How to Pick a WordPress Theme That Doesn't Suck!

There are a lot of WordPress themes out there. Some are free; some are not. Some are chocked full of bells and whistles while others offer little to no additional features. But how do you know which one is right for you? This talk will answer that question and get you on the right track to finding the right theme for your business or blog and will teach you how to avoid some of the most common pitfalls you can encounter during the theme selection process.

Transcript

1. H OW TO PICK A WORDPRESS THEME THAT DOESN’T SUCK!
2. Web Developer @stacigh stacigh.com aworkofcarte.com Stacey Lane hello! Background Image Credit: The Pattern Library
3. Questions to ask yourself before embarking on your adventure Image Credit: Gratisography
4. Image Credit: Splitshire What is the purpose of my site? 1
5. What plugins do I need? 2 Image Credit: Gratisography
6. 4 simple questions for finding the right developer Image Credit: Flickr (rmlowe)
7. Are they active in the WordPress community? 1 Image Credit: Gratisography
8. How many themes are they juggling? 2 Image Credit: Flickr (crisscrosscircus)
9. Do they have a dedicated support forum? 3 Image Credit: Flickr (cimatti)
10. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons What is the average support response time? 4
11. 6 questions to ask during the theme selection process Image Credit: Flickr (kbedell)
12. Is the theme well- documented? 1 Image Credit: Flickr (kaushiknarasimhan)
13. Does the theme work on phones and tablets? 2 Image Credit: United Pixel Workers; Design by @owltastic
14. Does the theme work in modern browsers? 3 Image Credit: DeviantArt (shoze)
15. What do others think about the theme? 4 Image Credit: Flickr (krissen)
16. When was it last updated? 5 Image Credit: Pixabay
17. Is the price subscription based? 6 Image Credit: DeviantArt (mvmnl)
18. It’s a little thing I like to call… How do you make a choice between two or more themes that are virtually the same?
19. The Theme Suck Factor Image Credit: Flickr (ericbegin)
20. Negative answers are 10 points Neutral answers are 5 points Positive answers are 0 points Calculating the Theme Suck Factor The lower the score, the better!
21. Free Theme Suck Factor Visualizer! bit.ly/WPTSF
22. 4 questions to find the right developer: 1. Are they active in the WordPress Community? 2. How many themes are in their catalog? 3. Do they have a support forum? 4. What is the average response time on their support tickets? Recap
23. 6 questions to test the integrity of the theme: 1. Is it well-documented? 2. Does it work on mobile devices? 3. Does it work in all major browsers? 4. What do others think of the theme? 5. When was it last updated? 6. Is the price subscription-based? Recap
24. Questions!
25. @stacigh stacigh.com aworkofcarte.com ! Slides: bit.ly/WCSEA14 Background Image Credit: The Pattern Library Stacey Lane