Modifying Free WP Templates

70 Responses to “Modifying Free WP Templates”

1. Reverse Mortgage on January 26th, 2009 4:27 am

   Even if we use any one of the wp themes, we should customize it using different layout and widgets research.

2. Todd from Scented Candle business on January 26th, 2009 4:57 am

   I’ve gotten much better over the past year and a half at modifying my wp-themes … both free ones, and those that I paid for.

   When I first started, pretty much all I could do was change colors. But once you get a bit more comfortable with editing php in the theme files, you can really pretty significantly customize just about any theme out there.

   Two of my favorite theme designers Justin Tadlock and Nathan Rice, also offer some pretty good customization tips on their blogs (their name .com)

   Todd

3. John from Contemporary Furniture on January 26th, 2009 6:47 am

   Great job on the two sites you mentioned. One can easily see that they use the same template but still as easy to find the things they differ on. I think it is great that you are planning to offer wp theme modification, I’m sure some people are having trouble with fixing how their blog looks like.

   And yeah, I’m with you on that “text” widget. I think that’s one of the best widgets in a WP theme.

4. real estate broker philippines on January 26th, 2009 8:42 am

   yah I agree with them. There are too many WP themes. If you want to be unique, you should customize the templates like header or footer. In that way, Your WP are unique
   when it comes to design and layouts. Thanks for sharing your blog.

5. Gary from gatwick parking on January 26th, 2009 2:57 pm

   There are indeed an abundance of good, free templates for Wordpress. Modifying them to suit your specific needs is a breeze – even for someone unfamiliar with PHP. Your offer of a free Wordpress theme modification service is exceptionally generous. You will certainly make lots of friends but may find you have no free time left…

6. Mark from Odzyskiwanie danych on January 27th, 2009 3:49 pm

   It’s really hard to find a truly unique WP template – there are too many blogs and not enough templates. The only way you can be sure you have a unique template is … design one yourself! And it doesn’t need to be fully original, you can always “fix” one of the free ones

7. ajay from Christian Counseling Dallas on January 28th, 2009 4:00 am

   hi . that was such a great post. Thank you for such information. It is Very helpful post . I like the information about templates . this is really very helpful for creating sites.
   thank you..

8. Kermit from Minneapolis real estate on January 28th, 2009 7:45 am

   I have been using the Thesis theme on some of my blogs. It was touted as a theme you could work with without knowing any code. Well, they keep upgrading, and you have to learn how to do special functions php stuff. I don’t seem to need to make these sorts of changes to the free themes that I use.

9. Shashank from SEO Consultant India on January 28th, 2009 3:24 pm

   Thats grt, Thanks for the info. Hope you bring such useful info for us in future also Thanks again.

10. ajay from sitecore on January 29th, 2009 3:51 am

    hello,
    Thats great information. thank you for support , the information provided by you is of great use. carry on ,
    Thank you…

11. Lisa from Seo Cart on January 29th, 2009 1:21 pm

    These tips sound great and all … but what about those that are barely computer literate, like me ? Suppose I wanted to make the changes myself … is there a single software that I could use ?

12. ajay from design competition on January 31st, 2009 6:31 am

    Hi, Before reading this i just thought that we can edit the theme.. thanks for the information provided plz… continue, sharing…

13. snv from Christian Counselors on January 31st, 2009 12:44 pm

    hello thats great
    These tips sound great. thank you for sharing the information…

14. custom t-shirts on February 3rd, 2009 6:13 pm

    I think if you provide a small fee for customization for blog sites, you will do well. It is very hard to customize if you don’t know what you are doing. Going through the php script gives people headaches. If you are good at what you do, provide the service and make your money! I like the way you made this blog, it’s simple but shows you understand what you are doing.

15. Ernesto from Real Estate Investing Business Plan on February 3rd, 2009 6:27 pm

    In my case, as much as possible, I just try to search really hard for those wp themes that suits my taste and ready for adsense. But I have a problem with one of my wp blogs. It has almost 200 visitors a day, yet it only has one or two clicks. Very frustrating indeed. I tried so many free themes that are adsense optimized already, to no avail. I wish you can help me with this problem of mine. This particular blog is about pets.

