Prelude Part 1: Setting Up Let's run through a checklist of things you should've done by now: installed WordPress in a web or local host imported content (whether from another blog or dummy content downloaded from the web) to your new blog chosen, downloaded, and installed a blank WP theme went through the PHP and CSS files in your blank theme to familiarize yourself with its setup If you have done these things, you should now have a blog that looks similar to this: Our new blog running the ET-Starter theme with the WP .XML Test Data Import dummy content Remember when I said in Part 1 of this series that one of the great things about the ET-Starter theme is that you can easily toggle between...

Now we get to the nitty gritty fun: developing your own WordPress theme! To make things a bit easier on myself — and for my readers so that they can see a live sample — I will detail how I built the theme I am currently using: (From now on I am going to assume that you have some knowledge of HTML and CSS. If you do not, I really, REALLY recommend that you learn! I truly believe that even a BASIC understanding of HTML and CSS will help you out tremendously as a blogger. Go check out W3Schools for some great tutorials. What about PHP — the language that WordPress is based on? You do not need to know PHP to build...