The following post on custom vs premade blog themes was submitted by Matthew Coddington from Net Business Blog.
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.
Pros & Cons of Premade (Non-unique) Themes
Pros
1) They’re free – Is it any surprise to anyone that this is by far the biggest pro for premade themes? They’re free! Free is good. You don’t have to pay for free.
2) There’s a wide selection – There are a ton of themes out there for you to choose from, especially for the more popular platforms such as WordPress. You will almost always be able to find a theme suitable for your blog’s niche.
3) New ones everyday – Designers are constantly releasing new themes everyday whether it’s in an effort to generate backlinks or just to increase their own popularity. There will never be a shortage of new premade themes entering the blogosphere for you to pick from.
Cons
1) They’re non-unique – In many cases this point alone supercedes all of the pros of premade themes. If you are able to find a premade theme that you think is just perfect for your site, do you really want to share that image with potentially thousands of other people?
2) The good ones get used by everyone – There might be a ton of themes out there, but there will always be a sort of elite group of the best themes that everyone wants to use. For example with WordPress you see an abundance of people using MistyLook. That is because it is one of the more attractive themes available.
3) Harder to generate a lasting memory – If someone gets to your site and it looks just like every other blog they’ve visited in the last week what are the chances they’ll find their way back? You might not need a good blog design to leave a lasting impression, but you had better be an amazing writer.
Pros & Cons of Custom Themes
Pros
1) They’re unique – The big one. When you get a custom theme made for your site, nobody else should have it – unless maybe your designer is less than honest. Nobody will wander into your blog and think “oh another guy using that same old theme”.
2) Helps create a brand – People think the idea of creating a brand is reserved for large corporations, but blogs (even the small ones) need to work on their brands as well. You want to be memorable. You want to stand out. You want people to revisit your blog. Custom themes create a unique image for your blog that add to your brand.
3) They’re usually much prettier – Even the best designers don’t do their best work when releasing free themes. It’s a fact of the industry, and I really do not see it changing anytime soon. The best looking blogs will always be the ones that were custom made.
4) There’s only one con – Price.
Cons
1) Price – Custom themes are expensive. You can get a decent theme designed for as low as $300, but many designers now charge upwards of $5,000 for a blog design. I sort of think $5,000 is overdoing it a bit for a blog design, but that’s for another post.
Overall when should you make the jump from a non-unique to a unique theme? In my opinion, I would say as soon as you can afford it. You can create a successful blog without a custom theme, and you may even be able to go your whole online career with a downloaded template. But why would you want to? Sure branding yourself, creating a lasting memory, and standing out from the crowd *can be done* without a good, custom theme by it’s so much easier with one.
Read more of Matt’s work at Net Business Blog.
Another con on premades – they tend to have spammed links now in the footers. You could be linking to p*rn or a ph@rmecutic@l company without realizing it for some time. Be very wary about what links lie beneath the premade themes.
I agree that $5,000 is a wee much for a custom theme. If it were a business blog with branding and a great deal of code customization, then I can see it – but a personal custom blog design? That’s just crazy. (Anxious to see your post about that one.)
The midpoint of the two approaches is the customised standard theme. For themes released under a creative commons or similar licence there are no issues with this, other than the need to give a small credit to the original designer in some cases.
Customisation at the basic end is simply a matter of tweaking some CSS values and uploading a new logo.
For many blogs I would suggest the $300 you might otherwise spend on a whole theme would be better spent on a logo. With a strong logo themes can come and go.
But as Leanne says, watch out for those spam links!
I’ve just designed a new theme for my blog here:
http://www.pixelpruner.com/images/newtheme2large.jpg
so i’m glad that post didn’t say “don’t get a custom theme”! Please let me know what you think of the design I’m just about to get it coded.-funny you should make this post right now!
Also any individual who pays $5,000 for a WP theme coding is crazy. Even $300 is old money, now you’re talking $100 to $200, obviously depending on how spotty you want the teenager who codes it to be. :P
What about premade themes that you can purchase?
I don’t think its so much about the theme. If you haven’t butchered it then its the writing that leaves a impression, but if you have a premade theme you’ve purchased you can always add a twist to make it your own
As for custom templates, you somewhat ignore the fact that there are people who make their own templates. I personally would never feel satisfied with someone else’s work, and would never pay money for it. The only price I pay is time.
I think this only adequately covers those that are new to the scene. It’s easy to get the benefits of custom with the price of free if you put a little extra effort in.
Thanks for this post — I’m probably about six months away from being ready to pay for a custom set-up on one of my blogs, but I can see the benefits in terms of uniqueness and branding.
I wasn’t interested until I saw some blog re-design work by Liz Strauss, and I was amazed at the difference just a bit of tweaking can make (and I don’t think you’d have to pay huge amounts of money for it.)
