Here is our new theme. Check everything carefully to see if it looks ok and the links work. Let me know what you see that needs to be fixed.

BTW - This theme was installed by following the instructions in this post.

The theme is called In Business and I found it here.

Has everyone had time to check out the problems you might encounter when installing a new theme? I’ll leave this theme up for another day to give you more time to see what I mean.

Let me emphasize that this will NOT be a problem if you are putting up a new blog and don’t have posts yet. However, if you do have posts and you change themes, check every post and make sure your links still work.

The new theme I’ll put up tomorrow will point out another problem but one that is easily fixed if you look for it.

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Who spotted the problem with the new theme? Remember that we switched from the default theme to a new theme after several posts were already here. This theme has a narrower center column for posting which is fine for text but notice the screenshot images. They are too big for this theme and are cut off.

We have two choices - fix the image size or pick a new theme. We’ll be picking a new theme so you can see how looking at the theme before it is installed can prevent some problems.

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It’s time to think about making your blog look good. Let’s explore other than the default theme. If you are hosting your blog at WordPress you have a limited number of themes to choose from. If you are hosting your WordPress blog on your host, your choices are nearly unlimited.

For hosting on WordPress just go to the Presentation section in the Dashboard and scroll down the page to see the themes available to you. Click on the one you like and it’s automatically now your default theme. You can see if you really like it by clicking View site.

If you are hosting your own WordPress blog it’s a bit more complicated but well worth it. You can spend hours looking at themes. Here are some sites to find themes:

• WordPress Codex
• WordPress Themes
• Kaushal Sheth Themes
• WordPress Featured Themes
• Themes at Wordpress

When you find a theme you like, click on download and put it on your desktop. It will be a zipped file. When the download finishes click on the downloaded folder on your desktop and look on th left side of the open Explorer window. You will see Extract All Files. Click that to unzip the files you downloaded. The extract utility will put the unzipped files in a folder with the same name but unzipped. Open that folder and see if there is a readme.txt file. If there is, click on it to open it to look for special install instructions.

If you don’t see special install instructions, use an FTP client to access your host web server, upload your theme directory to wp-content/themes directory on your server. After the upload is complete you should see your theme in wp-content/themes/yourthemename.

Login to your Admin Panel, click on Presentation and you should see your new theme as available. Click on it and it will say that it is now the default theme. Click on view site to see it in all its glory!

Next time we’ll go over the FTP client just in case some of you don’t know how to use it. Once it’s explained, it will be easy so don’t worry.

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By now you have no doubt seen the defualt theme that comes with your initial installation of WordPress. Here is a screen shot of it so you won’t forget.

This default theme has some options like changing the header color and font color. Notice the difference between the original pictured above and the colors I chose - at the top of the page.

This is a simple change to make. After you are logged in click on Presentation and then Header Image and Color.

When you click on Upper Color, Lower Color or Font Color, a color picker will pop up so you can simply click on the color you want. No hex color codes embedded into the HTML or anything complicated.

When you get it the way you think you want it, click on Save. If you don’t like what you picked, just click on Revert and it will be as it was before you started picking new colors.

This is a change to the default theme. Next time we will install a new theme. Until then - change your default theme as many times as you want. Have fun!

Just a reminder - take my survey and tell me what you’d like to see and learn here.

You have your domain name and it is ready. It’s time for hosting. I use and recommend ThirdSphere. It’s easy to use, it has Fantastico and CPanel, every extra you can think of including autoresponders and more, and the support is the best I’ve ever used. Of all the hosting companies I’ve used, ThirdSphere blows away the competition.

Here’s a quote from the front page of their site: “Design, develop, manage, automate and promote your own money-making website with a power-packed, amazingly simple, all-in-one web hosting solution!” Their statements are true!

Why is Fantastico important? It allows you to install WordPress with a few key strokes instead of downloading WordPress from the WordPress site, setting up your own MySQL database on your site, fiddling with the wp-config file trying to input your database name and your password, and uploading it to your site. I’ve done both and I wouldn’t be without Fantastico.

Check out ThirdSphere now. Next time we’ll talk about themes.

Today let’s talk about hosting your own WordPress blog. The first thing you need is a domain name. This isn’t as difficult as you might think. Your domain name should reflect the name of your business. Mine is WordPressGuru. Think of several that might work because your perfect name might already be taken. Get a .com domain. That’s what people look for on the internet. The lines have blurred a bit but .org used to mean a non-profit organization and .net usually means a company that uses the net for its business, like your ISP.

A good place to look for and then buy your domain name is 1and1

I like 1and1 for several reasons.

• It is very easy to follow the instructions to purchase your domain name.
• They are one of the most inexpensive around.
• They have an easy redirect function, which I’ll explain in a moment.
• And if you purchase a domain that you aren’t going to use right away, you can park it on Sedo at no charge. Sedo is a domain selling company. Who knows, one of your good domain names just might make you some money!

When you find a domain name that is available, you want to buy two versions of it. The ’scrunched’ version - like WordPressGuru.com, and the hyphenated version like Word-Press-Guru.com. You will only host one of them. The other will be redirected.

When you have purchased your domain names, you must wait until 1and1 has propogated them across the internet. Sometimes this is almost immediate and sometimes it takes 12 - 72 hours. You will know when this has happened because you will see the status change in your account. The domain is ready when you see the word ‘Ready’ in the status.

So - go to 1and1 right now and see if your perfect domain name is available!

We’ll talk about hosting next time. Happy Hunting!