105: Choosing a theme

Now that you’ve installed Wordpress it’s time to do the fun stuff – tweaking, configuration and content. I recommend that you start by researching themes and selecting one.

Hold on, you might be thinking. Why start with a theme? Surely the content – deciding what I should show and just getting it out there – is much more important?

No, not when it comes to most photo sites built with Wordpress. See, every theme functions differently – if you add content for one theme it might not display like you want to in another. Plus, after the potentially tedious (and boring) task of installing Wordpress, a photographer usually need to tinker with things he or she finds fun – like the site visuals.

I’ll guide you through the most important decisions you need to handle below. As you make them, please keep your overall photographic goals in mind and make sure your decisions help you reach them.

You’ve got three options when it comes to getting a theme for your Wordpress site:

• Finding a free theme
• Purchasing a premium theme
• Hiring someone to create or modify a theme for you

There are some excellent free themes out there, but the quality is generally lower than those you pay for. Premium themes are almost always of great quality, and you often receive great support too. Paying to have a theme designed and built is the most costly, but it really gives you something tailored to your needs if you find a good webbie.

Free themes are plentiful in the wordpress.org theme directory. For premium photography themes you definitely want to try WooThemes or Graph Paper Press.

The two key factors you should consider

There are only two critical factors that you absolutely have to consider when you’re choosing a theme for your new photo site. Many Wordpress theme creators disagree with me here, but the fact is that essentially all themes can be altered to fix most small things – sometimes even as easily as installing a plugin. No, these are the two points that will cost you the most time and money to change later on:

1. Looks and
2. Workflow.

That said, many small things quickly add up. If you go with a theme that is horribly made in almost every other way, it’s needless to say that you’ll have to pay for it later. Google is your friend, as are theme reviews like the ones I write.

Deciding on a look

When you’re deciding on a look you need to factor in two things. The first and easiest is that you have to like the theme – if you don’t you’re setting yourself up to disliking your website, which will hurt you and your intentions in the long run.

The second is less tangible. You need to find a theme that your target demographic will like. Look back at the answers you gave yourself when you evaluated your website need – what is your goal with this site? How can design help you achieve that? Do you think it’s a coincidence most wedding photographers’ sites are white?

As you figure this out, please try to avoid the following pitfalls. They’re very common and might set you back at first (I know, I’ve done them):

• Going only with your gut feeling – Your gut feeling is surprisingly often wrong. Trust it, but test it by asking a member of your intended audience. (The case is different, of course, if you are your target audience.)
• Listening overly much to the wrong people – I’ll put it bluntly. Your mother, partner, friend or dog might know you very well. They might even have a good eye for web design. But that doesn’t mean they are right. Listen to what they have to say, but value the voice of your target audience higher.

Working with the theme

Each theme behaves a bit differently from the rest. When it comes to internal workflow – how you as an administrator use your site – you’ll primarily notice this in how the theme adds pictures to your post. I’ve seen themes select which photograph to display by…

1. Using the last/first uploaded picture into a post gallery
2. Taking the first picture you’ve added into your body text and moving it
3. Checking a custom field for a URL
4. Doing nothing special and relying on you to handle presentation through the body field

Some themes even does combinations of these (if no URL is present in the custom field then use the picture last uploaded to the media gallery for example. It’s a common one.)

No way is better than the other. It’s just important to know that there are differences, and if you decide to switch themes later on it could be troublesome unless your new theme uses the same internal workflow as your old one.

Some workflows are faster (upload to media gallery) while some give you more control of presentation (using the body text) and others lets you use external URLs easier (custom fields). Different workflows are suitable for different sites. Photoblogs typically require faster workflow while portfolios require more presentational control, for instance.

External workflow is perhaps better referred to as usability. It deals with how easy it is for your users to navigate your site. Wordpress already have a set of navigational tools built-in, but examine how your theme use them. Take note of how well the theme supports:

1. Categories – Wordpress built-in category system.
2. Tags – Keywords assigned to each post.
3. Search – Wordpress has a built-in search feature – is it used?
4. Chronological archives – Being a blogging software, Wordpress easily sort posts based on when they’re published.

A good test is to publish ten dummy posts in different categories and using different tags. Ask someone who is in your target audience to browse the site while you are there. This way you’ll get a glimpse of the experience you’re creating for your audience.

Installing the theme you’ve chosen

Once you’ve selected a theme it’s just a matter of installing it. I’ve written a guide to installing themes step by step so you’ll get past that small hurdle as well. Don’t worry, it’s not difficult. When that’s done – congratulations! You’ve just made a huge step towards getting your professional photo site together.

Others on selecting themes

• Theme repositories – For free themes, try the wordpress.org theme repository. For quality premium themes with great support, WooThemes and Graph Paper Press are good bets.
• Theme reviews – The themes section on this site ain’t too shabby of course. bestwpthemes.com usually picks out the creme of the crop, and together with themegrade.com’s technical analysis you’ll get a feeling for how well made a theme is. There are also countless top lists out there, but they’re not always well motivated. If you find a theme you like I recommend doing various Google searches to see what others are saying – you usually find good thoughts in forums and small personal blogs.
• Lorelle on Wordpress: How do you choose a Wordpress theme? – Lorelle has an old but still relevant breakdown on how younger persons choose their Wordpress themes. There are good thoughts in there.
• 10+1 tips for choosing a Wordpress theme – Daily Blog Tips discuss choosing a theme from a business perspective.