Blogging 101: Blog Themes

Choosing your blog theme is like choosing which bookcase you want to buy. The look of the bookcase has to fit your style, but the objects and books you place on the shelf is what pulls it together with the rest of your room. In this analogy I actually mean the look of your theme must fit your content style, but the plugins and content you create pulls it all together into your overall brand. 

This blog post isn’t going to tell you exact instructions on what blog theme you should use – as this is completely personal and subjective to the blogger who is choosing it. What I am going to do is give you the key steps and questions to ask yourself so you’re in the best position to choose a theme. I’m also going to give some links to some great designers/stores I’ve come across, but these aren’t an extensive list!

Finding Inspiration for your Blog Theme

A key thing before choosing your blog theme is to look for inspiration. Whether you look at the top bloggers in your niche or you just go and look through your favourite bloggers sites, find a handful of blogs to get inspiration from. Take some time to go through which features they have, which features you like (and don’t like), and which features help make the blog easier to use. Write these down and compare against each other too.  

You can also find inspiration with theme stores like the ones I’ve linked to below! Most of them will have screenshots and some even have demo sites which allows you to explore the theme as if it was a blog already. Again, make a list of the features you like and don’t like, and what you would like to have on your own site. 

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Choosing a Blog Theme

What Is Your Blog’s Main Focus?

Is it more about your writing or your photos? Are you creating illustrations and infographics you want to show off? If your focus is image focused then you’ll need to choose a theme to match that. Picking the right theme is vital if you want to show off images. Some themes will showcase multiple images of a post, some will only show one that is horizontal, some will have a very small image and focus on the excerpt. Figuring out which is best for you can narrow down which theme you pick. 

What Aesthetic Are You Aiming For?

For the most part, themes are displayed in neutral colours as you will edit these to fit your brand once you’ve purchased, however there are other elements that you can look at for aesthetic purposes. 

For example, if you’re looking for a minimal blog theme, then you need to look at how many elements are on each page. Do you want a sidebar? If yes, do you want it filled with widgets? If not, is the theme editable to remove all of these elements? And remember, don’t just look at the homepage, you should look through demo sites to see what pages and posts will look like too. 

What Features Do I Want?

It’s a good idea before you choose a blog theme to create a list of the features you want on your blog. For example, do you want one column or multiple columns on your site? Do you want a full screen flexible header on your homepage? Do you want full control of fonts and colours? etc. Make a list and this will help narrow down your choices later on. 

What Can I Afford?

For most, blogging is not a lucrative income so when thinking about blog themes, think about what you can actually afford right now. If you can’t afford £50 on a blog theme then there’s no issues about using many of the free ones available online.  

Where to get a Blog Theme

There’s plenty of people creating WordPress blog themes at the moment, and you can even purchase premium themes through WordPress directly. However here’s a list of some that I came across when looking for my own theme:

• Volthemes
• Sky and Stars
• Angie Makes
• Kotryna Bass
• Blog Pixie
• Love Riot
• 17th Avenue
• Sweet Horizon
• Hello You
• ThemeForest