Struggling through the forest of WordPress themes? Grab your bug spray and follow me.

There are an overwhelming number of WordPress themes out there in the wild (144,000,000 results on Google). How do you know which ones are good? Reliable? Which theme companies will be around in a year? 3 years? How often do they update? When was the theme born? Do you really care about all of this? Actually, you do.

Ready? Here we go. I promise you won’t get bitten. Stay close!

At first, I was open to any theme. “We’ll just customize it!” But then I spent more and more time fixing, tweaking, and wasting time on issues that just shouldn’t have been issues.

[quote]I get this request a lot, “Please just tell me what to do. What theme should I choose?” I answer that now.[/quote]

This isn’t a review or comparison of themes. This is an overview of the past 7 years of building, designing, and customizing WordPress themes to get them to do what my clients want them to do. So what’s the story in a nutshell? I’m going niche, I’m narrowing my focus, I’m going with one theme and one theme only. It’s not a secret theme and on the surface, you’ll wonder why I chose it. But it’s deeper than the surface: I want your theme to work. I want it to work as in (1) it functions but also (2) work like a horse. I want it to be reliable and flexible and future proof. I want it to have been around and I want it to be around. I want it to be around longer than your site. I want them to make updates before you ask for them, before you know you needed them. OK, OK, slow down partner, just watch the video.

[box type=”tick”]I’ll take you on a quick journey through the jungle of WordPress themes. Wear sturdy shoes. I have a machete.[/box]

Disclaimer: this is raw footage, jungle footage. I just needed to get it out there. I need to get back to camp and refine it, but I wanted to set it out into the wild for now. Stay tuned for updates … without tree sap stuck to the buttons.

[box type=”alert”]Disclaimer: you’re seeing the live, raw footage of WPU in action. Below is a 20-minute version of How to Choose a WordPress theme. My goal? Get it down to 3.[/box]

Bring your machete: it's a jungle in there.

Bring your machete: it’s a jungle in there. [Cherating, Malaysia]