WordPress® for Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 15. Deciding to Bring in the Pros

In This Chapter

• Exploring professional services

• Finding a professional who can accommodate your needs

• Keeping the communication lines open

For some people, hiring a professional is a solution — and sometimes, the only viable solution — for creating a blog that's different from all the rest. Let's face it — some folks would rather chew on nails than try to figure out all the template tags, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) rules, and graphic design techniques it takes to create a custom-made WordPress template. I hear it from WordPress users (and other blogging-platform users) all the time: "I want a unique look, but I don't know how to do it. I just want to blog."

The question for you to answer is whether you'll be completely satisfied by using a free theme available for all WordPress users, or whether you prefer to hire a professional to provide you a custom theme. Chapter 11 shows you how to find and install free themes that are available to all users of the WordPress.org platform, and Chapter 13 gives you details on how to tweak a free theme. If all this theme information is something you'd rather avoid, however, this chapter gives you information on hiring a professional to help you with the design details. The chapter also covers other types of blog professionals, such as developers and consultants.

Checking Out the Types of Blog Professionals

You have big plans for your blog, and your time is valuable. Hiring a professional to handle the back-end ...