I’ve realised that picking the right WordPress theme is like picking the right new outfit. It’s not an easy decision. Or should I dare say it’s far more important than clothes shopping. Each day we get the choice to wear a new outfit, but our website doesn’t get that luxury (unless you want a very inconsistent looking blog!)

So my predicament was – I just couldn’t decide on the right WordPress theme for this blog. If it were clothes that I was chasing, I was looking in all the wrong places.  Perhaps I was shopping at too many op shops and $2 stores. To be honest, I didn’t see the value in forking out money on themes when I could get plenty for free.  The problem was, I just couldn’t find the right theme that ticked all the right boxes for free.

Free Theme Authors Want One Way Links

As the old saying goes, there is no such thing as a free lunch. You may ask however, then why are there millions websites offering free themes?  In return for a free WordPress theme, their website link gets embedded on every page of your blog.  Now if that theme gets used on thousands of blogs, that’s an excellent way for the theme author to achieve a lot of one way links! If you are going to use a free theme, check out what link the theme has embedded into the footer. In most cases, you will not have the right to remove this link.

Limited Customisation

One thing I’ve noticed with a lot of free themes is the limitations to the overall customisation of the theme.  Because I haven’t kept up with my coding skills, it can take quite a significant time investment to tweak the style sheets.  So the problem I’ve found in the past is that I’ll trial a free theme – find out its not exactly what I wanted, so I’ll move onto another.  I’ve never 100% satisfied with the theme and therefore I’m contstantly on the lookout  for something else.

Cherry Theme Customisation - Elegant Themes

My New Paid Theme

So after a lot of “window” theme shopping, I finally made a purchase. A friend of mine, Andy Pudmenzky – recently upgraded his blog to a WordPress system and used one of the themes from Elegant Themes.  After having a look through their collection, I was actually quite impressed.

So I paid the $19.95 to download my chosen theme (Cherry Truffle). However, not only am I buying a theme – I’m also purchasing the subscription to access over 30 different themes. Most of them have various inbuilt colour schemes and a theme specific control panel where you can easily change the look and feel of the blog without touching any code.

Although I’m sure there are a lot of other themes that are far easier to customise,  I’m quite happy with the variety of themes to choose from with Elegant Themes.  I certainly can’t complain with the price. The only question is, I wonder how long I’ll be happy with this theme before I go theme shopping again….? Time will tell!

Other Paid Alternatives

I see Affiliate Theme and Thesis being advertised everywhere. If you have a higher budget and you would like one of the highest levels of customisation without touching code – you’ll no doubt want to check out Affiliate Theme and Thesis. I would recommend reading a review of both themes by Yaro Starak from Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, as I haven’t had an opportunity to test these themes myself.

So if you are on the hunt for a new theme, identify what features are most important for you. Don’t automatically rush directly to the ‘free bin’. If you aren’t going to be completely happy with a free theme – perhaps it’s time to spend a few dollars on a blog makeover.  You can easily get a much higher level of customisation and professionalism by paying a little money for a subscription service. In the long run, it’s time you are saving!