So, all of you already know by now that John Chow has a custom theme designed by none other than Nate Whitehill. Nate has done a fantastic job but I wonder how much the theme can help or hurt John Chow. For ever so long, JC was recognized by the sporty cars in the header and the simple “Misty” theme and although the download counter for the Misty theme may have doubled up during that time, JC followers may have a hard time copying his new theme.

All this commotion regarding a custom theme has lit a bulb in my head, “Why not me?” and even though some may argue that I have given the original “Vertigo Enhanced” theme quite a facelift, I have decided to work on a new design. I talked to Prija over at CashForComments and I mentioned a beta project of mine called “Chuck” which you can see here. Currently, the theme for Chuck is Redoable by Dean Robinson and I am working on taking it to the next level. My current theme was modified to a certain degree but I wish to see my beta project “Chuck” reach a new height of customization.The reason I am providing you with a URL for my beta project is so you can see me work on it as time passes. Either way, this brings me to my main point of what some of the advantages and disadvantages of having a custom theme can be:

Advantages:
1) You get exactly what you want - most of the times with anything custom, you can create something that will be exclusive to you. Custom means, tailored to your needs and in that sense JohnChow has been able to do exactly that.
2) More space – this could be more advertising space for JC, but in general most bloggers would agree that having a little more space would help them grow. For example, my theme was expanded by 25 pixels from the original to give it more room to breathe. With a custom theme, those minor adjustments can be built right in.
3) Custom panel/widget integration – what this means is that you can actually integrate new widgets directly into the theme. This gives you more flexibility in terms of creating a sidebar block to place ads or a block directly into the header for your RSS subscription.

Disadvantages:
1) Time Consuming – the process of custom theme creation for most bloggers is that it takes too much time. Nothing ever works perfectly on the first try and some of us have experienced that the hard way but the only way to be sure everything works well is through constant testing.
2) Can Be Expensive – we all know that time means money and if you aren’t customizing your own theme then you would have to pay someone to do it for you. I used to be a webdesigner and so the price for a design by Nate Whitehill wasn’t surprising to me. $800 could be expensive to some people and specially a start-up blog.
3) Too Jumbled – I don’t know about you but I feel that when some people create a custom theme for themselves, they include so much of the stuff they want that it actually takes away from the reader experience. You wouldn’t want that. Keeping your needs simple is the best way to go.

Sometimes with a custom theme people get so used to the original theme that the newer theme doesn’t ever fit well with them and that would be my main concern if I had a highly successful blog. But anyway, that should clear up a little bit of the reasoning behind creating a custom theme and although my beta project “Chuck” was just created earlier today, I will start working on it during my free time over the next month or so to see how it turns out. Wish me luck but at the same time, think about something that you wished was different in your current design. Basically, if there was something you could change about your current blog design, what would it be?