Blog Aesthetic, Themes and Images Archives – Katherine McLee https://katherinemclee.com/tag/blog-aesthetic-themes-and-images/ Digital Marketing, Affiliate Marketing & Blogging Tips! Fri, 15 Dec 2023 18:04:40 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://i0.wp.com/katherinemclee.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/cropped-sdffdg.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Blog Aesthetic, Themes and Images Archives – Katherine McLee https://katherinemclee.com/tag/blog-aesthetic-themes-and-images/ 32 32 148049789 How To Pick An Awesome Colour Palette For Your Blog Or Website https://katherinemclee.com/colour-palette-for-your-blog/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=colour-palette-for-your-blog https://katherinemclee.com/colour-palette-for-your-blog/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2023 15:14:48 +0000 https://katherinemclee.com/?p=3813 How To Pick An Awesome Colour Palette For Your Blog Or Website. Every time we go onto a blog we are greeted with the website’s colours. We may like them, or we may not – but what’s important is if it was memorable or not. Whether we made a specific note of the colours or not isn’t important. The back of our minds remembers these so the next time we visit that website we remember we have seen this before. This post is aimed at those who need help in choosing a colour palette or colour scheme for their blog, and where to get inspiration on if they don’t have a clue what to pick or where to start! I am not an expert in branding by any means!  The colour palette you choose for your blog can of course be used for your brand, but we aren’t getting as in-depth here. For new bloggers who maybe aren’t sure of what colours they want for their brand, this post is just to help you pick initial blog colours. Chances are if you have a new blog your blog colours will change. Rarely does anyone start a new blog with a set of blog colours and then carry this colour palette with them as their brand for years to come! As with anything, it takes time to get a feel for things and whether you feel it suits you and your brand going forwards.   Colour Theory You absolutely do not need to be an expert in colour theory to design a colour scheme for your blog. What I would recommend however is to learn a little about it, and use this knowledge while choosing the colours for your own website. Colour theory – on a very basic level – is a collection of guidelines/rules which are used to portray a message and communicate with your readers.     They are guidelines to follow as to which colours compliment others, and how to choose colours that go well together. It can also help to show you which colours stand out the most against which other colours. This is a good resource for more information: Reading up and learning the basics of colour theory will help you choose a well rounded colour palette for your blog!   Why It’s Important To Choose A Colour Palette For Your Blog Similar to a brand, you want people to remember you. You want your audience to recognise your blog so when they come back to it, they are familiar. Choosing your own palette of colours for your blog makes you stand out. Imagine you went onto a blog and everything was a random colour. If you then came across this blog a couple of months later, would you remember it? Probably not!  Blog colours and colour schemes do change over time as mentioned, but keeping something the same will help readers recognise your website. Tweaking things is totally okay, but I would avoid doing a total overhaul on your blog colours too often! The more we see something the more we recognise and trust it. If someone has searched for different information on multiple occasions and your blog has shown up and they have gotten the information they needed, they will see you as a credible source. This helps for growing an audience for your blog as your readers will trust you over a website they don’t recognise. Your blog is a personal expression of you.When choosing a colour palette for your blog, you can pick colours that you love or are most drawn to.  Favourite colour ever is orange? Absolutely incorporate this! Once you have chosen your blog colours you can use those colours across social media and Pinterest.  Using the same colours across social media can make your images instantly recognisable. Without worrying about a full brand kit at this stage as a new blogger, you can still make your images tie in with the colour scheme of your blog. It takes time out of decision making to have pre-set colours. Knowing exactly what colours to go for, or which colours to match a new colour to, can certainly speed up the process of creating pins/social media images.     Get Inspiration From Google or Pinterest Don’t copy someone else’s colour palette of course! Inspiration for which colours you want for your own website is absolutely okay. You can try searching for a generic term like “colour combination for website” or “attractive colour combination”. Trying a few different “colour scheme for blog” related search terms should bring up a lot of different ideas for you. If you know roughly what you want but aren’t quite sure on shades, you can try searching for “pink colour scheme” or “blue and purple colour scheme”. This should help you narrow down roughly what colours you are drawn to where you can then move on to creating your own blog colour palette. A bit further down I’ll be showing you how to take one or two colours and turn them into a full colour palette for your blog so don’t worry if you still aren’t sure!    Decide What Vibe You Want Your Blog To Have If you are finding yourself endlessly scrolling Pinterest or Google and still can’t come up with a rough idea of what you like, another option is to try working out what vibe you want your blog to have.  