Grow Your Blog Audience With a Click of a Button

Written by Neil Patel on July 3, 2014 Blog.

blog-patel

You caught me, I can’t guarantee that you’ll increase your blog traffic with a click of a button, but realistically you can with a few clicks.

How you may ask?

Well, Woothemes and I are creating a theme based on all of the learning’s I’ve found through content marketing, conversion optimization, social media marketing, and SEO. Our overall goal is to create a free WordPress theme, that’ll help you grow your traffic.

How are we going to do this?

  • We’re going to create a theme that is optimized for readability. That way more people actually read your blog posts and start commenting.
  • We’re going to optimize the placement of social media buttons so we can help you generate more social traffic.
  • We’re going to make your theme optimized for search engines so it ranks higher.
  • We’re going to optimize the placement of comments box and the text within it to help you increase the number of comments you get per post.

And that’s just scratching the surface… we’re actually going to do a lot more. But before we reveal all of our plans, we need a bit of help from you. We want your input so we can create a theme so great, that you’ll want to use it.

So if you can do us a favor and fill out the survey below, we’ll greatly appreciate it.

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52 Responses

  1. Mark
    July 3, 2014 at 2:20 pm #

    This form can only be viewed by users in the owner’s organisation.

    🙁

    • Warren Holmes
      July 3, 2014 at 2:32 pm #

      I just fixed that 🙂 Thanks for the heads up!

  2. Peter Nikolow
    July 3, 2014 at 9:13 pm #

    I’m curious to see this theme. Since it’s “Neil Pattel work”

  3. Freebie Lover
    July 4, 2014 at 3:08 pm #

    Good news. Waiting for result! 🙂

  4. Pawel
    July 4, 2014 at 3:17 pm #

    exciting news, looking forward to see it 🙂

  5. Javier
    July 4, 2014 at 3:18 pm #

    Awesome 🙂 just awesome, as I do have a personal small biz I use woo framework wich suits not-just-fine but in a marvelous way. Now, for my presonal blog I use other framework precisely because of the reading and end-user experience matters, specially in mobile devices experience issues. Waiting to see the outcome!

  6. Barbio
    July 4, 2014 at 3:19 pm #

    Can’t wait for this new theme. Thanks.

  7. Dewi Maile Lim
    July 4, 2014 at 3:19 pm #

    I’d like to see an easy-breezy feature for quoting text or portions of other content when taking a content curation/commentary approach to a blog post. Also integrating a “tweet this” type functionality that doesn’t require an additional plug-in. Thanks!

    • tug
      July 4, 2014 at 7:02 pm #

      @dewi — completely agree here. i use the quote box to capture information provided by others, but there doesn’t seem to be a good way for me to share the “commentary” i responded to the originator with and separate it with the content i’m writing in the article.

      in theory, it would be similar to how threaded comments work, but i’d like that facility, or something similar within an article to distinguish my interaction off line with people from the other article content.

  8. Mark Bailey, Jr.
    July 4, 2014 at 3:22 pm #

    Really excited about this!

  9. Andrew
    July 4, 2014 at 3:22 pm #

    Neil, it would be better if some of those answers were checkboxes instead of radio buttons. I monetize my blog through multiple methods (advertising, sponsored content, affiliate links). For stats I use both Google Analytics and Jetpack (WordPress) Stats. And I use both Feedburner and MadMimi for emailing (though getting away from Feedburner is on my to-do list!). 🙂

  10. Jeremy
    July 4, 2014 at 3:29 pm #

    If this goes well it would be terrific to have a second round and come up with a theme that is optimised for a few different categories of site, like, small local business, portfolio and shopping cart. Looking forward to seeing it, have a lot of respect for Neil’s experience and success.

  11. Renzo Strijker
    July 4, 2014 at 3:40 pm #

    I can’t wait to see the new theme, very curious.. good work Neil!

  12. Jeff
    July 4, 2014 at 3:50 pm #

    Looking forward to seeing this new theme!

  13. Anirudh
    July 4, 2014 at 3:59 pm #

    two days back I learnt Woothemes was launching Canvas child themes and now another theme with Neil !! Sounds good for developers throughout world !!

  14. mike
    July 4, 2014 at 4:00 pm #

    can’t wait to see what Neil and Woothemes can cook up 🙂

  15. Brigid
    July 4, 2014 at 4:03 pm #

    Think Neil is pretty awesome – and with Woothemes!!!
    Cannot wait to try this theme!!!

  16. Sergio Felix
    July 4, 2014 at 4:04 pm #

    Just sent my answers, excited to see what the final result is! 😉

    Sergio

  17. Scales
    July 4, 2014 at 4:04 pm #

    Cool, looking forward to see the result…

  18. Thomas Zickell
    July 4, 2014 at 4:26 pm #

    “We’re going to create a theme that is optimized for readability. That way more people actually read your blog posts and start commenting.”

    Hey Neil,
    I am looking for a system that incorporates off-site commenting. I have been on the fence about this for a long time however I have a client who gets well more than hundred thousand visitors per month to their personal blog. When doing search optimization I realized how much damage 50 to 80 comments per a post were affecting what Google thought the original poster had written and not what the commenters had written.

