This is going to be a relatively short post. I decided to draw for pimp my blog winner today right after work. So I have picked this month’s winner.

indocontest [at] xxx. com

I don’t know who is this person… or at least I don’t remember him. On his blog his name is Indo. So it will be nice to know another one of my reader I am sure we are going to come up with something exciting. He have 24 hours to get back to me, so hopefully he will get back to me within that time

For those of you who are new here and don’t know what pimp my blog contest is then you should read the pimp my blog page.

A short summary of Pimp my Blog is I pick one of my rss email subscribers randomly through the random generator and give them the opportunity to get a complete redesign of the blog. Note: That I don’t redesign new blogs, so it must be an already established blog. I just take your stuff what you have right now and make it look good. Some new add ons here and there but you get the idea of what I am saying right.

Anyways, if you didn’t get picked this month then you know what to do right. Since this is a never ending contest, subscribe to balkhis via email for next month. And you might get picked. Trick to get extra entries is be in the top commentators. So subscribe via email to Balkhis:

O by the way, I wrote a guest post at Jason’s Blog, The University Kid, so do check that out.

One of the starting steps to starting a blog is picking a blog design. There are three options that are available. Free Designs, Premium Designs, or Custom Designs. Now as you all know that I am a strong supporter of Wordpress, so examples on this post will be wordpress related only.

There are pros and cons for each option. So lets review them.

Free Blog Design

Free themes are the ones that are available for download for free. Alot of designers are releasing free themes in order to gain backlinks therefore you will see that in most free themes there is a designer link and sometimes sponsor link also. You are required to keep those links as the terms of service. Check out available free WP Themes by Balkhis.

Pros

1. It’s FREE - Well they are free and cost effective. Duh.
2. Good collection - There are too many free ones available. So you get to pick from a wide collection.
3. Change for Free - You can switch your themes around alot. Because too many new ones coming out.
4. If its free like Pimp My Blog than you are good to go.

Cons

1. Not Unique unless it is from Pimp My Blog.
2. You get Designer and Sponsor links on majority of them. But there are alot out there that only have designer link.
3. Your blog will never catch the eyes of a reader because there is another one that looks just like it. Unless you use a very crappy theme. Good themes get used by alot of bloggers.
4. Usually you get no support on free themes.

Premium Themes

Premium themes are the one that are a step above free themes. They are paid themes that will never be released for free. Most Premium Themes are better than free ones, but there are some which are not. Check out Balkhis list of Excellent Free and Premium Wordpress Themes.

Pros

1. Less people use it, so you will have a semi-noticable design.
2. Most Premium Themes come with support from the designer.
3. They are more advanced than the free themes. (Not all but most)
4. Cost effective because you get a theme for only $40 - $90 which works like a custom theme.
5. Some don’t even require a designer link.

Cons

1. They are still not unique! So you will see blogs that use those.
2. Popular themes like Revolution are used by alot of bloggers.
3. Some are not similar but RIP OFFs of a popular site..

Custom Theme

Custom themes are the ones that are created just for your blog. Providing your blog a unique touch and more. Get your Custom Themes from Uzzz Productions.

Pros

1. Your site looks UNIQUE. No other site will look exactly like yours unless they rip your design off. Most Designers are honorable and they don’t create the same theme more than once.
2. You get Support - Depends on each designer and the contract.
3. You attract alot of readers. Excellent way of Branding.
4. Usually custom themes look better than the rest, and they are customized DUh.

Cons

1. They are usually more expensive. A custom blog theme can range from $250 to $4000. It depends on what style of theme. It depends on who is the designer, and more factors determine the price of a theme.
2. Can’t really think of another Con for a custom theme. Can you?

Above are my thoughts on the options that you have when selecting a Blog Design. Personally, I believe that when a blogger starting a new blog they should try to invest about $300 in getting a custom theme because that will give your blog a cool look, and it will attract readers. But each blogger have their own opinion.

Which option do you think is the best? and WHY?

After Last month, when Nick Throlson got his blog pimped. Today I did a drawing for Pimp My Blog. Winner will like always get a customized pimped up version of a wordpress design. Winner for this month is

sizzler_chetan@xxxxxxxxxx.com

We will see which blog will Chetan like to get pimped. He have 24 hours from the time when I send him an email. If I don’t get a reply a new winner will be chosen.

I will update you guys later in August around Mid or Late August with the complete design. Ofcourse it will have a pimped up look. If you guys have any suggestions how a blog design should look I am open to all those.

Well since this is a never ending contest, so you can always be a winner next month. Subscribe to Balkhis via email through feedburner.

No I will not spam you because I hate spam as well.

Don’t wait subscribe now. And you can be the next winner.

Like always today is the last day of July, and I am done with Nick’s site. Well I have been done for a while, it is now ready for public exposure. Nick’s email got chosen on the June Drawing and therefore he recieved the new design.

Pimp My Blog is growing big every day. I get more and more inquiries about this topic. Also the email subscriber has gone to a higher level. I am trying to do more of web 2.0 faster loading blog templates.

Well check out Nick’s Site at Nickthrolson.com

Watch the Video of his site getting pimped:

Youtube here because Revver is too slow in approving

I will be doing the drawing for July winner in a few days. This time I will not reveal the date because some people are cheating the system by subscribing in the drawing days and than unsubscribing. But it will be done in the first week of August 2008.

Entry method is simple.

Subscribe to Balkhis via email. Make sure you comment alot. Top commentators get more entry than others.

It is that time of the month where I announce one lucky email subscriber to be the winner for Pimp My Blog Contest at Balkhis. Today is the movie HandCock coming out, and I will be watching that, therefore I have done the drawing early. One more time let me remind what the winner gets.

The winner of the Pimp My Blog Contest gets a completely pimped design for their wordpress blog.

Winner was chosen via a Random Generator, each email was assigned a number.

Winner for June 2008 is nickthrolson@xxxxxxxx.com

The email has been sent to the winner already, and I will be waiting for the reply. If for some reason the winner backs out or decides that they don’t want a design then I will redo the drawing.

Don’t you wish you could be the winner of the pimp my blog contest. Well all you need to do is subscribe to this blog via email. And wait for next month’s drawing. You might be the lucky winner and get a completely unique wordpress theme. Don’t miss out Subscribe using the form below now.

I will update you guys when the design is done with the videos that displays the extra features.

Get your Blog Pimped now and spread the words.