WordPress themes can make or break blogs. It’s the decider of whether your website functions properly, whether it’s easy for people to use, and whether it actually looks good enough to attract attention.

Getting a WordPress blog to look absolutely stunning has been tough in the past; during the time where the initial themes were very basic and you had to be a coding artist in order to make things look gorgeous.

Those days are over though, as you’re now able to purchase high quality, ready-made themes that include a lot of different options for customization.

This makes having a stunning blog design a much simpler process.

Even though this may be the case now, there’s still some very useful tips that people can use in order to install and customize the perfect WordPress theme for your blog. This is regardless of whether you are a newbie to the blogging scene, or an expert.

1) Take a Look at Your Competitors

Every blog is going to look different, not just for the reason that someone else is behind the design, but because different niches will require different styles.

I’d recommend maybe taking a look at 5-10 of your main competitors, and have a look at the general design of their blog. Write down the kind of layout they’re using, the colors they’re using etc.

If these competitors are fairly big blogs within the niche, then it’s likely that you’ll know what works from examining what they’re doing.

You can then incorporate this into the decisions you make for the exact same aspects of the design.

Obviously you can’t make things exactly the same. That’s copying, and the loyal audience of those blogs won’t be happy with you for doing so. Secondly, why would you want to? You are your own person and your own blog. You have your own imagination, so use it wisely.

2) Pick a Solid Contrasting Color Scheme

Color schemes are so important for websites. As soon as a user is faced with the front page of your blog, you have an opportunity to keep them on the blog for a long period of time. If you’re color scheme is not appealing, or doesn’t really stand out, it won’t make for a memorable or pleasant image.

They won’t want to spend much time on the website.

When you look at some of the top blogs online, they have very bold color schemes, with no more than 3 main colors.

The majority of the time, the background will be white, and the theme will then have a dark colored accent. So it’s a bold ‘red & white’ theme, ‘blue and white’ theme, you get the idea.

If you take a look at the theme of the website, Successful Blogging, you will notice that it has very bold color scheme consisting of red and white.

Other times, there will be two main colors that are opposites from each other.

A good example of this that I love is the Addicted 2 Success website, for its use of bright blue and bright orange. If you look on a color wheel, you’ll see that blue and orange are opposite from each other, which makes them a great contrast.

Different colors show different emotions, so have a think about which emotions you want to convey to your audience when they land on your blog.

3) Buy a Professional Theme from the Top Providers

Whenever I buy a new theme, I buy from Theme Forest. Without a doubt, they have the biggest range of themes you’ve ever seen, and what I love is the fact you can see how many downloads each theme has and the ratings it has received.

When buying a theme on here, make sure you purchase one that has a live demo available. This way, you’ll be able to test out the different layouts and capabilities of the theme in order to determine whether it’s a good fit for your blog.

You’ll normally pay $49 to $59 for a good theme on Theme Forest, and that price is 100% worth it!

4) Time to Have Some Fun

Once you’ve found the theme you want and uploaded it to WordPress, you’re able to have some fun customizing it.

If you’ve made the right choice, customization should be pretty easy. Play around with the color scheme, the layout, the widgets, plugins, you name it.

Word of warning: If you’re a perfectionist, this process will be both fun and frustrating. Don’t get too carried away. Just enjoy seeing what looks good and what doesn’t.

Most of what you want to customize should be available to do within WordPress with just a few clicks. If not, you can go the extra mile and hire a designer to do the harder parts for you.

5) Hiring a Designer to Do the Hard Work

Last of all, as I briefly mentioned above, you can always hire a professional to do the hard work for you.

If you’re a beginner to the scene, and you don’t know too much about theme configuration, you can hire companies to do this for you.

There are plenty of companies out there specializing in WordPress design, such as Bourn Creative, 99 Designs, Web Dev Studios, and I’m even offering WordPress design services now if you want to get in touch with me.

