So, you've selected your new WordPress theme. If you've chosen to use one of the pre-installed ‘official' WordPress themes you can skip down to Step 3 to activate your theme. If you've elected to use a 3rd-party free, standard paid theme or a premium theme framework, such as Genesis or Thesis, I'll show you how to install your new theme.
Step 1: In the WordPress Dashboard, navigate to Appearance => Themes. (A) On the Themes page select ‘Add New' as shown below.
Step 2: Click ‘Choose File' and navigate to the directory that where your theme.zip file is located. Be sure to select the original, unzipped file for installation. If you unzip the file beforehand the installation process will fail. Once you've selected your theme file click ‘Install Now'.
Step 3: Once you new theme is uploaded, return to the main Theme page. Hover over the theme you desire to use and select ‘Activate'. All types of themes, whether free, paid or premium, are activated in the same way.
If you used a ‘2-part' premium theme, such as Genesis plus your desired child theme, them you need to install both the Genesis zip file plus the child theme zip file. Afterwards you only need to ‘Activate' the child theme. The child theme will automatically access the Genesis framework. From the image below, you'll see I use the Genesis Framework and a custom made child theme for this website.
Read more articles in the How to Build Your Bulletproof Blog series:
- How to Build Your Blog – Introduction
- How to Select and Buy Your Domain Name
- How to Buy Web Hosting for Your New Blog
- How to Point Your Hover Domain to Your Bluehost Account
- How to Install WordPress
- How to Set Up WordPress User Names
- Configuring WordPress Permalinks
- Configuring WordPress General Settings
- How to Choose a WordPress Theme
- How to Install a WordPress Theme
- How to Install WordPress Plugins
- WordPress Security and Backup
- How to Publish Your First WordPress Post
- How to Create Your First WordPress Page