When starting a new blog the question will eventually arise as to when is the proper time to shell out some money and invest in a custom theme.  No a custom theme is an investment and it can be critical in taking your site from a hobby to something more serious.  The most important thing to do is to study your site, find it’s strengths and weaknesses, look at other site for inspiration, and find a solid designer.

1. Study your site

This may seem simple since, after all, it is your site.  The easiest way to do some in depth research is using Google Analytics.  Take a look at the site overlay to see where people are clicking or is you want to get a bit more serious there are some excellent heat map applications that will use a visual map to shot hot spots on your site.  Investigate bounce rate - how fast are people leaving your site - on specific pages.  Does your site lack the ability to draw and keep reader exploring?  When looking at a theme make sure it has good flow and easy navigation.

2. Research other sites

This can be tricky because you never want to come off as copying another site.  However, looking at sites that are successful can give you ideas as to how to incorporate certain features into your theme.  Don’t limit yourself to sites in your niche since blog themes are usually universal they can all provide solid sources of inspiration.

3. Research your designer

The most critical piece of getting a theme done is finding the right person.  You can find people to do a theme for as little as $100 and up to thousands of dollars.  You have to decide which price range is best for you.  When I was researching a redesign for my celebrity site I went to popular blogs and contacted their designers, I posted on message boards, and I ran a contest.  My entire redesign cost me under $600.  It broke down pretty much like this:

Theme Coding/Design $500
Header Image - $25
Custom Video/Image Page $60

4. What to expect from a custom theme

The question you should all want the answer to before you start dropping your cash.  If you had a clean theme with strong navigation you will notice some nice improvements.  Most people, when hitting a new theme, will explore around a bit more which will give you a nice page view increase.  A new theme should also create a better user experience which in turn will have the potential of generating more user interaction in he form of comments.  My theme created specific prime ad locations which enabled me to double earning in the first month and easily pay for the theme.

Hopefully, these few little points will get you started in the right direction when trying to move on to a new unique theme.  If you would like my designers contact please use the contact page to drop me a line and I will be happy to help you out.

Filed under: Blog Design, Blogging strategies, Blogging tips