Depending on your niche, this could play a part in which colours you choose for your blog. For example if your blog is all about self care, meditation and peaceful living, you may want to choose more muted tones or could search for “harmonious colour scheme”. If your blog is all about trees and woodland walks in a certain part of the world, you can try searching for “earth tones” or “natural colour scheme”. If you blog about something bright like Tropical Fish, you may want pops of bright colour all over your blog to match the vibe of your content. A darker theme may be suited to those who’s blogs are about Space etc. You get the idea! You can absolutely create your colour theme around a vibe as opposed to a specific “set”.   Things You May Want To Avoid There are of course no hard and fast rules when it comes to choosing the colours for your blog, but there are “best practices” you can follow.  Try to not choose too many colours. If you are wanting people to recognise your blog from a few main colours or an attractive colour combination, having 14 different colours won’t help this!  I would aim to choose 3-4 colours as this is a good amount and will cover most things you will need colours for with your blog. You can go up to 5 if you’re using a couple of shades of the same colour, but with the stronger colours, I would keep it around 1 or 2 colours. I wouldn’t recommend going for overly clashing colours. Now that’s not to say you couldn’t use two different bold colours, but clashing colours can make it harder to read. User experience is so important, so making sure everything is readable and not overwhelming for your readers is something you should take into consideration. On the flip side, you will want to avoid colours that don’t stand out at all. Overly pale/muted colours can be tricky for everyone to see. It can make links and buttons hard to locate and can make text nearly invisible. There are lots of ways to add in those pale or muted colours, but that also keeps your blog readable to everyone. If you think it’s “potentially” too pale/visible, I would avoid using it. We all have different strengths of vision and on a smaller device like a phone, those pale colours may not show up at all.   Use A Colour Palette Generator The reason I wanted to mention all of the above points first before introducing a colour palette generator is that it’s too easy to get carried away picking loads of fun colours but soon realising they don’t fit the vibe of your blog at all! Having at least some idea of the colour palette you want – or even one main colour or the vibe – will really help. Below you will find a few different colour palette generators to help you choose the perfect colour palette for your blog:   Coolors.co I will start with the colour palette generator I used as it’s so easy to use and doesn’t overwhelm with too many options in terms of shades. You can of course change the shades on it, but I will show you below what this looks like. I mentioned this website on my tools and resources page as it’s an amazing resource for new bloggers. You start the generator, and press spacebar to get 5 random colours presented to you. You can hit the spacebar again to keep getting new colours! If you find a colour or two you like, you can hover over these and “lock them” (there are shade options to change these if the colour isn’t quite right but is close). Then when you next press the spacebar, the colours you have locked will stay but the others will change. You can go in each colour and manually choose one also.   Colormind The second option which is most similar to use to Coolors is Colormind.  The boxes for the colours are a lot smaller so you don’t get the same “in your face” effect. As with Coolors, you can generate different colour palettes and lock the colours you like. The benefit of Colormind though is that you can upload an image!  From this image it will then generate a colour palette based off of that image. This means if you find an image you really like from Google or Pinterest, whether it be specific colours or a photo that has the right vibe, you can upload it, and your palette will be created for you. You can then re-generate the palette if the colours aren’t quite right but it will use the same image for reference.        Colourlovers Colourlovers is a good option if you are more aware which blog colours you are wanting to choose for your website. You don’t get a generator but can make your own colour brand palette by clicking each square and choosing each colour individually. The good thing here is that it shows you multiple shade options for the colour you have chosen, so you can compare a few different shades to get exactly the ones you want. If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous or are more into colour theory and design, one of the following two websites may be more suited to you.  Both of the below websites are amazing resources to choose an awesome colour palette for your blog, but are a little more advanced/trickier to use to get the exact colours you are looking for.   Adobe Colour Wheel This Adobe colour wheel colour generator is good if you want to visually see the shades and how they compliment other colours. You can choose one of the options down the left hand side before starting to drag the circles round the colour wheel. There is a little arrow under each of the 5 colours and you can click one to choose as your base colour. This will be the base that all other colours and shades will be matched to. There are lots of ways to modify and change the colour tones under each option.     Paletton Paletton is a great option for if you are looking for lots of different tones within the same colour. You can move the 5 small circles within the main circle and can again change shades as you go. You can add further colours into the mix and can change their corresponding shades also....

