Not sure if you should purchase a WordPress theme or just use a free one to start? Here I will list the 7 MAJOR reasons you should without a doubt invest in a WordPress theme. But first, let me explain what exactly it is and why you need one.
What is a WordPress theme?
A WordPress theme is essentially a template for the design and layout of a blog. After purchasing your hosting, you will need to choose a theme as the frame for your blog. This eliminates the need to know HTML and CSS coding. Once the theme is installed, it is fully customizable to any branding. You choose the colours, fonts, photo’s and can even add widget’s (add-on’s) to add different style features and functions.
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Why should I pay for a theme?
With all the free themes available to choose from, it can be enticing for a newbie to just use one of these. However, below I list the reasons you NEED to pay for a theme. Each one is in of itself a major reason to use a paid theme. Put together, it becomes a no-brainer to spend the initial investment to get a quality site that you will be proud of.
1- Support
As a newbie to blogging and starting a website, being able to get support for your theme is a HUGE bonus. Mine comes with email support where I can ask specific questions and get reply within 24 hours. This support is great if you aren’t sure how to do something or if you run into any errors. And the best part is that because you already purchased the theme, email support is completely free and included in the price.
2- Security
First and foremost, one of the most important aspects of having a website is security. Free templates might have coding issues that leaves holes that hackers can steal or even shutdown your website in seconds. You always want to start a business on the right foot so the old adage of “better safe than sorry” definitely applies here.
3- Control
As an entrepreneur, having control over the look and branding of your website is important. Using a free theme will often have limited options to customize the design and won’t have the flexibility of a paid theme. Even a minor change to a free theme can be a nightmare and usually requires you to know how to code and that will cost a whole lot more than just purchasing a theme from day 1.
4- Updates
The online world is constantly changing and your website needs to keep up to those changes. A purchased theme from a professional will come with lifetime updates as things change online. This ensures you have all the latest features and functionality, get any up-to-date security patches and fix any bugs.
5- Tutorials
Before starting my blog I had no idea how to install a WordPress theme, let alone customize it the way I wanted it to look. Purchasing a theme gives you all the tutorials you need in a simple step-by-step process to install, customize and start your WordPress blog. Another benefit of tutorials is that by having and going through them, you now have the know-how to make any changes or updates in the future quite easily.
6- SEO
Free themes typically aren’t as robust for SEO. Purchased themes include something called microdata which basically means that it keeps google happy. SEO is important in the long term and to keep in mind. It’s what google uses to decide where your website should rank compared to similar others. But as a beginner I believe it’s better to focus on how to drive traffic immediately to your site and not years down the road when you can actually compete with bigger sites.
7- More Unique
Some free themes have over 1 million downloads! That’s a lot of websites that will have limited customization options and will ALL look very similar. Your brand and image is such an important factor that you don’t want your site to have the same look and feel of over 1 million other websites.
But can’t I start with a free one then change later?
That is certainly an option. However, it takes time and effort on your part to set up and build your blog. How will you feel if you lost all that work? Or the frustration of wanting to do something but it simply won’t work? What if after a while, you do want to move your blog to a paid theme but that doesn’t work? It will cost a lot more to hire someone to figure out the issues and make sure you don’t lose all that hard work.
Whether you start a blog as a hobby or as a business, you need to treat it as such. What I mean by that is, how much do you spend on another hobby of yours? Or how much would it cost to start any other business? And, what is the potential return on this investment?
It just makes sense to invest in a theme.
Your theme and your hosting are the ONLY 2 things I recommend you spend money on to get started. So where can you find themes to purchase?
My Recommendation
This site was purchased from Bluchic. They provide female entrepreneurs and bloggers with WordPress themes and design templates. And trust me, if I, a complete non-techie can do it using their step-by-step videos, you can too. They have amazing support for their products as well as a 24 hour email support response time. How amazing is that for less than $150?!?!?
Check out all the Bluchic Theme options NOW!
