There is another group of WordPress templates out there called, for lack of a better term – “Bulk Themes”. This is a place where you can plop down $50-75 bucks and have access to literally hundreds of themes. These are great sites to look at if you love themes. You will find just about everything under the sun.
But just like free themes… you really need to be careful. Many of these themes will work just fine out of the box, but as soon as you need to customize a little or a lot, look out. Unless you know your WordPress structure and PHP code inside and out you may be in for a headache. More than once I have had clients spend hours trying to get it to work and then contact me for help, and end up paying me to get it fixed or get it to look the way they had envisioned. As a small business owner this is a drain of your time, energy and possibly not worth the effort.
If you are looking for themes that you can add to your WordPress site and just change a few things like banner, or title text with a few sidebar graphics thrown in for example – go for it. You will have a wealth of choices at your finger tips and these will not be themes you see everywhere you look. This can be an incredible resource for you.
When it comes to customizing on a larger scale you could very easily run into the same problem you encounter with free themes.
- Little or no documentation
- Probably very little support
- Bad, disorganized code
- Features may not work exactly right
Just be careful before jumping in and take a few minutes to check things out:
- Can you easily find a contact page on the site to ask questions?
- When you do an internet search on the company name are their more negative then positive comments?
- Do a search on Twitter http://search.twitter.com does the name come up? Positive or negative tweets?
- Check on WordPress.org, do you see anything mentioned about the company or the particular theme you are considering? What are the comments?
- Ask! Ask a WordPress geek, ask on Facebook or Twitter, find out if anyone else has worked with the company and ask what was their experience?
Doing just a few minutes of research up front can save you time, money and frustration. This is your business, this is your presence on the web, make sure it is going to work for you!
