Take a moment to consider the powerful things a great theme can do for your WordPress site:
Themes can instantly brand your blog and stand out among other sites. A theme gives you the chance to make your site memorable and unique. WordPress is such a powerful and easy-to-use tool that thousands of new users are hopping on the bandwagon every day. Without a unique, professional theme you don’t stand a chance of being recognizable.
They can elevate your blog. A good theme uses WordPress as a foundation to create a fully functional site. You may not want your WordPress blog to “look like” a blog. With a great theme, it doesn’t have to! You can snag all of the advantages of using WordPress and create a site that looks as nice as any professionally designed static site.
They can better suit your unique needs. Those “stock” themes can force users to pound round pegs into square holes. A professional, customizable WordPress theme allows you to choose a structure for your site that will meet your exact needs. There’s no reason to compromise the integrity of your plans and strategies.
If you’re running a WordPress-based site (and if you aren’t, you should be), there is absolutely NO REASON to rely upon lifeless old overexposed themes. You can bring your site to life with a high-quality professional alternative.
But The Problem Is…
Most of us could never successfully code our own themes. Even if we could, the time and effort it would require would make it a difficult proposition.
You could study, of course, but the intricacies involved with graphic design would take months, if not years, to master. Aside from the time investment, you would have to be fully committed to the task. Not everyone could afford these kinds of investments.
Building a perfect theme requires an amazing balance of skills. You need to be part programmer, part designer, part usability expert, and very well-acquainted with WordPress. Creating themes is a rare talent.
That might lead you to try outsourcing the creation of a custom theme to a professional. That’s probably a better idea than trying to do it all yourself, but the cost associated with theme creation is substantial. The few people who really have the skills necessary to build awesome themes don’t come cheap.
Even the cheapest producers may charge close to one hundred dollars. I have seen custom themes sell for over five hundred dollars. And that is for just one theme! The cost can be significant for a single site, but imagine the overall expense if you are operating a series of mini-sites for Google® AdSense® purposes!
You simply cannot invest that kind of money per website on top of the web hosting service, domain names, and content preparations in which you will also have to invest. You’d just end up spending more than what you stand to earn.