The post How To Pick An Awesome Colour Palette For Your Blog Or Website appeared first on Katherine McLee.

]]>

How To Pick An Awesome Colour Palette For Your Blog Or Website.

Every time we go onto a blog we are greeted with the website’s colours.

We may like them, or we may not – but what’s important is if it was memorable or not.

Whether we made a specific note of the colours or not isn’t important. The back of our minds remembers these so the next time we visit that website we remember we have seen this before.

This post is aimed at those who need help in choosing a colour palette or colour scheme for their blog, and where to get inspiration on if they don’t have a clue what to pick or where to start!

I am not an expert in branding by any means! 

The colour palette you choose for your blog can of course be used for your brand, but we aren’t getting as in-depth here.

For new bloggers who maybe aren’t sure of what colours they want for their brand, this post is just to help you pick initial blog colours.

Chances are if you have a new blog your blog colours will change.

Rarely does anyone start a new blog with a set of blog colours and then carry this colour palette with them as their brand for years to come!

As with anything, it takes time to get a feel for things and whether you feel it suits you and your brand going forwards.

 

Colour Theory

You absolutely do not need to be an expert in colour theory to design a colour scheme for your blog.

What I would recommend however is to learn a little about it, and use this knowledge while choosing the colours for your own website.

Colour theory – on a very basic level – is a collection of guidelines/rules which are used to portray a message and communicate with your readers.    

They are guidelines to follow as to which colours compliment others, and how to choose colours that go well together.

It can also help to show you which colours stand out the most against which other colours.

This is a good resource for more information:

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/color-theory

Reading up and learning the basics of colour theory will help you choose a well rounded colour palette for your blog!

How To Pick An Awesome Colour Palette For Your Blog Or Website color wheel katherine mclee

 

Why It’s Important To Choose A Colour Palette For Your Blog

Similar to a brand, you want people to remember you.

You want your audience to recognise your blog so when they come back to it, they are familiar.

Choosing your own palette of colours for your blog makes you stand out.

Imagine you went onto a blog and everything was a random colour.

If you then came across this blog a couple of months later, would you remember it?

Probably not! 

Blog colours and colour schemes do change over time as mentioned, but keeping something the same will help readers recognise your website.

Tweaking things is totally okay, but I would avoid doing a total overhaul on your blog colours too often!

The more we see something the more we recognise and trust it. If someone has searched for different information on multiple occasions and your blog has shown up and they have gotten the information they needed, they will see you as a credible source. This helps for growing an audience for your blog as your readers will trust you over a website they don’t recognise.

Your blog is a personal expression of you.When choosing a colour palette for your blog, you can pick colours that you love or are most drawn to. 

Favourite colour ever is orange? Absolutely incorporate this!

Once you have chosen your blog colours you can use those colours across social media and Pinterest. 

Using the same colours across social media can make your images instantly recognisable.

Without worrying about a full brand kit at this stage as a new blogger, you can still make your images tie in with the colour scheme of your blog.

It takes time out of decision making to have pre-set colours.

Knowing exactly what colours to go for, or which colours to match a new colour to, can certainly speed up the process of creating pins/social media images.

 

 

Get Inspiration From Google or Pinterest

Don’t copy someone else’s colour palette of course!

Inspiration for which colours you want for your own website is absolutely okay.

You can try searching for a generic term like “colour combination for website” or “attractive colour combination”. Trying a few different “colour scheme for blog” related search terms should bring up a lot of different ideas for you.

If you know roughly what you want but aren’t quite sure on shades, you can try searching for “pink colour scheme” or “blue and purple colour scheme”.

This should help you narrow down roughly what colours you are drawn to where you can then move on to creating your own blog colour palette.

A bit further down I’ll be showing you how to take one or two colours and turn them into a full colour palette for your blog so don’t worry if you still aren’t sure! 

 

Decide What Vibe You Want Your Blog To Have

If you are finding yourself endlessly scrolling Pinterest or Google and still can’t come up with a rough idea of what you like, another option is to try working out what vibe you want your blog to have. 

Depending on your niche, this could play a part in which colours you choose for your blog.

For example if your blog is all about self care, meditation and peaceful living, you may want to choose more muted tones or could search for “harmonious colour scheme”.

If your blog is all about trees and woodland walks in a certain part of the world, you can try searching for “earth tones” or “natural colour scheme”.

If you blog about something bright like Tropical Fish, you may want pops of bright colour all over your blog to match the vibe of your content.

A darker theme may be suited to those who’s blogs are about Space etc.

You get the idea!

You can absolutely create your colour theme around a vibe as opposed to a specific “set”.

 

Things You May Want To Avoid

There are of course no hard and fast rules when it comes to choosing the colours for your blog, but there are “best practices” you can follow. 

Try to not choose too many colours.

If you are wanting people to recognise your blog from a few main colours or an attractive colour combination, having 14 different colours won’t help this! 

I would aim to choose 3-4 colours as this is a good amount and will cover most things you will need colours for with your blog.

You can go up to 5 if you’re using a couple of shades of the same colour, but with the stronger colours, I would keep it around 1 or 2 colours.

I wouldn’t recommend going for overly clashing colours.

Now that’s not to say you couldn’t use two different bold colours, but clashing colours can make it harder to read.

User experience is so important, so making sure everything is readable and not overwhelming for your readers is something you should take into consideration.

On the flip side, you will want to avoid colours that don’t stand out at all.

Overly pale/muted colours can be tricky for everyone to see. It can make links and buttons hard to locate and can make text nearly invisible.

There are lots of ways to add in those pale or muted colours, but that also keeps your blog readable to everyone.

If you think it’s “potentially” too pale/visible, I would avoid using it.

We all have different strengths of vision and on a smaller device like a phone, those pale colours may not show up at all.

