Choosing the right WordPress theme is incredibly important. After all, your theme determines your site's appearance, and this will often form a visitor's first impression of you as a blogger.With thousands of themes to choose from, finding the right theme for you can be a time-consuming process.To save you time, here are five fantastic WordPress themes aimed at bloggers. These themes all make use of a minimal, flat design: Less focus on flashy appearance, more focus on your content -- the way it should be!In general, I would always recommend spending the $40 or so it costs to buy a premium theme -- if you're serious about building a site that lasts, it's well worth that initial investment. However, we've also included some great free themes, to provide a viable low-cost alternative. Enjoy!
1. Sparkling (FREE)
Sparkling is a free WordPress theme, making great use of a modern, flat design. ColorLib have done a really great job with this one -- it really does look and feel like a premium theme.This fully responsive theme is highly versatile and would suit both a corporate or a personal blog. The flat design looks stylish, and the large featured images attached to each post are bold and eye-catching.You get a nifty little slider included, too, and the theme also supports infinite scroll -- not bad for a free theme!
2. John Doe's Blog ($45)
John Doe's Blog is a fantastic premium theme, available from ThemeForest for $45.It looks superb and would be an ideal choice for anyone looking to create a professional personal blog. The theme is fully responsive, comes with six layout options and has unlimited colours to choose from, allowing you to get the look and feel of the blog just right.The theme supports all the major social platforms, which makes sharing your content a breeze. Despite it being a very clean, minimal design, the chunky blocks for each post and sidebar really give the theme a unique personality.One of the best.
3. Interface (FREE)
Interface is the free version of ThemeHorse's premium Interface Pro theme. This is a great option for a business blog, with the clean, simple style creating a professional feel.With five layouts to choose from, and numerous templates for each page, there is enough flexibility here to compete with many premium themes. This responsive theme looks rather slick, actually, with a clean sidebar and footer, and flexibility over the sizing of each featured image.For extra customisation options and additional functionality, consider the pro version.
4. Blogist ($40)
Blogist is one of the best personal blogging themes available. With a stylish, flat design, the blog looks simply awesome and will really appeal to any personal bloggers out there.The theme comes with a number of customisation options, supporting unlimited colours and 56 different fonts. There are seven post formats, allowing you to experiment with the types of content you produce -- great for mixing it up.The sidebar and footer are quite simple, but it's the main blogroll area that really catches the eye, with big, striking featured images and bold headlines. If you want your content to be the focal point of your blog, this is the theme for you.
5. Spike ($35)
Finally we have Spike, available for $35 from MyThemeShop. A wonderfully vibrant blogging theme, Spike has enough flexibility to make it suitable for any blogging purpose, from corporate all the way through to personal.You can select from unlimited colour options, unlimited backgrounds and over 600 Google fonts, giving you full control over the look and feel of your website. Throw in nine different homepage layouts and you really do have a theme fit for any purpose.The theme is optimised for maximum speed and SEO performance, and supports a number of important functions; namely, social media and related posts. It also has a fully integrated review system in place, making it ideal for anyone who regularly creates product reviews.The responsive theme looks stylish, with its clean layout, bright colours and simplistic sidebar and is well worth the $35 it costs.
Wrapping Up
There are literally thousands of WordPress themes out there -- inevitably, recommending just a few means a huge number of great themes get left out.If you want to join in the discussion, feel free to leave a recommendation for your favourite theme in the comments section below.