Last Updated on April 20, 2020
Blog templates are one of the things that bloggers like to change every once in a while. I think I’ve changed my blog template four times already in less than two years. I’ve always went for templates which were free of charge, which I slightly adapted to look as I wanted, rather than buying a premium theme.
Even now, when I started to experiment with designing blog templates for WordPress, I use ready-made themes for my blogs. The funny thing is that although anybody can download and use these themes I’m using, it happened to me only once to come into a blog which had the same layout as mine. I agree, the feeling was strange, it was like seeing my face on somebody else’s body, but it was only once in almost two years.
This is probably because there are so many free WordPress themes available, that the probability for some blogger to discover another blog using the same theme is very small.
What do you think? On the blogs you read, do you notice whether the author is using an unique theme or a free one? Dpes using a free theme make a blog look cheap or not serious?
This is something every blogger is thinking about. Templates are the blogger’s greatest temptation,and it’s hard to make a decision, or to be fully satisfied with it for a long time.
Yes, Jasko, and this is why widgets are great, because you can change the theme with less effort.
Hey Simonne, I don’t think free or paid is the right question to ask, although it’s a good hook because people do ask it. Rather, people need to focus on their blog’s branding – which is often their personal branding – and decide how to go about it.
People need to distinguish themselves. Taking a free theme is fine as long as you can modify it enough to put your own imprint on it, kind of like when a music group covers a song and almost makes it their own. Paid themes don’t guarantee uniqueness, they just lower the chances of someone else having the same look as your blog does.
Doh! Silly dofollowing best practices! I forgot to say who it was 🙂
Jacob
:)) Hey Jacob, only you could be Israel Jobs! I’m also a fan of free themes, maybe because I’m too lazy to make them myself. I even paid a designer to make me the site logo, despite the fact that I’m making logos for other people. Anyway, the designer did it much better than I would have done it myself.
I’d have to agree with Jacob. Personal branding is the most important—for the design and the content.
A crowded, busy, jam-packed theme is a far bigger warning sign for me than running across a familiar theme.
Aaron, I agree with you. If it’s nice and simple, it can be good, despite the fact that it comes free. And one can always change a few things to make it more personal.