 

Use A Colour Palette Generator

The reason I wanted to mention all of the above points first before introducing a colour palette generator is that it’s too easy to get carried away picking loads of fun colours but soon realising they don’t fit the vibe of your blog at all!

Having at least some idea of the colour palette you want – or even one main colour or the vibe – will really help.

Below you will find a few different colour palette generators to help you choose the perfect colour palette for your blog:

 

Coolors.co

I will start with the colour palette generator I used as it’s so easy to use and doesn’t overwhelm with too many options in terms of shades.

You can of course change the shades on it, but I will show you below what this looks like.

I mentioned this website on my tools and resources page as it’s an amazing resource for new bloggers.

You start the generator, and press spacebar to get 5 random colours presented to you.

You can hit the spacebar again to keep getting new colours!

If you find a colour or two you like, you can hover over these and “lock them” (there are shade options to change these if the colour isn’t quite right but is close).

Then when you next press the spacebar, the colours you have locked will stay but the others will change.

You can go in each colour and manually choose one also.

blue and orange coolors palette colour generator example katherine mclee blog

 

Colormind

The second option which is most similar to use to Coolors is Colormind. 

The boxes for the colours are a lot smaller so you don’t get the same “in your face” effect.

As with Coolors, you can generate different colour palettes and lock the colours you like.

The benefit of Colormind though is that you can upload an image! 

From this image it will then generate a colour palette based off of that image.

This means if you find an image you really like from Google or Pinterest, whether it be specific colours or a photo that has the right vibe, you can upload it, and your palette will be created for you.

You can then re-generate the palette if the colours aren’t quite right but it will use the same image for reference. 

 

colormind colour generator katherine mclee blog

 

 

Colourlovers

Colourlovers is a good option if you are more aware which blog colours you are wanting to choose for your website.

You don’t get a generator but can make your own colour brand palette by clicking each square and choosing each colour individually.

The good thing here is that it shows you multiple shade options for the colour you have chosen, so you can compare a few different shades to get exactly the ones you want.

If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous or are more into colour theory and design, one of the following two websites may be more suited to you. 

Both of the below websites are amazing resources to choose an awesome colour palette for your blog, but are a little more advanced/trickier to use to get the exact colours you are looking for.

colourlovers palette katherine mclee blog colour generator

 

Adobe Colour Wheel

This Adobe colour wheel colour generator is good if you want to visually see the shades and how they compliment other colours.

You can choose one of the options down the left hand side before starting to drag the circles round the colour wheel.

There is a little arrow under each of the 5 colours and you can click one to choose as your base colour. This will be the base that all other colours and shades will be matched to.

There are lots of ways to modify and change the colour tones under each option.

Adobe colour wheel colours generator katherine mclee blog

 

 

Paletton

Paletton is a great option for if you are looking for lots of different tones within the same colour.

You can move the 5 small circles within the main circle and can again change shades as you go.

You can add further colours into the mix and can change their corresponding shades also.

It is a great representation of how different the different shades of the same colour can be, and how well they go together (or clash).

Paletton colours generator katherine mclee blog

 

I really hope that by the end of this you are able to choose a colour palette for your blog or website! 

As a quick summary:

Colours can always be changed down the line, but having a good colour palette made up so you have set colours for your blog will really help in the meantime.

You can of course think about using these colours in your branding which you will stick with for a long time, but if you are a new blogger with a brand new website, choose an awesome colour palette for your blog and go with it!

If you need to use Google or Pinterest for inspiration then you can do this!

Knowing the vibe of your blog can also help and you can look up related terms like “luxurious colours” or “adventurous colours” as this may provide extra inspiration!

Then you can use one of the colour palette generators mentioned above and you will then be set with your colours!

If you have a Canva Pro account you can save your blog colour palette into your Canva brand kit so it’s all saved and ready to go every time you are creating images!

 

keysearch banner ad katherine mclee blog

 

You can save more than one set of brand colours into Canva pro if you do decide to change colours at any point – I think most of us have, at least a couple of times over the years! 

That’s it! 

You should be all set up with an awesome blog colour palette!

Leave your links in the comments below so I can see what colour combinations you have chosen! 

 

Speak soon!

Katherine McLee signature black and white

 

📌 Pin for later 📌

25 - How To Pick An Awesome Colour Palette For Your Blog Or Website km (15) choose the perfect colour palette link to pinterest pin

The post How To Pick An Awesome Colour Palette For Your Blog Or Website appeared first on Katherine McLee.

