By nature, Wordpress themes are basically the same.  They have the same layout and are mostly interchangeable.  That being said, there are some important differences that you might want to think about.

I remember the first WordPress blog I installed.  It was so wonderful to see that it actually worked and that the themes could be changed so easily.  I downloaded quite a few so that I could keep changing them and figure out what I liked.  As I kept playing around with them, I realized that if a theme wasn’t widgetized, it really limited what I could do with it.  I know just enough HTML to get into the Theme Editor and find the area that often needs changing but have to find code to cut and paste or I am lost.  I had one really nice looking theme that I dropped because of it.  It just wasn’t worth the time it was going to take for me to figure out how to make it do what I wanted.

From a marketing perspective, I like to have the blog categories and recent posts available with room for advertising as well.  I settled on a three column format which works well because it maximizes important “above the fold” space.  “The next challenge is to keep it from looking cluttered.

I found two themes that are highly customizable.  I am using Atahualpa on my Outdoor Garden Statues blog.  I turned off the left column and added another on on the right.  Rather than make it look unbalanced, it gives more importance to my blog posts and looks cleaner.  My current challenge is to get some Adsense ads where I want them.  I’m working with the Advertising Manager Plugin to see if I can get it to work.  The other theme    I really like is Amazing Grace which is on my Cheap Living Today Blog.  I am considering putting it on this one because it is very clean looking.  If you want to try either one, go into your WordPress Dashboard and search for them on the add new themes page.

On my TO DO LIST is to take the dates off my blog posts.  If you think about it, you never search a blog for dates and if you don’t post all the time, they just make your blog look neglected.

One of the things that prompted this post is that I have been routinely adding the All In One SEO plugin to every blog I make.  I recently realized that Atahualpa is already SEO Optimized.  Since the important thing is to have a title, description, keywords, etc on each page, it doesn’t matter how it gets there.  It is redundant to add a plugin to do what the theme is already doing so I don’t need it.  I might be missing something but I have decided to turn the plugin off and use the built in capabilities of the theme itself.    So far, so good.

I have some thoughts to post in my Internet Notebook about forming a marketing plan that I can stick to.  With all the stuff hitting my email, there is a lot of confusion out there.  I need to simplify it and make a daily plan so that I know what I need to do daily.  After all, I just had another grandson born this week and two of them live in my house.  I don’t have time to start from scratch each day, but that is for another time.

If you have discovered ways to work with themes that make them a little more effective for you, why not share them in a comment?  This blog is an experiment in process.  We’ll keep what works and throw out what doesn’t.  I sure welcome your input.

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