I’ve got a new goal for December - and I think that, if I can manage to do it, it will bring me loads of natural one-way links over time.
I’ve been playing around with creating WordPress themes (and really enjoying it!), so I’m going to try to make one theme designed around the topics of all of my sites - so that means I’ll have to create around 50 themes (I have around 50 sites and 50 blogs now, and will have two links on most themes).
This is very daunting to me - but what better way to bring in the new year?! It’s also a great way to get related links, too. For example - I had created a candle/aromatherapy theme a few months ago with my candle site link in the footer, and now I’m already getting related incoming links.
If you’re looking for a fresh new way to get inbound links, and enjoy designing, I think this would be a great thing to try out!
9 responses so far ↓
Pat B. Doyle // Dec 6, 2007 at 12:42 am
I’ve been thinking about doing this too. Here’s a tip that I thought of: create one theme and then just vary it for each niche. Vary the colors, header images, font, etc. and it can look like a completely different theme.
Jennifer // Dec 6, 2007 at 3:36 am
I was actually working on my “base theme” now - that is a good idea and will certainly make things easier
Adventures in Net Marketing // Dec 7, 2007 at 2:42 am
This is a great idea, Jenn - I especially like the part about getting relevant links since you’ll be building each theme to target a specific niche. I hadn’t thought of that. I have one of my sites on a theme that’s floating around out there, but it’s a very general theme, and I get the oddest link back!
Another good idea is to hunt around for PLR Wordpress themes that you can buy. I’ve seen a few, and they’re quite affordable. That way, you can have a handful of different layouts, and you can concentrate on designing some good headers and picking your color schemes.
Belle
Belle
Liz // Dec 11, 2007 at 5:28 am
This sounds like a great idea. I’ve hacked around alot with wordpress, but I always start out with someone else’s theme and modify it. Is there a good rule of thumb for when you’ve changed it “enough” to call it your own? I think this will be my holiday project.
Liz
Jennifer // Dec 13, 2007 at 11:08 pm
I didn’t even know there were PLR WP themes, Belle - if you can point me in the direction of some of those affordable ones that would be great
Liz - I know what you mean… I started with one, and I changed most of the colors, changed the number of columns, changed the width of the columns, changed some of the fonts, changed some more of the layout, changed all of the images… and now it looks completely different. The only thing that’s the same is the look of some of the code structure - I hope that’s enough!
I guess when all of the images are changed, the overall layout is different, and the colors are at least somewhat different, that seems like enough to me - what do you think?
Liz // Dec 15, 2007 at 3:44 pm
I agree, that seems to be enough changing for me! I need to start with someone’s template somewhere… I don’t have the level of coding skill required to come up with a blog template straight out of my head.
Another question on this….do you use your own photography or stock photography from istockphoto.com or something similar?
Jennifer // Dec 15, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Yeah, I can’t come up with one straight from my head either.
I use StockXpert photos more than anything else ($1 each) - http://www.stockxpert.com/.
Here’s where I’m posting my WP themes if you want to have a look - the older ones are based off of Cutline, and so I gave them a credit in the footer. But the new ones (for December) were changed so much that I felt they were mine:
http://webdesign.savvy-cafe.com/
Hopefully they won’t look familiar!
Learning Geek // Dec 18, 2007 at 12:46 am
I have toyed with it but never got around to doing it. I can take most any template and modify it, but I can’t start from scratch so I love how you are doing this! My friends call me the template queen lol.
I think the templates look great! I especially love the Christmas theme, its so pretty. They don’t look familiar
Learning Geek // Dec 18, 2007 at 12:47 am
I meant to sign that Chrissie at the end and hit enter instead, ooops lol. It’s been a looong day!
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