Suggestion on a theme and logo - On a budget | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

John B said:

Currently my blog looks awful and I want it to look decent. The challenge is that I do not have the budget to get it done by a developer or a buy a good theme. All I have is $50-$75 to spend at the moment. 

 

Any suggestions on what theme I should be using as well as anyone who can do the logo for me for the price. 

 

I am hoping that once I start making money with this blog then I can pay for a nice theme and customization however cannot do that today.

I don't have any suggestions though I'm sure that others probably will. I'm writing because I'm curious to see if you'll post your final decisions and cost once you figure it out.  I'm probably going to be in the market later this year and it sounds as if our criteria is similar.

Post edited 7:59 am – January 10, 2013 by Lena Gott

I second Genesis. All the themes look great out of the box and the support is phenomenal. 

I used it for my first site, lenagott.com, when I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and I think it might be the best looking of the bunch! (I've used a different theme for each site to test the waters LOL)  Next time I'm going back to Genesis! Or Andrea  :)

Thesis 2.0 has left a bad taste in my mouth.  I recently picked up Genesis and it looks great (just need to get a bit more familiar with it).

Now that might fit the budget or skill you are looking for though.  I think there is a good free theme out there but I can't recall the name.

Also Peter of Logos for Websites (aff link) does great, you guessed it, logos.

Sounds good! I wouldn't be too hard on yourself though. Especially in the beginning, I think it's more important to get good content written than worry about the looks of the site. You can fix that up along the way! 

I don't see the need to pay for a theme, there are a lot of free themes out there that can get the job done just as well IMO. 

I'm kind of in the same boat as you with a logo…I have a friend who is good in photoshop say they'd make one for me for free, but there has been a lot of foot dragging on their end. So I'm right with you, starting to explore my options for a paid logo/banner.

So, finally I have gone for Genesis theme. I have for now installed a free theme. Scouting for a good child theme for Genesis and also getting a logo done. 

Thanks everyone for the advice

Sorry, I meant Genesis. Not Thesis.

Good to hear you've gone with them.

Not sure if you are still looking for a logo, etc. but you could always try fiverr. That's the really economical stuff! If you have a little more to spend, I've had a lot of success with Designer Blogs. They have both pre-made and custom themes available for competitive prices. If nothing else, its worth keeping in your back pocket for when you are looking to reinvest or refresh your blog down the road.

I've switched to Genesis as well.  Seems like that's what all the cool kids are doing :)

The SEO isn't bad out of the box but I'm using the Yoast SEO plugin instead.  The Genesis SEO part is "polite" and gets out of the way, so that's nice.

Oh, and I've installed Genesis Simple Hooks until I get more comfortable adding stuff directly to functions.php.