Make Your Template Unique
August 27th 2007
Image by Thiru Murugan There are some obvious dangers to using a template, like malicious coding and such, but there is another, not so obvious danger. What if your template causes your blog to vanish into the blogosphere? What if it makes you boring?
The very best looking template in the world is the very worst template you can use, because everyone else is already using it. If your blog does not stand out from the dozens of others in your niche, how will your readers remember you? And if they do not remember you, why will they come back?
The key to successfully using a template is to make it your own. The great thing about a template is that the bulk of the work is already done, but the finishing touches are still up to you. You need to make enough adjustments to make your version clearly distinguishable from the original.
Case In Point - The Copyblogger Theme
Copyblogger is an extremely popular online writing tips site. It had a great theme which exemplified the simple style so many bloggers enjoy. When Copyblogger upgraded to a more advanced theme to suit their ever-growing site, Chris Pearson released the original theme for all to use. It was elegant, simple, and free. Thousands downloaded it.
With the theme downloaded, you have two options as to how you will use it. You can either upload it straight out-of-the-box, like JawJab have done, or you could make it your own, like Kristarella has done. Which of the two blogs are you going to remember? Which one has secured your attention by going that extra mile?
Customising Doesn't Have to be Hard
There is a reason you are using a template; someone else has done the design work for you. The object of making the template unique is not to redesign it altogether, but to merely edit it. In the case of Kristarella, the huge individualism that she has pulled off consisted entirely of changing just the header and footer. In the same way, you can break the mould of your template with a few quick tweaks, such as:
- Chaning the color scheme. Many templates consist of black text on a white background. The color scheme is created by the hyperlink colors, and a few background colors. A simple find & replace would turn the the original template into a brand new one.
- Alternating header images. Other templates rely largely on their header images to distinguish them. If you can find a unique header, you have a unique blog. Consider what John Chow did with the 2 car image on his old theme.
- Varying excerpts. Many themes are made to use an excerpt on their homepage. By changing the length of this excerpt by a paragraph of two, or by adding an image to your posts, you will be surprised at the difference.
- Adding widgets and plugins. If all else fails, the content itself can help separate your design. Choosing a graphical aid, such as a Gravatar for your post author, or a MyBlogLog widget in the sidebar can often give the uniqueness you need
If you are more accomplished with coding, you could attempt a more advanced technique. For instance, if the sidebar is on the right, why not put it on the left? Provided you leave the original credits in the footer, there is no limit to what you can do with a template.
Customising the design is the most important aspect of standing out to a first-time visitor. However, to appear unique to a regular visitor, you will have to dig a little deeper. Paying for a unique design may not always be an option, but even some basic changes to the default messages can go a long way.
Do you use a template on your blog, and what have you done to make it your own?
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Find other posts tagged with: Color, Customization, Headers, Personality, Uniqueness, Widgets
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August 27th at 12:03 pm GMT
Comment #1
Kristarella has done a great job with her customisation. I fully agree that even the smallest adjustment should be made to a public theme download.
If you've been reading blogs for any length of time, you'll easily spot those 'straight from the box' designs.
August 27th at 12:07 pm GMT
Comment #2
I change things around every month on my popular sites/blogs. Not changing your design is like writing books and always using the same cover. Variety is the spice of life. Nice writing, I will be back.
BeachBum
August 27th at 12:30 pm GMT
Comment #3
David - I agree. There are some themes that just come up time and time again. It's a credit to the original designers, but not so much to the new owners.
BeachBum - Sounds like you keep your blog nice and fresh.
And thanks - Hope to see you around then!
August 27th at 1:26 pm GMT
Comment #4
Great article. Cutline, for example is another hugely popular Chris Pearson theme, featured on WP.com like Copyblogger and is used in its default state excessively.
My site uses Cutline, an dI even based Blogtrepreneur.com off of it. I doubt any could tell without looking in the source code if I didn't credit Pearson. There are some distinctive features though, like the comments and the post meta however.
August 27th at 2:58 pm GMT
Comment #5
Hey Connor - Cutline is another great example. There are a few tell-tale signs on most Cutline blogs, like you mentioned, but very few people are going to notice those.