Wrapping Up

Following these steps should be all you need in order to setup the perfect WordPress Theme for your blog. A great initial theme, with a powerful color scheme and some tweaking to the layout, is the perfect combination for your blog.

Ever thought about giving up on the whole blogging thing?

According to Social Triggers, there are over 164 million blogs in the world and most of them are getting less than 1000 visitors per month, due to the owners giving up and neglecting their blogs.

Maybe you have, maybe you haven’t. It can be very frustrating at times, and tempting enough to quit if you’re not getting results or it’s just too time-consuming and doesn’t fit in with your other responsibilities.

Even though I’ve only been blogging for a year, it’s been an absolute godsend and I don’t know what I’d do without it.

There are many reasons why I will never stop blogging, but here are 5 main things that you should remember whenever you’re thinking about quitting or slowing down on the blog front.

1) It’s A Way to Express Your Feelings

When I first started blogging, I really didn’t think of it as a way to express my feelings. I didn’t normally like talking about myself too much in case I came across as arrogant.

Although, no matter what sort of advice you’re giving to people, they love personal stories. For anyone who’s struggling to express themselves, blogging can be a great gateway to doing so as it’s easier to write about your feelings rather than talk about them with other people face to face.

Just remember, anyone could pick your blog up and start reading it, so don’t go too deep into things that you might not want strangers to know.

2) Changing Other People’s Lives

As the founder of Wealthy Gorilla, I focus a lot on writing about self-development and articles that will inspire and motivate people. Which is all very well and good, but how do I know that people are actually finding the advice really helpful?

I often Google my blog’s URL and have a check for any new places that people have mentioned it. The other day I came across across a support group website, where a girl had mentioned her lack of confidence and self-esteem.

She went on to say she found one of my articles I wrote on several daily challenges that will improve your confidence. It had helped her to gain more confidence in herself and be comfortable around her friends and co-workers, after recently starting a new job.

There’s no better feeling than knowing your making a difference to other people’s lives.

3) Blogging Improves Your Knowledge

Blog posts require a fair amount of knowledge in order to convey points across that people find useful. Although, that’s not to say that the authors of these articles already have that knowledge to begin with.

Most bloggers will research a lot of information before they compile it all into an article; so when you’re constantly researching this info and reading other articles your knowledge of certain subjects grows.

One of the main reasons I will never stop blogging is because I am always improving my knowledge through doing so.

4) Nothing Beats the Laptop Lifestyle

Imagine being able to live wherever you want, and work from wherever you want. That means no boring 9-5 job, no getting caught in traffic and the ability to see some amazing things most people will never experience in life.

The laptop lifestyle has all of this. It means you can do your job on your laptop anywhere in the world, as long as you have Wi-Fi. Isn’t that great?

Yes, the laptop lifestyle is good, and is the closest thing we could ever come to freedom in life. That doesn’t mean to say that it’s easy, and I’m definitely not living this lifestyle yet. But everyday I see progress, and the quest to achieve the laptop lifestyle is exactly why I will never stop blogging.

5) Meet Some Amazing People

Meeting people that have the same interests as you is so easily done through blogging. Coming from a small town myself, meeting people with the same interests as me isn’t all that easy. It is for the more common interests I have, but others not so much.

That’s why blogging is great; because if you’re interested in the things you’re writing about (which you should be), then the people who reach out to you and comment on your blog will have the same interests.

Better still, you can meet people from all over the globe by blogging. People from all different cultures and ways of life that you might not have experienced before, and that’s brilliant for progressing your knowledge and understanding of life.

Conclusion

In conclusion, blogging is a wonderful thing and has so many great benefits that people can benefit from if they’re willing to stick to it for long enough.

To recap, These are the reasons why I will never stop blogging:

1. It’s a way to express your feelings
2. Changing other people’s lives
3. Blogging improves your knowledge
4. Nothing beats the laptop lifestyle
5. Meet some amazing people

What are the reasons why you will never stop blogging? Leave a comment below.