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What do you think about Premium Themes & Plugins for WP?

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Rajesh K
from Chennai |

With the launch of indiPR & other monetization opportunities available for bloggers nowadays, I feel the look of our blogs also needs to be upgraded, or they should at least different from all those default 20xx WP themes. Since marketers and company reps are going to visit our blogs, it might as well look professional?

For my blog (Destination Infinity) I spent around Rs. 5000/- to buy a premium wordpress theme & a premium wordpress plugin. I did this not only to give the blog a stylish look, but also to highlight certain focus categories on the front page. As I move on, I also intend to highlight sponsored posts on the front page so that they get more exposure. 

At the end of the day, how much exposure we are able to give to the companies/services will determine our success, and the success of platforms like indiBlogger. So don't you think it's a good idea to make our blogs look professional (In my experience it is quite simple and not that expensive), and take steps to give more exposure to sponsored posts so that companies get their money's worth? What do you guys think? 

Replies 1 to 2 of 2

The Sorcerer
from Mumbai |

The website looks good. It looks less of a blog and more like a magazine style website provided you generate your own content to justify it- images and written. Most of the paid themes (excluding premium/free framework with premium child themes) have exclusive/built in plugins. So, depending on your future plans, you can't retain them when you shift. So it makes sense to spend on a theme whose designer has a long stand support and does keep updating/maintaining update logs wherever you buy. That said, not all premium themes are good. Some of them (like the ones from Industrial themes) are good eye candy and if its a multi-genre blog, it pretty good. But they mostly use PSD files which unfortunately I don't think you cant compress them. The the ones that are made like tielabs are pretty versatile, especially a well old but tried-and-tested Jarida. No point in spending on one if you don't have ample content and no point if you don't plan to earn money out of it. You get free frameworks and free child themes out there. Much better off with it. I read a lot  of about genesis framework. But the more I read about it, the more it sounds like a Ponzi scheme.  

Rajesh K
from Chennai |

I didn't do as much research on themes as you did. I just went with the theme that I thought looked drastically different than a free one, and solved my purpose of highlighting key aspects of my blog on the locations I wanted to, esp. in the front page. 

Yes, I am aware of the issue of having to produce images consistently as most themes rely on beautiful images to look good. Esp. the paid ones. That's why I carefully chose this one as it shows blog posts without images on the front page (at least there is an option). But the other images on the homepage are a one time job. 

I am aware of the theme-breaking issue over the years, as I had bought a premium theme five years back and before about two years, I had to shift to a new one as certain portions were not displaying properly. But I am OK with buying a new theme every 3-4 years, if the developer doesn't provide updates. 

I bought this theme from a company called Template Monster. So far I am happy with the chat-based support they provide. Let's see how it goes in the future. 

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I hope others also share their experience. 

The Sorcerer
from Mumbai |

aah, its all experience. I remember when I shifted from blogger to self-hosted WP, Seagate's former PR manager said that they are happy that it looks more like an online publication's website rather than a blog. Though it didn't matter much in terms of the actual content, the presentation mattered a lot. Maybe there are free WordPress themes that are good, but then I decided to take a plunge. It does make a good impression if you have a good function theme along with good content flowing in consistently. It's no different from having a personalised email. It may not matter much but eventually, it just may look weird. If one plans to run a site as an online publication- the first thing to do is get a good domain name that acts as a brand name in itself along with the logo. Once you grow mature in 2-3 years time, jump the ship. I know there are blogger themes that have magazine type designs, but they have limitations in terms of functionalities.

Anchit Shethia
from Navi Mumbai |

Check out my blogs. Professionally designed. Most features of premium plugins in them. 

Amount spent: Rs. 0

No, I did not pirate the theme, my friend gave me since it is a multi site license theme.

Its always a good idea to boostrap rather than just spending. Also, instead of buying paid plugins, you can hire a developer and get him to write a few lines of code to get that feature, for much cheaper price.

Also, looks don't matter always. Its the quality of content and how well you rank in Google matters. If you have hardly any traffic but your blog looks like high profile magazine, its of no value.

So, invest more in the content and everything else will follow.

- Owned and Sold more than 5 blogs.

Rajesh K
from Chennai |

I checked your sites. They are nice. Content is obviously the no. 1 factor for any blog. But if you see many top blogs that produce a lot of content, they are very simple or use default themes. That makes it hard to differentiate them from newbie bloggers for first time visitors. That's why I suggest a premium theme. That idea of hiring a developer to create a plugin is interesting.