Why premium wordpress themes — I have used free themes
In the beginning of blogging world, I blogged due to pleasure, I like wordpress, and want to share my limited knowledge with other wordpress beginners. (Related post: Install wordpress 3.1).
So in the first months my blogging journey, I have created my own simple theme and applied this blog, I thought, ‘why premium wordpress themes’ if I can have my own back then.
I will post the screenshots of my old themes later on…but to make summary, I have changed my themes two times..and I hope Thesis is my last one. (Related post: Reasons to use Thesis, because this theme is the best SEO wordpress theme.)
At those first months, I did not earn money from my blog, I did not know what the use of premium templates, and I did not want to spend any pennies to buy stuff from my blog, I guess you are thinking the same if you’re new to blogging..
Of course, for some bloggers who have budget to purchase premium themes, the case would be different..
Why premium wordpress themes – Themes I have used on this blog
I am so excited to write this why premium wordpress themes post, because I am going to post screenshots my blog’s old looks and appearance, since the day one I set it up.
I have just edited and saved the screenshots, and I actually grinned myself, because my old themes were not bad, but the nicest thing to know is, I have created those theme by myself..
So here are my old blog’s looks with its themes:
1. January 2010
As you can see, my first theme had a white and clean blackground, with a logo saying, “My blog when I am in a good mood” 🙂
Actually I was really honest while making that logo. I like the font, and reason I changed it is because at that time, I noticed my traffics slowly increased, so I needed a bit better theme.
2. March 2010.
My second theme that I also made myself had a bit brown background and black header, as well as simple logo.
If you want to see the video I have made with this theme, please feel free to check my activate wordpress rss with feedburner post.
In the screencast, I did made with this theme. The reason why I changed this theme, was I had 69 w3c code errors and I was too lazy to validate that lots of lines of codes.
Note: The two themes above, I made myself, so I did not have other people’s links in my footer, such as theme creator’s website link.
3. I forgot when the date was.
My third theme, was Neoclassical theme. I liked the cleaness of the theme, and it was simple to modify as well.
The look is actually not different with this current look, because before I changed my theme, I did copy my blog to my computer, and try Thesis there, as well as modified it that it did not look so different with the older theme.
The result was brilliant, I did change my theme, without having layout and appearance errors.
Why I change this theme? Please visit my post why I use Thesis theme.
Why premium wordpress themes – Free themes are not 100% free
As people might think, using free themes is free. Well, yes, it does not cost any dimes, but logically, you give “free” link to the theme creator.
Creating free wordpress theme is also a way to get lots of backlinks. People actually sell their themes to others by giving the footer links to get money, and then they submit to wordpress themes directory.
If their themes are accepted, one of you who have this free theme, giving a free backlink to the person who became theme sponsor who paid amount of money to the theme creator.
This way, the sponsors people can boost their website or blog ranking in Google, because of the free backlink in your site..
And actually, if your blog has a good PageRank, you can sell links, but because you use free themes, you give a link or two for free, it is not 100% free, isn’t it?
Reference why you should install wordpress themes from wordpress dashboard and not from other websites.
1. http://ottopress.com/2010/anatomy-of-a-theme-malware/
2. http://wpmu.org/why-you-should-never-search-for-free-wordpress-themes-in-google-or-anywhere-else/
I am very very confident, using Thesis theme without worries of those malwares or encrypted codes, as well as nasty links that inserted into my blog without my consent.
Why premium wordpress themes? now you know!
The only reason why I would ever pay for a premium theme would be to make my life easier as most of them use a special theme option page… As for me… I love to play with the codes and make the theme “mine” by editing it as much as I can… 🙂
Yeah, when I had my own theme, it was easier to customize, the ads placement, or additional codes, but the error codes in validation freaked me out.
If only I did not care about w3c validator which means more accessable for my visitors, I would probably still use my own theme.
Thanks!
Hehe… Yeah I understand exactly what you mean… :S When I used the W3C validator I saw the most of them weren’t that much of a big deal… However I do adjust the codes from time to time so eventually I’ll get it all right! =)
Awesome Behrad!