I would love to get a custom theme, but yeah, $5,000 is ridiculous, and $300 for small bloggers is really pushing it. For one of my blogs I used a pre-made theme that I don’t see very often and customized it quite a bit. I would like to make my own, but the lack of PHP knowledge and lack of time is what stops me.
I agree with WordPress Guy, paying for a logo does make a lot more sense to me, because you can take it with you wherever your blog goes.
Having said that, a good template can make a lot of difference – but $5000 is crazy, crazy, crazy! Do non-corporate blog owners really pay that kind of money?!
I was expecting the post to go a bit more beyond basic facts. I mean, anyone could work out that the con of a premade template is that it’s not unique, and the advantage of an unique template is that it’s unique. What about tracking down a few blog owners who have made the jump and interview them/give us their point of view? Are they happy with what they got? Do they regret spending their hard-earned cash on this? Did it help the blog develop, or are they happy simply from a personal aesthetic point of view?
Thanks everyone for the comments :)
@ Leanne – I agree. It’s one thing for designers to put their links in the bottom, but I am completely opposed to selling out footer links to spammers.
@ Amanda – I consider the $15-25 premade “premium” themes the same as the free ones. They have the same pros and cons in my opinion – but that’s just my opinion of course :)
@ mike – I ignore people who make their own templates because if they make their own then there’s no reason to take into consideration anything I wrote about in the article. It’s a good point that plenty of people make their own themes, but this article is for people who don’t.
It depends on the template, but you can customize and change elements of a good template to give it your own feel so when people go to your blog they don’t think it is like everyone else’s
You could always go with the approach of creating your own wordpress theme! Ya, 5,000 dollars is way too much…
There are systems that simplify making custom themes for WordPress to something nearly anyone with basic knowledge can handle for less than $300.
I agree with WordPress Guy, a logo would be a great start to a custom look. It will not be that expensive and can change the entire look of a blog. With many themes, changing the logo is a simple process, so I think it should be the first thing done to customize a blog.
I have seen some really fantastic themes. If I had a blog that was doing $100,000 a year, a $5000 custom theme could be a good investment. It really depends on your blog.
You can always find a pre-made that you like and mod it yourself or hire someone from Scriptlance or a similar service and make it look just right for you. I have outsourced this to India and Thialand and gotten up to 5 themes for less than a 100 buckaroos. Oh and the quality was nothing short of outstanding.
One disadvantage of a custom theme is time (if you are the one designing it). And using a pre-made theme reduces financial risk in case the blog doesn’t take off.
I agree with comment #2 from wordpressguy
I prefer to find a reasonable standard theme and heavily customise it to suit my needs
I’m actually in the middle of doing just that right now at http://www.roadlesstravelled.com.au where I started with the Vantagepress-Blue 1.3 Theme and am now adding all the bits I want eg:
– works at 640×480 and upwards
– completely fluid horizontal design
– semantic code
– no superfluous images or formatting
– plenty of white space
etc etc
I’m on board with the idea of customizing a premade template. Start with the standard template, change the style sheets , and get a custom logo or banner.
When I chose my template, I was looking for the overall functionality and layout. Then I did a few tweaks to that layout. Now, I’m about ready to implement my new logo (this weekend). I think the logo is probably the biggest initial jump you can make from the standard template — it’s the first thing you see when you arrive on the site.
A good alternative for bloggers who can’t afford to buy a custom theme and who don’t have the technical skills to make their own theme is to customize a premade theme with minor changes.
You can add a logo to almost any premade theme. Sometimes you can change the entire header very easily (WordPress offers this option).
You can change a blog’s colors to your own custom combination. Similarly, you can change the font. That, with a unique logo or photo can make a lasting impression on readers. For example, I think Darren’s photo is more memorable than his blog theme.
Matt,
While your argument is basic, it is still very sound advice for the uninitiated. I would still suggest that not *everyone* ‘needs’ a customized template. Although it’s always better to have one. But then again, one has to look at the purpose of the blog.
The problem with designing themes yourself is the same problem people have always had with designing websites themselves: people tend to greatly overestimate their ability to create something that actually looks good. Most self-designed themes, including mine, are a world apart from what a professional designer could do.
Or ask someone you know to make one for you! My fiancee who is a professional interface designer and artist
http://www.robertocampus.com
made mine and it is beautiful! I just told him that he should start making custom themes for others it seems rather lucrative! :)
(funny sidenote is that I used to use “MistyLook”! After I reached a certain number of daily unique visitors he made it for me as a benchmark prize! )
A custom designed theme is the best but our blog strategy was to start with a standard theme and get the site to make enough money such that we could afford to create a custom theme.
Paying for a custom theme before your blog makes any money seems silly. You might just get tired of writing the thing after a few months and you’d be out all that money.
Make money first. Redesign your blog theme later.
