I’m sure most of you have had problems finding a blog design or template, but some pay to receive a unique design. A start off point for a newbie blogger should always show the viewer that he or she is showing some sort of professionalism. The statement is brought out with a blogger’s blog design/template.
There are a lot of services on the net that provides help with blog templates and designs, but it seems like every theme just looks the same now. There isn’t much of a variety now after Unique Blog Designs re-designed John Chow and Jeremy’s blog. Blogs seem to go towards the same 2 or 3-column, footer, and header design.
Header
Footer
For about $500 a pop, I would say getting a theme that looks the similar to another blog’s is something I would not want. These type of themes have been so popular that you may even search Google and download them for free. Of course that defeats the whole purpose of a unique blog, but most blogs seem to look the same now. Below this post, I have included a theme that Neil Duckett created similar to Unique Blog Design’s strategies.
Here’s a quick Tag game for all the blogs that share similar patterns:
Well, I’m not going to bang Nate Whitehill and his crew on the head and make enemies, but blog designs really shouldn’t cost so much. Most of us new bloggers simply can’t afford something like that and it seems like Alexander is on my side. Blogs are starting to look more and more alike, so maybe changing the pricing will help some of us? Of course I’m not just basing this post on Unique Blog Designs because there have been new blog design services popping up everywhere.
If you haven’t already noticed, there are a lot of free Wordpress blog themes all over Google. Bloggin-Ads.com is currently using a free theme and I’m sure many of you can find your own 
There may be designs by Unique Blog Designs that aren’t too unique but Alexander shouldn’t have copied Darin’s blog theme just to prove the point.
Maybe he should have gotten a better theme than that of Darin.
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Teejay » Well, we don’t know if he really did rip it off of Darin, but I can say that if someone doesn’t do it, it will eventually be copied. I mean, I might consider buying a brand new theme, but I will first consider the price. New themes are being ripped off daily, so who knows.
-Mike
I’m getting a bit bored with all these 125 square pixel ads down the right side. Everything looks so samey. It’s a pity that the EntreCard is the same, might have been better if it was more in the proportion of a real business card…
As for copycat designs - that really gets to me, they have the nerve to charge that much. I did my own theme. It’s not that hard - certainly not $500!! If anyone wants a theme I’ll do it for them at a reasonable price.
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Web Designs should also cost as much as the designer thinks the design is worth, what it should not be happening is offering “unique” blog design, and providing a “unique color” design while the scheme is all the same.
Have said this long ago on darin.cc comment, but kinda left it aside and didn’t went further. After all, if a client requests “similar” (and again unique) blog design than thats not the designers fault.
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xHTML Coding » I do understand that designers need to make a living too, but I’m just saying that once a new theme is released, it WILL be copied somehow or someway. It’s just the matter of FREE or paying $20-30 or paying hundreds.
-Mike
Colin King » Yea, when I first decided to open a blog, I had small small ads, but I decided that I have togo with 125×125. The reason for that is the competition. If other blogs are offering such big ad blocks and I’m offering small ones, the price would be dramatic. Although Bloggin-Ads is not focused on money, we still need some to pay off the hosting ($20/month).
-Mike
I agree, it’s ridiculous at times but on the other hand…. the industry should not be too devalued.
Maybe a mid price would be fine say $100-$200 for a really decent template with support from the creator.
I am playing with it all myself and with my limited knowledge I have not managed to tweak to anything near perfect yet1
Forest Parks » One thing I love about WordPress is the plugins
You could find any plugin on Google…even ones that you have to pay (ripped and made similar to original).
-Mike
Very true,
These days everybody is copying the same theme. It is available for free now.
I think the magazine style theme with JQuery thing is also getting copied these days.
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Mani Karthik » It’s good to know there are more that agrees with me and what I had to say.
I agree, it seems like every blog nowdays is looking like John Chow’s blog. Although I like John Chow’s blog, if anyone else copies it, it’s not unique anymore. I think Unique Blog Designs can come up with something unique instead of using same headers and footers over and over again.
@ Mike: I wasn’t knocking you… It was the one’s that have solid advertising down the right on every page. At least you do it tastefully, plenty of white space and not on every page, this makes each ad more visible.
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Colin King » Well, if in the future I do get sales on the ad spots, I’m going to have to hire someone to fix the coding or go with a new theme. I’m currently having problems with this theme because it mainly works on Firefox only.
Well, I agree and disagree with you.. kind of 50-50. The option is paid premium themes in my opinion. To buy one affordable and then have it customized your way. Everybody wins while the quality remains top-notch.
I think the price of the design should be directly related to the uniqueness of the design. If you want something truly unique maybe you should be willing to pay for it. I would certainly never pay $500 for something that lots of other people already have. Of course, anyone can take the time to teach themselves how to edit a theme. From there it’s simply a matter of finding a free one and modifying it to suit your tastes. Not easy, but definitely cheap.
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Jason A Clark » That’s true…if it’s truly unique, $500 might be ok, but I still consider it being expensive when “unique” on blog themes just means re-coding.
I definitely agree with much of what you say and my belief is UBD caters to the upper echelon who can afford it. Good for them too, if they can make that money from their designs. I agree with you totally though, if you can find something great for free and learn design techniques on your own time, it pays off greatly.
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[...] or should I say team is Nate Whitehill and his group at Unique Blog Designs. Although I’ve posted about Unique Blog Designs before, I think people might have considered it a post that is suppose to [...]
[...] Unique Blog Designs Aren’t Very Unique Anymore [...]
I’ve never really like Unique blog designs (I wasn’t very impressed by John Chow’s too) and I have to agree that a lot of their themes are the very similar.
Two designers that I do like are Adii and Brian Gardner. I am using Brian’s Revolution Theme - http://www.michaeltalk.com
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Can’t agree more!.
More and more weblogs are becoming alike!!.
We definitely need to get a unique blog theme once we start to make some money of our blogs!.That will attract more readers to your blog!.
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