Blog Themes: Five Things To Consider
January 19, 2009 by Jason
There comes a time in the maturation of every blog where the owner wants a fresh look. Changing themes is not overly difficult, technically, but deciding which theme to choose from the sea of options takes some time. Here are a few things to consider, either when starting up a new blog, or when considering a theme change for your existing blog.
Five Things To Consider When Selecting Your Blog’s Theme
- Find out what everyone else is using, and then go with something different. If you want to stand out from the pack, look for something unique in your theme that has a bit of a “wow” factor. People will remember your blog for its design, if nothing else. Retro themes might be popular (assuming the code behind it isn’t also retro–look for plenty of CSS instead of HTML and tables to cut down on a bloated template). There is also a benefit of being a “first mover,” assuming you are willing to take the risks associated with going with what might be a new, untested theme design.
- Keep it simple, particularly if you have a simple topic. Unless you are writing about fancy technology topics, it probably makes good sense to maintain a simple, clean design. One of the beautiful things about my design at Frugal Dad (I think) is that it is so simple. I have resisted upgrades and offers to redesign because doing so would not be too, well, frugal.
- Will you be able to maintain it? Some bloggers are very technically proficient. Others can do little more than log in and post an article. I’m somewhere in the middle, so while I am comfortable making some tweaks to the code here and there, I don’t typically do much more than what is offered “out of the box.” If you are like me, go with a theme that doesn’t offer too many bells and whistles, and one that takes advantage of widgets so you don’t have to hand-code sidebar sections, etc.
- How much does it cost? This is an area where you can really go all-out and have a custom theme designed just for you. I don’t recommend that unless you have a built-in audience and are confident in your ability to earn back the price in a relatively short time. Most bloggers would do good to find a free WordPress theme (such as Grid Focus, or GridLock), or at least a very inexpensive one, for their intial design. You can always upgrade later if necessary, and you have the capital to pay for it. I decided to upgrade to a Revolution Theme for SHB ($59.95) because I wanted it to stand out from my other blogs, and because I wanted to test the magazine layout a bit for future upgrades down the road.
- Is the support adequate for your needs? Paid themes often come with some level of support, either in the way of forums, email accessibility to the theme’s designer, tutorials, or some combination of all three. Free themes might offer the same level of support, but it is rare, and typically looks more like what you would expect from open-source software, where the user community themselves iron out design issues, customization challenges, bugs, etc.
Do you think Word Press is the only way to go? I’m leaning toward learning CSS and further customizing my site that way (I use typepad–have for years on my personal blog, which I never needed to customize).
Personally, I’ve never seen the benefit of paying for a WordPress theme. Many of the free ones are of very high quality, if you look hard enough. And they are easily extensible if ever a time comes when it no longer meets your needs.
Of course, I am an experienced software and web developer… obviously, not everyone will have this sort of experience. But if you do, my advice is to grab a free theme and run with it. It’s worked for me, so far.
I personally believe the Magazine styled themes (love the one you have here btw) have the cleanest look – but I guess it depends on the type of blog you are running. One thing I would add and the reason why I paid for the Thesis theme is customization. You have the ability to customize your own CSS and PHP files that the main template uses. This is important as any developer will tell you because it makes upgrading very easy. If you customize the delivered code, then in order to upgrade your template you have to go back in and add it all again. Using the custom CSS and PHP files only will you require to add those files back in.
Nice template. Where can i download it?