Getting a Great Blog Design For a Brand New Blog [#22]

14 | Posted In Videos by David

Today I am answering a question submitted by Will Kennedy. He says:

This month marks the beginning of my business endeavors as a Successful Internet Marketer. I am paying CLOSE attention to those who are in the position of where I want to be and more. A week ago I came across your website from a search on Google (I forgot what keyword) and I landing on your Blog and was like WOW…this site is clean and sharp..(Tailor Made) Armani style. And I just wanted to know how can I manage to present a blog similar to yours for MY future readers. Yeah,yeah…I know I’m a newbie and I can just get something free or cost-effective and all but I decided of course I’ll take that approach with other aspect of my marketing arsenal but not my Blog…my Blog is my HOME and I want to invite readers to a really nice manor on the hills and not a 1 bedroom apartment on the other side of town. And of course I know it’s all about RELEVANT CONTENT as you mentioned in your previous blog post but I’d like to know how can I present class and provide valuable content and the same time. I’d really appreciate your response.

First, thanks for the complement on this blog’s design. But, my concern is that you might be getting a little ahead of yourself.

When you are first starting out, your primary concern should be content. Focus on creating some really killer content to act as your blog’s pillar content. This is the stuff that you’ll parade in front of new readers to show them what you’re about.

That said, design is important. So, assuming you’ve got content taken care of, here are some options:

  • Free Themes. There are thousands of free WordPress themes out there. These are great starts for a new blog. The drawback is that your blog may look a little “cookie cutter” because it will share the same layout with other blogs which use the same theme.
  • Premium Themes. There are an increasing number of premium WordPress themes out there that you pay for. Pricing is usually very reasonable. The benefits to a premium theme is that the design is usually more professional, they are more modifiable, and they are usually better optimized for search engines.
  • Custom Design. You can either hire somebody to do it or take the do-it-yourself approach (skills and time permitting, of course). In this video, I mentioned “Ultimate Blog Designs”. Well, I actually meant “Unique Blog Designs“. I have not used them before, however I have met with them at conferences and they’re good. Plus, they’ve done layouts for many successful bloggers in my market including ShoeMoney, John Chow and my friend Ryan Wade, to name only a few off the top of my head.

So, for a brand new blog, I recommend a free theme or a premium, pre-designed theme. As you grow and as it makes more sense for you, you can look into investing in a total custom design.

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  • http://www.astro-geek.com/ Chris

    I agree that you should work on content first, but I also think that if you’re not at least somewhat happy with your blog design, you’re not going to want to come back to it yourself.

    I found my blog layout (click my name above) after hours of searching the hundreds of free WP theme sites. It struck me right away because it has a crisp, professional design, with a lot of features. The scrolling Featured Posts in the upper right adds a nice visual element to the layout. It all works well without being advanced for the sake of being advanced.

    But yeah… I’d agree that you shouldn’t go overboard right away, but you should have a theme that you like and that you want to keep looking at; if you don’t like it, neither will your readers.

  • http://www.astro-geek.com Chris

    I agree that you should work on content first, but I also think that if you’re not at least somewhat happy with your blog design, you’re not going to want to come back to it yourself.

    I found my blog layout (click my name above) after hours of searching the hundreds of free WP theme sites. It struck me right away because it has a crisp, professional design, with a lot of features. The scrolling Featured Posts in the upper right adds a nice visual element to the layout. It all works well without being advanced for the sake of being advanced.

    But yeah… I’d agree that you shouldn’t go overboard right away, but you should have a theme that you like and that you want to keep looking at; if you don’t like it, neither will your readers.

  • http://kkomp.com/ Sharron Field

    I’m still working on customising my theme as an ongoing process. I started with a free theme and am adding to and changing little bits of it as time goes by.

    I have to admit that, when I started out over 6 months ago, I had almost absolutely zero idea of css and php, despite knowing a bit about html. – I could build a computer and install/optimise the relevant software with very little if any problems; but I had almost no ideas about blogging. (A huge percentage of what I know now has been gleaned from this site as well as PCMech.)

    As time goes by I’m analysing my theme’s code and working out what does what, where, and why. This enables me to make a few improvements from time to time. I understand that David will be covering css and php over on PCMech at some point in the future, which will be really helpful.

    As suggested here, I’ve spent the early months concentrating on content, also its presentation style – which I hope has improved over time.

    My visitor count has progressively increased overall over that period, and I’m now attempting to monetize my blog to some extent.

    There’s one heck of a long way to go; and it’ll always be a work-in-progress, but I certainly intend to stay tuned and keep watching this space: Thank you for such a good and informative blog David.

    Blessings.