    Engagement is a huge part of search and the end user being happy is even more important in my opinion we all know that is not to please Google but to please the end-user that wins in both categories.

    Why Woo themes? I like them quite a bit however I would love to know as to why you picked them instead of some of the others out there?

    All the best, Tom

  19. Nikhil Phirke
    July 4, 2014 at 4:41 pm #

    I’m very much curious to see the new theme. I’ve sent my answers.

    Good Luck!
    Nikhil

  20. Brian Krogsgard
    July 4, 2014 at 4:58 pm #

    I look forward to seeing what you guys create with this 😉

    Fwiw, a lot of these questions could’ve included checkboxes instead of radio buttons — many could’ve been multi-option answers!

  21. Richard
    July 4, 2014 at 5:28 pm #

    As a blogger there is so many ideas that I have about what a blog needs, and what a new site that I plan to develop for my blog needs in order to propel it forward. I’d love to be contacted to help test this new blogging theme.

    – social sharing on all pictures (a la dailymail.co.uk articles)
    – ability to set image size based on users screen size (a good example of this is the Freshome.com website as you increase/decrease browser size)
    – larger social sharing buttons and also ones which scroll as the user scrolls, promoting them to share
    – stronger call to actions for email sign-up (as a blogger I don’t own social media profiles but I can use newsletters to further increase hits and shares)
    – website speed rankings of over 90 on google website speed test tool would dramatically increase search rankings and make the customer journey quicker

    Just a few ideas I have and have loads more, I might hold off on building our new site and wait to see what this is like. To be honest all template WP I’ve seen are not really great. I hope this breaks the mould.

    All the best,
    Richard

  22. Lisa
    July 4, 2014 at 5:47 pm #

    Can’t wait to see the theme. Keep up the good work!

  23. Cate Poe
    July 4, 2014 at 6:33 pm #

    So tired of resolving conflicts among plugins and messing with the design. I want to concentrate on good content.

  24. Michael Corley
    July 4, 2014 at 7:07 pm #

    Now this is an interesting mashup, Neil Patel and WooThemes creating a free theme for bloggers.

    While I’ve answered the survey, I did have more I wanted to suggest;

    – optimized for audio and video since bloggers are finding it important for content marketing
    – optimized for feedback with forms and surveys (i.e., ninja forms)

    Have always liked the beautiful design of practically all of Woo’s wordpress themes but did find blog features seemed sacrificed at the expense of WooCommerce.

    Can’t wait to see what this collaboration produces

  25. nelia
    July 4, 2014 at 7:12 pm #

    I’ve just started my blog and am looking at ways to monetize with digital & physical products. I would like to integrate email/social media but I don’t want it to be intrusive and annoying. I want style and artistry to go with it.

    I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve come up with.

  26. tug
    July 4, 2014 at 7:16 pm #

    since my site is product category specific (men’s innerwear, shapewear, sweat management, t-shirts, etc.), so far i’ve found the wp-davinci/wp-bold themes from solostream provide the best balance of ease of end user navigation/readability and site-wide and article specific advertising placements.

    wp-prosperity 2.0 from michael pollack (original solostream founder) is similar, albeit a bit more powerful than the current solostream theme versions.

    i’ve always felt that if you could combine the functionality of solostream/wp-prosperity with some of the top notch article usability features that woothemes provides, it would be a great combination.

    also, adrotate is by-in-far the best wp-based advertising plugin out there. not saying you guys should create your own, but if there was a way to collaborate and possibly offer something more advanced like native support for adrotate, that would be incredibly powerful.

    also, anything that encourages commenting more would be awesome. i get a decent amount of community involvement, but more of that would be great too.

  27. Luc
    July 4, 2014 at 7:49 pm #

    Well, unless this theme will be pinchable (zooming on a tablet/phone), it will be of no use whatsoever. As far as I know, all WooThemes are almost useless, as they miss this all-important feature. How else am I supposed to read on my iPad Mini all those your important and interesting texts if they are “set” in standard size miniature type? Freaks me out.

    • Warren Holmes
      July 4, 2014 at 10:26 pm #

      It will definitely be responsive 🙂

  28. TJ Loftus
    July 4, 2014 at 7:56 pm #

    This is going to be the standard foundation for every new blog website. Neil + woothemes = $$

  29. Marcos
    July 4, 2014 at 8:22 pm #

    The main problem of blog themes is managing images and thumbnails.
    We should see options for adequate sizing of thumbnails on post excerpts in the frontpage.
    Usually blogs use tiny thumbnails or huge pictures a la Instagram, with nothing in-between.

  30. Frank
    July 4, 2014 at 9:15 pm #

    Looking forward to another great WooTheme – something I’d like to see is the ability for better navigation placement right now we just have above header or below header on some sites I’d like to put the navigation IN the header.

    Also an easier way to set up optin pages

    Thanks so much looking forward to seeing the results.

