If you are beginning to learn your way around blogging and you are using WordPress it would be best for you to stick to the free themes that are available. The reason I say this is because some of the paid themes that are available are more for web developers.

Some themes will have you enter certain codes and hooks. I learned from experience, even though the theme looks like you must consider how much of a learning curve it will take to customize the theme. The good thing about using paid for themes is that your blog will be unique in format and style.

Plus if you see a theme that you like but is not free more than likely you can find one that is free that is close to theme you want. So one thing you have to ask yourself is what you want your site to look like.

These are some common questions to ask when choosing a theme. What color scheme are you going for? How many sidebars do you want on your blog? Do you want rotating images on your home page? Do you want a custom header?

All of these questions will help you narrow down your search of the perfect theme. If you find 2 or 3, then add them to your theme folders and see how each of them looks on your site. You can always delete the ones that you do not like. So start off with a free theme and then once you get the hang of blogging, move to a custom paid for theme.

WordPress has a templating system, which includes widgets that can be rearranged without editing PHP or HTML code, as well as themes that can be installed and switched between.

The PHP and HTML code in themes can also be edited for more advanced customizations. WordPress also features integrated link management; a search engine-friendly, clean permalink structure; the ability to assign nested, multiple categories to articles; multiple author capability; and support for tagging of posts and articles.

Automatic filters that provide for proper formatting and styling of text in articles (for example, converting regular quotes to smart quotes) are also included. WordPress also supports the Trackback and Pingback standards for displaying links to other sites that have themselves linked to a post or article. Finally, WordPress has a rich plugin architecture which allows users and developers to extend its functionality beyond the features that come as part of the base install.