There was a time, a little over a year ago, when I loved the layout of this blog. Green! That’s my favorite color! And it’s the color of money! What’s not to love about this theme?
Then I looked at it for a year. And on other monitors, where it burned my eyes. I’m sure there are a lot of you reading this who hate this layout as much as I do. [Side note: if you hate the layout but love the content, you can save your eyes by subscribing to my RSS feed or getting site updates sent right to your email.]
So I’m wondering if anyone out there knows someone who’s really good at designs, and knows WordPress really well… and works for cheap. I had someone lined up a few months ago, but he got some awesome job and moved away… such is my luck!
Considering you are in debt, I would use one of the thousands of free templates running around out there. Google “free wordpress template” or something like that, there are a ton of sites.
@No Debt Plan –
A free template is what I have now, and I occasionally check around to see if there are any I like out there… but there are sooooo many, and I never really seem to find one I like. I’d want something unique, classy, and probably with a custom logo.
I don’t mind spending some money on this, as it’s a business expense, but I don’t have a lot. I’m hoping to find a fellow student or someone who’s looking to add something to their portfolio, who’ll work for less.
I get plenty of hits with my blog, even though it has the default wordpress skin =P.
I recommend finding something simple and plain… then talk to me or someone else that knows how to make minor changes to it to make it your own.
It’s not like you don’t have technical friends that can make changes. ๐
@Dave –
What constitutes “plenty of hits,” anyway? ๐
I’ve managed to update and patch and alter this template to my liking… but not really. I find that if I start with a template, I spend way more time fighting with CSS then I’d like. Zack can tell you about the one week period where we fought just to get the sidebar to look the way it does now. And even still, it’s kinda ugly and not what I really wanted and displays wrong in some browsers.
Great. That’s not what I want to deal with. I want something fresh, that doesn’t look like anyone else’s site (the other thing I hate about templates) that is specifically designed for my needs. After a year of ugly template… I’m seriously considering ponying up some dough to get that.
Dave get a 1 million hits a month [abs. unique] so he knows!
But seriously there are some nice templates out there. I agree the best route is to go with a template and then some slight customization (thats what my site is).
You really just need to find someone with some CSS skills, I can help you out if your short on people (pro bono too!).
I don’t think looks == hits tho, but it helps with the retina burning that’s for sure.
I could help out as well. I use to design/code for a while but dropped out but I am now getting back into the game. To be honest, I recommend the free route as well. Noupe has a list of some nice looking themes which you could use to tweak.
And CSS is my bitch. I strive for meeting web standards and making it the site look all the same in all browsers. And this comment form with white on green hurts my eyes.
Thanks guy – I do appreciate the offers! The main trouble that I’m having with templates is that I find searching through them extremely frustrating. I have no design sense, so when I look at a template, I can only see it the way it is – I can’t imagine it with a special logo or in a different color or with a tweaked sidebar. I just don’t have the visual sense of it.
What this means is that as I look through templates, I’m looking for one that’s EXACTLY what I want… but I don’t really have a good sense of what that is, either! I know this sounds whiny, but it really bothers me to go through templates.
Plus, I’m finding that all the ones I do like are too bland. When I show them to other people, they tell me that it’s completely not what I should have for a college-age-targeted blog.
*sigh*
Exactly what are you looking for then? True, there’s a load of templates but most allow you to narrow your preference. Are you looking for 2-3 column layouts, minimal, full of graphics, text only, the list goes on.
@Chris – Well, like I said, I don’t really know. It’s more of a “I see things I like” thing, but then other people tell me they’re too bland. I guess my style sense doesn’t match up with what my blog needs.
So I guess I’m looking for something clean, with a light background, two or three columns, with a punch. Aside from that… I dunno.
http://ewebscapes.com
E. Webscapes is an awesome WordPress design company – the owner wrote the book “WordPress for Dummies”!
Are you still looking for a new layout? (I recently came across your blog) If so, Goofy Girl does some designing on the side in word press– http://design.goofygirl.org/. Hope this helps ๐