Can Your Theme Make A Difference In Your Content

Have you ever heard the phrase “Don’t Judge a Book by it’s Cover”? Is it a stretch for you to believe that people will find attractive people more credible than unattractive people?

I am here to tell you that the cover to the book is critical to it’s success and I will also tell you that people WILL judge a book by it’s cover. They will judge YOU by your cover AND they will judge your BLOG by it’s cover.

I wrote an article a month or so ago about the importance of your theme to get readers to take the time to even bother reading your content. You can read that article here if you didn’t catch it the first time. I wrote that article the very day that I made some major changes to my theme and I am following up on that piece with some facts so you can see the point I was trying to make.

Does Appearance Matter?

I changed my theme on January 14th of 2008. Actually I didn’t change the theme…I just added the snazzy header and footer to the same theme I was running before. I pondered then whether the appearance of a blog would make a difference in how the readers reacted to it. I suspected that it would, which is why I took the time to have the logo done.

My suspicions were based on the simple fact that I would often skip right over “ugly” blogs. I never found myself reading unattractive sites. Am I normal or a blog snob? I lean towards normal…at least I hope so.

Shallow? Maybe…no definitely. But hey, I’m human. If it was an ugly blog I didn’t give it a second chance. Did I possibly miss out on some great content? Sure…it’s possible but honestly I doubt it. I think if someone really has something to say, then they are likely intelligent enough to present it in an attractive package.

I could be wrong…so if you have an ugly blog and you think you’re the shiznit then feel free to let me know in the comment section.

The Cold Facts

I said earlier I would present some data…and I will. There are a couple of factors that will give you some idea how well a blog is received and I truly believe the Comment Section is one of the most important indicators of acceptance. If people take the time to leave a comment then you know they read your article and they have an opinion on it. If they blink in and blink out you never know what they read while they’re here.

I created this site on November 30th and in the days leading up to my theme switch I had written approximately 42 posts and received 101 comments or 2.4 comments per post. In the days SINCE the theme update I have written 24 posts and received 280 comments! Yes 280 comments or 11.7 comments per post!!!

• Pre-Theme Change - 2.4 comments per post.
• Post- Theme Change - 11.8 comments per post!
• 486% increase in comments from nothing more than a theme change.

This is an increase of 486% in comments using an ugly theme vs a moderately attractive theme.

What does that tell us?

My theory is this, readers found the new theme to be more attractive visually and this translates to them as being more credible. They took the time to read the content and engage with my blog, the other commenters and fortunately for me…myself. The proof is in the numbers.

How about my other stats? You might wonder how they have fared as well. I didn’t take the time to analyze them as closely as I did the comments but I can roughly tell you that my RSS subscribers have doubled since Jan. 14th and my traffic has more than doubled. Not bad.

This is hardly scientific and I am sure the naysayers could poke holes all through my theory but I am comfortable with it as I could tell the difference almost the day the new theme went up. Comments started rolling in and I love it. I love them as they give me a chance to chat with fellow bloggers as well as check out a lot of their sites. I have picked up the feeds of a number of my commenters and I hope to continue to have the opportunity.

I use the link love plug in so any commenters that leave a comment will not only gain a backlink but will also advertise their last blog post in the comment section for others to see. It’s a little mini-billboard advertising for you.

That’s my experience with appearance. I judge books by their covers, I decide whether I like you based on what you look like and I am one of the few to admit it. Knowing that I am probably typical of most people, does your theme need a makeover? Anyone think I am wrong?

Want to Buy My Theme?

If you are interested in buying this very theme for your own blog then Click here to view more details. It can be yours for a reasonable price.