Do you remember the last website that you came across that looked stunning?
Almost nothing like anything that you had ever seen online? Of course, you remember. And you remember it because the design was strikingly different.
The most probable chances are, a web designer came in and created that marvel of a masterpiece.
Now I don’t know about you, but I can spot the most popular themes on sites I browse from a mile away.
That’s not always a bad thing, but depending on what you’re planning on creating, using a popular theme on your site might not be the best choice.
Consider this example…
1 The Example of a Hypothetical Restaurant Website:
Let’s say that you want to build a restaurant website.
One handy way to build this website is to go to a WordPress marketplace like CodeCanyon or Mojo and look for the best-selling themes in the restaurant niche. Just browse through their features and pick one that seems right.
However, the biggest problem here is that all your competitors might be doing exactly the same thing meaning that your site is going to look a lot like theirs.
Yikes!
Perhaps all of your websites could end up being carbon copies of each other of course, with different branding colors. Maybe I’m stretching the idea too far. But you get the point, right?
A smart move at this point is to hire a designer because you obviously don’t want to look similar (read same) to your competitors.
Just make this one investment at the right time and you’ll naturally one-up your competitors.
2 Points You Must Consider Before Buying a Premium Theme:
No Exclusivity
Here at MyThemeShop, we put a lot of heart and craft into our themes. But as a theme shop, we know that our themes are ready for anyone to purchase them (that’s sort of the point, no?).
With that said, the truth is that theme shops (like our own) do not offer exclusive designs and many people will have the same theme with a similar design to them.
The Type of Support for the Theme
Here at MyThemeShop, we put a high priority on customer support have the team to dedicate to it, but there are cases where that’s not the case.
Often times, there’s just a developer or a very small team (2 or 3 folks) that maintains a theme. And if their theme does well with 1000’s of customers, then, getting support might be a problem.
3 What’s Really Wrong With the “let’s Buy and Customize a Premium Theme” Approach
When business owners feel torn between the expense of hiring a designer and the cost-effectiveness of buying a premium theme, they often come up with a middle ground.
Mostly, this approach is to buy a premium theme and then hire a designer on an hourly basis to customize the theme to make it unique.
While this line of thought isn’t grossly wrong on the face value, but it often releases a whole new set of problems.
The Custom Code May Not Play Nice With the Rest of the Theme:
You can’t really be surprised about this one.
After all, the code that you added wasn’t organically present in the theme, so there’s no way for you to know if the custom code can be guaranteed to get along with your theme.
The Theme Support Goes Void
If you think that your premium theme support provider will sort this mess for you, you’re highly mistaken. Theme designers clearly lay down that they aren’t responsible for any custom code that you add and how your theme responds to it.
You can’t challenge them on this front.
Custom Code Often Poses a Problem While Upgrading
Whenever WordPress releases a new version, all responsible theme providers start working to make their themes compatible and up-to-date with it. If you have added custom code to your theme, you will have to take extra precautions while upgrading.
If you or your designer doesn’t use a Child Theme for the custom code, then upgrading custom code can be a pain and can often result in errors and deprecated functions.
This actually requires you to reach out to the designer again and again and pay fees each time.
Unless the theme is well known with dedicated designers who know the code inside and out, then going about this method can be challenging.
So it’s important to consider this before picking it as the “easiest method”.
4 Should You Hire a Designer?
There are plenty of people who don’t see the issue with using a popular theme for their site.
As a theme shop, we have thousands of customers who use our themes on their own sites and for their customers and it works well for them and their brand.
We’ve made it simple to tweak things like colors, fonts and other small details that help change the look and feel of our themes to make it easy to create something unique.
However, depending on your goals, business, and level of skill hiring a designer might be the best option for you.
Your website is a business asset and creating a unique presence in design has a greater impact than most people give credit to.
Many, when first starting out, start with a theme that they’re comfortable with. And as their online business takes flight, then, many consider finding and hiring a pricey (but seriously skilled) designer to create the site that matches their brand.
Unless you have a budget and clear goal in mind for exactly what you’re going to create, we would suggest going about it this way and then waiting to find the web designer of your dreams later.
Have you had any success finding a designer? If you’re a designer, what’s your take on the subject? Leave your comments below.
