Do you ever feel like you need a make-over design on your blog? You know, the whole deal with all the trimmings? I do right now and spent hours in the past month to find the perfect theme to do it.

I had a clear vision of what I wanted and while I saw several themes that offered parts of that whole picture, it was never exactly what I wanted.

Until…

I found it. Finally.

Task accomplished. Next.

Well, not really, the fun has only just started

A theme make over takes a lot of planning and ideas for it to come out in a satisfactory manner in the end. Admittedly we can just slap on a free theme and leave it at that.

While that works for many, it never has for me. I do like the idea of free, but I also understand that by running a business, we have to spend money on branding and other business expenses.

Having the right blog theme for our business is part of the branding process and one that should never be underestimated.

And while I was happy with my theme in the past, I no longer am. I feel that I have outgrown it and need to move on.

Maybe you feel the same. Perhaps you also toyed with the idea of a blog make-over, but weren’t sure on how to go about it. If that is you, then I hope those 5 questions below will help you move ahead in the right direction.

If you struggle with finding the right theme for you I suggest you go back to the start and ask yourself the following 5 questions.

1. What message do you want to convey with your blog? I touched on this in the post perception matters.
2. How many columns do you really need? Often we find that we can make do with less clutter on our blog. While I have two sidebars now, my new theme design will only have one. My focus is on the content of my blog and by using two sidebars I have allowed clutter to sneak in and take away the focus of my readers.
3. Color me pretty: while pretty colors are all the rage with teenage girl bloggers, for business owners they are a bad idea. It doesn’t matter if your favourite color is purple (even if you are from Mars), what matters is that your readers will get the right message when they visit your blog.
4. Logo, Feed button and other graphic hungry design. If you happen to use a free theme design, you can vastly improve it by outsourcing the design aspect of a new logo, etc. to a graphic designer. That is exactly what I have done with my freelance writing site. I will also do this with my new theme and still save money in the process.
5. Is the design you want suitable for growth? Many bloggers fail to think about this. Remember, if your design hasn’t got room for growth you will waste precious time and resources by having to upgrade too soon.

I’m sure you now have a much better image in your head about your new blog theme design, or at least know how to go about it efficiently. By taking the time to plan you will achieve better results in the end.

Feel free to ad your own tips to this. I might even get some inspiration for my own make-over.

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