]]> https://katherinemclee.com/colour-palette-for-your-blog/feed/ 90 3813 How To Choose The Best Theme for Your New Blog – Blog Aesthetic Tips https://katherinemclee.com/how-to-choose-the-best-theme-for-your-new-blog/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-choose-the-best-theme-for-your-new-blog https://katherinemclee.com/how-to-choose-the-best-theme-for-your-new-blog/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2023 14:02:50 +0000 https://katherinemclee.com/?p=3763 How To Choose The Best Theme for Your New Blog – Blog Aesthetic Tips Ahhh blog aesthetic! Something we all want but sometimes don’t know how to go about getting if you’re new to the blogging world! If you’re a new blogger you’re probably feeling a bit overwhelmed with so much information on things you “should or shouldn’t” do.  One of the first things people will recommend you get for your new blog after Domain and Hosting is a good theme! But how do you know what theme to get? It really depends on if you have an exact idea of what style/aesthetic you want to have or not. There are certain other aspects of choosing a theme you maybe haven’t thought of though so we will go over all of that here!   This post is more geared towards the paid for themes as they offer a lot more flexibility and customisation than a free theme. You can read why a paid theme is best in this post here.   Is There a “Best” Theme for New Bloggers? Honestly no, I don’t think so! If you were looking for an exact answer, I don’t believe there is one specifically!  Everyone has different preferences along with what they need from their theme. Different niches will have different needs in a theme also! But, there are definitely things to look for in a theme . There are so many blog themes out there, and while choosing one is important, it’s not the be all and end all. Blog themes can be changed! As a beginner blogger I’m sure you’re trying to keep your blogging expenses down though and buying different themes is an unnecessary expense! The ideal is buying one at an affordable price that suits all of your, and your blog’s needs.   How Should You Choose a Theme For Your New Blog From an aesthetic point of view everyone will have different preferences. The beauty of having a blog is that it’s your space to express yourself and your individuality through your website. What you need to be careful of is how it’s perceived by the reader. If your main purpose of your blog is for your own personal enjoyment, or as a hobby to share your thoughts, then absolutely have any theme/colours and layout you like!  On the other hand if growing an audience and gaining long-term readers is important to you, you will need to be a little more selective. I’ve had various themes over my blogs over the years but when I found this one (correct on Jan 2023), I instantly loved it. Early days I was the one to try SO many free themes. I kept jumping and trying a different one to see if the next one would do everything I needed/wanted it to. They never did.     All that happened was I spent far too much time having to change layouts and settings to still not be happy with it. (Quick side note: You can change themes/free themes as often as you like, but they aren’t all compatible with each other/plugins/widgets you may have. Changing your theme on your blog doesn’t take long, it’s changing all your settings to make your blog function properly again that’s time consuming and is worth avoiding where possible!) Turns out the reason is that free themes are free for a reason, and they just didn’t allow the customisation I knew I was needing. Not just when I launched this website but I wanted one that would grow with me. I didn’t want one that I would have to keep changing as it can take a lot of time and setting changes to get everything set back up again. The important part of growing a blog is the tasks that produce the best ROI (Return On Investment). The key is avoiding/minimising the tasks that take up unnecessary time; like having to realign photos or move widgets having changed your blog theme again. If you really do need to change or down the line want to upgrade your blog theme then absolutely do this. I would just avoid doing it too often if you don’t have to. The other thing to be aware of is speed – some themes will slow your site down but as a new blogger this won’t be something you have to worry about too much as long as you’re careful with not installing too many plugins!    Are There Things To Look For When Choosing A Blog Theme? Again this will be subjective to you and your wants for your blog. There are however things I would personally look for in a blog theme before purchasing!  Make sure the theme you are choosing has the personalisation YOU are looking for.  Buying a premium theme will help with a lot of the customisation you may want, but even with a free theme there’s things to be aware of! For example, free themes often come with a limited font selection. This is a good choice if you find one you like and are easily overwhelmed – but – you are very limited and restricted in terms of the font you choose for your blog. You will want to look for a theme that has ongoing updates, is highly customisable, lightweight (no one likes a slow website) and that is aesthetically pleasing!  If you are a new blogger it can be tricky knowing how best to choose a theme for your new blog, so making a list of things you want can be helpful. Finding a blog that is easy to use/customise is something I would highly recommend as the last thing you want to do as a new blogger is have to spend hours on how to change something that “should be” simple!      What If You Want Something Completely Different? Blogs are a reflection of their owner. Every design choice, setting change, font and colour scheme have all been picked out. If you want something that is completely different – absolutely go for it!  There are no hard and fast rules – it’s your blog after all! You can tailor the aesthetic of your website to suit your – and your readers – needs.  If you want a layout or functions within a blog theme you have never seen in a theme before, you can get your own blog theme custom made.  Be aware this can get pricey – but is a way to suit all of your needs if you really don’t like the more mainstream blog themes! Any premium (paid) blog theme will let you change colours/fonts etc, so look for which blogs you like the “vibe” of, or the overall layout! If you keep returning to read a blog and notice they are still using the same theme for months on end – this is a good sign that they like their theme! Word of mouth/a recommendation can be the perfect way to choose a theme for your new blog.       Where To Get A Theme For Your New Blog? There are a few places to get new themes!  You can pay someone to design a custom theme for your blog but this is the least affordable option for most. You would get exactly what you wanted but be prepared to spend up to a few thousand! Aside from the above, you can look at places like Etsy, or if you decide you like a free theme and want to upgrade to the premium version, you can do this within WordPress.  As I mentioned earlier in this post, this theme I bought for my blog (one off payment was only around $30 and free ongoing updates) is Ashe Blog Pro from WP Royal!  I love that it’s clean and lightweight and highly customisable for that one off small payment!  It’s been amazing and would recommend it to anyone as it’s so easy to use!  There are lots of options out there so take your time and see what suits you.   For Absolutely Brand New Bloggers If you have never had a blog/website before, it may take some playing around to work out what really suits you and feels right for your blog and that’s okay! You can’t be expected to know what you want if you don’t have any experience yet – it’s all a learning curve! Have a play with the free themes and see what ones feel right, check out their customisation options and if they have a premium version (I would avoid it if they don’t), and also when they were last updated. If you find one that suits – you can then upgrade to the premium version of that blog theme! This may be perfect for you and gives you the option to try a few themes on for size before settling on one for the foreseeable future.  Opting for a premium simple-to-use but highly customisable theme is key, but there’s no rush for you finding the one you like in the very early days! If you have any questions regarding the theme I currently use (Ashe Blog Pro), or about themes in general, leave them in a comment and I’ll get back to you! Speak soon!                                                                 Pin for later 

