You can always search for “free WordPress themes” (Google returned about 51,300,000 matches) or “premium WordPress themes” (only 19, 100,000 matches). It doesn’t sound very efficient, but it does provide a way to find the latest offerings, which isn’t a bad idea, because themes are getting better and better.

You can review old favorites, like:

• Studiopress
• Elegant Themes
• DIY/Thesis
• Arras

Or you can try sites that provide lists of themes, like these:

• Themeforest
• Smashing Magazine

Remind your client not to purchase a theme until you’ve had a chance to check it out: Will it really do what you need it to do? Is it reasonably easy to customize? Does it seem buggy? How’s the support?

Let us know if you have other favorites.

• A beautiful home page
• Multiple skins/colors (including holiday customization)
• Custom widgets
• jQuery capability (e.g. for slideshows)
• An interactive contact page (nice idea, with example)
• Ad integration
• SEO

The article was written for theme developers, but the content is also useful for helping clients—especially those who are new to WordPress—through the process of choosing a theme.

Bradley and I also came up with these nice-to-have features (what designers want in a WordPress theme):

• Horizontal navigation with built-in pull-down menus
• Automatic thumbnail creation
• A tabbed sidebar

What else? Please add your favorite features (or your clients’ favorites).