What Skills Do I Need?

WordPress Cutomization is fun! I started it when we moved from Joomla to WordPress over 2 years ago and we re-designed our site and used a custom wordpress theme of our own. I had 14 years of web design under my belt so I knew HTML & CSS with a little PHP and I thought this was all I needed, it wasn`t. It turned out to be a long painful journey cause I didn`t know what was needed to make a full theme, then I even though of releasing the theme and making some money, but I had no idea. If Wicked WordPress Themes was available then my life would have been so much easier.

Anyway, lets look at the skills you will need to customize wordpress in such a way that your theme will be a best seller in no time.

Photoshop Natural

Adobe’s Photoshop is the industry standard for making killer web page designs. After planning your theme you should hit Photoshop and design it fully, this includes all the blog listings, page designs etc. When selling your theme some theme sites will require you also supply the PSDs so that people purchasing your theme can make design changes and fully customize your theme.

You can take an online Photoshop course with Web Courses either by attending the group courses in bangkok or learning online.

HTML Ninja

This is the language that all websites are built on, it is the way you describe the content and out put from WordPress. Solid HTML skills are vital for customizing wordpress so make sure you get this right first time or your buyers will be angry their site does not appear well on Google.

With HTML5 being more and more adopted you should seriously think about creating your framework in HTML5, this way you are future proofing your theme. WordPress has a defined structure which we discuss in the book Wicked WordPress Themes.

Taking the beginners web design course at Web Courses will cover everything from planning a site/theme to creating the design in photoshop, slicing and dicing it and then putting it all together using HTML and CSS.

CSS Master

HTML forms the foundation but it is in the CSS that brings your Photoshop Design to life. The way you write your CSS is vital not only to the way your site looks or browsers render your website but to how much flexability you give to people purchasing your theme. As an experienced designer I require that I am given a lot of freedome to access the files and CSS so I can modify the theme for my clients requirements.

Learning CSS is vital if you want to create Wicked WordPress Themes!

Your CSS can also be tied into the theme settings making it easy to change the colour scheme, layout and typography with a click of a button or a selection of a drop down. See chapter 7 of Wicked WordPress Themes.

PHP Prowess

An understanding of PHP is very useful as you will be dealing with loops, variables, arrays and functions. Knowing what is going on will help you understand why and when things are working. Also by knowing more about functions you can put in nice effects like short codes and building on the wordpress functionality.

One of the best PHP Courses I have seen was by Web Courses via online. They helped me setup a development server using Xamp then we build a small CMS, so it was well worth it for my first programming course.

With PHP you will be able to make themes that are more than just glorified blogs, you can go into making directories, e-commerce sites and much more.

I advise taking a look at these types of themes and investing in purchasing them just so you see how they work and how you can better them!

• WordPress Photoblog with Photocrati
• WordPress Music – Backstage with WooThemes
• WordPress Shop – Emporium Theme by Themplatic
• WordPress Job Board – from DailyWP
• WordPress Classified Ads Directory

Jquery for WordPress

Jquery is sexy there is no doubt about it. Nowadays people bying themes require a little sexy to part them from their Pounds, Dollars or Burundi Francs so be sure to include it in your customized wordpress theme.

Think about it, you come onto a site and all you see is text and some rubbish picture of old dudes shaking hands, no thanks! With Jquery we can have those images flying in with not only a picture telling a thousands words but with customiseable on top to keep the big G happy (Google).

What abot some nice expandable sections? Or fly out menus? Or even forms that kindly point out that you forgot to give your name. Jquery is your friend and it will help you sell many more themes if you give it that WOW factor.

Nivo is particularly nice because it mimics the sliding effect found in CU3ER and other similar Flash sliders, but it does so with jQuery!

Page 208 – Wicked WordPress Themes

Recommended Books

• Adobe Photoshop CS5 Classroom in a Book (See all Adobe Photoshop Books)
• Introducing HTML5 (Voices That Matter) (See all Programming Language & Tool Books)
• Stunning CSS3: A project-based guide to the latest in CSS (Voices That Matter) (See all Computer & Internet Books)
• PHP and MySQL Web Development (4th Edition) (See all Programming Language & Tool Books)
• jQuery: Novice to Ninja (See all Web Programming Books)
• Wicked WordPress Themes

Customized WordPress Theme Design

Wicked WordPress Themes will simplify your life as a designer or developer by introducing you to the Thematic framework, so that building solid themes is a breeze! You’ll also learn how to maximize profits by effectively marketing and selling your themes on the Web’s biggest marketplaces – you won’t have to worry about dealing with credit card processing, refunds, or sales & marketing.