Sprucing up my blog site

[craigrachow]

I have followed all the videos to create my blog, generate backlinks and increase ranking. im currently 4th on my primary keywords and 40th on my secondary and 80th on my 3rd keyword. i couldn't be happier.
my sales are not converting though and my traffic reports are quite poor.

i would like to make my site much more appealing on the eye. my main competitors site is fantastic, has a kick ass header/banner that really makes the site appealing. i would like to do something similar.

are there any lessons coming up in challenge to edit our WPD themes and make our now well ranking sites more appealing to the human eye?

if not can someone guide me how to update my header in WPD.

last of all thanks so much 30dc team, i have been involved for a few years now but this is by far the most rewarding.

[prestoconfuoco]

I don't know anything about editing or designing, but there are thousands of Wordpress themes not on WPD that you can still install. Personally I don't really like most of the themes I saw on WPD. I just did a "[niche] wordpress theme" search on Google and found one that was very nice and completely relevant to my niche.

[IMStrong]

The Home Sweet Home theme allows you to upload your own header image from in wp-admin.

[megsy]

Hi - Yes, it does help to have your site stand out - content is key, but the overall 'look' is also very important.

There are sooo many themes out there that its hard to pick, given that you can use your own theme in WPD, as well as the WPD ones.

Here are a few resources that may help - they're free. Not sure if its ok to post these links here - eek - if not, please accept my apologies.


These are not affiliate or promotional links or anything like that.


CREATE YOUR OWN HEADER/BANNER (without being Graphic Designer!)

- To create (very easily) your own headers/banners, go to XHeader - its a free download and amazing software (you also get over 500 header templates and it is very easy to customize your own without being a graphic designer)

COUPLE OF GREAT WP THEMES (Premium Features, but free)

- the Frugal WP theme (paid and free option) - has a backend panel, where you can customize the look easily (not sure how this interacts with the WPD interface though - as you do this in the WP-admin area of cpanel/hosting - go to - frugal Basic | frugal Theme

- and the Flexibility2 WP Theme - its fantastic, (free and paid options), very customizable, add your own headers, etc - go here - Flexibility Theme for WordPress

(you'll need to create an account to download that one, but its a great theme, all graphics included/integrated, including range of headers - or upload your own)


TUTORIALS ON CHANGING YOUR GRAPHICS/HEADERS

- and for tutorials on editing/uploading your own graphics/headers, etc - do a search for WP Video Tutorials on YouTube - there are HEAPs of video tutorials on this (I have created a playlist in my Channel too, MeganMcCar I think - just do a search) :-)

Hope this helps?

Meg

Again, please accept my apologies if posting these links is not ok (again, they are not promotional links) - will delete if a problem though.

Dr Megan E McCarthy (MeganMcCarthy) on Twitter

[craigrachow]

thanks a heap guys, ill try create my own

[Dicky]

Great tips but does anybody know?

Are there any SEO issues within changing the templates?

I mean is there any SEO coding already installed in the existing WPD templates that is not in the free templates?

Rich

[bobster234]

Interestingly... I hate the theme on one of my sites... I keep trying to jazz it up and each time I do my conversions drop. Be prepared to rewind if your conversion drops.

[cyberking]

You could give artisteer a try for creating your wordpress themes, it's what i did and it's easy to use. Download the trial version and give it a go, the home version will create blogger and wordpress themes.

Cyberking.

[Matthias]

There are themes that are great for SEO and have been developed by experts, and some that are not.

I don't know which actual theme is viable and which you should avoid, but I believe most (or all) WPD themes are optimized.

However, if you edit the templates, you should ask yourself if you are an SEO expert and know what you are doing - or if you should better stick to a working, customizable theme

[Dicky]

Thanks for that.

I was really wondering if the free themes that are readily available are likely to be as SEO effective as the ones available on WPD? Or if it really doesn't make any difference because once installed they are SEO'd and therefor just as effective.

Don't want to jeopardize things!

I could of course just be done with it and use the stock ones but there are some really nice ones out there that would possibly be more effective for Flipping?

Rich