Every developer knows that WordPress is a free content management system, which started as a simple blogging tool and gradually grew into something truly incredible. It is practically ideal for almost everything you might need on the net. As an open source project, anyone with advanced knowledge can work on it and improve it accordingly. It is a really cool platform. One of the best features of WordPress is its support for themes, which makes it easy to customize the look of your web portal using your own code or by installing a theme created by someone else.
Of course, there are a ton of great free themes out there, but most of them basically can't compare to their premium counterparts. In this post, we'll cover some of the reasons why you might want to choose a premium theme and how to start customizing it to suit your needs.
Advantages of premium WordPress themes
With this CMS, you can create websites yourself, but that is a long and difficult procedure. We are sure that all developers will agree with the fact. And hiring people to work for you can cost you a lot of money. Possibly there is always another way, and an easier one.
You can find both paid and free WordPress themes for any type of project. Regardless, you need to think hard before making a choice about what is most important to you today: saving money or saving effort. In a word, there are significant advantages of paid (premium) themes over free ones. And we are going to list some of the most essential features (from a web developers point of view) below.
Theme support: A great utility of paid themes is undoubtedly the complete support that a company provides to the client. Very often, users have questions about the items they bought. Therefore, you can basically email or chat with a friendly and professional support team, who are always ready to help.
Customization options: Depending on the WordPress theme you buy, and if it has built-in options, you can easily customize it. All the complicated coding is already done for you, so you shouldn't mess with it. Basically play with colors, images, text, to finish, each and every one of the items you want to modify. I think we can all agree that customizing a template is easier and faster than creating a custom theme from scratch.
Relatively low cost: This point in fact does not require any explanation. Buying a theme for around $ 50 saves more money than hiring someone to build a custom web portal for you (which can cost upwards of $ 8,000).
Updates: WordPress constantly improves with each version. Every few months there are major updates for WordPress Core. Your theme must be compatible with the latest version of WordPress, and premium theme developers are highly motivated to keep their themes up to date.
These are just a few of the advantages that you will find with most premium WordPress themes. But whether you choose to create a theme from scratch, buy a premium theme, or go free, here are some tips to make it your own.
Customizing a premium WordPress theme
If you decide to purchase a premium WordPress theme and think it is more cost-effective and reliable than your other options, you may be asking yourself a simple question: "How do I customize my theme?" Well, that depends. Some themes make it extremely easy for you. The Total WordPress Theme created here at R Marketing Digital includes an extensive theme options panel which includes color pickers, font options, heading styles and much more. All you have to do is highlight, click and save to create a custom-looking web portal in minutes.
But, if your theme doesn't include an options panel, you can still make some easy customizations. It doesn't have to be difficult, we have some tutorials that can really help you. We've chosen them specifically for you, and you may want to check out the YouTube channels of the guys who created the theme for even more WordPress tips and tricks tutorials. So, here we go.
1. How to edit WordPress theme CSS styles
All the colors, fonts and styles of your WordPress theme can be found in the style sheet. We suggest you learn a bit about CSS before making any adjustments, just so you can accurately make changes to your theme (tuts + has a great free tutorial that teaches you CSS and HTML in 30 days).
But fear not, there is an easier way. We highly suggest Yellow Pencil Visual CSS Style Editor. This premium plugin makes it easy to highlight, click and edit any element of your theme without having to dig into code and is a great option for customizing your WordPress theme.
2. Customizing WordPress with a child theme
If you are thinking of doing a major revision to a topic, then creating a child topic is definitely the way to go. We always suggest that users create a WordPress child theme to make sure their main theme remains intact. This way, the changes you make will be kept when you update your main theme to newer versions.
And here is a rundown of useful tools for customizing WordPress that you may want to have on deck. Both guides are pretty easy to follow, so pick your favorite and get started.
Ending
Of course, there are TONS of advice here on R Marketing Digital's WordPress blog, but we hope this post was helpful to you and that you now have an idea of where to start when customizing your WordPress themes. If you found an amazing tutorial that we missed, please let us know in the comment section below. We would love to hear from you!
