Finding a good, free, WordPress theme is an ordeal, mainly because I don’t know what I want. Over three thousand attractive templates are presented by WordPress. How can I choose?

My method was to scan all the options, which took many hours. That taught me what the range is, what the variance is. I had to look up some terms. I decided that I definitely needed a template that claimed to be “responsive.” That is a keyword that means it will automatically re-size for any kind of screen, and most users access the web these days on smartphones so I need that,  I probably want “retina-ready” which means high-definition visuals, but that’s not a deal-breaker. As long as you can read my text, I’m happy.

Design-wise, I realized I could skip themes aimed at photographers and artists. Those are very picture-centric, at the expense of text. But I am a writer. So, duh. I learned I also could pass over the ones aimed at corporations and businesses. Those are set up to sell stuff, which I’m not. I’m sure most of them could be adapted to my needs but why fight the system?

Of the others, I looked for an eye-catching design, not too flowery, not too cutesy, not too busy.  I noticed a  division between “masonry” style, in which posts are presented in blocks (like my site www.psi-fi.net), and the more traditional columnar look  (like my site, www.PsifiBooks.com). I decided that for this site, which is an author site, traditional would work best.

My choices narrowed, I previewed dozens of candidate sites and wrote down the names of promising ones. Some, upon  closer inspection, had version numbers of 1.0 or even lower (which means beta), and some had few or no reviews. Reviews are not deal-breakers because everyone’s needs are different. Then I went back through that short list, shown below, and tried to narrow the field. My judgment was mainly aesthetic.

Finally, I chose one and installed it and did a little customization. I learned it wasn’t right for me. So I chose another and continued, discovering that I could not customize even simple things, like the color of the font. Forget that. On the third try, I have this one, a theme called “Weaver Xtreme.”  So far it is working to my satisfaction.

So that was my process. Two days of work to get the site up, and here I am still in test mode. I have installed spam protection and dashboard analytics but haven’t yet done categories, widgets or menus. Patience is required.

Here is my list of WordPress free theme finalists and a few comments on each. 

HighEnd Blog: Responsive, good looking, simple, mostly whitespace, Version 1.0. Claims to be fast. Masonry schema, Very customizable Woo-compatible, photo-friendly, serif font, sample templates. Seems somewhat complex. Widget selection ok. Cant really change the color scheme however and the green site title is small, low-contrast, and hard to read. That simply won’t do. Uninstall.

Generate Press. Responsive, simple, has 700 reviews. Version 2.12, sanserif font looks good, Claims to be SEO optimized, fast, and small. Seems slightly complex, slightly traditional-looking. Boring actually. Most of its features, even banner picture, require purchase of the premium version so you don’t get much in the free version. Forget it.

Weaver Xtreme.  Xtrreme refers to customization potential. Thirty good ratings. Very complex interface but you can choose a “Basic” mode which works fine for me. Anything can be customized, from colors to typography. It is hard to imagine what the premium version would contain that’s not already here. A dozen subthemes are presented for very quick setup. All the defaults seem intelligent (e.g., latest post is the landing screen, etc). Tons of widgets. Jetpak and akismet already loaded. It can’t do submenus in basic mode. Solution: forget about submenus and keep it simple. It behaves strangely on draft saves and previews, but nothing awful. Featured Images behave unusually, nothing that can’t be managed. So far so good.

Lovecraft – It’s by Swedish designer Anders Noren, who is just terrific. See also by him: Hemingway, and Wilson.  40 ratings, responsive, blog friendly retina, big images. Tried Lovecraft but  difficult header image doesn’t line up well, is partially obscured, and the image must be top heavy to work right. Published version does not look exactly like the admin version. Dearth of widgets — no social media. Hard to customize, a constant struggle. Regrettably, uninstalled.

Baskerville. Masonry layout looks good, Responsive,  41 good ratings, Version 1.26,, visually oriented. Look is overall one of B&W austerity — sharp and clean, but the more you look at it, the more brutalist it becomes. Not welcoming at all. Not the mood I want to set.

Ogee  Quirky little design, attractive in an odd way. Very simple. Version1.0. Responsive, nice layout, nice colors, traditional and simple. 1 rating. A possibility.

Why is this post tagged with the “Marketing” category? This whole site is about me and what I’m doing, and what I’m doing now is trying to make my new book, Reluctant Android, discoverable, and for that, I need an author page that any interested person could search and find. This is not fiction writing. This is marketing, a necessary evil.