Daniel McClure

A little introduction on how I got started building themes for WordPress and some extra advice for anybody that has ever thought of doing the same…

Do I need to be a programmer?

The most important thing to get you started is learning some of the building blocks before you even begin to think of creating themes. Arguably the two most important to get started are HTML and CSS so if you already know the basics of these then you are at a significant advantage. It will also do you well to have some knowledge of PHP however it’s not always necessary for the more basic styling and structure of theme creation.

I never took lessons so the main resources that I can really recommend, and that I still use from time to time are - http://www.w3schools.com/ & http://www.webmonkey.com/ for reference.

These days there are a couple of resources that I keep hear being recommended by people learning although I can’t personally comment. These are; http://www.udemy.com/ & http://teamtreehouse.com/

Get Started With WordPress Themes

When building my very first theme I used a set of tutorials that pretty much took you by the hand through every step building a theme. That tutorial was found here - http://www.wpdesigner.com/2007/02/19/so-you-want-to-create-wordpress-themes-huh/ – however I highly recommend that you don’t use this as five years later there have been a lot of changes in WordPress themes.

Right now there are two main sources I would generally recommend if you’d like to learn how to build your own themes; http://wp.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/theme-development/ if you learn well through concentrated blog posts or http://rockablepress.com/launch/building-wordpress-themes-from-scratch/ if you want the whole process laid out in front of you.

Should I Create My WordPress Themes Myself?

Even after reading all of the above this should probably be the very first question that you ask yourself. If you are confident working with computers and have experience with HTML/CSS then WordPress Theme creation can be a great skill to add to your arsenal, especially if you build a lot of your own websites.

However if you’ve never built a WordPress Theme before or don’t consider yourself that techy and you want to start selling themes or offering them for sale in many cases you will be better off hiring somebody to actually make the theme for you. How or where to do this is the basis of a whole other topic in itself however you could start by seeking recommendations from people in this group or at a stretch you could use somewhere like Elance.com although the quality of providers can be very variable.

A final word on WordPress Themes…

Building WordPress themes can be a rewarding but challenging experience. If you are taking it on as a personal project for skill development or your own business it can be a great investment. That said there are lterally thousands of themes out there from reputable sources these days and the premium theme market is highly competitive. In many cases the quickest and most sensible way to get something unique online is by getting a theme from one of the existing marketplaces and customising it to your liking.

Some great sources of themes that are not the WP Repository
- http://themeforest.net
- http://studiopress.com
- http://woothemes.com
- http://headwaythemes.com
- http://elegantthemes.com
- http://ithemes.com

So there you have it…

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