Tag Archives: fashion

The post The Best Free WordPress Themes for Lifestyle Blogs Now appeared first on HostGator Blog . Lifestyle blogging is a popular hobby and it’s easy to get started. Earning an income from a lifestyle blog ? You’ll need more than good writing and images to make that happen. You’ll need technical tools to give your blog a fresh and appealing look, make it easy to find, and help you earn money through advertising, an online store, affiliate marketing , or a combination of those income streams. A good WordPress theme is the key to creating the right look, getting found, and making money from the content you to create. Here are a few lifestyle blog themes we like for their features, looks, and free versions. Fashion Lifestyle This mobile-friendly theme from Blossom Themes is tailored for fashion but can be altered to suit any type of lifestyle blog, thanks to its customizable elements and mobile-friendly design. The basic layout includes an image slider above the fold, image-based menu categories, an understated but impossible-to-miss newsletter opt-in box (so you can start sending your blog email campaigns ), and merchandise displays. Fashion Lifestyle is built to work with the WooCommerce plugin for WordPress so you can set up an online store . There’s also a built-in Instagram section to make social media marketing easier, and schema.org compatibility means it’s easier to format rich content that performs well in Google search results . The Pro version of Fashion Lifestyle ($49) gives you the ability to change the color of your blog’s header, footer, and buttons. It also adds more header, homepage, banner, and slider layout options, and includes AdSense-optimized spots and affiliate marketing capabilities.   Travel Lifestyle This free lifestyle theme from The Bootstrap Themes loads fast and displays cleanly on a variety of devices. Travel Lifestyle’s image-centric layout is ideal for travel photos and features as well as other types of photography, special events, destinations, and décor. Like Fashion Lifestyle, Travel Lifestyle has a built-in Instagram section and other social media integration tools and it’s WooCommerce compatible. The layout and customization options are more limited in the free version of Travel Lifestyle than Fashion Lifestyle—one layout, banner slider, and header option, plus a limited menu of Google Fonts. The premium version ($49) adds theme and menu color options, ad management and ad-blocker bypass capabilities, and more layout choices. Premium users have the option of a right sidebar, left sidebar, or full-width single column layout in desktop mode, and a full-width column or left sidebar below the fold on mobile.   Chic Lifestyle If you’re the kind of blogger who likes to feature snappy headlines with your posts’ featured images, Chic Lifestyle is a theme worth exploring. The image-grid layout leaves room for short blocks of text under each image, to encourage viewers to click through and read your posts. Like Travel Lifestyle, Chic Lifestyle is published by The Bootstrap, and it has the same free and premium features and pricing.   WP Mint Magazine Bloggers who want a clean, tech-oriented look and who update their content frequently may like WP Mint Magazine . This free lifestyle theme from ProDesigns looks somewhat similar to Chic Lifestyle  at the top of the page, with a row of images coupled with blocks of text and a full-width newsletter opt-in section. But there’s a more complex category-based image hierarchy further down on the page, so you can display lots of content to encourage your visitors to stick around and explore. Like the other themes in this list, WP Mint Magazine is responsive so it displays well on mobile. There’s no paid-upgrade version, so you get this theme’s multiple layout and widget options for free.   Savona Savona from Optima themes is a theme with classic style. Its layout is similar to Fashion Lifestyle – banner slider, category images, and a sidebar with room for a bio and photo, Instagram, and recent posts. But Savona has a more traditional range of fonts than Fashion Lifestyle, and the free theme is available in several variations: Savona Classic, Blog, Bold, Lite, and Minimal. Each Savona theme has a free version that’s WooCommerce compatible, optimized for search engines, and responsive for display on mobile and desktop screens.   Online Blog Online Blog from Thememattic is for bloggers who have big personalities and want to stand out from the lifestyle blogging crowd with unique web design . Bold, animated splashes of color add movement and visual interest to your pull quotes and images and they keep the reader’s eye moving down the page for more of your content. Three featured post images and headlines make up the eye-catching banner slider, giving visitors a quick glance at several of your posts at once, even before they click the slide arrow. The free version of Online Blog gives you live editing previews in Customizer, an author bio sidebar, WooCommerce compatibility, SEO-ready structure, and support for some social media content. The pro version of Online Blog ($49) adds the ability to change fonts and theme colors, an Instagram slider, more social media options, and logo and title customization tools.   Choosing Your Lifestyle Blog Theme Each theme publisher offers a live demo on their site, but it’s a good idea to try out the themes you like with your content to make sure they look good before you commit. Things to think about as you decide: What type of content do you feature the most, images, text, or videos? You’ll want a theme that puts the most emphasis on what you do best. How do you plan to monetize your blog ? Your plans can affect your theme choice, especially if you want to have ads or sell merchandise in a store on your site. How will your audience view your blog? Do they read it at their desks on coffee breaks, or on their phones while they’re in the carpool line? Choose a theme that makes it easy for them. Once you set up your theme, keep tabs on metrics like your traffic, bounce rate, and conversions. If, after a few weeks or months you’re not seeing growth, you may want to try a different theme—and there are plenty to choose from. Check out this blog post for more tips on selecting a WordPress theme for your blog .  Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →