What is the best WordPress Theme For Beginners?

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14.7K followers

Okay, so you're a newbie and you're wondering what theme to choose for your site. You're thinking that you want a nice shiny theme with sparkly bits and flashing stuff all over the place. Sliders, widgets, etc etc.

Don't Do it!

I've been down that road for close to 9 months since joining Wealthy Affiliate. Don't do it, I implore you. Save your sanity. Save your time. Make more money with the simplest theme you can find.

I recommend the following themes if you're a beginner.

1. Omega (the one Kyle uses in tutorials)

2. Hiero (the one I just changed to today)


Why?

Trust me on this. I spent months and months changing themes looking for the perfect look. Sliders were what I was into. No no no no no, I tell you. Don't do it because each and every time you change a theme there are little bits and pieces of your website that seem to get messed up. I've had broken links, missing widgets, picture sizes all skewed about etc etc. Don't do it. You're adding ten times the amount of work to your already heavy schedule. You're multiplying your frustration by ten times too. Don't do it if you really want to make money.

HIERO

Hiero theme is nice and simple, takes a couple of minutes to set up and looks really nice.

Omega theme looks even more basic, but I'm not keen on it because the text column isn't very wide. (about 600px) Yes there's probably a way to change that but I didn't find any options to change that. Perhaps a child theme for Omega would fix that, but that's just adding yet more complexity to something that a newbie doesn't need to be concerning themselves with.

KEEP IT DEAD SIMPLE

Remember, your content is the single most important thing on your website. It is going to be your bread and butter. The time you waste on messing about with theme settings is time taken away from your writing.

Get that content out there and keep pumping it out. Don't be sidetracked by bells and whistles, it really does cost you money!

Wait until you become proficient at WordPress and the process of keyword research and blogging. Further down the road is when you upgrade your theme. By this time you will have tons of content already published and you'll be making money. Then perhaps you can buy a theme that you like. This will be a time when you are competent enough to play about with themes.

I hope you heed this advice, don't be a complete numpty like me.

To your success,

Jimbo



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Recent Comments

124

Yes, I think you are right. Rather focus on getting that content out there.

Content is King and Keywords are Queen

I do believe in keeping it simple but simple for me may not be simple for you. For my webmasters we have a series of five themes that we use not because of the themes themselves but they have the flexibility of being able to be changed to look any way that we need them to look.
They have built in things like social icons and lots of other things that makes development very easy.

Finally let me say we are professionals and we are not limited to Wordpress.

Well said, Jim!
Well, I only didn't agree with that second last sentence. :)

:)

A good suggestion. :))

I would advise Lifestyle

Lifestyle theme is a minimalist responsive HTML5 Omega child theme for WordPress, created with simplicity in mind.

Omega is a parent theme, Lifestyle is a child theme of Omega

is that a paid one, Loes?

No, free to use
add new theme>search for Lifestyle

Thanks Bob! Good to know. I have a question though-I am wanting to create a service based website in conjuction with my affiliate marketing, and therefore I feel I need to have a site that looks attractive rather than simple and boring. It's not that I want the site to be complicated, but I do want some room to create some branding. The service is online coaching and I want to start building an email list so therefore have an opt in box for lead capture via a lead magnet, with all the social media share options. I would also like some room for some affiliate banners on the side Can you suggest a theme that would work for this where I could also upload a logo? I am just a bit confused as to which one I should be choosing. I have more direction now in terms of where I want to go with the site, so I don't think having a generic looking site will work for me. What would be the most simple theme I could choose for this keeping in mind the features I want on it? Thanks.

any theme can be beautified in the manner you would like it. The basic bare bones theme is of course customizable to your likings, through plugins, widgets, header images etc.

Awesome advice, thanks, to our success for sure

Live long and prosper!

I love Precious Lite, it is easy to use and modern

not heard of that one. I believe you but I'll stick to Hiero now.

Thanks Jumbo for the great advice! Omega theme is what I'm currently using simply because that's what Kyle was using in the tutorials I was following.
I know what you mean about the text column not being wide enough, but I'm sure I'll get that sorted when I've gained more experience in using Wordpress. Great tip never the less. Thanks again Jumbo!

All the best
Caleb

Most Welcome, Caleb!

Very good newbie advice, Jimbo.
:)

Thank you Debs

Keep it simple and you'll thank yourself in the long run

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