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When Should I Change My WordPress Blog Theme?

Last week I dug up a 4 year old YouTube comment asking me if the commenter should change WordPress themes.

Not liking the one I had recommended in-video, they had similar needs to mine but not quite exact.

So this blogger was looking at changing the theme on a new blog.

In this video I’ll explain how I coached one young blogger on when to change a blog theme – and of course what criteria to look for in a new theme if you must pick another WordPress theme – and when on the other hand to just commit to the current theme and make it work.

If you’re going through the rather painful decision of whether or not to change WordPress themes, let us know in the comments and include your current and future theme choices!

When should you change WordPress themes?

In general as a rule of thumb, once your blog is up and running you don’t want to change your theme because people are used to how your posts look and know where to find your content.

Imagine if your favorite show on TV like Seinfeld all of a sudden changed the set or time it aired or theme song? You probably wouldn’t enjoy it.

You probably also have a good relationship going with your theme developer for support and even affiliate needs.

That said, you could definitely change your theme:

  1. During exciting pre launch stages aka before you even write your first post
  2. Once you have a few posts up but before launching your blog to the world
  3. Later on in your career, ONLY after giving a detailed heads up that your blog is getting an upgrade

Basically, you DO NOT want to just up and change your theme say 1-3 months in when you have already built up a reader base.

Changing your theme abruptly can really annoy people and break trust.

Even if you blog looks super simple or bland, keep in mind your readers might like that! They come for your words afterall.

When you should change themes scenario PLUS what themes we prefer here

So if are in once of those 3 situations above and do want to change your WP theme, let me explain to you how I coached my fellow blogger.

As I coached my fellow blogger, I made sure to highlight for them that you really need to read reviews on WordPress themes. We have a few themes below which speak for themselves for being amazing, but it can be tempting to choose a random WP theme that looks cool at first glance and that can bite you.

If you ARE going to change your theme, please make sure you find good reviews, demos of it live on their site, homepage content above the fold that will get your messages across, hopefully an affiliate program, and definitely an ONSITE support program (not a 3rd party support).

What themes has DearBlogger gone through?

If you found DearBlogger.org through or YouTube channel or vice versa, you may wonder what themes we use here or recommend for our family of blogs.

This blog is wears and is powered by the Daily Theme created by Theme-Junkie. Overall I’ve been VERY satisfied with Daily because it comes well organized out of the box for news and magazine blogs, it’s easy to remove things, and they have fast support. I am a bit grumpy they got rid of the affiliate program, but oh well.

Other themes we create with on a daily basis and recommend for readers/viewers are:

  • The World – used by our sister blog honestcollege.com
  • Sydney – best WordPress theme for travel blogs
  • Flatsome – best WordPress theme for eCommerce websites
  • Laurel – best WordPress theme for fashion blogs
  • Catch – best WordPress theme for a fast, mobile friendly blog
  • Divi – best for business websites

We use the above 5 themes to create demo sites on YouTube, but these demos have become fairly real as thousands of you guys setup real WordPress websites with them! 😉

How much money should you spend on your theme?

The budget for a new blog’s theme can really vary and the most important thing is understanding what’s a good value to YOU.

For example I actually created honestcollege.com on a free Blogger template, that was some major value!

Then we purchased Daily from Theme-Junkie for about $39 a year down the road.

I have seen projects where a blogger wants to create a whole look that another, richer blogger is using. It’s possible to really overspend on theme (this blogger bought a StudioPress theme for wayy too much) then you realize that other blogger used a professional developer too! So you really need to look at the theme, the cost, and whether you yourself can make something that looks good rather quickly. For all of the themes we recommend here, you can.

The only case where I would say it’s OK to up-spend for one of the best WP themes would be buying Divi theme from Elegant themes, mainly because with Divi Starter Templates you can make a blog or website for clients super easily and charge thousands of dollars. Divi also charges annually but you can just pay once and forgo updates.

Keeping this brief

In conclusion, the best bet for a new blogger with 100-1000 readers is to KEEP YOUR THEME and figure out whatever issue you have designing it. You can always ask here!

If on the other hand you’re in that exciting stage of just starting a new concept for a blog or website, feel free to play around with a few themes to get it right. Do the best friend test, ask here, just make sure it feels great.

Are you struggling and wondering “should I change my WordPress theme right now?” Let us know in the comments, and hope this article was able to help you!

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21 Responses to "When Should I Change My WordPress Blog Theme?"

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  2. Interesting read. Blog theme is not something you should be changing like clothes when you blog is already up and running unless it is absolutely necessary. This is why it is good to start with well known theme from the onset.

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