The post How To Choose The Best Theme for Your New Blog – Blog Aesthetic Tips appeared first on Katherine McLee.

]]>

How To Choose The Best Theme for Your New Blog – Blog Aesthetic Tips

Ahhh blog aesthetic!

Something we all want but sometimes don’t know how to go about getting if you’re new to the blogging world!

If you’re a new blogger you’re probably feeling a bit overwhelmed with so much information on things you “should or shouldn’t” do. 

One of the first things people will recommend you get for your new blog after Domain and Hosting is a good theme!

But how do you know what theme to get?

It really depends on if you have an exact idea of what style/aesthetic you want to have or not.

There are certain other aspects of choosing a theme you maybe haven’t thought of though so we will go over all of that here!  

This post is more geared towards the paid for themes as they offer a lot more flexibility and customisation than a free theme.

You can read why a paid theme is best in this post here.

 

Is There a “Best” Theme for New Bloggers?

Honestly no, I don’t think so!

If you were looking for an exact answer, I don’t believe there is one specifically! 

Everyone has different preferences along with what they need from their theme.

Different niches will have different needs in a theme also!

But, there are definitely things to look for in a theme .

There are so many blog themes out there, and while choosing one is important, it’s not the be all and end all.

Blog themes can be changed!

As a beginner blogger I’m sure you’re trying to keep your blogging expenses down though and buying different themes is an unnecessary expense!

The ideal is buying one at an affordable price that suits all of your, and your blog’s needs.

 

How Should You Choose a Theme For Your New Blog

From an aesthetic point of view everyone will have different preferences.

The beauty of having a blog is that it’s your space to express yourself and your individuality through your website.

What you need to be careful of is how it’s perceived by the reader.

If your main purpose of your blog is for your own personal enjoyment, or as a hobby to share your thoughts, then absolutely have any theme/colours and layout you like! 

On the other hand if growing an audience and gaining long-term readers is important to you, you will need to be a little more selective.

I’ve had various themes over my blogs over the years but when I found this one (correct on Jan 2023), I instantly loved it.

Early days I was the one to try SO many free themes.

I kept jumping and trying a different one to see if the next one would do everything I needed/wanted it to.

They never did.

 

 

All that happened was I spent far too much time having to change layouts and settings to still not be happy with it.

(Quick side note: You can change themes/free themes as often as you like, but they aren’t all compatible with each other/plugins/widgets you may have. Changing your theme on your blog doesn’t take long, it’s changing all your settings to make your blog function properly again that’s time consuming and is worth avoiding where possible!)

Turns out the reason is that free themes are free for a reason, and they just didn’t allow the customisation I knew I was needing.

Not just when I launched this website but I wanted one that would grow with me. I didn’t want one that I would have to keep changing as it can take a lot of time and setting changes to get everything set back up again.

The important part of growing a blog is the tasks that produce the best ROI (Return On Investment). The key is avoiding/minimising the tasks that take up unnecessary time; like having to realign photos or move widgets having changed your blog theme again.

If you really do need to change or down the line want to upgrade your blog theme then absolutely do this. I would just avoid doing it too often if you don’t have to.

The other thing to be aware of is speed – some themes will slow your site down but as a new blogger this won’t be something you have to worry about too much as long as you’re careful with not installing too many plugins! 

 

Are There Things To Look For When Choosing A Blog Theme?

Again this will be subjective to you and your wants for your blog.

There are however things I would personally look for in a blog theme before purchasing! 