The only way you'd recognise Cutline on your blog is the credits. It's been massively modified, and looks great. Well done.
August 27th at 3:05 pm GMT
Comment #6
Yes, I have made MANY variations of K2, I have had 4 variations of my own and sold 3, On some I had sidebars next to each other, some i kept content in the middle. I love learning to tweak a good theme. That way i know it is designed well for the search engines and the code is pretty solid, but I still can be creative with it. I ditch the k2 main font on all of mine just because it is so common in k2. The fonts i use aren't UNCOMMON especially considering we don't have much to choose from, but they aren't the default k2 font... so that helps.
August 27th at 3:40 pm GMT
Comment #7
You've tweaked K2 a huge amount Mommy Zabs, and I've seen some of themes you're selling. They look great.
And thanks for sharing the tip on fonts. That's another great adjustment that is very easy to do.
August 27th at 7:51 pm GMT
Comment #8
I agree that modifying the template is very, very important.
I personally am a web developer/designer, so you know me, I have to make my own logo and have fun creating the design.
I use WordPress, because I don't have time to make my own blogging tool right now, and I must say that their code and CSS is definitely sub par.
Anyhow, I am going to subscribe to this blog and Blogroll it along with Copyblogger.
Please note I've barely scratched the surface on my blog design, but I wanted to get something basic up so that I could start linking people to my articles.
Cheers! Love the design.
August 27th at 7:58 pm GMT
Comment #9
Excellent article! Thank you so much for stating what most good designers and programmers in the blogosphere know. Of course my problem is that I just don't have enough time to devote to customization. lol I've been working on my own custom theme for about 2 months now, but only in short bursts when I have time. With that in mind the quickest bang for buck is probably the header image swap as you mentioned.
Thanks again, and I appreciate you stopping by my blog.
August 27th at 8:02 pm GMT
Comment #10
Hey Clever Cookie,
Your blog's design seems to be off to a good start. I love the logo, and the rest of the design is nice and clean. It will be a good basis to build some more advanced touches into. Let me know what you can come up with when you have it done. Good luck!
And thanks - I'm glad you liked this blog. Hope to talk to ya in a few more comments then!
August 27th at 8:05 pm GMT
Comment #11
Hi Jonathon,
It will be worth the time in the end (Although I do also like the theme you're already using!). I spent forever in the preparation before launching this blog. There is a point where you can spend too long, but there is also a point where you can spend too little time. Trying to find the right balance can be difficult.
And no problem - I'll get that syntax highlighter up and running soon... I hope.
August 27th at 9:42 pm GMT
Comment #12
Yep, one doesnt necessarily have to invest money in a new template. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to customise a template to one's liking.
But people hardly get off their bums to customise a template
August 28th at 1:14 am GMT
Comment #13
Thanks for the mention Michael
Connor, your template is an awesome customisation.
I find one of the most useful things when working with themes and trying to customise things is having Apache, mySQL and PHP installed on your own computer. MAMP for Mac and WAMP for Windows are easy ways to have a server and Wordpress installed on your computer. That way time constraints and being connected to the internet aren't limiting factors and you don't have the freak-out factor when you break something!
August 28th at 3:24 am GMT
Comment #14
You forgot to mention the immense pleasure of customising your template to one of its kind in the world
August 28th at 12:12 pm GMT
Comment #15
Mohsin - That's the best part about being lazy!
kristarella - Great advice. I use a program called easyPHP to do the same on my computer. It's much faster to update things locally, and I don't have to use Wordpress's template editor!
pablopabla - Hehe - I like to keep that a little "in secret" between designers. People would never pay us to design if they realised how much we enjoyed it!
August 29th at 1:34 am GMT
Comment #16
I had the Wordpress Kubrick Default theme on my blog for a while, only modified the background, the header image and some minor things to make to my website design. A few days ago I then decided to completely drop my homepage, use my blog as my "homepage", creating a really unique design for my blog, based on the old homepage design and as I as on it also reconsidering my intentions on what I do with my blog.
So I come to the conclusion that creating an own template, even if it is "just" a heavily modified standard template, is quite handy, especially when you want to start more or less from zero.
Great article, subscribed to you and added you to my blogroll
P.S: I hope I didn't get off topic now, as these thoughts came as I read and wrote my comment...
