Today we are going to talk about blog themes.

Some people get way too caught up in blog themes. It's always great to have a beautiful blog. Ugly blogs don't do very well, beautiful blogs at least stand a chance.

What people forget though is that the purpose of their blog is to guide people towards a specific goal. When you forget about this you end up choosing a blog theme that you like that doesn't convert the way you want.

But you have to balance things because you can't choose a theme that you hate just because it converts well. It's like living in an ugly house that will have awesome resale value. You just don't do it.

I have some bad news for you: I'm not going to help you pick a theme.

There are just way to many wonderful themes out there to choose from and once you go through the steps in this email you'll find that at the end of the day it almost doesn't matter what theme you choose.

I'm also going to be a bad business person and not recommend a theme and use an affiliate link. Because you're learning about how to build an awesome blog that makes money, this is one of those golden opportunities to make some money.

However, since I custom build my own themes I don't want to recommend something that I don't have intimate knowledge about because each theme has it's own level of difficulty.

So how do you choose a theme?

Work backwards just like you did with sales funnels. Ignoring what your blog will look like, what things will it be able to do?

  • Will it allow you to put a custom sign up box above each blog post?
  • Can you choose between having a sidebar or not?
  • What about the homepage? Can you do things besides having a list of blog posts?

Think about what you want your blog to do and then go find out which themes can make that happen.

With that being said, most themes will do what you want. You might have to do a bit of customizing but in the world of WordPress you can make almost anything work.

Besides, most of the cool functionality that you will end up wanting will be provided by plugins. Your theme is just the house. Plugins are the furniture.

If you aren't sure where to even start looking for themes then check out Theme Forest and Creative Market. If you read enough blogs you'll also see a lot of bloggers recommending the Genesis Framework.

Do you need to pay for a theme?

Of course not, but paid themes usually have a bit more polish than the free ones. However, don't spend weeks or months trying to find a perfect theme and let that be a reason for why your blog isn't launched.

It's okay to choose a temporary theme. They are easy enough to switch out.

Just pick one that won't chase your audience away. If you see a blogger with an awesome theme don't hesitate to email them asking what theme it is.

If the theme you pick can't help guide your readers towards a goal then it's just going to be a pretty blog that makes you wonder why it doesn't make money.

Work backwards and your life will be easier.

- Scrivs