Best theme to use for new site update

  • Unknown's avatar
    esthera92 · Member ·

    I am currently going through a site update, however I’m stuck on what would be the best theme for me.

    The site I am referring to,I use as a sort of online portfolio/CV for employers as I work within marketing.

    I intend to have the following page/menus;
    1)home – introduction about the site
    2)About me
    4)Skills/CV
    5)portfolio were I can showcase images and some text on design projects I have worked on
    6)Industry blogs – basic page were I write/blog about different topics)
    7)contact me

    I would like a theme that allows me to:
    1)upload my own logo, ( very important)
    2)insert social media icons/links (very important)
    3)Customised basic theme background colour
    4)Web responsive ( no so important)
    5) Customised header

    I will also like to at one point have a link that links to a sub-domain, however I am not sure if this would be a page it in its self or just a random url link. I would appreciate some examples of any sites which have linked their sub domain page from their main site.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    sarahblackstock · Member ·

    Hi there!

    As I was reading through your list, I instantly thought of these two themes:
    Profile – https://wordpress.com/themes/profile/
    Connect – https://wordpress.com/themes/connect/

    Or perhaps one of these would work:
    Sela – https://wordpress.com/themes/sela/
    Entrepreneur – https://wordpress.com/themes/entrepreneur/
    Edin – https://theme.wordpress.com/themes/edin/

    Or you can browse all themes here: https://wordpress.com/themes/ (Sort them at the top of the screen by feature to narrow down your options.)

    Themes can be customized to fit your content needs, and all have certain aspects that can be adjusted on the free plan. Adding the Premium upgrade adds some additional customizations (like Custom CSS), so that may be something to consider depending on which one you pick and your needs.

    Regarding the subdomain, is that setup somewhere else right now? You can certainly add a link to it somewhere on your site (page, post, menu, widget… where ever works) to direct readers to that other site as needed. Or if you mean you’d like to map a subdomain to WordPress.com, there is info on doing that here: https://en.support.wordpress.com/map-subdomain/

    Let me know if you have any questions! :)

  • Unknown's avatar
    esthera92 · Member ·

    Hi Sarahblackstock

    Thank you for your feed back, I ended up going with the sela theme luckily as it really appealed to me.

    In regards to my sub domain site( https://universityandafter.wordpress.com) , it is already set up on WordPress as a free domain, ( please have a look at my main free domain website with the seal theme and see at the bottom how I have currently linked it,to open my free domain site)

    Do you think that there could be a better way for me to link to my sub domain site?.I prefer to have a link within my menu section of my main site alongside the other menu heading such as blog, about etc , how do I create this menu and link this correctly please?

    Thirdly , I am trying to create my own images that will replace the ‘blog’ widget and ‘portfolio’ currently on my home page, what would be a reccomended image size that will work with wordpress.

    secondly I am trying to work out what would be the appropriate image size to use as my featured image on my home page

  • Unknown's avatar
    esthera92 · Member ·

    my main website that I am trying to create a link from in the menu tab is http://estheradegokesblogs.wordpress.com/

    regards

  • Unknown's avatar
    sarahblackstock · Member ·

    You’re welcome! :)

    You could link to your subdomain in your menu (about me, my skills, etc) by adding it as a Link under Menus. When you click the + to add a new menu item, select Link (instead of Category, Tag, Post, etc) and paste the URL to your other site in the Link Address box.

    There is information (and screenshots) on menus on this page if needed: https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/

    For specific sizes that work best with Sela, check out the Quick Specs box near the bottom of this page: https://wordpress.com/themes/sela/

    Let me know if you have any questions!

  • Unknown's avatar
    esthera92 · Member ·

    Thank you I have just tried this method and it works much better

    Much appreciated.

    My last question is, are there any support pages on how to add nice text box frame templates by any chance with my ‘my skills’ page and my ‘about me’ page
    so rather than just having a random block of text I could have a nice frame or design around it.

    regards

  • Unknown's avatar
    sarahblackstock · Member ·

    You’re welcome!

    You could play around with CSS to add something like that, however adding CSS requires the Premium upgrade so you get access to Custom Design. (Before upgrading, you can test things out without it under Customize > Custom Design to see if you like it/want to upgrade, but it won’t save on your site.)

    This page has some basics on getting started with borders using CSS: http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_border.asp

    Here’s an example to get you started, if you’d like to give it a try.

    First I added this CSS under Customize > CSS: 

    .pinkdashborder {
	border: 2px dashed #F25F70;
	border-radius: 30px;
	padding: 20px;
}

    Note:
    – The 2px adjusts the thickness of the border.
    – Dashed made the dashes. The w3schools link above has a list of other options you can try there.
    – #F25F70 is the color.
    – The number next to padding is what determines the space in between the border and the text.
    – border-radius set to 30px is what is rounded the corners. If you set that to 0 or remove it, the corners will be right angles like a square/rectangle.