Note: This strategy doesn’t work so well when comparing free hosted sites (like blogger or wordpress.com) with your own hosted site. Even though it’ll cost you about $100 for the first year, it’s worth it because transferring content and links from a free site to a hosted site is a real pain.
I guess being able to code and design my own WP skins is a big plus then!
I also agree with the thought of customizing a theme. In the past, I took a 2 column theme I kind of liked and then I saw a ton of people using the exact same theme…The final straw came when I saw someone with the same theme in my own niche’. So I broke out an HTML book and added a 3rd column as well as changed the color using one of those free on line color scheme generators. I also had my brother create a custom banner for me…
I basically slowly made changes to the site. I no longer update that blog…now I am trying to use the same methodology to update my current blog.
As far as building a theme from scratch. I am too design-challenged to even attempt such a thing. I think that finding a good basic theme and making changes is the way to go until you have the resources to purchase one….
Like most of the readers here I usually try to customize a free template to my own needs, I have never used a theme just “as is “.
The more you work on different themes this way the better you become at it.
I spent last weekend changing the RockinSuckerfish 2 theme to my own likes, I think it is coming along nicely and just needs a few tweaks to finish off, like getting Sweet Titles to work at the same time as using the iMP Auto Slimbox.
The point being, to have an unique theme all you need to do is invest a little time, find what you like and adapt it for your own use.
Alot of my own clients say that a big benefit they’ve found by coming to me for blog design (my prices start at £449 by the way, nothing like $5000) is that they get alot more support, help and advice than they’d get just downloading a freebie. With a freebie, you’re literally just getting the theme whereas when you go to a design studio you’re getting full on “consultancy”.
I waited till my site started making money and then I had a custom logo made. I had it made to the same premade theme I was using at the time. I would later like to have a custom theme made but I’m glad I had the logo done first.
With thousands of themes out there it’s pretty easy to look unique. At least for the most of your readers.
I can tell quite easily if I visit the theme I know. Even if it’s customized. But then I’m one of the few who blogs and customizes his themes at least a bit.
And watches most of the new themes released.
If you do just a little bit of tweaking, or select not the most popular theme, almost nobody will notice that you ain’t unique.
And I don’t really mind if there’s a link for some flower shop in the footer. As long as it’s not porn, gambling or viagra.
So don’t bother for unique theme until you can afford it. There’s a ton of them to let you look unique
Just don’t pick Kubrik or Cutline or some other top theme for your blog.
Or you could learn how to code your own theme instead of paying daft money. In which case the ‘con’ is time, not money.
I disagree that all stock templates look the same – of course they do out of the box, but only the lazy will leave things exactly as they come.
Let’s face it, Matthew’s blog looks good, and yes I presume he paid the people linked to at the bottom to design it, but there’s only so many ways to design a blog, and that look could’ve come from a revamped template. In fact, I am sure the designers use basic templates as the basis of their designs – that’s the whole point of templates.
Ideally, I would build my theme from scratch. The thing is, I’ve only just begun using WP and I’m no expert on PHP, CSS, and WP tags. What I do instead is take a free theme and edit it. Yes, my layout may look very similar to some other sites out there, but I know that it still is a unique design.
As for the logo… yeah, I think I might go to somebody for that.
Clearly there are massive variations in what is a practical amount to pay for a theme, and it depends on how you are going to be using it. There are businesses who literally would refuse to work with someone who would only charge them $300 – it doesn’t fit into their normal payment systems at such a low amount, and would be more hassle than it is worth.
Different people will have different needs. If anyone would like, they can have my personal WordPress theme which I want to get rid off – at http://www.mrpatto.com
Interesting post!
Since I’m still a fairly new blogger, I don’t have the resouces (ie. money) to go with a custom theme, so I opted for a premade template that was free.
Also, I’m not good when it comes to web design, but I do believe that as long as the blog is well organized and easy to read, then a lot of readers probably won’t notice you’re using a free template (at least, I won’t).
Maybe if my blog really takes off and does good, then I might opt for a customized theme, but right now I’m just concentrating on quality content and frequent posts!
Great post, as always! Keep up the good work!
Maybe to minimize cost while testing out a concept and blog strategy, a webmaster can start with a premade template. As the blog grows and develops, the webmaster can then start tweaking the template until a fully custom template is needed. One step at a time. The key focus in the beginning should be on traffic and content :)
I guess its about the purpose of your blog. If you want it to have a commercial value , or trying to build up a brand as said by matthew , a custom made theme will give a unique identity. Theme helps to some extent but as we all know, content is what matters.
I agree with the “modify a standard template” approach.
A blog template design is restrictive compared to a traditional website design – there are only so many things that can be tweaked.
Over at mattwardman.com I started with Almost Spring (which I like because it is light) and I’m gradually adding tweaks.
