use, because Wordpress.org has many guides to installing and setting up Wordpress.
Instead, we’re going to talk about theme, plugins, and SEO.
Today and tomorrow we’re going to focus on theme choice. Today We’ll talk about what to look for in a theme, how to customize it, and also what customizations you should and should not do. Tomorrow we’ll talk about my theme choice and customizations for www.techsmack.net. as well as list some great recommended free and premium themes as well as pros and cons of both, which should help you to make up your mind when it comes to choosing a theme and modifying it. Later on in the week, we’ll go over plugins and SEO, so stick around for those too.
Theme Choice
Theme choice is something that most every blogger struggles with when starting a blog. Many don’t know whether to go premium, or scourge for a free theme, heck, even getting a custom theme made. But when it comes to themes, what should you look for?
Originality
When I visit a blog, it’s theme is the first thing I really take a look at. To be honest, I’m quite sick of everyone using the same theme over and over. If I see another blog with the John Cow theme, I just might kill myself. Not that the John Cow theme isn’t great, (it quite certainly is) but at the same time, it gets old. When I see everyone using it, it gets a bit annoying. I’m sure you feel the same way.
It’s when I see a theme that’s totally off the wall, crazy, clean, and fast loading that I continue onto read the blog. That’s how much your theme can influence your blogs success. Some blogs that stand out in my mind as having kick butt themes are http://webdesignerwall.com and also http://problogger.net.
Both of those blogs have totally different styles, one is cartoony, grungy, and totally out there, and the other is more of a CMS style, clean, nice contrast. What does this show? That Wordpresss can be told to do a lot. 
Both of these blogs grabbed my attention from their awesome themes, so that should speak for something.
Originality can also be coupled with branding. When you have an original theme, people know you by it. And when they see something similar, they think of your site. That’s always a good thing.
Simplicity
Now, even though themes that go over the top, (like Web Designer Wall) can sometimes help make a blog stand out, you need to think of the general trend in most cases. What is the trend nowadays?
Simplicity. Everyone loves the simple, clean, dare I say…sexy themes.
Problogger’s theme is a good example of this. Complex layout, yet seems so simple. Why? No fancy gradients, images, or effects, just clean colors and boxes. People love this. Why? Because it just makes the reading experience better. Of course, you can go on the other side, and make a crazy theme, that could work, but in a lot of cases, it backfires and becomes too much, too over the top, and too cluttered.
Easy to Customize
Especially when using free themes, they should be able to be customized fairly easily. Why? Helps you switch colors, add a logo, and change things here and there to make it your own. This is how you can take a widely used theme and still make it original. I look for themes that have clear layouts, easy to read CSS, and simple code that I can modify as needed. You should do the same. This can help you to brand your theme and your blog. 
Next let’s talk a bit about how to customize your themes, or rather, what to change, if anything.
What to customize in a theme
A lot of bloggers get lost and/or carried away when it comes to customizations, changing every little thing, and this can result in a messy theme, messy code, slower loading, and possibly even broken pages.
So what should a blogger customize in their theme, and what should they leave alone? Let’s start with what you can and should change.
Logo
Don’t leave the standard logo or banner up there. Change it up, add your own. How? Little thing called Photoshop, make something up. If you don’t have Photoshop, or Photoshop skills , you can email me from the Contact page and we can get working on a logo for you. When you have a nice, clean logo, people notice it, and people may even come back because of it. Look at my blog, that header with the awesome (if I do say so myself) banner and mascot really set me apart from other blogs, and it will do the same for you.
Color Schemes
This is yet another thing you can and should change in a blog theme. When I visit a blog, even if it is using the same theme other blogs are using, as long as it has a totally different, clean, nice color scheme, I’ll keep reading. You’d be surprised how much colors can change a theme. It can make a theme look cleaner, more open, even cause an illusion that the theme is different in some other way from the standard one, even though it’s not. This means less work and more results for you. Always good. 
Now let’s go over a few things you should leave the heck alone.
General Layout
If you are going to go as far as totally changing the layout of a theme to customize it, just have a custom theme! If you move things around too much, you can break your theme, make it load slower, have messy code, and just not look as good as it should. This can really impair growth on a blog as no one wants to get confused just trying to navigate your theme. If you really want something a certain way, then invest in a custom theme, it’s the only way to be honest with you. The best way at least.
Functionality
Unless you really know both Wordpress and the theme your using like the back of your hand, don’t mess with the functionality of the theme. This also can and most likely will break your theme. Again, if you really want to mess with something that much, just make yourself a custom theme, or get one done. If you need help with that, just contact me.
Well, that’s going to be it for today, tomorrow we’ll talk about my theme choice and customizations for this challenge, as well as list some free and premium themes that I recommend and pros and cons of each! And please, don’t hesitate to leave your comments and opinions in the comments, I want to get everyone involved.
