Are there any drawbacks to copying another blog's design?

[shindou90]

Hello there gents,

I'm relatively new to IM and my background is in web development.

The issue that I'm facing currently is that developing the back-end of a website is what I specialize in and my design skills (front-end) are terrible.

I know that I can work on that but I was thinking that my time would be better spent if I used another blog's design and just added my own posts?

Have any of you tried this before? Is this method penalized in any way?

Thanks in advance

 

[roydan]

And if you suck at writing content go ahead and just copy their content too.
If you're not good at something, hire someone to do it for you.

 

[shindou90]

And if you suck at writing content go ahead and just copy their content too.
If you're not good at something, hire someone to do it for you.

I was thinking about the popular saying "don't reinvent the wheel". Of course I would change it but my objective would be to get started ASAP.

 

[Savvy linkbuilder]

Ethically it is wrong! You should hire someone... Uniqueness has its own taste.

 

[M0n3y.]

Don't develop a new back-end/front-end for your blog, mate!

Install wordpress or something and slap some theme for now. And focus on content - that's what people visit blogs for.

 

[ensus]

A lot of sites choose to use premade template...And if you look at what makes up a webpage, its about 10 components all in all, call to action, navbar, text elements, button elements etc

These are truths of a webpage, all that changes is the padding, colours, positions, content etc
And to change these, usually there's a centralized file its referencing, such as base.css or just a main style.css.

Find a webdev tool, and load the blog into it, and take inspiration of pinterest/change colour scheme around, but it seems like a pain, just go buy a template, otherwise you will be mining through dead links and documenting class names

 

[shindou90]

Don't develop a new back-end/front-end for your blog, mate!

Install wordpress or something and slap some theme for now. And focus on content - that's what people visit blogs for.

I thought you couldn't monetize WordPress blogs unless you paid. Is that the case?

 

[shindou90]

A lot of sites choose to use premade template...And if you look at what makes up a webpage, its about 10 components all in all, call to action, navbar, text elements, button elements etc

These are truths of a webpage, all that changes is the padding, colours, positions, content etc
And to change these, usually there's a centralized file its referencing, such as base.css or just a main style.css.

Find a webdev tool, and load the blog into it, and take inspiration of pinterest/change colour scheme around, but it seems like a pain, just go buy a template, otherwise you will be mining through dead links and documenting class names

Yeah you're right. But let's not forget about responsive design and JavaScript.

 

[M0n3y.]

I thought you couldn't monetize WordPress blogs unless you paid. Is that the case?

Kinda?, don't go for wordpress.com - that's their web builder.

Go for wordpress.org - free to use. Just need hosting and many free theme are available.

 

[shindou90]

Kinda?, don't go for wordpress.com - that's their web builder.

Go for wordpress.org - free to use. Just need hosting and many free theme are available.

You're a legend mate, cheers for the tip!

 

[flprocess]

Think about this: Search engines can't "see" your design, they "read" your content.

Now for your design issues, I would recommend learning how to use a Wordpress Builder like Elementor which can make even the newest guy on the field a Designer good luck!

 

[Willyfish]

Hello there gents,

I'm relatively new to IM and my background is in web development.

The issue that I'm facing currently is that developing the back-end of a website is what I specialize in and my design skills (front-end) are terrible.

I know that I can work on that but I was thinking that my time would be better spent if I used another blog's design and just added my own posts?

Have any of you tried this before? Is this method penalized in any way?

Thanks in advance

it will not differentiate your brand from the competitor and if he is longer in the game than you it's not possible to win except if your content is FAR better than his.

The goal is to have a better UX and better content than him so I would highly advise you to have your own brand vision and design.

 

[davidelzs]

You can copy the design, not the contents.

 

[GenesisOne]

Hello there gents,

I'm relatively new to IM and my background is in web development.

The issue that I'm facing currently is that developing the back-end of a website is what I specialize in and my design skills (front-end) are terrible.

I know that I can work on that but I was thinking that my time would be better spent if I used another blog's design and just added my own posts?

Have any of you tried this before? Is this method penalized in any way?

Thanks in advance

This is a weird question.
WP themes does exists and everyone who uses the same theme is using the same design.
Just buy a theme of your likings and move on.