Themes provide your visitors with the first taste of your brand and content. All themes are not created equal. Here at BoardingArea, we try to help our bloggers choose and customize themes that represent their brands and optimize their blogs to increase viewership.
There are many things to consider when choosing a theme for your blog:
Visitors will typically not visit your blog's homepage, but will instead visit an article they clicked on. This means that visitors will need to be enticed to visit more of your blog through the post that led them to your blog. If the post is slow to load, navigation is difficult to figure out, and the post's layout itself is bloated or unclear, the visitor is more likely to leave than stay.
Your branding should be reflected in your theme. For example, if your brand is related to visiting western-themed motels in the United States, your theme may include dusty and earth colors, a western-themed logo, and the navigation may say "Motels", "Travel Tips", "Deals", and "Routes".
Your theme should not slow down your blog. We use GTmetrix to test the speed of blogs.
Choosing A Theme
We recommend visiting ThemeForest and choosing 3-5 themes that you like.
Next, we recommend running the theme's sample pages through GTmetrix to figure out which themes have a consistent A rating (tried and true themes are listed below).
Once you have some themes chosen, reach out to us so we can make sure they are compatible.
We will let you know which themes work and then you can purchase the theme.
Some themes we have found to be successful and blogs that use the themes are:
Kadence - AAdvantage Geek, AcCounting Your Points, Don't Call the Airline
Magazine Pro - Economy Class & Beyond, Nonstop Points
Soledad - The Bulkhead Seat,
Divi - Aero Shots, Andy's Travel Blog, Hungry for Points
Newspack - God Save The Points
Valenti - Flying-Out
Fluida - Grab A Mile
Once - Off the Beaten Points
Newspaper - Frequent Floaters
Some other BoardingArea approved themes are:
Note: You can also send a link to blogs you like the look of and we can help identify the theme.
Customizing A Theme
Once you choose a theme, BoardingArea's UX Designer can complete any customizations that you request. The more specific you are with your descriptions, the better!
Changing A Theme
If you would like to change your current theme, you can contact help@boardingarea.com to make this request. Some things that are helpful for us to know when you request a theme changes are:
What specific aspects of the current theme do you want to change? Are there certain elements of the design that you find outdated or ineffective?
Are there designs you want to incorporate into the new theme?
What are your goals for the new design? Are you trying to improve the user experience, increase engagement, or improve the blog's visual appeal?
Do you have any specific design preferences or ideas that you want to incorporate into the new theme? For example, do you want a minimalist design, bold typography, or unique graphics?