Getting started on a self-hosted WordPress blog is literally like shopping for the perfect outfit or maybe even as extreme as a highly detailed car.  You can literally spend hours searching for what you want, and a life time accessorizing, collecting, and maintaining.  In order to get going, there are a series of questions that you’ll have to ask yourself, ones that will determine the investment you’re about to make, both in terms of time and money.

As someone who often makes theme recommendations and installs a few WordPress sites myself, here’s the process I take people through (think of me as your personal shopping partner or concierge)…

What is the occasion?

Whether you’re going on a first date, going to prom, or interviewing for a new job, I’m a firm believer that presentation can mean everything.  A blog’s theme, just like an outfit must come with a purpose.  Decide whether your blog is going to be for personal use or professional use first.  In the world of social media consultants and personal branding, this can often mean a hybrid of the two.  However, it’s important to determine first whether you want to emphasize one over the other.

Here are some examples of extreme ends of the spectrum…

Non-Blog/Business Showcase: Ford Motors (autoshows.ford.com)

Personal Blog: Justine Ezarek (iJustine.com)

Professional Services: Stephanie Agresta Consulting (stephanieagresta.com)

Magazine/Media Platform: Mashable.com

Artists/Portfolio: Josh Baptista (joshbaptista.com)

What are your best and worst assets?

Some people have great legs, while others have great smiles.  Some look to hide their bellies, while others look to flaunt them.  When thinking about a WordPress-based website, you really need to do some heavy introspection.  By that, I mean that you need to think about your best and worst assets and what you want to really emphasize.  I know that my buddy Chris Brogan is one of the biggest pimps when it comes to the Thesis theme, but guess what?  He’s a great writer and a prolific blogger.  His strength is in his writing and therefore he has a theme that showcases that. For photographers and video bloggers, a text-ccentric theme like Thesis isn’t the route I’d take.  Instead, something that has a gallery and is heavy on the visuals will help emphasize what you do best.

Blog where focus is on the text: Chris Brogan (chrisbrogan.com)

Blog where emphasis is on video: Sukhjit (sukhjit.me)

How’s it made?

Wordpress is by far my favorite CMS (content management system), more so than Drupal and Joomla.  I find the user interface easy to teach newbies and I love the developer community which is constantly creating new themes and plugins.  That said, I’ve found that the themes themselves have varying standards when it comes to their backend.  A lot of people think that the way a theme looks in a demo is the way it’s going to appear once it’s installed on a blog.  WRONG.  I have purchased and tried too many themes to name that have left me customizing CSS and PSD files for hours.  When evaluating a theme, check for the following:

• Does it require plugins?
• Does it come with .PSD files to make the images easily customizable?
• Does it have a support forum?
• Have people left a bunch of comments on the blog or forums complaining about features working?
• Does it make mention of custom fields? (I consider custom fields to be something that most beginners don’t understand on hosted WP blogs)

By evaluating those questions before hand, you’ll have a pretty good sense of how much work is going to go into the styling of the theme you choose and the degree of difficulty when using it.

How much does it cost?

If you want to be a serious blogger or have a site that offers you the flexibility of customization and features, then it is not a free endeavor.  There’s a built in cost to most basic blogs and that’s a host and domain.  Hosting packages can cost anywhere from $7.99 – $10 a month while domains usually are purchased for around $8-$10/year.  There are tons of great free themes out there to use, but some of the best cost a premium.  Unlike shoes and dresses at the mall, you can’t try these themes on, and all sales are final.

What a lot of beginners underestimate is that even with a premium theme, your blog is still going to require a bit of setting up.  Most premium themes don’t just look good out of the box.  Ask yourself if you are familiar with the following: working with an FTP client, a text editor, photopshop, and CSS and PHP files.  If any combination of those phrases scare you, DON’T WORDPRESS ALONE!

Here’s where the real cost comes in.  Most people who want to get a blog set up will actually need to pay someone like me to get it going.  At a bare minimum, you’ll have to invest at least $100 into this (domain/hosting).  Then there’s the issue of time.  I’m convinced anyone can teach themselves how to WordPress like a pro, but it’s a process that you’ll spend hours on.  If you want a WordPress blog set up with some basic customization and training, it can cost anywhere from $150-$200.  If you’re serious about having a full-scale WordPress powered site for a business, anticipate spending anywhere from $500 – $4000.  I personally am not the right person to ask when it comes to creating custom themes, doing full WordPress integrations into static sites, etc., but I know developers who do.  Their rates can cost anywhere from $75 – $100 / hour, which is why when added up, some people wind up spending close to $4k on their WordPress sites.

Resources:

If you want to get started on WordPress, spend some time getting familiar with what’s out there.  Here’s a list of sites I frequently browse that showcase various themes (these lists feature themes that are compliant with the most recent 2.7 release of WordPress)…

List of Free Themes

• http://www.bestwpthemes.com/
• http://wphacks.com/50-best-free-wordpress-themes-gallery/
• http://www.wpzoom.com/wordpress-themes-sets/best-free-wordpress-themes-in-2008/

List of Premium Themes

• Studio Press
• DIY Themes
• Theme Forest
• Gorilla Themes
• Woo Themes
  
• WP Remix
• iThemes
• Elegant Themes

Developers

• Directory of WordPress Consultants
• Content Robot*
• High Rock Media*

(I’ve worked with these two firms before and they’re great)

Conclusion:

There’s really no perfect formula to WordPress because it works differently for everyone.  Spend time thinking about your goals, your technical aptitude, personal style, and budget.  When you’ve done that, do some research and then get started.  I’ve been using WordPress since 2006 and I’ve been having fun with it ever since.  If you’re reading this and think you might need some extra WordPress guidance/help, shoot me an email: alexa.scordato@gmail.com.  Happy blogging!