A couple of years ago I bought a Wordpress theme called “Revolution Church.” It was $79, a lot of money for me at the time since I don’t cry dollar bills, I cry over them. I got the theme and STUPIDLY assumed it would be like the FREEEEEEEEE Wordpress Themes I’d been using - you know, plug and play and no special coding or HTML skills required. Not to be. Lately I’ve been getting emails touting the latest and greatest themes and I admit - they’re beautiful. But I will never, never, never ever buy another Wordpress theme again. Why? I ask myself - WHY should I buy another piece of something I’ll never be able to figure out? Why buy something I have to pay another $500 to be able to use? Why not just pay a coder to do it all for me - someone who already owns that theme and has a license?

You see, the Wordpress themes you buy DO NOT LOOK LIKE WHAT YOU SEE ON THE SCREEN!! You have to have the tech savvy to configure them. No plug and play and no directions. The “support” is only support if you speak the language of code.

For most bloggers - we don’t need the bells, whistles and hooo-rah of a $79 template. This template you’re reading this post on for instance is a FREEEEEE template. Plug and play essentially. I did have to spend a little time messing with it and my friends John W. Furst and David Benjamin Kopp both came to my rescue to tweak the color and add on the widgets on the side. Without them I’d be paying $50 to $200 an hour. But all in all this is a relatively simple template. And did I mention it’s FREEEEE?

So, just a warning. If you see great looking templates for sale - “ONLY $29 or $49 or $79″ ignore them. They are NOT plug and play. You WILL have to put some work into them. I’ve been told that “Thesis” is pretty much plug and play and check off check-boxes, but you’re still going to have to plan on spending hours and hours figuring it all out - unless of course - you already eat code for breakfast. If you want something you can do yourself, that’s easy - use Blogger.com.

If you want a really cool site - plan on (1) paying someone to do it for you (2) begging a friend who codes to help you or do it for you (3) buying a Wordpress for Dummies book (my option) and figuring it all out yourself.

Don’t waste $79 on a template when you can get a free one, download it and drive yourself crazy figuring it out FIRST. Best bet? HIRE a good wordpress coder to do it for you. Seriously.