Make sure the theme you are choosing has the personalisation YOU are looking for. 

Buying a premium theme will help with a lot of the customisation you may want, but even with a free theme there’s things to be aware of!

For example, free themes often come with a limited font selection.

This is a good choice if you find one you like and are easily overwhelmed – but – you are very limited and restricted in terms of the font you choose for your blog.

You will want to look for a theme that has ongoing updates, is highly customisable, lightweight (no one likes a slow website) and that is aesthetically pleasing! 

If you are a new blogger it can be tricky knowing how best to choose a theme for your new blog, so making a list of things you want can be helpful.

Finding a blog that is easy to use/customise is something I would highly recommend as the last thing you want to do as a new blogger is have to spend hours on how to change something that “should be” simple! 

 

keysearch banner ad katherine mclee blog

 

What If You Want Something Completely Different?

Blogs are a reflection of their owner.

Every design choice, setting change, font and colour scheme have all been picked out.

If you want something that is completely different – absolutely go for it! 

There are no hard and fast rules – it’s your blog after all!

You can tailor the aesthetic of your website to suit your – and your readers – needs. 

If you want a layout or functions within a blog theme you have never seen in a theme before, you can get your own blog theme custom made. 

Be aware this can get pricey – but is a way to suit all of your needs if you really don’t like the more mainstream blog themes!

Any premium (paid) blog theme will let you change colours/fonts etc, so look for which blogs you like the “vibe” of, or the overall layout!

If you keep returning to read a blog and notice they are still using the same theme for months on end – this is a good sign that they like their theme!

Word of mouth/a recommendation can be the perfect way to choose a theme for your new blog.

 

 

 

Where To Get A Theme For Your New Blog?

There are a few places to get new themes! 

You can pay someone to design a custom theme for your blog but this is the least affordable option for most.

You would get exactly what you wanted but be prepared to spend up to a few thousand!

Aside from the above, you can look at places like Etsy, or if you decide you like a free theme and want to upgrade to the premium version, you can do this within WordPress. 

As I mentioned earlier in this post, this theme I bought for my blog (one off payment was only around $30 and free ongoing updates) is Ashe Blog Pro from WP Royal! 

I love that it’s clean and lightweight and highly customisable for that one off small payment! 

It’s been amazing and would recommend it to anyone as it’s so easy to use! 

There are lots of options out there so take your time and see what suits you.

 

For Absolutely Brand New Bloggers

If you have never had a blog/website before, it may take some playing around to work out what really suits you and feels right for your blog and that’s okay!

You can’t be expected to know what you want if you don’t have any experience yet – it’s all a learning curve!

Have a play with the free themes and see what ones feel right, check out their customisation options and if they have a premium version (I would avoid it if they don’t), and also when they were last updated.

If you find one that suits – you can then upgrade to the premium version of that blog theme!

This may be perfect for you and gives you the option to try a few themes on for size before settling on one for the foreseeable future. 

Opting for a premium simple-to-use but highly customisable theme is key, but there’s no rush for you finding the one you like in the very early days!

If you have any questions regarding the theme I currently use (Ashe Blog Pro), or about themes in general, leave them in a comment and I’ll get back to you!

Speak soon!

Katherine McLee signature black and white

                                                               📌 Pin for later 📌

How To Choose The Best Theme for Your New Blog - Blog Aesthetic Tips Woman smiling at computer with hands together katherine mclee blogging

The post How To Choose The Best Theme for Your New Blog – Blog Aesthetic Tips appeared first on Katherine McLee.

