You’ve got your new blog. Now you want to decorate, and make the space your own; I get that.

When I made my first website back in the dim-dark days of 1996, I had to learn about HTML and Hex values and the ‘table’ tag; and all kinds of barbaric things like that.

Luckily for you, lots of designers are out there today creating beautiful themes that you can hang up, ready-made, or customize with your own artwork.

The Simplest Way To Change Your Theme

From your dashboard, look at the left-hand sidebar and find “Appearance”

Click on that, and then on “Themes”.

You’ll be take to a page full of gorgeous layouts and colors. In fact, there are pages and pages of them, so scroll through them until you find one you like.  Under the screenshot of the theme you like, click on the ‘preview’ link.  A pop-up window will show you how your blog (with your words, even!) will look, dressed up in that theme. If you’re lucky you’ve chosen a free theme. If it turns out you have expensive tastes, you can either pay the designer for their premium theme, or you can close the little window and go back to browsing until you find a free theme you like.

Once you find a theme you like and have previewed it with your blog, look in the top right of the preview window. There is a link saying ‘Activate theme’. Click it.

Now, when you visit your blog you’ll see the new theme.

Searching For Themes

If you know you want a blue theme, or one that lets you upload your own background art or header, you can use the search box (on the right side of the themes screen) or even better the “Features Filter” link. The more options you ask it to find for you (Custom header, custom background, custom colors, one sidebar, two sidebars etc.) the more likely you are getting into Premium Theme territory (i.e. you’ll have to pay money), I recommend playing around with a few free themes before you buy one. Look for themes with “theme options”. These will give you menus that allow you to check boxes to change the color of your background or titles etc. If you really can’t find anything you love in the free themes, by all means go shopping.

Blogging With WordPress.com Series

• So you want a WordPress blog?
• Logging Back Into WordPress.com
• Post your next blog entry
• Change the subtitle of your blog from “just another wordpress blog” to something smarter (or nothing)
• Change the appearance of your blog (select a theme)
• Customize your ‘about page’
• Get to know your dashboard better
• Learn how to upload pictures