16. bleuken from Web Design on February 4th, 2009 1:36 pm

    Mine, in some of my WP blogs, I usually change the color scheme of the images used by the theme that I use to fit with the ‘personality’ of the purpose of the site. Usually I’m doing this by using the colorize option of the Hue and Saturation feature of PS then I changed a bit the header image.

17. sam from Kampanye Damai Pemilu Indonesia 2009 on February 4th, 2009 11:21 pm

    I use free wp theme for all my blogs too and I always customize those theme almost 65% from the original, so it will look diffrent…

18. Lex on February 5th, 2009 1:37 am

    I usually only modify them just enough to be functional and noy look like a carbon copy of someone elses blog

19. Business Blog on February 5th, 2009 5:46 pm

    I agree that it is good to use a free template and then to adapt and modify it to make it look and feel slightly different to others

20. free meditation training videos on February 7th, 2009 5:37 pm

    WP templates,adding it on your own WP is good.but add also other free features available via internet to improve your technique.

21. Hospital executive on February 12th, 2009 5:27 am

    Thats great information. thank you for support the information provided by you is of great use

22. tracy from invoice factoring on March 4th, 2009 9:06 pm

    This is what I have done for almost every blog I have ever setup. Why reinvent the wheel so to speak when you can get a nice one and polish it up to suit your style.

23. thom on March 6th, 2009 8:22 pm

    The only thing I modify is making them do follow… and once in a while adding things here and there.

24. mortgage modification on March 30th, 2009 5:55 pm

    I think it is a great idea for you to set up a service doing limited WP free template modifications for a fee. The amount of people setting up WP blogs as an alternative to designing a complete website for their business is growing vastly and the demand for a service like you have described would be huge. Great job thinking outside the box and coming up with a great solution to a growing need in this economy.

25. Joey from Invoice Factoring on April 9th, 2009 9:45 pm

    Excellent post, there are actually a lot of free templates for Wordpress. We could easily modifying them onthe fly… Thanks a lot

26. fuadi from online bussnines on April 25th, 2009 5:08 pm

    I usually only modify them just enough to be functional and noy look like a carbon copy of someone elses blog

27. Mobile DJ Perth on May 30th, 2009 5:20 pm

    I have been thinking of changing the look of blog, and I was making enquiries to find someone to do it. As you said, they are very expensive. Your offer is great. will get back to you.

28. naveed on June 3rd, 2009 4:43 pm

    it is a nice a nice post and keep it up and working more harder then harder and i wish u best of luck in your future. And remember i take bundle of experience from ur this post and nice work done enjoy lot off and working lot of.

29. Miranda from East Anglian Saab Dealers on June 12th, 2009 2:51 pm

    Very nice post. There are actually a lot of free templates for Wordpress but my advice is to modify them to make it look like your own. Also there’s no point re-inventing the wheel, using what is available freely to you is much more convenient and useful. Cheers.

30. nishant from 21st DJ on June 17th, 2009 7:48 am

    Hi,
    I have been using the Thesis theme on some of my blogs. It was touted as a theme you could work with without knowing any code.
    Great job on the two sites you mentioned. One can easily see that they use the same template but still as easy to find the things they differ on.
    Thanks.

31. testking 220-601 on June 20th, 2009 11:33 am

    If you don’t know what you are doing. Going through the PHP script gives people headaches. If you are good at what you do, provide the service and make a money! I also admit and like the way you made this blog.

32. Joe from Saab Dealers on June 23rd, 2009 11:49 am

    something that a lot of us tend to forget, make your blogs ‘do follow’ ! I believe that it encourage comments and more traffic to the blog as well. But i am aware that a little bit of control/moderation is needed to prevent spammers flooding the blog with garbage.

33. Gillian from Office Design on July 14th, 2009 10:24 pm

    Cool cool. i have a very nice blog about office design and refurbishment. But well i fear that spammers can attack my blog. It seems so easy for them with this plugin’…

34. Monika from Office Refurbishment on July 20th, 2009 11:13 am

    well you can also implement anti-spam software on your site to control spams. I dont know on which platform your blog is implemented on but if you’re using wordpress then akismet could work well. have a look http://akismet.com/ Good luck.

