Wordpress Theme Selection Help

[Ward7m]

Hello All,
This forum looks wonderful! First post for me.

I am starting a blog that will have affiliate links in the text and on content pages that readers may go to.

Can you offer suggestions on selecting a theme relative to:

- recommended sites that offer WP themes
- the theme being SEO ready/friendly
- number of columns
- if it is widget ready (not sure what this means-?)
- any other pitfalls / things to avoid for a newbie selecting a theme

Thank you in advance for any thoughts/suggestions you may have.

Ward

[7 Days Ron]

Although it is not free (but reasonable0, the Thesis theme sounds like it wouild fit your needs. I bought the version last week that lets one use it on unlimited sites. I've not had much chance to play with it but from what I have done it looks like an easy theme to use, especially if you do not know much about WP.

It is SEO ready/friendly, you can change from 1, 2 or 3 columns. Widget ready.
Thesis Theme for WordPress ? Solving the fundamental problems of Website development and design

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Ward, welcome to 5 Star.

Here are some themes that are supposed to be SEO optimized.

48 SEO WordPress Themes And Why You Should Use One


Some more SEO themes. Best Search Engine Optimized (SEO) WordPress Themes

Widgets make it easier for newbies to add features and rearrange things.

Number of columns really just depends on how you want to lay it out.
Most use right column layouts as it's better for SEO.

[freexml]

There are tons of plugins, for free, to help you make a site be SEO ready/friendly

[Ward7m]

Linda - thank you for the warm welcome and suggestions.

Ron - thank you for the Thesis suggestion; it looks like a great Theme and community.

I have narrowed it down to Thesis and StudioPress.

My next question is whether I should install and set it up myself (have no experience in doing so and no programming knowledge) OR to pay someone to set the site up for me?

On one hand, I am eager to learn, on the other, I am eager to get the site up, start blogging, and ideally earning some money. (If you do a Wordpress Themes search on elance, the first person that comes up has many good reviews on theme installs and appears affordable.)

Any thoughts?

[Linda Buquet]

If you can afford to I would pay someone to do it right and so you can get busy on the content and marketing. You can learn as you go about the techy stuff but I'd rather be up in a day with the optimum set up instead of trying to do it myself.

Thesis and StudioPress probably offer installation too and then you'll get someone that knows that
exact set up.

Best of luck!