Awhile back I wrote about premium WordPress Themes, where I talked about whether or not you really need a costly premium theme to be successful.
I still don’t believe that it is absolutely necessary. However, using something a little more appealing than the standard Twenty Ten, Twenty Eleven, or Twenty Twelve might be something to consider.
Many of the articles you see that discuss the need to have a premium theme do so to promote their affiliate links. There is nothing wrong with that everyone wants to make a few dollars right! Sometimes they imply that you absolutely need a particular theme, framework, or what have you in order to be somebody, which I don’t totally agree with.
You can have the nicest looking site in the world, but if your content lacks quality and isn’t that great it’s not going to help you any.
I am not saying that premium themes are a waste of money. There are plenty of great premium choices out there, but just remember that’s only half the battle. Actually probably more like one-quarter of the battle or less.
Now I am not in the habit of spending a lot of money just to try out a bunch of the paid types. There are some costly themes out there that just don’t look very good.
On the other hand one could say the same thing about a free WordPress theme. Some of them just aren’t that great. They have very limited if any additional features built into them. There are a few freebies out there that are top-notch and actually rank up there with the premium ones.
I don’t spend a lot of time downloading and testing themes for the fun of it. I just don’t have time to do this on a regular basis, but occasionally I do find one that catches my attention that I try out.
Add Some Spice With .CSS
By Rectilinium (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 or CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
I have yet to find a theme or template that I didn’t need to make some changes to whether it was WordPress or another website script or CMS.
Even if you are using a free theme or template if you have the time to learn the basics of .css you can spruce things up quite a bit.
Every time that I have ever used a premium theme/template I have had to make many changes to them too. Some are a little easier or less time-consuming than others. It all depends on how it was put together, and what kind of additional simplicity features there are included. It would be difficult to find one where the developer has thought of and added everything you can think of.
It doesn’t matter to me if you use a free or premium theme. I have never visited a website and said: “This site looks amazing. It must be a premium design.” However, when I come across a site with the default WordPress theme and it doesn’t look like they have made a single attempt to spruce things up I do wonder how committed they are to their website.
I am the site owner and administrator of DialMe.com. I provide help and tips for Boonex Dolphin on the main part of this website where you will also find an assortment of other resources. Here, on the blog I write about a variety of topics surrounding WordPress, technology, social media/networking, SEO, and webmaster resources.
5 comments
I agree with you, Every wordpress theme require some modification as every theme lacks something as per your requirements. Knowledge of css can make your work easy and you can do essential modification.
It sounds like the best thing to do is learn CSS, so you can just modify pre-existing free templates. That certainly saves money, but obviously takes a bit of time to learn something new.
I have to admit, I lack at CSS knowledge. I’d like to learn though, do you recommend any trusted source or tutorial easy to understand?
I wouldn’t go for any of those premium themes. I personally think they are just a ripped off! It’s fun if you know CSS isn’t it? You’ve helped me quite a bit in “upgrading” my theme, changing things a little here and there and I really appreciate it.
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I don’t think it is absolutely necessary to get a premium theme. Most of them you still have to tweak and adjust too. There are some decent free themes out there that come with a lot of extra features. You just have to do some searching. I have nothing against paid premium themes. They can be great too, but some of them cost a bit more than I would like to spend.