For two years of my blogging I used free designs. Then one fateful night, I switched to a theme from Theme-Junkie.
In this post I’d like to show you how using a premium WordPress theme solved my design flaws and ultimately made me a richer man.
I hope this inspires you to make a worthwhile investment and level-up your blogging.
Time for Change
So, why did I switch themes?
Among other reasons, I felt the look of my blog was not up to par with my content.
I wrote great articles and published guest posts from ~30 others but readers were not appreciating the content because the design was crummy.
I was actually lost. Considering ditching the blog and starting a new project. But I had heard premium themes made all the difference so – I was just a bit afraid to make this lean and initial investment – so I decided to do some Googling.
“Cheap premium WordPress theme” I typed into Google Search.
My Foray into Premium Themes
I searched around for about an hour but kept seeing the same problems. Too expensive, too many weird features, too confusing to setup.
Then I found something cheap that really fit my needs.
Theme-Junkie looked like a decent bet from the start and only got better as I browsed their products.
I was able to see they offered:
- Competitive prices
- Live demos of what your site would look like
- Instant upload and activation in WordPress
Pretty cool.
Check out this pricing chart that compares Theme-Junkie to other themes:
About the Chart: A price tag of $49 for a blog theme ain’t bad these days – most are even more expensive. But Theme-Junkie was offering 3 themes for that price, which reduces each Theme’s tag to $16.33. This deal sealed it for me. It meant that if one theme didn’t work out for whatever reason, I’d have two more in my back pocket. In other words, less risk that I’d waste my money and feel like an idiot.
(Having used Theme-Junkie for a while now I’d willingly pay $49 just for one theme, but that’s beside the point.)
The themes I ended up buying were Daily, Forester, and Garden.
Go ahead, browse through them real quick then let’s go over a few features you get at TJ.
Here’s what I got for $49:
Post questions and come morning you’ll have an answer, every time. I used the forum the other night to create my first squeeze pages like this one. The forum is a good place to ask general blogging questions too.
You can bet you won’t see you blog’s look elsewhere because Theme-Junkie is still relatively new. This also means they’re more willing to help you design it.
My favorite three are the preset 125 x 125 ad boxes like those you see on Daily Blog Tips, the featured content slider that automatically swipes through new posts, and the javascript light box that displays new content and new comments. Two of these are active now at Honest College.
This neat feature that lets you play with code with zero risk of ruining things. Just copy paste then hit save, or delete to remove the effects.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the minor details made my blogs so successful after I went Theme-Junkie. Things like grey borders and organized menu tabs really help and impressive visitors.
Uploading A New Theme
This part is easy. Once you purchase your new theme you’ll be redirected to the user dashboard. From here, download the .zip file of your theme to your hard drive.
Then head to WordPress, and in Appearance – Themes – Install Themes you can upload and activate the new theme!
The theme will instantly start working. You can also instantly revert back to normal and dump the theme if you want, so no worries.
Back to My Story
After buying my Theme, I was up ’til about 4am designing.
It was a blast – and feedback was already coming in.
“Nice!”…”Dig the new look!”…”Whoa bro!” were a few comments.
But I had to turn in. The next day we’d visit Troy (where the Trojan horse story actually took place) so I needed to be a real person.
I was elated to have a new look on my blog, and the $49 that came out of my PayPal already felt like a good investment. Ya know, those investments you’re instantly glad you made?
Covering My Costs and Then Some
So here’s the part you perhaps were waiting for.
In the days that followed, I found new advertisers were contacting me on the regular. Not like multi-million dollar deals, but about five to ten advertising emails per week as opposed to one, if I was lucky.
Trust me, when you’ve experienced the lows of blogging, seeing those little “can I advertise with you” emails is really encouraging.
It seemed (go figure) that looking like a legit, respected website as opposed to “any old blog” made a big difference.
Of course, this meant more responsibility too. If you don’t want more attention on your blog, more emails, comments, etc, I guess I would not recommend buying a theme.
But within about a week I had secured 4 ad deals, with really awesome companies, and was paid on two consequitive Fridays.
Wahoo! Amazon shopping spree, here I come 🙂
My net income for the month (July 2012) looked roughly like:
$500 ad revenue – $49 for 3 new themes – $6 hosting cost = $445 profit
And again, I was on vacation 😀
Have You Tried Premium?
As hopefully you can see, a new premium theme from any provider really can give your blog a facelift. Not only do readers respond positively but it’s a good move for yourself. I think investing in my own business pushed me to work a lot harder.
So, a good idea. Even if your wallet hurts for a day or two.
I’d love to hear from you if you have ever wanted to buy theme, and help you new Theme-Junkie users get setup! More the merrier.
Just don’t totally copy my look 😉
Seeya in the comments.