  • http://kkomp.com Sharron Field

    I’m still working on customising my theme as an ongoing process. I started with a free theme and am adding to and changing little bits of it as time goes by.

    I have to admit that, when I started out over 6 months ago, I had almost absolutely zero idea of css and php, despite knowing a bit about html. – I could build a computer and install/optimise the relevant software with very little if any problems; but I had almost no ideas about blogging. (A huge percentage of what I know now has been gleaned from this site as well as PCMech.)

    As time goes by I’m analysing my theme’s code and working out what does what, where, and why. This enables me to make a few improvements from time to time. I understand that David will be covering css and php over on PCMech at some point in the future, which will be really helpful.

    As suggested here, I’ve spent the early months concentrating on content, also its presentation style – which I hope has improved over time.

    My visitor count has progressively increased overall over that period, and I’m now attempting to monetize my blog to some extent.

    There’s one heck of a long way to go; and it’ll always be a work-in-progress, but I certainly intend to stay tuned and keep watching this space: Thank you for such a good and informative blog David.

    Blessings.

  • http://buzvia.com/ Jon

    There are some great free themes out there that just need a few images changed to go from good to great… it takes some time to find the good potential ones but well worth it in my opinion.

    Jon
    http://Buzvia.com – Where’s Your Traffic Going?

  • http://buzvia.com Jon

    There are some great free themes out there that just need a few images changed to go from good to great… it takes some time to find the good potential ones but well worth it in my opinion.

    Jon
    http://Buzvia.com – Where’s Your Traffic Going?

  • http://SourcesOfInsight.com/ J.D. Meier

    Strangely, I don’t think I’ve ever met a theme I’ve liked.

    I’ve noticed a continuum though. Some blog themes I dislike less than others. At this point, I’m happy with any theme that just feels like a soft landing and has the basic features: feed, archives, categories, contact, about.

    I agree focusing on the content first, but it’s also good to make sure that the first reaction to the blog isn’t “how fast can I get away?” … or “wow, that was scary.”

  • http://SourcesOfInsight.com J.D. Meier

    Strangely, I don’t think I’ve ever met a theme I’ve liked.

    I’ve noticed a continuum though. Some blog themes I dislike less than others. At this point, I’m happy with any theme that just feels like a soft landing and has the basic features: feed, archives, categories, contact, about.

    I agree focusing on the content first, but it’s also good to make sure that the first reaction to the blog isn’t “how fast can I get away?” … or “wow, that was scary.”

  • WKennedy

    Thanks for the advice David, I’m definetly gonna work on great content FIRST and then design. Keep up the wonderful BLOGGING!

  • WKennedy

    Thanks for the advice David, I’m definetly gonna work on great content FIRST and then design. Keep up the wonderful BLOGGING!

  • http://www.newwayofwealth.com/blog Tony Teegarden

    Daivd,
    Great point! Content content content! My New Way of Wealth blog started out a very basic basic theme and for months now all I have focused on is “content” with the idea of upgrading themes and such later.

    I’ve noticed your theme is ever evolving and has gone through several layouts especially since you’re incorporating so much video.

    Again though I notice you STILL focus on providing content content content yourself.

    Great leaders lead themselves day in day out. You my friend continue to lead!

  • http://www.newwayofwealth.com/blog Tony Teegarden

    Daivd,
    Great point! Content content content! My New Way of Wealth blog started out a very basic basic theme and for months now all I have focused on is “content” with the idea of upgrading themes and such later.

    I’ve noticed your theme is ever evolving and has gone through several layouts especially since you’re incorporating so much video.

    Again though I notice you STILL focus on providing content content content yourself.

    Great leaders lead themselves day in day out. You my friend continue to lead!

  • http://zemalf.com/ Antti Kokkonen

    I created my own custom theme, and it looks awfully lot like your site David. It was partly intentional, as I really liked the top right box to feature articles and add social network links to it. Like said, I tuned the whole theme myself, based on the WordPress Sandbox theme and wrote the css (stylesheet) from the ground up.

    I guess I just like black & green (looking for just the right shade of yellow, so I can go black/yellow) like you do! Check my design out and tell me what you think. Don’t send your lawyers behind me without a warning thou :)

  • http://zemalf.com/ Zemalf

    I created my own custom theme, and it looks awfully lot like your site David. It was partly intentional, as I really liked the top right box to feature articles and add social network links to it. Like said, I tuned the whole theme myself, based on the WordPress Sandbox theme and wrote the css (stylesheet) from the ground up.

    I guess I just like black & green (looking for just the right shade of yellow, so I can go black/yellow) like you do! Check my design out and tell me what you think. Don’t send your lawyers behind me without a warning thou :)