Start a Blog Hosting Company Using WordPress - Providing Valuable Themes

So you have located a suitable hosting company, setup WordPress and even installed some plug-ins. You have your site ready and wish to offer blog hosting to customers. But wait, do you have enough usable themes for your potential customers? There are literally thousands of themes available for WordPress, so we will look at a few way to decide upon a set of themes to offer your customers.

Know Your Customers

Your intended customer base might be able to assist you in deciding which themes to offer to them. For example, if you are working to offer blog hosting to folks such as computer and writing clubs, you might wish to break your themes down into a handful of general categories. You might offer a few technology based themes for those in technology-based clubs or newspaper or magazine type themes for writing clubs.

If you are targeting your blog hosting at a certain gender, try to offer themes which might work for that gender. The same applies if the customers targeted are of a certain age group. Keep in mind that what might work for one audience might not work for another.

Offer a Variety

You do not necessarily have to offer hundreds of themes to your customers, but do not offer them a dozen of the same style of theme. There should be some sense of variety when it comes to choosing a theme to use. Try to offer themes of different colors and layouts. Variety is the spice of life and it should at least be part of the reason for a customer to choose you over someone else offering blog hosting services.

Free vs Paid Themes

Another item to keep in mind when choosing themes is to decide whether you are going to use free themes or pay for them. There are advantages to both options and disadvantages as well.

Free Themes

There are a ton of web sites offering free WordPress themes. These sites range from offering a few themes to possibly hundreds of themes. Some sites might offer a category listing of themes and some might offer a search feature. Typically the sites will at least offer an image of the theme and a way to download it. A preview feature might be available.

Pros: The price is set right at free. Many are at good quality, both in terms of the layout and graphics as well as in the code powering the template. Free templates are a good place to start and possibly to remain. Community support might be available.

Cons: The price is free. This typically means no support from the designer of the theme. Themes may not be properly designed or properly maintained.

Here are some places to grab yourself free themes:

WordPress - Aside from offering WordPress itself, an offering of themes are available. Themes are broken down into categories: Most popular, newest themes, and recently updated. Search feature is also available.

wordpressthemesbase.com - Another great site offering free themes, broken down into categories

Paid Themes

Just as there are many free sources available for WordPress themes, there are some offering themes for purchase. Some offer themes for a one time purchase, while others offer access to all of their themes for an annual fee.

Pros: Possible support and updates from the developer. Possible high quality themes.

Cons: They are not free. Some can get pretty pricey. May contain usage restrictions.

Here are some places to grab yourself free themes:

Elegantthemes - For less than $20 a year, a collection of themes is available

NattyWP - Offers both single theme purchase as well as club pricing. A handful of themes are offered free of charge.

I personally have decided to stick with mainly free themes or use the base work of a free theme to create my own themes. Your choice all depends on your comfort level of possibly modifying a theme and your budget. You can provide a feedback form on your site to allow customers and potential customers to provide feedback on the themes and other items offered to them.