*sigh* Another newb...(me)

Find a theme which relates to your idea. Once that theme is found, do you like the look of it, if yes, great buy it and upload it. If no, pick from the other million themes out there. Great thing about wordpress is, if you get it wrong the first time, it takes 2 mins to upload a new theme, about 2 hours tinkering with it to get it just right and your sorted . Bite the bullet, take action, mess around with the design once you know it works.

Pretty much, yes. Somme of the more advanced themes do have extra options, such as being able to insert your google analytics or adsense code. Some of them have build in widgets for social media or popular posts.

You can achieve all that with plugins, it will take a little more time, but can easily be done. It's how I started.

I'd say getting in there gives you a chance to learn, so definitely do that.

To get the ball rolling I'd grab one you like and start tinkering. It's better to have a live site that's a work-in-progress than to have nothing and look around unable to settle on an idea.

I'm a function over style guy. So I like things easy to navigate and find my way around. I think 4 years using my University's site made me much more like that too :p You can't get anywhere easily on college websites... but I digress...

Find something you like and use it. Get something online and go from there.

Hi Shonny,

My recommendation would be to use a free theme and focus on getting up some good content....

And then worry about how it looks later.....the best looking and most expensive premium theme is worthless if no one ever sees it.

If you bog yourself down too much with how it looks and the technical stuff, you might burn out too quickly and work yourself to death over things that don't really matter.

When I first started out, I spent WAY too much time worrying about how my site looked and what theme to use....when I should have been focusing on my content.

That's just my perspective.......

Good Luck with your campaign.

Find one that fits your niche.

If this true, you need to move faster, just make quick discussions and get on with things.

Ya listen the truth is you're going to get 'stuck' on so many little obstacles like choosing a theme. The trick to succeeding online is making fast decisions and overcoming obstacles quickly. Speed of implementation is key!

So ya man just choose a theme that you think looks nice, tinker with it a little, and then start putting together your business. No need to spend too much time on the theme because it's better to have your website out there and functional even if it isn't the most visually pleasing...

Simply find one that you like and start taking action. This is a huge mistake MANY people make - too much learning and not enough action

Also when stick to one method when you start out. Jumping from one method to another is just asking for failure.

Honestly, everybody here has covered it quite nicely - what I do is search for "keyword wordpress theme" - so for example: pregnancy wordpress theme - then click in IMAGES

Ill open up ones I like in different tabs, review them, see if I can view a full preview of how the theme looks - and of course make sure it's free!

From there, just download and install and you're good to go!

Don't spend too much time worry about "The right theme" - just find one you LIKE, download it and get busy - if you find another one you like LATER you can always change to it or even switch between them.

Good luck

Yes... bite the bullet, grab one, and start tinkering. Experience is the best teacher. Focus on getting your blog traffic and making it successful, then maybe modify the look of your blog if you want (or need) to.

I like the paid version of flexibility 3.0 you could start off with the free version and have a play around with it before deciding to purchase. There's a good set of tutorials to watch and it is pretty intuitive.

Thanks to everyone who responded. I chose the aggregate wisdom and began tinkering. Because my content would require a couple different sites and unique presentations, I opted to try Elegent themes, because they'd give me some different option at a reasonable price, and have some rather gaudy presentations which may prove appropriate. In a worst case scenario, I'm out a relatively small sum of money, but have the opportunity to learn the bells and whistles of operating the Wordpress platform.

I'm excited to have joined the Warrior forum, and grateful for the outpouring of support. I look forward to sharing my experience as it progresses, and appreciate knowing there are so many of you out there willing to share your wisdom.

Pick a free theme that suits the type of site you plan to make (blog, affiliate, membership eyc) and just focus on the best content.

Your content will prove to be the most important thing for now. Themes can be changed.

Hey Shonny!

Hope you are good. A lot of excellent information here and its great your learning word press and tinkering. There are some great plug-ins you can get for word press which are free and can find useful. You can use when starting out

>Akismet -Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam.
>Contact Form 7 -
>Really Simple CAPTCHA >Google Analytics -Enables Google Analytics on all pages.
>Pretty Link Lite- Shrink, track and share any URL on the Internet from your WordPress website!
>WP Security Scan -Perform security scan of WordPress installation
>XML Sitemaps -Automatically generates XML Sitemaps for your site and notifies search engines when they're updated.

Also submit your site to DMOZ, Get your site indexed. Can be deemed important.

But also you can always look at other websites you like, even in the same niche, the ones that are doing well (Authority sites) And grasp ideas.

You can also leverage your time if you so wish to use platforms such as odesk/elance (Outsource the work- Not as costly as one may expect) and having the the work outsourced. Have a website developer do the website all for you and exactly what you want. So you can leverage your time and concentrate on the more important aspects of your business .i.e content

But its always great to get used to word press and try it out and learn the various skills.

However , best of luck in the world of IM

Samuel

Just pick a theme that looks and feels right for what you want to do. If it is a blog site I suggest that your content is more important than the theme. If you are not sure what theme to pick, pick one of the plainer themes and if necessary change it later. Wordpress themes are so easy to change.

One of the hardest things with Wordpress is picking the theme and then knowing how many columns you want. Look at some of the sites in your niche and see if you can find a similar theme. It does not have to be perfect but after 6 months it is time to start.