Word Press Pros...which do you think is best?

Hi all,

Which do you think is best...

1. Buying and learning themes from one company? (like Themeforrest)

2. Or...learning WP through watching videos (like lynda.com) to learn how to make your own themes?

It seems like learning themes from lets say Themeforest and learning their USER PANEL would be easiest. And if you get to the point where you build sites for money....your customer could pick a site from Themeforrest and you could install and built it for them.

But on the other hand...creating your own themes might be better in the long run. (of course this is a lot of work---especially for a beginner).

I surely do appreciate all the help and kind comments from everyone. As some of you know...i am going through the learning curve of WP and these questions came to mind.

I need your opinion on this....

Your constructive input is greatly appreciated....thanks in advance!

~D

Number one.

I don't know your experience, but if you don't know how to code (PHP, JavaScript - jquery and friends, HTML, now HTML 5) or design... what you refer to as "long run" could be 5 - 10 years full time. Imagine building a house without a blueprint, even have to assemble your own heavy equipment to build a house.

But start with a framework. You can bend a framework anyway you like very easily. Once you know how it works, you can accomplish most things very easily without much code.

I used to jump from one beautiful theme to another, but when I stick with one company's framework... my productivity sky rockets because each design is like 70-80% similar.

It's kinda hard to start a theme coding from scratch, most designer start with photoshop and cut it as wordpress theme. If you have great design skills, good with photoshop + css skills, you might want to start this way. Search for "photoshop to wordpress theme", "wordpress theme from photoshop", "psd to wordpress theme". There are some tools that can help you that. Once you master these skills, you can create your wp theme pretty quick.
This free photoshop to wordpress video tutorial looks pretty good:
wp.tutsplus dot com/sessions/adaptive-blog-theme-from-photoshop-to-wordpress/

There are also some great framework like headway theme that provide drag and drop functionality, very flexible, and can do pretty much anything. You still have to know css and have great design skills to take full advantage of it.

There's also another option which is to start from a theme and modify it.

As a designer I find it much easier to do it this way.

Well everyone has their own way in learning things. For me, I'm more comfortable with option 1.

Agree with the above poster, use theme framework it can greatly increase your productivity.

i think it's better if you buy it learning how to code and design a theme need a lot of time, i'd like to learn it too but i haven't the time ;(

You wanna make money or make themes? You have your answer right there.

Both! I would start with a theme from a design company and learn about html, css, and php as you go. If you don't already know how to code you will have an extremely hard time designing a theme from scratch. Good luck.

You get a lot more with a wordpress theme than meets the eye. Shortcodes, pre made tables, sliders, really cool stuff. Plus, I agree with what someone else mentioned about using the same companies themes. Once you learn how to edit one from a company, the rest from the company are a lot easier!

One more thing... themeforest doesn't design the themes. They just sell them. If you go with the themes from the same designer, then you'll have the consistency with editing. In other words, don't assume that all themes on themeforest have the same methods for editing.