Why are blog themes so important? Because it tells your visitors who you are. Your theme displays your personality, showcases your work, and is part of your brand. Different bloggers pick different themes based on their needs, theirs likes, their wants, and their work or product.
The blogging community literally has access to thousands of blog themes. Many are free while others are paid. Paid themes usually have better support and more options, but not always. Whatever theme you choose be sure to make sure it has great support. In my opinion, that is a number one concern.
Plus we have a fun giveaway for you at the very bottom of post! So be sure and read all the way to the end.
Blog Themes: Let’s Make Your Blog Awesome
Today on Let’s Make Your Blog Awesome we will hear what 11 bloggers have to say about their blog themes. Knowing what other bloggers are choosing can help you make a better decision for your own blog. Be sure to visit their blogs to see how their theme or template is working for them!
I am on Blogger. My current theme is Payton via Designer Blogs. I chose this theme because it’s clean and has the colors of my old logo. (I need to redo my theme soon.) The photos really stand out as well. And I’m a visual person. – Fatima from Motherhood Through My Eyes
I’m using Florence for WordPress. In all honesty, I thought it wouldn’t have that stupid featured photo thing, but it does and now I’m stuck with it. Florence looks nicer than my former theme. I wanted a theme that isn’t heavy on images. I have photos on my blog but I’m annoyed by having to set up the featured image. – Olga from The European Mama – NOTE: Isn’t Olga refreshingly real? I told her I was going to share this just for giggles. What can we learn from this people? Ask questions before you buy. Thanks, Olga 😉
I’m on WordPress. Recently, I bought Elegant Themes as framework and I built the theme myself. I chose Elegant Themes because it’s user-friendly and allows me to make sites for 3rd parties. – Debbie from Debbie Rodrigues
I’m on WordPress and I use the amazing Tweak Me via Nosegraze. It is fully customizable. You can pick all colors and styles using an interface rather than messing with the style sheet. It is easy to change looks and rebrand without a new theme. Just update settings! I just finished rebranding and I’m very happy with it. – Julie from Fab Working Mom Life
I use WordPress and a Genesis Theme called Lifestyle Pro. It’s very user-friendly and easy for me to manipulate the code the way I want. Still find things I want to change all the time! LOL! – Nicki from Lewis Lane Designs
I use WordPress, Genesis Framework, and Dynamik Website Builder. Dynamik Website Builder is a drag and drop, fully customizable ‘child’ theme, allowing me to change everything on my blog without coding. I absolutely love it and recommend it highly. They have many ‘how to’ videos that walk a newbie through each step. – Sarah from Ruffles and Rain Boots
I use WordPress, Genesis Framework, (best decision ever), and Pretty Creative by Pretty Darn Cute Designs. It has a built-in customizer. I love how my site speed increased once I switched to Genesis Framework and Pretty Creative. The support from Pretty Darn Cute has been truly wonderful. Every time I have a question they help me, and they have a great tutorial for setting things up. They will also do switch and setup if you are nervous about it. I love them so much I became an affiliate for them. I love the layout of my homepage, but she also has more traditional blog themes available. (I just need to be different. LOL!) – Haley from Haley’s Vintage
[bctt tweet=”Blog Themes & Your Brand: Learn all about themes & templates with 11 #bloggers. #ibabloggers”]
I’m on WordPress, (I was on Blogger for one year), with Genesis Framework. I found a cute template on Etsy that I love and it was super easy to install, (that’s why I chose it!) The theme is called Sweet Taylor. – Shannon from Daily Momtivity – NOTE: Sweet Taylor is no longer available but Etsy has hundreds of themes and templates for both WordPress and Blogger.
When I launched Deliberate Homeschooling, (my second blog), I decided to go with a different theme than what I had on The Deliberate Mom. I chose the free version of the Customizr WordPress theme because it was ranked as a highly responsive theme. It’s very customizable and I love the array of options to make it my own, (from the front page slider, to the featured pages, etc.)
I was initially concerned that it wouldn’t be on the Genesis Framework, which is what I am used to. After doing some research, I found out about the Childify plugin and now I can do whatever modifications I want without losing my customizations. I ended up liking the theme so much, I switched The Deliberate Mom to it as well. There’s a bit of a difference on the blog post pages because I set up Deliberate Homeschooling to have the featured image as a header on each page – it gives it such a unique look! I couldn’t do that with The Deliberate Mom because it would take too much time to go back and change 5 1/2 years worth of featured images.
I love it… and it’s FREE! – Jennifer from Deliberate Homeschooling
I use WordPress and Headway Themes. I have used them for years because of the drag and drop customization. I’ve heard great things about the Genesis framework, but I used to have to change my theme every couple of months because it wouldn’t work with this plugin or that plugin. It would totally kill everything if I tried to change a font… I haven’t had any problems like that with Headway so I’m very happy with it and totally recommend it! – Jessica from Jebbica’s World
And last but not least, I get to share my theme! I am on WordPress.org and I have Josephine. I picked this theme from another blogger’s blog… I asked her if I could steal it 🙂 I fell in love with it for showcasing my photographs! When she told me she bought it on Etsy, I promptly went there and bought it.
Guess what? It was a Blogger template and I use WordPress! I was distraught! I was so excited about the theme I forgot to check the platform. After some serious searching… I found Josephine for WordPress! Happy, happy, joy, joy! (but read to the end of this post, because my goof is your gain!)
The support is amazing. Slobodan, (support guy), puts up with my crazy emails and questions on a regular basis… (I am a little OCD about my blog.) Josephine is powered by Live Composer. Live Composer is a drag and drop page builder plugin. I feel like I have some serious control over my blog design now thanks to this plugin. Here’s a preview 😉 – Tina from Los Gringos Locos
What Blog Themes are You Using and Why?
Leave me a comment below and have a wonderful week wherever you are in the world! Signing off, Tina
WIN a premium, easy-to-use Blogger Theme!
If you’re ready to upgrade your Blogger-based blog, look no further! Josephine is a beautiful and responsive Blogger Theme that’s just waiting to be uploaded to your site. You’ll be able to customize and adjust to your heart’s content.
Because Tina bought the premium template Josephine (for Blogger instead of WordPress), she’s graciously agreed to donate it for our first template giveaway. Please note that only the theme is included: no support or installation is included in this giveaway.