There are a tremendous number of themes available for you to install for free, and probably an equal number of themes for sale.  Don’t assume that just because a theme costs money, that it’s the better theme.  Depending on the needs of your blog, a free theme may fit just right.

I typically start out looking for a free theme over at the WordPress Theme Directory.  There are a number of themes available for free and you can search by many criteria. I’d recommend first browsing through a number of blogs to get a feel for what you like and don’t like. This will help you narrow down your search criteria.

How much design and coding experience you have may also play into the picture. If you are an avid coder, then you may look for something that is basic and can be built upon by you. If you have no experience at all, then you probably want something that is ready to go exactly how you want it out of the box. 

A third option would be to hire a developer to either design a custom theme for you, or modify an existing one.  This will probably be the more expensive option, but does offer the benefit of a fully customized theme.  A number of blog owners who like to change their themes periodically will take this route and then release their older themes either as paid themes or free themes with links back to their site.  Keep that in mind for marketing later.

Some things to consider when looking at themes:

• Ease of Navigation: Will your visitors be able to move around your blog easily
• Layout: Do you want three columns, two columns, a big header? What kind of information will you make available?
• Advertising: If you intend to monetize your blog, then be sure to evaluate where you intend to do this.

Also, don’t forget that content is the much more important overall than your theme.  It’s great that you have a flashy new theme with all the bells and whistles, but if you don’t have something that will keep your visitors coming back, then it’s wasted.  This may mean choosing an interim theme… something to get you by while you build your presence. 

As I stated above, there are hundreds or thousands of resources for themes. The easiest thing to do is a google search for Wordpress Themes, or if more appropriate “Free Wordpress Themes”.  Links to some sites I’ve used are below:

• Wordpress.org Theme Library
• SoloStream.com - This blog uses a solostream theme currently. Michael just released a new theme called WP-Vybe 1.0 which is very nice.
• RevolutionTheme.com
• TemplateMonster.com

This article will focus on actually installing Wordpress on your website. We’ll assume that you have your site up and running on your hosting account, and that you know all the appropriate usernames/passwords, etc. In the future, we may evaluate options other than wordpress, but for now, let’s keep it simple.  Ok… let’s get started.

There are three primary ways to install wordpress on your hosting account:

1. Use Fantastico in cPanel
2. Use the Install4Free service
3. Roll up the sleeves and do it yourself

While I prefer to do it myself because I feel it gives me a better understanding of exactly how everything is configured, options 1 and 2 are certainly easier.  That being said… installing it yourself is not by any stretch difficult.

Ok… Option 1: Using Fantastico

cPanel installs on HostGator (and most other hosts for that matter) include a great little feature called Fantastico. In case you are wondering, cPanel is the web-based control panel that you would use to manage your hosting account.  It’s where you can create email addresses, add databases, check stats, etc.  We’ll come back to it in a bit, but for now let’s focus on just one feature, Fantastico.

Fantastico allows you to install many scripts (including Wordpress) by answering a few questions and clicking a button. It’s fantastic-o. (I know, but I couldn’t help it.)  You will need to name your blog, and enter your email address, but beyond that, it takes care of the whole install, database included for you, and it’s included for free in your hosting account.  It really is that easy.

Option 2: If you happen to not have Fantastico available, and don’t feel confident enough to tackle the install yourself, there is a group of volunteers who offer free Wordpress installations.  They don’t guarantee that they will have time, or technically that they can even finish the job, but I think that’s more just them covering their bases… after all, it’s free.  You can find the service at http://install4free.wordpress.net/ I have never used their service, but they are linked to directly from the wordpress.org site, so I have to assume that they’ve been checked out to some degree and don’t have too many complaints.  If you do end up going this route, be sure to report back and let everyone know about your experience.

Option 3:  Finally, if you have just a little bit of experience with websites, then you’ll have no problem at all installing wordpress youreself.  The install takes less than 5 minutes and can be brokend down into four basic steps:

1. Create your database and databse user (make sure the user has full access to the database
2. Edit your wp-config.php file to include the database information. (This also requires that you rename the default file from wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php.)
3. Upload your files to your website. If the blog is going to be the main event at your site, then just upload them to the main root folder.  If you are going to have a different main site, then you may want to upload the files to a “blog” directory or something similar.
4. Run the install by accessing the site from your web browser.

That’s it!  Really! For more detailed instructions, please see the famous 5 minute install over at wordpress.org.

So now you should have a blog up and running.   Spend some time looking around in the Wordpress control panel.  Add some articles, delete some stuff.  Make some comments. You can’t mess it up easily, and even if you do, you now know how to reinstall it easily.  We’ll pick up next with a design element and talk about choosing and installing a theme for your blog.