My Custom Theme from Unique Blog Designs

When I started blogging back in early 2006, blogging was something I just did for fun.   I found it was a good way to interact with others on ideas and topics that were important to me.  Unfortunately, after a year of spending money out of my own pocket to cover hosting and other blog expenses, I knew something had to change in order for me to keep blogging.  At that point I set out to monetize my blog with the intention of having it at least cover my monthly operating expenses.

Since then things have taken off for me and I’ve been fortunate to expand my reach and have a few websites which cover topics that are important to me.   You all know about this website, WordPress Hacks, where I write about my love for WordPress, but what you probably don’t know is that my primary website is actually a website which focuses exclusively on Celiac Disease.

I have been very fortunate to have Celiac-Disease.com really grow over the past year and it got to the point where I felt that I needed to continue that momentum with a new and completely custom blog design.   Blogging in the medical profession requires trust and the combination of a category-killer domain name with a completely custom design.   Once I’d decided to outsource the custom design and contemplating which designers to work with, I decided to go with the team over at Unique Blog Designs.

I’ve gotten to know a few of UBD’s designers over the past couple years and have heard nothing but great things about them from their past clients.  The only complaint I had ever heard was something along the lines of “all their themes look the same”, but what people fail to understand is that internet websites have design trends and people generally want the same things that successful websites are using.   UBD works with a number of very successful bloggers, so the styles will be similar, but they are always customized to that users needs.

While I was going through the design process, they took my ideas and ran with them, creating what I feel is an incredible design, and they were able to make happen pretty much anything I came up with happen.  As a result, I feel like this is my own personal custom blog design, even though I worked with the UBD team to have my vision created. To see some of the designs UBD has done in the past, check out their recent clients page.

For your reference, here is how Celiac-Disease.com looked before the transition (you’ll notice it is a modified version of the theme I use here at WPHacks.com):

And here is how Celiac-Disease.com looks now that the new unique blog design is live:

New Celiac-Disease.com Homepage

Note: If you notice some similarities between the before and after pictures, that is because I specifically requested that they use the same general setup as was previously used on the website when building the core setup of the unique design.

If you’ve been considering generating new interest in your website by getting a custom theme design, there is a fairly standard process that UBD follows (and in my experience, most custom design companies I’ve worked with follow this process as well):

How the process works:

1. Once you’ve hired Unique Blog Designs to build you a custom theme and gotten the paperwork out of the way (which includes a questionnaire designed to get a feel for what you are looking for), you’ll have your initial consultation where you can discuss what features and design elements you are looking for.
2. After your initial consultation is completed, you’ll get in contact with a designer who will present you with the first draft of your new blog design, which is constructed based upon your interview and questionnaire answers.  This gives you a chance to share your thoughts on the design, what things you’d like to change, etc.  Depending on the package you purchased, this will continue for a few more drafts, until you are satisfied with the design.
3. Once you’ve got a design you are happy with, the final step is to code your unique blog design into WordPress and have it installed on your website for you.

That’s it!  Just make sure you aren’t in a hurry, as the entire process can take at least 30 days, and often longer depending on how many drafts you need before you are happy with your unique blog design.

Overall Impressions:

Through the relationships I’ve built running this website and being an active member of the WordPress community, I’ve had the chance to work with a number of great people.  I am pleased that I can now add the Unique Blog Designs team to that list!  The entire process was very professional and the results speak for themselves (in my opinion).  The final design was exactly what I had originally envisioned and includes all of the functionality that is needed for that website to continue to grow and expand its reach.

There is definitely a very good chance I will find myself working with Unique Blog Designs on another custom design for one of my websites in the future, and I would gladly recommend them to others who need to give their website a fresh or more professional design.  Just make sure to allow a good amount of time!