Choosing a theme for your blog
Look far into the future when choosing a theme for your blog
Choosing a theme for your blog is not an easy task. Your theme has to be just right. It needs to have the correct column sizes, font scheme, color pallet and other visual elements to suite your tastes. Your theme should please you first. After all — you will be the one most often staring at it.
But aside from choosing a theme that pleases you personally, you should also look far into the future and consider the following before making a final decision on a blog theme.
- What kind of advertisements will my blog have? If you plan on placing AdSense advertisements on your blog, you should make sure to designate space for them. AdSense ads come in standard sizes so your theme should be able to accommodate them. If you plan on using private image banner ads, you should consider what the industry standards are and choose your theme accordingly.
- Will there be other contributors to my blog? Some blog themes are designed for networks of bloggers or ‘group blogs’. Sometimes these themes are premium (not free) but the investment can oftentimes be worth it.
- What kind of audience demographic is my blog targeted at? If you blog is about hospice care, you should probably choose a theme with large fonts because your audience will most likely be elderly folk. The younger the targeted demographic, the more your theme should be based on graphics.
- How well grounded am I in web design? Some blog themes come with easy control panels where you can change color schemes, margins, widths and other design elements with the click of a button. Other themes will require that you have an understanding of HTML/CSS if you would like to alter them.
Of course you will always be able to change the theme of your blog if you are using a blogging platform like WordPress or TypePad. That change, however, will be more difficult the further it is developed. That is why you should make the correct theme choice the first time.
This is part of an article series called blogging 101.