August 29th at 12:03 pm GMT
Comment #17
Hey Marco - Your blog's design looks really good. It's completely unique, and I love the header image. Taking the time to stand out like that is well worthwhile!
And thanks - Glad you liked the article. Hope to talk to ya again!
September 2nd at 2:22 pm GMT
Comment #18
One thing I have enjoyed about the HTML and CSS knowledge that I gained back in the days before blogging became popular is that it makes modifying a theme so much easier. I have a couple of blogs where I have highly modified the theme, and others where I have done little things that make all the difference.
Just knowing how to change the font size/color/type can really set your blog apart.
September 2nd at 2:46 pm GMT
Comment #19
That knowledge is always valuable DPeach. It is something that every blogger would benefit from.
You're right that even having basic knowledge of font colors and such is a huge plus. The little adjustments are all it takes to make a theme look different.
September 3rd at 12:23 am GMT
Comment #20
Thank you for posting your tip at Problogger. I am about to change themes and thinking about using cutline, so this is not only timely but so useful. I also think now it is time to learn some css
September 3rd at 12:51 am GMT
Comment #21
Suzie - Cutline is a great theme and Chris Pearson (who made it) is a great designer/coder. Definitely a time to learn some CSS!
I highly recommend this W3C page for CSS, I usually go straight to the index (link at the top of the page) and find what I want alphabetically. Most CSS is named in a way that makes sense, e.g. 'font', 'background', 'border' and 'text-align'. You could also search that page for stuff you've seen in a css file that you're not sure about.
Also check out the Cutline How To page for some great tips, especially random headers - you could have several different headers relating to you or your blog title. These tips about posting with Cutline shows you some of the stuff that Michael has been talking about on this blog, but specifically for Cutline (with the way that Chris has styled it).
Haha - can you tell I'm a Chris-Pearson-theme fan? Also a CSS fan! Hope those links didn't strangle Michael's (do people call you Mike, or do you prefer we stick with Michael?) spam filter. Good luck!
September 4th at 8:36 pm GMT
Comment #22
I created a header, changed the color theme and move the links around. I feel it is more 'me' now somehow and i feel good blogging on it.
September 4th at 9:18 pm GMT
Comment #23
Suzie - I'm glad to hear it. And I'm sure some of Kristarella's link will help you out if you decide to try CSS!
Kristarella - Thanks for sharing that, and lol, I prefer Michael. (That's not to say that people never simply assume that I'm called Mike though.
)
Jenny - That's good. If your blog design can show your personality, then mission accomplished.
September 8th at 12:00 pm GMT
Comment #24
Great, it is easy to do this little customisations and takes only few hrs - but gives a unique visual appeal. Thanks for using my Unique image
September 8th at 1:38 pm GMT
Comment #25
Hey Thiru! I loved your image (Though I snipped off one of the people, sorry! xD ). Thanks for licensing it under Creative Commons.
And I'm glad you found the article useful.
September 9th at 12:31 pm GMT
Comment #26
Thanks for the great post Michael.
I am always tweaking my blogs but never seem to be totally satisfied.
I think so many people create a blog but have no idea where to start making changes. I have a few clients that now have blogs but they would only dream of making changes if they didn't have me to do it for them.
Your post is definitely worth a good Stumble because I Like It.
September 9th at 2:31 pm GMT
Comment #27
Thanks for the stumble James.
You'll never be completely satisfied with your own blog. With a client, you can be more objective and it's easier to realise when you really have done good work.
With your own blog though, you're too critical, and will always find flaws! I know that that is definitely the case here at PBD. xD
February 11th at 11:14 pm GMT
Comment #28
Extremely helpful article!I use the Scribe template, since I'm on Blogger.I'm trying to make it as unique as possible. If anyone has any tips, let me know.
May 27th at 12:23 pm GMT
Comment #29
I always want to customize my blogs theme, but everytime time i change the code on my blog, my blog become disaster.. maybe better for me become user only..
June 26th at 7:05 pm GMT
Comment #30
Great post, and you are absolutely right. I'm currently using the Grid Focus Public theme, and I modified it. I added a header image, and did some other customizations. This makes my blog different from the other blogs using this theme.