The Dilemma
As a blogger your focus should be on content. Blog design is important, but when you think about it, do people go to Craigslist because it looks pretty? Absolutely not. They use it because they’re the best in the field.
Since we’re not all Craigslists, we must merge the design and content aspects together in as seamless a manner as possible. You want to have a nice looking design, but you most likely are not strong in design itself (much less coding that pretty design). You want a unique, impressive look that conveys professionalism and passion about your craft, but you’re probably not an expert at usability (how “usuable” your site is to visitors). And finally, you want to do all this in the cheapest, most cost effictive way possible (nothing wrong with that).
Elegant Themes
Have you ever spent any length of time browsing around countless free wordpress theme sites only to be left feeling unsatisfied? Does it seem like most of the free themes are … well … free for a reason? Where are all the best wordpress themes? After going through these motions for a period of time, I decided to take a look at some premium wordpress themes to see if they were really that much better than the free ones. Shortly thereafter, I discovered Nick Roach’s Elegant Themes, and that changed everything for me.
I knew I could hire a web designer to create a nice looking website as I’ve done countless times in the past. But at $800-$3500/pop, designers can be expensive. I was interested in finding a nice looking design that I could learn to tweak and modify myself to make it more personalized and customized to my liking.
As a website and blog developer, I am frequently developing new sites, and aside from the content itself, I want each design to be unique and professional. Enter ElegantThemes.
Elegant Themes Premium WordPress Theme Club
Forget $200-$500 like many other premium theme clubs, for $20 – YES $20 – members get unlimited access and unlimited use to all of Nicks’ premium wordpress themes. To date there are 24 elegant wordpress themes, with 2-3 currently in production. He typically releases 1-2 new wordpress themes per month – the most recent being the MyProduct WordPress Theme added to this list on May 1, 2010.
I’m going to get out of the way and let Nick’s design speak for itself. As you will see, these are top notch designs that would normally run you several thousand dollars a piece (I’ve researched hiring a good wordpress theme designer, and that is the going rate).