35. ORiOn on July 24th, 2009 11:57 pm

    What my personal opinion is this is wt most wp theme developers doing. it is easy to change a template by just altering the sidebar graphics and jst other few elements. However i dont know this is legal or not.

36. Advice for women on August 4th, 2009 5:50 am

    “So, you want to change the look of your blog, or you want to start a new blog. You want your blog to look unique, you don’t want just another Wordpress looking blog, so what do you do?”

    I think everyone wants to come up with unique-looking templates for their blog. Thanks for the tips.

    “My answer is, use a free template that has the look and features you want, and then modify it if necessary to fit your specific needs.”

    Using a free template is definitely a key in coming up with blogs that stand out. Are there any more tips for coming up with creative-looking blogs?

37. GoChi Juice from gojicapital on August 14th, 2009 7:56 am

    If you want your WP theme to be unique you must be creative in modifying your WP themes. There’s lot of WP theme that you can download but it’s more nicer if you make your own design for your site. =)

38. wordpress developers on October 10th, 2009 7:49 am

    Its really amazing and alwary try to create creative wordpress template but if your want more functionality then its not possible

39. Phillip from Invoice Factoring Companies on October 11th, 2009 7:43 am

    Hi this is great information on free word press templates… It’s always important to get the template right so so that all the billions of blogs out there don’t look the same.

    Many thanks for your support on this

40. trailers mobile marketing on October 12th, 2009 7:17 am

    Yes I do agree with you. I am using wordpress for 6 months. There are too many WP themes. If you want to be unique, you should customize the templates like header or footer. we can upload the banner also so that your Wordpress will be unique. Thanks for sharing this post.

41. Tim air freight shipping on October 12th, 2009 9:16 am

    Nice to hear. I am a good fan of wordp ress. I love it. Its great features allow me to create pages easily. And now these templates will make wordpress more beautiful effective.

42. pizza dillingen on October 16th, 2009 6:36 pm

    am using wordpress for 6 months. There are too many WP themes. If you want to be unique, you should customize the templates like header or footer.

43. jim from Marketing Company on November 3rd, 2009 7:51 pm

    I generally use free wp theme for all my blogs too and I always customize those theme almost 65% from the original, so it will look different.

44. Simron from Hire web designer on November 4th, 2009 12:26 pm

    as being web designer, i would like to appreciate your take on by doing slight modification we can change look of blog as we want.

45. Angela Paul on November 5th, 2009 3:45 am

    Nice post! Very helpful for a newbie like me. I am just starting to promote my site and these infos give me ideas on how should I do it. It will really help me as an affiliate marketer. Please continue posting informative blogs.

46. Felix from oes tsetnoc on November 11th, 2009 8:24 am

    That’s a great idea! “Rebuilding” themes from an existing will be much easier compared to creating from scratch. Of course, originality and uniqueness is very hard to achieve on this.

47. Moving comapnies Newport News on November 12th, 2009 3:15 pm

    I like to take pre-existing WordPress templates and modify them to make it my own. Starting from scratch is a big ordeal.

48. Calvin from Oil Rig Jobs on November 14th, 2009 5:27 pm

    If you use the Wordpress Default Theme, you can change the color of the header using the Custom Header option. Depending on your needs and sense of aesthetics, this may be good enough to make your blog look different from everyone else in your niche.

49. sam from Medical billing companies on November 16th, 2009 11:40 am

    well actually i have been thinking of changing the look of blog, and I was making enquiries to find someone to do it. As you said, they are very expensive. Your offer is great. will get back to you.

50. sam from sydney backpackers on November 18th, 2009 12:00 pm

    well i generally use free wp theme for all my blogs too and I always customize those theme almost 65% from the original, so it will look different.

51. Ann Julie on November 19th, 2009 8:10 am

    Well Mike if you are going to offer blog customization services for a fee, then you should be pretty good in your art because everyone who wants to just make a website and start earning ASAP, then your services would not be of much use.

    You also need to advertise yourself efficiently like making a website separately that would offer only blog or website customization services and linking that website to this site so that you may get traffic out of this website too.

