Setting up WordPress in your own website is quick and easy. It is even easier if your web hosting provider offers a quick installation of WordPress from their web host control panel since it usually comes with some nice themes to choose from. Even if there are no themes available, the default template for WordPress 3 looks fresh and nice, but may not be the theme to use if your blog is for business purposes or if you want to make an impact on your readers. To solve this dilemma, you can either choose to download free themes or pay up to enjoy some premium WordPress themes. Before making a decision, it is better to compare them head on.
Design and Functional Quality
If a designer is asking money for a WordPress theme, you can already conclude that it offers something more or different than the standard WordPress theme being offered for free. It usually means that the designer spent a significant amount of time perfecting the visuals and layouts of the theme or made sure that the theme allows more functionality than the ones derived from the default theme.
If you take a look at the online stores that sell premium WordPress themes, you may get the idea on why this particular theme could be worth the money. Many premium WordPress themes target people that manage business blogs since they know that these webmasters need a professional design to make profits.
Support Quality
Good theme designers make sure that the theme fully works in all of the latest browsers before releasing it to the public. There are instances where users can run into problems especially if their blogs have numerous extensions and add-ons. Those that design WordPress themes for free may not have the time or resources to tend to those situations although there could be some exceptions. However, premium theme designers are more likely to be more accommodating to these issues so that they can send a subtle message to the customers that paying for the theme includes free dedicated support as well.
Abundance
Free WordPress themes are a lot more abundant than the premium ones. In fact, the WordPress website features dozens of themes available for those that cannot host their own WordPress site. This makes searching for free themes quite useful as there may be a chance where you can encounter a nice theme with a free download attached to it.
Overall Value
Your decision in picking a free or premium WordPress theme depends on your comparison between quality and quantity. Fortunately, just about all designers offering free or premium WordPress themes have a screenshot of the theme so they can visualize how their website will be if the theme is applied.
Premium themes are priced differently as well so you really need to take some time in choosing a commercial WordPress theme. Your choice won’t be disappointing at all if you look at the premium theme at all angles. It is unlikely for a free alternative to surface since premium themes usually take longer to make and require a lot of skill.
So you have hunted high and low and found the perfect WordPress theme. Now you need to know how to install WordPress theme or it will just be a pretty file collecting dust on your hard drive.
Installing a WordPress theme is not as complicated as many people think it is. The thing that tends to confuse people is that there are two different methods you can use when trying to figure out how to install WordPress theme.
Manually install WordPress theme
First I will go over how to install WordPress theme manually to help you get familiar with the WordPress structure.
- To install a WordPress theme manually you will need to download the theme, which I am assuming you have done by now.
- You will also need to unzip the WordPress theme to a folder on your hard drive (try not to forget where you put it).
- Now you will need to fire up your FTP program and FTP to your site.
- At this point you will want to navigate to the themes folder by going to the ‘wp-content’ folder and then the ‘themes’ folder.
- Once you are in the themes folder on your web site, you will want to navigate to the theme you unzipped on your hard drive (you did remember where you put it, didn’t you?).
- You will then need to upload the theme on your hard drive (folder and all) to the themes folder on your web site.
- After your all FTP’d out you will want to go back to your browser and log into your WordPress blog on your site.
- You will then go to the ‘Appearance’ option on the left side menu and select the ‘Themes’ option.
- At this point you should be able to see your theme listed as an option. If not then you probably uploaded it as a folder within a folder and will need to double check it.
- You should now be able to preview and then activate your theme by selecting the appropriate options listed under your theme.
Automatically install WordPress theme
If you are lazy like me you will want to let WordPress do all the work for you. So now we will learn how to install WordPress theme by letting WordPress get down and dirty.
- To put WordPress to work you will need to first log into your blog.
- You will navigate to the ‘Appearance’ option on the left side of the menu.
- Next you are going to click on the ‘Themes’ option located under the ‘Appearance’ tab.
- Once you are under the ‘Themes’ section, you will see ‘Manage Themes’ at the top of the page. Next to the ‘Manage Themes’ tab you will see the ‘Install Themes’ tab which will probably be grayed out. You will want to click on the ‘Install Themes’ tab to make it the active tab.
Now you have a couple options here.
- Option one is that you don’t have a theme in mind yet and want to search for one. In this case you will select the options you are looking for and click Search. Once you have the results up on screen you can scroll through until you find one that you like and want to use. At this point it is only a matter of previewing the theme to make sure it is what you are looking for and if it is, then you can click Install and let WordPress do its magic.
- Option two assumes that you have already downloaded the theme you want to use. In this case you will want to select the Upload option that you will find available under the ‘Install Themes’ tab. Once you have selected the Upload option you will want to browse to the theme file you downloaded and select it. (Yes WordPress will even unzip the file for you. How’s that for service!)
Then it is just a matter of clicking ‘Install Now’ and let WordPress go to town.
I prefer to let WordPress do the dirty work and install the themes for me. But it is a good idea to get familiar with FTP’ing to your site and taking a look at how things are structured within WordPress. That way if you have to edit, alter or repair your WordPress theme you will know how to find your way around the WordPress world.
Once you know how to install WordPress theme you will wonder why it seemed like such a complicated task. You may even find yourself customizing and making your own WordPress themes.
