My new theme is in place. I used a theme called Blogsmith. Getting a new theme installed takes a little effort the first time. But once you get the hang of it it will help you in installing the plugins as well. It will take some work to start a blog from scratch, but I think you will enjoy the process. I like to learn new things and consider it a challenge to make things work. I hope these posts will help you get started and keep from getting discouraged. As I write these posts I try and include every step I can think of. I hope the screen shots are helping with the process. You may have noticed that I changed the tagline again. The tagline is now “How to Start a Blog from Scratch”. Getting a theme installed takes a little while but let’s go through the steps. (I use WordPress through GoodNewDomains.com so these steps reflect this setup. If you access Wordpress differently they might not be quite the same but I think they will give you an idea of what you are looking for).

Installing a WordPress Theme

Your WordPress came setup with a default theme which looks like this:

There is also an option available called the WordPress Classic:

You can locate this information by going to the WordPress dashboard and clicking on Presentations and then clicking on Themes:

There are a lot of other WordPress themes available for your blog. To look at some of the available themes just scroll down to the bottom of the Themes page and click on the WordPress theme directory link.

You will then be taken to ThemeViewer screen:

At this screen you can look at pages of available themes. Under each theme you have two options. You can Download or Test run. A Test run will give you a good idea of how the theme will look. If you like it then hit Download.

When you press Download you will see this screen:

Click on the Save button. You will be prompted for a location to save the file. Make sure you remember where you save it.

You will see a screen telling you the file is being saved and then Download complete.

Click on the Close button and then exit out of the ThemeViewer. Here is where it gets a little tricky. You need to go to the GoodNewsDomains.com site. Once you are there run your mouse over the Web Hosting button and the drop down menu will appear. Click on the My Hosting Accounts option.

At the Login screen type in your login information and press Secure Login.

You will see a screen with your blog site listed. Press the Open button.

At the Hosting Control Center screen look down on the left side of the page and select the Content option.

At the Content page you want to select the File Manager Icon at the right side of the screen.

This will take you to the File Manager screen. At the left hand side of the screen you will see the following options:

Press the + sign next to the wp-content option and you will get the following options:

Put your mouse on the themes folder icon and click on it. You will see the themes directory load up.

Select the Upload option on the toolbar.

Press the browse button and navigate to the location of the theme folder you downloaded earlier.

In the choose file screen select the file(in this case a zipped folder) and then press Open. You will go back to the browse screen you had previously and the file selected will be displayed and you can press OK.

The file will be uploaded and you will see the archived file at the bottom of your screen.

Check the box next to the file and then on the toolbar the option to Unarchive will w be available. Select Unarchive and you will get the following screen.

Go ahead and press OK to get the file to unarchive and be put in your file manager.

Congratulations! That was the tough part. Now you need to go back to your blog and login. Go to the WordPress dashboard and then to Presentation and then Themes. You should see the theme you just copied as an available theme. Click on it and WordPress will install it. Give it about a minute and then click on view site and you will see your new theme. One of the neat things about WordPress is that you can upload several themes and keep playing with them until you get the one you want. I hope this is helpful! We will get to more on the list with the next post.