I want to finally jump on the blog bandwagon but don't really have the time to sit down and work out how to customise it given that my CSS skills are poop. I would be able to design the whole thing myself and do a mockup in HTML. I can probably work out how to add all the widgets or whatever they're called... all the cool little bits that makes things interactive like latest comments, top commentators, allowing Adsense, RSS feed yadda yadda yadda. I guess all I'd need done is to have my design coded into a Wordpress theme? Is that how things generally work? Would it then just be emailed to me and uploaded as normal? Any idea what people would charge for this sort of thing? Can anyone suggest someone who would be able to set one up for me? Can anyone suggest websites where I could find someone? Any advice at all in this area would be great because I'm pretty clueless. I know I could use some standard theme but I like to design things myself and put a bit of personal touch.
You can design it yourself. Most people design their themes in JPEG or PSD format (PSD preferred really). Once it's designed there are plenty of people who can code it around here. You could get the entire thing designed and coded for about $150 - $200 if you didn't want any hassle at all. That would give you a template unique to you with full rights. I can recommend people, but ask me by PM - I don't want to offend all the other great designers and coders I forget to mention! Alternatively you could download a free theme from somewhere like themes.wordpress.net but obviously it won't be unique to you.
Continuing on what CountryBoy said, you can download a free WordPress theme that you like, and replace the graphics with your own. A good header image can make all the difference sometimes. Or, if you're willing to learn how to code a theme yourself, you can find tutorials at these addresses: wpdesigner.com/2007/02/19/so-you-want-to-create-wordpress-themes-huh/ anekostudios.com/2006/09/21/how-to-create-a-wordpress-template-or-theme/ sorry, can't do live links yet
If you can do html I wouldn't hire a coder. Follow the links above and you will see it's not that hard realy If you can copy and paste you will come a long way. Even without knowing php code.