Theme OCD

[tylergraffam]

Okay, I have theme OCD. I cant stop changing my wordpress theme, because every theme I either make or find, is good, but I don't like some things about it and it bugs the crap out of me until I have to change it. Can anyone help? I change my theme literally every week or sometimes more. One of my online friends said "Tyler, I think you change your theme more then your pants."

[sukosaki]

This is very common among new bloggers and can easily be overcome with little effort.

Concentrate on content. That should keep you busy enough to not worry about your theme.

[Bloggeries]

Hey Tyler, Suko is right. It's easy to start getting all crazy and picking at small things which NO ONE will ever notice but you. Instead of changing themes join a social network, post in a forum, make some comments or pump out more bloggeries.

I used to be all OCDish w/ checking stats. Got in the habit of posting on a forum or comment instead. MAYBE check my stats once a day now and they're always getting better and better.

Best of luck,

[cjharley]

LOL Tyler. I am soooo you! I spent hours and days tweaking and re-tweaking my blog to make it what it is today. Am I happy with it? Yes. Can it be better? Maybe, but I can't let that get in the way of posting. I have settled with the blog I have and like it. Now I focus on my posts.

[tylergraffam]

Even though I am in a HORRIBLE mood right now I'm going to try to respond to this without killing anyone.

Suko, for one thing, I am not a "new" blogger, I have been blogging for almost a year. Second thing, I don't really need to worry about content, because NO one even cares about my blog, and I could write out pretty much a 1000 word post in about 20 minutes. And the forum distraction thing, doesn't really work because I could be making a forum post, and looking at themes at the same time.

[sukosaki]

Well, thanks for the reply AND not killing anyone.

Blogging for ONE year is NEW. If you can post 1000 words in 20 minutes, do that and schedule ONE post per day for about a month. That will keep your mind off your blog template. Another thing is what Rob mentioned in getting involved in Social Media. You will find people from all over that enjoy your blog and leaving comments for you to reply to, that will keep your mind off as well.

You should really only be looking at your admin side 99% of the time. Let your readers point out coding mistakes or a crazy template snaffu....at least you know they care.

[EverythingEverywhere]

Accept that no theme will give you 100% of what you want. Find one that you can live with, then work on planning on how you would change that theme.

Install the plugin that lets you view themes without making them live. Make tweaks and introduce small changes.

I've had 2 themes in the last 2 years. I'm still not 100% satisfied, but changing things over and over would only make it confusing for my readers.

[sjr66]

Are you saying you don't need to have a theme or should it be a happy medium between theme and content.

[Bloggeries]

Better theme OCD than overly editing bloggeries once published. I used to modify a bloggery 5-8 times like a crazy person until Technorati just started ignoring me. Luckily this was a LONG time ago.

[jaypeeonline]

I think most bloggers pass thru that stage. I was once like that too and like Bloggeries, I was a stats addict. I kept checking my blog stats every hour or so. Thankfully I've overcome that and have channeled my time and effort into creating content, visiting other blogs, reading articles and participating in forums like this. Not only will this make you more productive but it will also help you promote your blog.

Btw, I still get a little bit of Theme OCD when I change my blog theme which I normally do once a year. I spent a number of hours tweaking and customizing my current blog theme.