The last couple of weeks, I have thinking of searching for a new theme for my blog. Turns out, it is harder than I would have imagined, to find a new theme that still looks like a blog. 90% of what I looked at, and I mean there were a lot of them, looked more like businesses with huge introductory pictures as the first thing on the blog. I like a picture along the top, it gives a flavor of the blog your visiting. I just don’t like the in your face, full screen pictures that look more like wallpaper.
The only good ones you find now, are limited versions
They were either too plain, or too full of gadgets. It seems the only good ones you find now, are limited versions having to purchase the upgrade to get the nice things. I’m used to this trend though. Like forums, when I started there were probably 100+ free themes that had nice features, then the realization of making money for themes took over, and now you’re lucky to find 1-5 free themes on the forum support site.
I like a few features, like being able to change the color to better suit your blog subject. Maybe the ability to adjust the text size, so those with poorer eyesight have an easier time reading.
Generate curiosity for the older posts.
I have found one that I am going to try. It is standard, but it has a nice feature for the top or bottom. While I am not a fan of the large sliding images on business sites, this one caught my eye as being small and can be adjusted to randomly select past posts. Some visitors may be more prone to click on one that comes up in the slider which looks interesting. You can set the time interval, so it stays long enough to generate curiosity for the older posts.
So for the next few days, if you visit here, you may see something come and go from time to time as I adjust it. If you have things that you like, items you use that work for you, feel free to share them with everyone. I’m always looking for improvements to help visitors.
Comments always welcome,
Always good to have a change of theme, and a spruce up of the blog, Ron. I settled on my latest theme some time ago now, and think I will be sticking with it for a long time yet. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
Thanks, Pete. I used my first theme about 6 years, changed to this one about 1-2 years ago. If I don’t find a better one that suits me, I’ll return to this one.
I spent some time researching new themes last week. I didn’t find WP to be user-friendly when trying to find one with specific items (like a header picture). I’m using 2011 and I like it but I’d like to update. Nothing I tried last week suited me so now I am checking out themes used by bloggers I follow. I pay to be ad-free but I don’t need to pay for a theme.
I agree, I loved 2011 for about 6 years, can’t remember why I changed. I have located one, and will switch to it later today. It is the free version, has a top section to share pictures like you have. I think the random pictures can be interesting. I’m not going to pay $50 for a theme just for a few more bells and whistles, that is just me. Only if it was truly exceptional and it would serve me for years would I consider paying for the pro version.
I tested this free version of it (Graphene), and liked the comment layout, I think it has the text color and size adjustment to it. Along with the top picture area, and a couple of other things. I hope you can find the one you like.
By the way, this theme is “Catch Box”
It took me forever to find a theme I liked after hours of pouring over them and trying them out. I’m still not overly pleased. It’s hard to find the perfect one. Wish I could create my own, but my patience level is very low. 🙂
I love the layout of your site. I have thought about using that type of layout at times. A few years ago you could spend hours still, trying to decide on one, now they are so similar, you spend hours trying to find a free one, with good features.
Great to see that smile.
This was particularly interesting to me, Ron, since my daughter (kpresner.com) works for the parent company of WordPress.com, called Automattic (the founder/CEO’s name is Matt, so two t’s, get it? ;-)), and she’s called a “Theme Whisperer.” I kid you not, that is her job title. She does online tech support, helping people with their theme problems. Her overall title is “Happiness Engineer” – the title they give to tech support people! She helped me a *lot* when I first started – almost 4 years ago, can’t believe it! The only thing I might want to change in my theme is to make all the text appear darker. Although my boyfriend/partner likes it as is, so I’m still undecided…
Good afternoon, Ellie. That is great having someone that know how to actually work on Themes. I’m sure she will darken your text when you’re ready. I used to play around with the code on the 2011 Theme. I learned how to add date and time to each post by myself. However, I could never wrap my head around the “child theme” method, so every time they updated the theme, It would erase my new code.have to go back in and paste my code. If I had used the child theme method, it would have stayed. It’s great that she is a speaker for WordPress, I know you are very proud. I really like that title she has.
Good for you, re your code play! 🙂 I know what you mean re redoing it every time. Kathryn taught me a neat little code for making sure my captions under my pics stay centred. I go into HTML in the editor, and right after the width number (of the caption) I type: class=”capcen” – works every time – I was delighted to learn that! But I have to do it every time. (I’m referring to photos I might use within my post.) She’s an expert on child themes but I think maybe it’s too hard for me to grasp. Maybe later! Lol. I’m super proud of her, yup!
I just looked at her site, found a section on working with child themes. Stepping through the slides, I finally grasped how it;s done. That broke a 7 years stalemate I had with working with child themes. Looks like I will be experimenting sometime soon. Tell her thanks so much.
Wow!!! Will tell her; she’ll be delighted!!
Hi Ron, I’m so glad you found my slides about child themes useful! In case you haven’t seen it, I also have a hands-on child theming workshop that you can feel free to go through if you like. I find the best way to learn child theming is by actually making one.
Child themes are fun and powerful and I hope you enjoy creating one as much as I enjoy teaching them!
Thank you, Kathryn. I will certainly check that out. I’m looking forward to trying my hand with one.
Thanks for dropping in and commenting.