Matt
I have gotten to the point now that I need to upgrade my (WordPress) blog, and there are certain customizations that I want to have that are neither readily available from a free theme nor within my coding/design abilities. At the same time, it will have to come in at way below $5,000 for my affordability factor right now.
If you or someone you know fits the bill, please visit my site and contact me through the contact form.
I took a nucleus theme and customized the heck out of it. It may not be ‘Super Pro’, but it’s unique, it’s me and I’m happy!
When I get big enough I will get someone to make me my own theme
I’ve got to agree with those that took the middle road. The real option for the budget minded blogger it to take a free theme and tweak it yourself. That way you can get the customization you want and the look that you want without paying through the nose. There are plenty of fine themes out there just waiting to be customized. my current fave (and I’ve got more than 50 themes installed that I play with) is dKRet:
http://themes.wordpress.net/columns/2-columns/1366/dkret-19/
You can see some of the customization on my blog:
http://www.laffing-horse.com/WordPress
Customize a pre-made theme! Really, with a well made theme the goods are basically all in CSS, which is pretty easy for even a newbie to learn. By the time you’re done with it it won’t look anything like the original. I think the bottom line is if you want to be taken seriously you need a custom looks and feel. The pre-made theme was designed with someone else’s priorities in mind. Your readers might have different needs and so your theme should reflect that.
[…] 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. […]
Well it depends on your niche, but the idea that customising a theme and getting it look fairly smart is in any way comparable to high end designers is pretty wrong. Sure some niches work well with very simple clean designs that many people are capable of. How ever say you wanted a gaming / music site that really stood out very few people could make a wordpress blog look the way the likes of Matt Brett does http://mattbrett.com/design.
I don’t yet make the kind of money where spending thousands on templates is an option, but if I did I would spend it on a high end designer in a flash because I want to stand out and my niche is getting ever more crowded. If someone just puts a banner with a logo above and existing ccs driven layout then yeah $5000 is a joke but if you get a top designer who’s really going to work with you to create a high end design and has brilliant Photoshop / coding skills then the hours they put in will amount to a lot more than $300 worth.
I guess it depends on how much money you are making from your blog if it’s just a hobby which brings in a little bit of extra cash then a free template is more than suitable.
Actually there exists a hybrid way (for the geeks, nerds, [insert other names here]
1. get your hosting and your own domain name.
2. install wordpress (imho it’s one of the best in the market, ymmv of course)
3. donwload a pre-made non-unique theme.
4. tweak and alter it to make it unique to your taste.
which results in:
1. less development time (it’s far faster than creating a theme from scratch)
2. less money (you need not pay hundreds (even thousands) of dollars.
Best of both worlds for the techies ;)
Cheers.
[…] Custom vs Premade Blog Themes by Matthew Coddington (on ProBlogger)… Matt gives both the Pros and Cons of using the different types of platforms for Business or Pleasure. […]
One can do something in between; that is, customize a premade theme. That’s what I did, and that’s the best solution in my opinion if you can’t pay for a custom theme.
A custom theme is always better in the end, but I think the free ones are ok (for the time being). Most free ones are released to get backlinks in the form of a footer link, so if you can live with that for the time being, then by all means save your money (first)…as a theme is not the most important thing in a blog.
My approach has been to use a premade theme and just modify it to match what you want, this is the best of both worlds. You can barely tell that my blog’s theme was originally the equiX theme and only because of some influences.
$5000 is so much. I design blogs for $4950
:-)
You make some great points. A unique or at least customized look is always more memorable and it is always nice to have more control over both your content and its presentation. And if you are passionate about standards and code quality and you have the necessary interest and aptitude, it is also nice to have control over your markup and other source code.
I have to take exception to what Leanne wrote about “spammed links” in the footers. I certainly agree that anyone publishing a Web site should be aware of what is going on their pages, but I would not categorize sponsor links in sponsored themes as spam; it seems a reasonable concession to the developer of a free theme. Categorizing such links as spam simply because a theme developer has asked for something small in return for his or her work seems quite out of place in a discussion about professional blogging—a for-profit endeavor. That bloggers are entitled to seek financial gain from their work, but theme developers are not seems a rather unfair position.
Like Amanda pointed out, not all pre-made themes are free and I suspect that particular pre-made paid themes are used far less than particular free themes, so customizing a pre-made paid theme may be a good way for a lot of people to get their blogs looking distinctive without the expense of original design.
That all said, a top-quality professional Web design that has not been worked into a WordPress theme can cost several thousand dollars, so $5,000 for both a design and its incorporation into a theme might actually represent a good value for a professional blog; it all depends upon the context of the project and the quality of the results.
What about something in between? I’ve used premade themes but then took them apart to add unique logo, color schemes, etc. Then it is not 100% unique per say but it is sufficiently branded to be unique. It is a lot more work than just downloading and unzipping and going, of course. Yet it is still a lot less time than starting a design from scratch.