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What do you look for in a premium WordPress theme?

by DominicF
20 replies
Do you buys premium WordPress themes?

If so, I'm interested in what features you look for in a premium theme?

Lots of widget areas?

A selection of different color templates?

Lots of easy customization?

What other features?
#premium #theme #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author Fazal Mayar
    easy to customize is what you should look for. You are gonna have this theme for a long time, so you will need to work a lot with it and if it's hard to customize it will give a headache!
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  • Profile picture of the author danemorgan
    i don't buy them, but if I did I would look for the least and leanest amount of code necessary to get the job done. Premium themes these days seem to be about a bloat race.
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    • Profile picture of the author TelZilla
      Originally Posted by danemorgan View Post

      i don't buy them, but if I did I would look for the least and leanest amount of code necessary to get the job done. Premium themes these days seem to be about a bloat race.
      I agree with you. Most premium themes these days are highly bloated and slow. I can create a custom theme for a site in just a few hours that is a heck of a lot faster than any premium theme and looks just as good.

      I hate bloatware...

      WordPress is bloated enough by itself without adding the extra overhead of a premium theme with a ton of options.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Mysterious Marketer
    Flexibility in design and customization for non-coders, as well as being SEO friendly and fast-loading is important.
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    • Profile picture of the author Acumen
      I have gotten many headaches with premium WP themes (which look great) that are hard to customize. It is important for the theme designer to provide you with continuing support. By this I mean at least a message board where you can ask questions, but phone assistance is ideal. A chat option would be ok too although I haven't heard of this yet.

      When you are building your site, you will definitely run in to roadblocks (if you are not a good coder). I have literally abandoned themes because it is a huge hassle to use some of the features that are advertised. Continuing support is the most important feature besides the design.

      Good Luck
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      • Profile picture of the author packerfan
        Just coughed up the money for Thesis recently, and while I'm not convinced I actually need it, I like messing around with it. It's pretty easy to make most changes, things work when I make a change, etc.

        I've only had it about 10 days and only have it on one site right now (bought the dev lic), but I'd recommend it.
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  • Profile picture of the author jaiganeshv
    thesis is awesome and i use it for all my sites. im also liking headway theme now and i may buy one soon.

    about things that interest me in premium themes are its simplicity, easy to modify, uniqueness, portability, support
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarah Franklin
    the most important thing which i look in a paid wordpress theme is its customization and its design. The main thing is that how easy a domain is to use and customize and the second important thing is the design of course
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  • Profile picture of the author s62731
    I simply dont trust the free WP themes
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  • Profile picture of the author backoffice
    Free WordPress themes are not trustworthy. You can not expect best results from the sites built on these kind of themes.
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  • Profile picture of the author darrenmonroe
    Hey Dominic with me it is options, ability to custom fit, and what ability it give me to creatively market my niche for that site I am placing that theme, and features that others are not offering.
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  • Profile picture of the author dacahe
    well it depends on what you want them for, what is the purpose of the blog, but in general easy customization is what I look for.

    Widgets I don't care that much because as long as you have WP, the widgets are there.

    Also there are some places that you can pay $35 bucks and have access to dozens of really cool themes
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  • Profile picture of the author DominicF
    Thanks for all your replies.

    To the guys who like Thesis (packerfan and jaiganeshv), what is your take on buying premium Thesis skins?
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    • Profile picture of the author packerfan
      Originally Posted by DominicF View Post

      Thanks for all your replies.

      To the guys who like Thesis (packerfan and jaiganeshv), what is your take on buying premium Thesis skins?
      I haven't looked into this yet. But I'd say there's nothing wrong with it if you find something you like. It's all about saving time or not having the skills for me. I'm not a designer or a developer... so I have to pay for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brankica
    I definitely have to give my vote to Thesis. Although you need to know some CSS to make it rock, it is very customizable and clean. Also, it is SEO friendly, no hidden codes and other stuff some themes have.
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  • Profile picture of the author settingsail
    I heard many are rip offs so be careful when you buy back links.
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  • Profile picture of the author ehawkmarketer
    ok, I use Socrates Theme. I have it on 3 sites right now.
    Its not bad-- just add SEO pressor. It has built in script for adsense, which is the main plug for this bad boy. It seems pretty good and it has been updated like to version 3.0.
    Pros:
    -plug and play, Its like filling web boxes/forms. no css needed, although you can.
    -I think this is a good option for an infoproduct site dev, but not for a fully featured site, as it allows only 32 pages in addition to a blog roll.
    -built in script for adsense top, bottom, left in-article
    -pretty colors and easy customization for NEWBIES MOSTLY
    Cons:
    -Did I mention only up to 32 pages + blogroll?
    -Not as bloated since it has like, less options

    I'd include a link to it, but I'm not that smart/ too lazy
    Hope that was useful!!
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  • Profile picture of the author DPWeb
    I require easy customization and clearly commented files. It needs to be completely secure and have SEO settings built in. That makes it easy to enter SEO settings for me and my clients.

    I like point and click customizations, but sometimes you need to edit the stylesheet yourself anyway.

    I like to buy multiple premium themes so all of my websites can look very different. Security and speed are top 2 on the priority list.
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  • Profile picture of the author DominicF
    What about widget areas? Do you find it useful to have a few of them dotted around the theme? If so, what are the essential places?
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