The author of this post is Brad. He runs a personal blog at http://bradblogging.com that focuses on personal blog tips and blog help and only original content is presented to the readers. You can subscribe to his RSS feed for more update.
Everyday, WordPress developers all across the world are creating themes for their visitors to use, free of charge. Although that newly downloaded theme may seem like enough for your WordPress blog, times are changing.
2 new blogs are created every second, according to Technorati which tracks all of the blogs on the internet. Most likely, they will not be very happy with the default “Kubrick” theme that WordPress comes installed with and will search the internet for a free theme that reflects their content. If you found the theme on the search engines under a basic term, chances are other people will too.
Suddenly, your sharing that same look with 100+ blogs on the first day, and then that number keeps rising thereafter. How will you be remembered if nothing is unique (design wise) about your blog?
The purpose of this post is to educate readers on why having a unique blog design is crucial to success.
Although content will always be king, the way you present the content is a very close second.
thoushallblog.com’s design is very unique (*note* - If this is a bought template, I didn’t know because there were no footer links. I assumed this template was custom designed). It creates a robust atmosphere to present his point of view of blogging. Thus, you can easily remember this site for it’s content, partly because it’s not using the same generic template that others are using.
There are hundreds of Wordpress Designers out there just waiting for you to order one from them. Give your blog something to remember it by. The free one you are using right now may look good, but it doesn’t separate you from the others that are using it. Personally, my web design firm designed my blog by hand and I gotta say, “It really is great to know you’re the only one out there with that look”.
What are your thoughts on free WordPress themes?
Before I’m pulling the plug here, I’m still offering any interested fellow blogger to showcase your writing as a guest blogger. If your blog requires a little exposure and publicity, what better option than to write a guest post here?
If Brad can do it, so can you.
About This Blogger
Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
Allen Taylor
thanks nice post
Thanks Allen :)
Glad you liked the article.
Brad Blogging.com - Personal Blog Tips And Blog Help’s last blog post..Conducting an Experiment - Advertising And Guest Posts
Great post Brad. In todays age is all about being different and standing out from the crowd.
This is good words from a fellow blogger . And i know this for a fact your blog theme is really unique. Which is a necessity in todays competitive blogging world!
b/w I am new to blogging i don’t know what a guest post is . Is this an example of it ?. I would be happy to write up something for you bro.
Thanks ,
Asim
@Asim - Yes, buddy. This is a guest post from Brad. Send over your article to me and if I like what I see, I’ll publish yours on the next slot.
Oh ya, don’t forget to visit BradBlogging.com and be active in his community. I’ll see you around, Asim.
Nowadays, the purpose of publishing free wordpress theme is for backlink, some designer neglected the importance of “QUALITY”.
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Happy to see that you are also allowing other posts on your blog.
I would like to also write a post on your blog. Let me know what i need to do?
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@Nihar - Hey, hey, hey, glad to see you around, pal. Send me your best and original article on blogging tip and if I like what I see, I’ll publish yours on the next slot.
However, I reserve the right to change the post title for SEO purpose. You know where to contact me, don’t you?
Thanks for the post Brad, will check out your site.
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Hey Yan,
I may take up your offer of a guest post here. I guess what we have done in exchanging posts between us is quite a different format although the sharing and working together essentially is the same. I will let you know once I clear a few things I’m occupied with now.
I enjoyed your post Brad, thanks!
Peter Lee
Thanks for the tips. It really helps me and opens up my mind to create more blogs.
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Hey, this is a nice post. Actually I like the grungy look of this blog, it creates a new “atmosphere” and it’s really different from other blogs in this niche.
By the way I had just launched my blog a few days ago and it’s got a pretty hot design (if you ask me!). You guys better check it out if you’ve got time. ;)
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My Next theme would a Purchased Premium Theme, at present am doing with a free theme which is highly customize my me. It has been so much tailored even If the original theme creator would visit my site i am sure he will not find any clue about am using his theme.
I am currently learning the ropes of theme design because i am too broke to have one made. One of the easiest ways is to change an xhtml/css web template into what you want your site to look like and then convert it into a wordpress theme. Thats what I did and now i have a unique theme that I will be using on one of my sites. :)
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I have one blog with a theme I paid for, and several free themes I use on other sites from a web search. The paid theme has the benefit of assistance from the creator to help me get it working properly, and since it was more complicated with several special features, the help was a big bonus. I plan on buying another theme for a project I am starting next month.
When I can earn enough from my AdSense, then I’ll definitely want to get mine custom-made!
I love my current theme but as Brad said, there are so many out there now using the same theme :’(
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Great article, Brad! This is why I design my themes from scratch and refuse to use templates.
yes, a custom theme is good.. but i think it doesn’t really affect if you really have good content.
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This isn’t a custom theme, it’s the Sketch’d theme by Liam McKay.
download free themes and customize from those is also great. you will learn css and other stuffs
@ EmmaB - Thats a great idea! I usually just “create” the look of my designs in photoshop and then code it in Notepad++.
@ Micheal - I know what you mean, Some Free themes look awesome, but they lack originality.. (The Copyblogger theme for example?)
@ gadgets - Stick it to the Man! LoL.
@ Derek - I agree. Good content is great, but a crappy design doesn’t benefit it.
@ Nick Sports Blog - Thanks for the update. I knew Yan was up to something :)
@ Pat - Thats definitely how I learned to code. I looked at the code and what it did and made little tweaks.. Eventually I just started to understand it and it grew from there!
I am currently using a free wordpress theme, I just modified to my liking. I have been working on a custom theme for the blog, but have run into a few road blocks so I will be hiring someone to create my theme for me.
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I think that I would just spend my time on creating a unique theme. I’m just learning on how to do it.
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Just make sure your theme is Se0-optimised. The default WP install doesn’t do this well.
I wouldn’t mind doing a guest post…let me know if your invite is still good…
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