    Then I opened the page where I want the border to be, and wrapped the text I wanted inside the border in this: 

    <div class="pinkdashborder"><em>YOUR TEXT HERE</em></div>

    Here’s a screenshot of how that looks on my site: https://cloudup.com/cS7zACNORYn

    Let me know if you have any questions! :)

  • Unknown's avatar
    esthera92 · Member ·

    Thank you

    Also I am a little confused, If i wanted to have my site become offical without having the WordPress.com at the end.Do I upgrade to a premium account or do I buy a domain.

    Are they the same thing or not, and how much would that cost?

  • Unknown's avatar
    sarahblackstock · Member ·

    You’re welcome!

    The footer credits (including WordPress.com and the theme) are required to be displayed on sites hosted here at WordPress.com by our Terms of Service: http://en.wordpress.com/tos/.

    If you decide to add Premium so that you can use custom CSS, you could add the following code under Customize > CSS to change the size/color of the credits: 

    .site-info, .site-info a {
	color: #ccc;
	font-size: 10px;
}

    And you could add this to add your own credit: 

    .site-info::before {
	content: "© Your Credit Here 2016 ";
	display:block;
}
  • Unknown's avatar
    esthera92 · Member ·

    Hi
    So technically what you are saying is that an upgrade is the same as purchasing a domain, by purchasing a domain you are technically upgrading from a free hosted site to a self hosted site.

    And these codes ( once I have upgraded will allow me to add my own credit at the bottom of my site? )

  • Unknown's avatar
    sarahblackstock · Member ·

    The Premium upgrade includes Custom Design, which is what you would need to have access to add custom CSS to your site for the edits discussed above.

    Premium also comes with a domain registration, so if you would like to purchase a domain and also plan to get Premium, you could get Premium first, then register the domain for no additional cost.

    There is an overview of the plans here: https://wordpress.com/plans/compare.

    Once you have Premium on your site, you can go into Customize > CSS and paste in the code above to do those edits. And there is a CSS Customization forum to help you with other CSS out too if needed: https://en.forums.wordpress.com/forum/css-customization.

  • Unknown's avatar
    esthera92 · Member ·

    Thank you, it all makes sense now,by any chance do you know why we are not able to include – or. Within our domain names.

    Eg my site that I’m referring to currently says estheradegokeblogs.wordpress.com but I’m looking to maybe change it to E.Adegoke.wordpress(dot.)com or something.

    Why are dots or dashes not allowed in-between?

  • Unknown's avatar
    sarahblackstock · Member ·

    Great! :)

    Site addresses can’t have periods in them because of what domains allow in general. We can’t add them, because domains won’t let us. If you want your own custom domain, without the wordpress.com in it, you can register one here: https://wordpress.com/domains/add

    For getting the look you want with your title, you can edit the capitalization, spelling, etc. of it in Customize > Site Title and include the periods or dashes there, if you’d like.

  • Unknown's avatar
    esthera92 · Member ·

    I see thank you and yes I do intend on customizing my domain once I’ve finish updating my site.

    Also, is there a way I can edit or delete blog post category tags?, I accidentally spelt one of my category tags wrong. So I added another one with the correct spelling but I am not sure how to delete the old one

  • Unknown's avatar
    sarahblackstock · Member ·

    Sure! You can edit Categories and Tags from wp-admin: https://estheradegokesblogs.wordpress.com/wp-admin/

    Click Posts, then click Categories or Tags to go to the list(s) of them and edit as needed.

  • Unknown's avatar
    esthera92 · Member ·

    Thank you, I am now trying to change the name of my site, how do I go about doing so,I seem to have forgotten how.

    I want to change my name before I purchase a customised domain, as I want to purchase it once I have a correct name that I am happy with.

    A customised domain is 18 dollars per year, but I am confused as what is the different between that and the premium upgrade for 99dollars per year. I do not want to make the mistake and purchase the wrong thing

    I just want to be able to have my site changed to and saying TEAdegoke(dot)com, right now it is estheradegokeblogs.wordpress.com I want to stay with WordPress but with my own customised domain, I do not want to self host at all.

  • Unknown's avatar
    sarahblackstock · Member ·

    If you would like to purchase the $99 Premium plan, you can do that here: https://wordpress.com/plans/ (Select which site it’s for and then you’ll see Premium as an option on there.)

    Premium comes with a domain, so after purchasing that, you could register a domain for no additional charge.

    If you only want the domain, not Premium, you can register one here: https://wordpress.com/domains/add

    Either option will keep you here on WordPress.com. :)

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