« iMP Auto Slimbox, A Lighter Lightbox | Home | Working With ibox »

Themes Are The Theme

April 7, 2007 by: UKStevieB

Is everyone talking about themes? I guess it's probably because my awareness has been raised as I am in the middle of changing my own theme, but as of late it appears as though every other post I read is looking at the subject. A couple of weeks ago there was a discussion over at Weblog Tools Collection looking at whether two or three column's was best. Mark had this to say:
I personally prefer one column themes with a minimal second column. Most information that is put on my sidebar(s) is extraneous and could be placed elsewhere. I have also found that some of that information deters from the original content of the blog. The landing page concept is nice for search engine traffic where extra links and information on the content might help you draw in the user to explore some more. However, the face of the blog is cleaner and chock full of good stuff to read with lesser distractions.
It's well worth clicking through to see the various comments, plenty of food for thought there. This weekend Lorelle On WordPress has also raised the issue. Her viewpoint?
I believe that above everything else, your blog must “look” like what you want it to look like. It must reflect who you are and what you blog about. The choice of how many sidebars the blog requires must service those points.
I agree with most of the commenter's over there, it's not how many columns but how you use them. Overall I think that more than three columns can be a bit overwhelming, but all in all it is not how many columns you have, but making good use of them. Provide good content in your main column and make it easy for your readers to navigate your site with the side columns, keep them as uncluttered as possible. Obviously advertisements are the things that ruin most sites looks, this is where real care needs to be taken. So far I have not tried to monetize this site in any real way, a couple of affiliate links in posts but I have kept my sidebars clear. The sites that make real money out of blogging are the ones that manage to keep their blogs from becoming to cluttered, allowing their revenue sources to stand out without being too obtrusive, a neat trick but not easy to pull off. I guess this is why a lot of them have custom made themes. Which leads to the next point. Being discussed over at Pro Blogger is the subject of free themes versus custom made. Guest blogger Mathew Coddington from Net Business Blog had this to say:
At one point in every blogger’s career he or she has to make a choice between investing in a custom template or staying the course with a premade, downloadable template. There are important factors that you have to keep in mind with each ranging anywhere from funds to brandibility.
Most commenter's seem to feel that the middle road is the best way to go, customize a theme you already like, which is the way I usually go. It doesn't take too much skill or time to turn a free download theme into something that no one else on the interweb has. And as a final point on the subject, more and more of the free WordPress themes you see on the WordPress Theme Viewer seem to be sponsored, and there were two posts about this that caught my interest. The Blog Herald looks at the pro's of sponsored themes:
I know several designers who give away WordPress themes to blog hosting services for free, so long as they get a link back to their sites. Now this seems to be a great business model for people who want to monetize their theme creations. Not all bloggers can afford to pay for your themes. But there are companies and businesses that would be willing to foot the bill. In the end, everyone’s happy: users get great themes, designers get good money, companies get inbound links.
But there has been some negative thoughts about it too, as expressed by Small Potato over at WP Designer.com:
sponsored-theme designers are pushing it. Let me remind you I don’t have a problem with sponsored theme designers and the practice of theme sponsorship, as long as the designers make it clear to the users of what they’re downloading. However, sponsored theme designers are really pushing it. Some are blatantly spamming the theme viewer.
Plenty of food for thought on both sides, but once again it seems to be not whatis being done but the way it is done. Anyway, enough from me, what are your thoughts? How many columns do you prefer? Would you pay for a customized theme? How do you feel about the sponsored themes that seem to be more and more prevalent? Let me know in your comments.

Topics: Random Thoughts, Themes, WordPress |

2 Responses to “Themes Are The Theme”

  1. Kramer auto Pingback[...] A Work In Progress at Lost in Cyberspace, on April 7th, 2007 at 4:32 pm Said: [...]

    Posted by: Deteriorating Community | WPDesigner WordPress Themes on April 12th, 2007 at 6:50 pm

  2. yeah

    Posted by: google reklam on April 10th, 2008 at 12:57 am

Comments