  31. Dita
    July 4, 2014 at 9:53 pm #

    Awesome news. I am very curious what you will come with. I currently use Canvas and I get many compliments on my blog. What I would like to see is the deepening of the magazine look to show various categories as separate topics (areas on the Magazine home page). In other words make it really a magazine style. I know that Huffington post is a completely different entity and is no longer a WP blog but something in a similar vein would be very helpful.

    Many bloggers cover different subject as they become more of the authority blogs and having a better overview of the various blog categories really help us. I think, Tug mentioned something like this (see comment above) as well.

    As well it would be very nice if we had a feature, similar to OptinSkin that could show up at the end of each post where we could either advertise different products or capture emails. To be able to have different options for different posts would be priceless.

    As well, a related posts with images feature at the bottom of the posts would be very helpful. Many themes already are doing it.

    These are just a few points that come to my mind at this time.

    Oh and by the way, an affiliate option would be very helpful for online marketers. Give us some incentive to share and promote your wonderful themes and products.

  32. Blog viajes
    July 4, 2014 at 10:17 pm #

    I can not wait to see the result!

    Thanks

  33. Josh
    July 4, 2014 at 11:38 pm #

    Hi guys
    Looking forward to seeing the theme produced and really hope for 3 key things:

    – must be lightweight (with good script and code practice, without tons of http requests and inline scripts),
    – must be easily customisable (have concise styling, without too much inheritance),
    – excellent editor experience (make sure the editor finds it a breeze and wonderful to use).

    Thanks!

  34. Pooria Asteraky
    July 5, 2014 at 12:31 am #

    Hello Guys,
    The form is still disappeared; Why using Google Forms, when there best solutions available in WP arsenal?
    Anyhow I admire WooThemes and I’m pleased to participate in your survieys, brainstorming etc

  35. Craig Brown
    July 5, 2014 at 1:48 am #

    I like using WooThemes stuff & I’m a member of Neil’s Quicksprout Uni so I’m super excited about this collaboration.
    If you can make the design super-slick as well I’ll definitely be one of your customers.
    In fact, I’d love to help consult on your design ideas as I’m reviewing themes on a daily basis.

  36. MartinBailey
    July 5, 2014 at 5:45 am #

    OK, so how do I actually submit the form? There’s no submit button…

    • Maria
      July 7, 2014 at 6:13 pm #

      There is a submit button, you need to scroll down in the iFrame to access: http://cld.wthms.co/bed3

  37. David
    July 5, 2014 at 9:36 am #

    I’m really looking forward to this theme, but it would be great to see more of an emphasis on web accessibility and WCAG2 compliance in future themes. Skip to content links (even if initially hidden), colour contrast and keyboard navigation are all pretty easy ways of getting websites more accessible, it doesn’t take much and it greatly improves the experience for differently abled users.

  38. Matthias
    July 5, 2014 at 1:05 pm #

    That is a great idea. Having a blog really blogging oriented and not only a plugin or additional functionality of a theme.

    I hope it can integrate all our Flipbookmedia presentation as we use it quite often for our blog post.

  39. Asief
    July 6, 2014 at 8:19 pm #

    I’m really looking forward to this, I’m a huge follower of Neil, have bought his book and make use of his Services too.

  40. Leif Persson
    July 7, 2014 at 3:08 pm #

    Good news, looking forward to test the theme.

    Kind Regards
    Leif

  41. Ben
    July 8, 2014 at 10:52 pm #

    Please don’t forget us multisite folks. I run a science blogging network, and would love a theme that includes a widget with most recent posts, most recent comments across the network. Likewise please keep advertising in your mind. Without monetization, blogs eventually go the way of the dodo! 🙂

  42. Jason
    July 9, 2014 at 7:09 am #

    This is great, can’t wait to see how this would look like. Any high level estimate to when the product will be out? ie this summer, fall, winter. Sorry if this was mentioned earlier in the thread.

  43. Debbie Iverson
    July 10, 2014 at 4:13 am #

    Can’t wait to see. I would love one that has a great form to do recipes on the blog.

  44. Dafid
    July 15, 2014 at 8:22 am #

    neil, do you sell theme for wordpress?

  45. Leo
    July 19, 2014 at 2:18 am #

    I don’t mind having a premium version if it is optimised for blogging and selling products 🙂 Not just for small shops, but those with thousands of products as well. Currently SuperStore isn’t cutting it 🙁

  46. Renaade
    July 22, 2014 at 12:29 pm #

    Good idea to collect requests to your new blogging theme. I also appreciate your themes and the woocommerce stuff.

    But, do you think it’s a good idea to present all the e-mail addresses you collect with your survey just in a fishbowl? Please, hide them.

    Thanks, Renaade

  47. Andy Catsimanes
    August 12, 2014 at 2:57 am #

    Any timeline for this? Getting ready to launch a new site and would love to use it as my theme!

  48. JasonMatthewMurphy
    August 20, 2014 at 1:50 pm #

    I went the process of filling out the form and found a bug that reveals email addresses upon completion. Made a video to help pinpoint it: http://gabstermedia.com/woo-form-bug/