    AND MAKE SURE TO MAKE YOUR NEW WEBSITE FULL OF ATTRACTIVE TEMPLATES AND ALSO CHANGE THE TEMPLATES OF THE WEBSITE EVERY WEEK SO THAT PEOPLE OR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS WOULD KNOW THAT YOU ARE TALENTED.

    Good Luck !!!

52. Data card on November 19th, 2009 11:31 am

    It would be indeed very great if you can modify your WP templates as they will be totally helpful in making your site stylish and impressive.

53. saving money on November 19th, 2009 2:29 pm

    One thing to remember if you’re going to customize the look of a free theme by alterting the code…make small changes and test it as you go. Every little change I make I check and make sure its working properly. Just one missing / or > can completely blow your whole blog up.

54. jim from Practice management software on November 21st, 2009 12:38 pm

    I generally use free wp theme for all my blogs too and I always customize those theme almost 65% from the original, so it will look different.

55. sam from Phrasal verbs books on December 2nd, 2009 11:27 am

    WP templates,adding it on your own WP is good.but add also other free features available via internet to improve your technique.

56. DoFollow Blog on December 4th, 2009 1:05 am

    just be carefull when you customize your wp themes. I hate when I loose > or an / in my template that makes the layout be broken.

57. Forex Books Reviews on December 8th, 2009 6:13 pm

    This was the hardest thing for me when I first started using WordPress – modifying the theme. Seemed no matter which theme I chose, there was always something I wanted different.

    Getting in an playing with the php files was so scary at first, but a necessary evil.

    I have no doubt that there are plenty of folks out there that would really, REALLY appreciate having someone modify their theme for them (and save them the major headache of learning).

58. Free iPod on December 10th, 2009 1:54 pm

    I’m fairly new to blogging/wordpress and have tried and failed to customize a wordpress called marangal. It worked out fine for most of the pages but i wanted to set up a seperate page for blog posts but this created a problem with elements showing up twice due to parts of the code in various php sections.

    Thank you this, i’m sure if i give another go with the information you have provided i’ll get there in the end and have things fully working!

    Thanks

59. Gurpreet Singh from Blogging in web 2.0 Beta on December 15th, 2009 11:17 pm

    I am working on blogger but want to learn more about wordpress before going to migration for my blog. So I think this may help me to learn more about wordpress customization. Thanks for this one

60. Linda Abrams on December 16th, 2009 7:39 pm

    Thank you for that interesting post. I have been writing blogs for a long time, and did not mind about those themes. I should start customizing my blog site to get more readers. And I want to try the sites you mentioned. I just realized my page needs to be organized. It would be easier for me then.

    Linda
    internet stock trading

61. Muqtada Khalid from folders printing on December 21st, 2009 3:09 pm

    Changing themes for a blog is not a big deal but to figure out what sort of a theme suits your blog is a big drama because that part of designing also works for your blog popularity

62. Cottage Rental on December 24th, 2009 7:33 am

    Your idea seems to be good…
    Having current updates in the blog make your blog special one,than changing the themes and all..
    Appearance have least consideration..

63. maine movers on January 5th, 2010 9:21 am

    I’ve modified my fare share of templates. It’s fairly easy. Just pay attention to file dimensions, names, sizes, etc.

64. karla from Sell Mobiles For Cash on January 14th, 2010 1:25 am

    nice one! very very informative… i would like to change my template as well, i guess i would have to be very very patient choosing from thousands of temp online huh?

65. sticker printing on January 14th, 2010 2:53 pm

    we can start with a theme that we like and easily modify the parts you want to change, wow thats great

66. Pau from Guitar Lessons on March 8th, 2010 2:09 am

    This one has been my problem, I am not much of a web designer and a lot of times I just opt in with premium themes that are easily customizable.

67. Paul from Guitar Lessons on March 8th, 2010 2:11 am

    This has been one of my problem as I am not much of a designer. I just usually opt in to premium themes that are easily customizable.

68. Kitchen Sinks on March 9th, 2010 10:50 pm

    Thanks For the post…..Good work…keep it up……please update on regular basis.

69. gallery802.com on March 9th, 2010 11:01 pm

    I have read your blog and i saw that i have learn t so many things from your article….it is very interesting.

70. gallery84.com on March 11th, 2010 4:52 am

    I love the blog,thank you for your effort.

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