Shopping Cart & Ecommerce Tutorials
ecommerce 2.0
Winter 2007 Case Study 5: Pick the right theme
Author: admin24 Apr
tip for WordPress newbies participating in this project - all themes are not created equal. Realizing that from the beginning will save you a lot of frustration. Choosing the wrong WordPress theme can be very limiting (and time-consuming) for a WordPress beginner.
I’ve helped out several new bloggers who ran into trouble because the WordPress themes they selected wouldn’t accommodate their monetization goals without some major tweaks. One of the biggest mistakes made by new Wordpress users is believing that switching themes just alters the way your blog looks. In actuality, a theme combines visual and functional components.
Don’t choose a theme just because you think it’s pretty - instead, look for the features and functionality that will best serve your needs. No matter what theme you choose, you can always swap out the header image or play around with the color scheme.
Off the top of my head, here are a few questions to consider when selecting a theme:
1. Does the sidebar appear on every page or just the main index page?
2. Will the theme accommodate ad units in multiple areas? Is the content area wide enough for a 468px banner or can it be widened without having to alter background images in Photoshop?
3. Does it have separate “main index” and “single post” templates that can be manipulated independently?
4. Does the architecture of the theme fit your needs? Are you happy with the number of sidebars and how they are positioned?
Obviously with a little time and effort, any of these things can be customized, but choosing the right theme will speed things up so you can focus on content and marketing.
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- VON: Good post Jerxs. Putting it
- yoink: I have a system that
- yoink*: Thanks for the help ...
- teqodont: i will take the whole
2 Responses for "Winter 2007 Case Study 5: Pick the right theme"
I have a system that works pretty decent now, but im going to join in anyway, for two reasons, one im always open to learn something new and im sure some things will be addressed that I could do to increase revenue and two to hopefully help the total newb out.
Im going to start from step one and post my progress straight through, ill use basically the same system I have been using to generate websites. The site I will be using is going to be a site I had planned on developing soon anyway.
The niche im going to be using is a very compeditive niche, but the site will try to hit many sub niches within the main niche. The niche or main keyword im going to try to hit on is Loans….
I just started designing the basic layout of the theme in PS, but before I opened any program I put to paper a draft of the site…… So here is what I have on paper….
1. The niche, “The overall topic/subject of the site
2. The navigation “sub niches or topics within the niche I chose, in this case I chose 6 main categories…. Auto Loans, Mortgage Loans, Business Loans, Refinance Loans (which might be changed, because this could also be categorized under “mortgage loans”), Personal Loans and Bad Credit Loans. I may end up adding another category or two
3. The basic graphic layout of the site, I normally stick to the basics 800w, 1027w, but will be making the content area of this site 900px wide. Ive decided to use a 3 column layout, one column will be 310px wide, another will be 170px wide, the third will be 400px wide. As someone had mentioned before you need to plan not only for content, but for ad space, the 310px column will give me a column to place standard 300×250 banner ads and will also accommodate a 250×250 if need be. It will also allow a 5px margin on each side of the 300px ad. I may also be using this column to ad some sort of link box to pages within the site. The 170px column will hold a 160px w ad and some more links to other areas within the site. the 400px w column will be used to contain the most recent posts made, and may also contain a centered 336px ad…….
4. Ive also constructed a list of about 30 post topics
5. Also on paper, Ive listed some of the features id like the site to have, one of which will be a review section for lender services, I like the idea of user generated reviews, I built one review site about a month and a half ago that is now getting close to 1000 uniques per day, with almost no work, all organic, I also have two others one that I started putting together this week and another that is a few weeks old that dont seem to be going as good. I think overall people like to voice their opinions on different products and services, so it should be a good side feature to produce some user generated content. With WordPress there really are no limits to features, there are plugins for almost everything, from videos and other media, to reviews, to photo galleries, the skys the limit and the best part is you dont have to be a rocket scientist to implement them and most are also free.
6. Some other things I put to paper were, SEO plans, what CMS if any would best fit, in this case its wordpress, do I want a static front page, in this case no, I want to include most recent articles/posts on the front page and so on.
So these are some of the things I put to paper before starting the design. I think this step is a very important one, no matter how detailed it will give you a chance to sit down organize some of your thoughts and most importantly you will be laying out the framework of your site, giving it some direction.
Ive started the design and will post some screen shots of what I have so far, Ill probably be in PS for the next day or two, only because I am also working on other projects and cant dedicate 100% of my time..
Good post Jerxs. Putting it down on paper will prove to be very helpful. Once everyone gets there sites setup…I’ll post some of my fav plugins for Wordpress (for those that will be running it) that will help out with SEO, Monetization, etc.
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