]]> https://katherinemclee.com/how-to-choose-the-best-theme-for-your-new-blog/feed/ 28 3763 Free royalty free stock photos – where you can get free photographs for your blog https://katherinemclee.com/free-royalty-free-stock-photos/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=free-royalty-free-stock-photos https://katherinemclee.com/free-royalty-free-stock-photos/#comments Fri, 27 Nov 2020 16:26:07 +0000 http://katherinemclee.com/?p=172 Here I will be explaining where to find free royalty free stock photos for your blog. (Basically where to get all those cute/professional looking photos but without the hefty price-tag or worries around whether you are actually allowed to use them on your blog!) A few years ago when I first started blogging (this isn’t my first blog), it was back when not-overly-great self taken pictures weren’t just accepted but they were the norm. Any self-taken photo would do – as long as you could see what the image was of, it was all good! Over the years though a lot of people have started making their blogs look and feel a lot more professional and put together and one of the best ways to do this is with high quality images. Don’t get me wrong this is not a “must” if you have a blog. If you blog as a hobby, or prefer it NOT to look too “professional” then there is absolutely no need to change it up. In fact in one of my original blogs I choose NOT to use stock photos and do still take my own as for that one as I prefer the whole website to have a more down-to-earth feel. I love the look of professional looking images, but sometimes you do need the home-taken feel. You can’t go wrong with a good mix! Keeping yourself right One of the most important things to remember when you are looking for images for your blog which you did not take yourself is to make sure you are actually allowed to use them! I know the feeling of seeing a beautiful image from the internet which you love and know would fit your theme perfectly, but you may end up in trouble if you were never given permission to use that image for your own website. There are a couple of ways to avoid getting into trouble; 1 – you ask permission from the owner of the image (always get permission in writing), 2 – you purchase a photo specifically with them in the knowledge that you intend to use their image, and 3 – you go to a high quality online library of photos which you ARE allowed to use without asking the owners permission. That third option is what I want to share with you today. Finding free royalty free stock photos isn’t as tricky as it sounds – nor is it as scary! Where do I get mine? My favourite two websites to find completelty free royalty free stock photos are: Pixabay  https://pixabay.com/ and Pexels https://www.pexels.com/ There are many more – those are just the two I use on a regular basis! What to look for A couple of things to note when you are looking for your own free royalty free stock photos. Firstly, make sure next to the image you want that it states a couple of things. One that it is free for personal/commercial use (commercial being the important word there), and also note whether attribution is required or not – basically whether you need to credit the photographer/link back to them. Most often with the free image websites there is no attribution required but I personally DO always mention where my images are from. I feel it’s a nice thing to do and is only fair considering you are using their work on your blog. I like to either put their name or a link back to the website where I got it – credit where it’s due in my opinion! Other options for images If you decide that using free royalty free stock photos is not for you or doesn’t fit your website then have no fear – there are other options for you too! Take and edit your own photos, use a paid image library, create your own images, use product links or you can embed video! Hopefully you get inspired for places to find those perfect images for your blog! What are your favourite free royalty free stock photo image websites? Share them below! Speak soon! Katherine Photo by Kyle Roxas from Pexels

The post Free royalty free stock photos – where you can get free photographs for your blog appeared first on Katherine McLee.

]]> Here I will be explaining where to find free royalty free stock photos for your blog.

(Basically where to get all those cute/professional looking photos but without the hefty price-tag or worries around whether you are actually allowed to use them on your blog!)

A few years ago when I first started blogging (this isn’t my first blog), it was back when not-overly-great self taken pictures weren’t just accepted but they were the norm.

Any self-taken photo would do – as long as you could see what the image was of, it was all good!

Over the years though a lot of people have started making their blogs look and feel a lot more professional and put together and one of the best ways to do this is with high quality images.

Don’t get me wrong this is not a “must” if you have a blog. If you blog as a hobby, or prefer it NOT to look too “professional” then there is absolutely no need to change it up. In fact in one of my original blogs I choose NOT to use stock photos and do still take my own as for that one as I prefer the whole website to have a more down-to-earth feel.

I love the look of professional looking images, but sometimes you do need the home-taken feel. You can’t go wrong with a good mix!

Keeping yourself right

One of the most important things to remember when you are looking for images for your blog which you did not take yourself is to make sure you are actually allowed to use them!

I know the feeling of seeing a beautiful image from the internet which you love and know would fit your theme perfectly, but you may end up in trouble if you were never given permission to use that image for your own website.

There are a couple of ways to avoid getting into trouble; 1 – you ask permission from the owner of the image (always get permission in writing), 2 – you purchase a photo specifically with them in the knowledge that you intend to use their image, and 3 – you go to a high quality online library of photos which you ARE allowed to use without asking the owners permission.

That third option is what I want to share with you today.

Finding free royalty free stock photos isn’t as tricky as it sounds – nor is it as scary!

Where do I get mine?

My favourite two websites to find completelty free royalty free stock photos are:

Pixabay 

https://pixabay.com/

and

Pexels

https://www.pexels.com/

There are many more – those are just the two I use on a regular basis!

What to look for

A couple of things to note when you are looking for your own free royalty free stock photos. Firstly, make sure next to the image you want that it states a couple of things. One that it is free for personal/commercial use (commercial being the important word there), and also note whether attribution is required or not – basically whether you need to credit the photographer/link back to them.

Most often with the free image websites there is no attribution required but I personally DO always mention where my images are from.

I feel it’s a nice thing to do and is only fair considering you are using their work on your blog.

I like to either put their name or a link back to the website where I got it – credit where it’s due in my opinion!

Other options for images

If you decide that using free royalty free stock photos is not for you or doesn’t fit your website then have no fear – there are other options for you too!

Take and edit your own photos, use a paid image library, create your own images, use product links or you can embed video!

Hopefully you get inspired for places to find those perfect images for your blog!

What are your favourite free royalty free stock photo image websites? Share them below!

Speak soon!

Katherine

Photo by Kyle Roxas from Pexels

The post Free royalty free stock photos – where you can get free photographs for your blog appeared first on Katherine McLee.

]]> https://katherinemclee.com/free-royalty-free-stock-photos/feed/ 2 172