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In July, I talked about how important your blog design was, well a good way to stick out from the crowd is to get yourself install your own custom design. As a general FYI, I have only had experience creating and modifying themes for WordPress so if anyone has experience with other platforms, I would LOVE to hear about it!

When people choose a design or theme for their blog, quite often a custom theme isn’t even considered as people just assume it will cost a lot of money. I will show you how you can get a really good UNIQUE theme for $250 or less.

Do it yourself

Obviously, this is the cheapest way to get a unique or semi-unique blog theme. When I first learned how to code WordPress themes, I looked for a theme I like (general layout) and I would open up the css files and just start playing. I first played with the colors, then I added my own pictures and images. Eventually I got brave enough to look at the .php files and play around with them. I learned a ton about the software and everything that goes into making a theme. My end result looked NOTHING like the theme I started with which is what I was going for!

Buy a pre-made theme

Another option is to buy a pre-made theme that you get full rights to so no one else could use your theme unless you gave them permission. I actually purchased a pre-made theme for my personal site, ilovecode a few months back. I had been wanting to re-design it myself, but just didn’t have the time and when I saw the theme for sale, I couldn’t resist and for me, it was a great value. I think I paid $100 for it, but it was worth it. Here at TBE, we have also bought several pre-made themes to give away to our members here (this section is under development). The amount I spent ranged from $50 - $175 which was perfect for me. These themes are unique and have never been sold before and will never be sold again. I think the best part of it is, not only do you get the design, but the theme is coded so I just ftp the theme to my server and activate it; it’s as simple as that! The downside to going this way is you have to really look around and wait until you see something that you really like. It’s not like having one custom-made for you.

You are probably wondering where to get one of these themes, well you can get one in the SitePoint Marketplace in the Templates for Sale section. I regularly check in on the blog themes for sale there, in fact I subscribe to their rss feed which lets me know when something new is listed there. It is an auction-based system, but most sellers do offer a “Buy it Now” price, which I wouldn’t recommend starting with unless you are in LOVE with it.

Have a custom design made and coded for you

I know you’re scared but you can have this designed and coded for as little as $250. SitePoint also has a section where you can hold a design contest for as little as $150. I would recommend offering more but if your means are limited, then it’s okay. Once you have found a design you like, you could place an ad looking to hire someone to code it for you. It shouldn’t take more than 4-5 hours so for $20 - $25/hour you could probably get your new design sliced and diced and ready to serve!

So tell me, do you have a unique design? Do you want one? What has stopped you from getting one?

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Blogging Basics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.