You’ve probably noticed that WordPress sites talk a lot about “choosing themes” and “installing new themes.” Here’s the thing: On Badass Network, you don’t need to worry about that.
We’ve set up every blog with a professionally designed, fully customizable theme that works right out of the box. You can’t switch to a different theme—but honestly, you won’t need to. The Badass Network theme gives you all the customization tools you’d want without the headache of comparing dozens of options or breaking your site with incompatible code.
This guide explains what a blog theme actually does, why we’ve chosen one unified theme for the platform, and what customization options you’ve got to make your blog look exactly how you want it.
What Is a Blog Theme Anyway?
Think of your blog theme as the skin of your site. It controls:
- Layout: Where your content, sidebar, header, and footer appear
- Typography: What fonts you use and how text is styled
- Colors: Your brand colors, link colors, backgrounds
- Spacing: How much breathing room exists between elements
- Widgets: What appears in your sidebar or footer areas
- Responsive design: How your blog adapts to mobile phones and tablets
The theme doesn’t affect your actual content—your posts, pages, images, and text stay the same no matter what. It just changes how that content gets presented to visitors.
On most WordPress sites, people spend hours browsing theme libraries, testing options, dealing with setup wizards, and troubleshooting compatibility issues. We’ve skipped all that for you.
Why One Theme for Everyone?
Yeah, you might be wondering why Badass Network doesn’t let you browse and install themes like a regular WordPress site.
Performance: A single theme means we can optimize loading speed for everyone. No bloated code from poorly built third-party themes.
Security: One well-maintained theme is safer than thousands of random themes from unknown developers. We control updates and security patches directly.
Compatibility: Everything works together. No conflicts between your theme and the platform’s built-in features or plugins.
Support: When you ask for help, we know exactly what theme you’re using and how it’s configured. Troubleshooting becomes way simpler.
Customization without complexity: The Badass Network theme includes all the customization tools most bloggers actually use—colors, fonts, layouts, widgets—without overwhelming you with 500 settings you’ll never touch.
Most people installing their own themes end up tweaking one of the popular, well-supported options anyway. We’ve essentially done that research for you and picked a solid, flexible foundation.
What the Badass Network Theme Offers
You’ve got control over everything that matters for creating a unique blog:
- Colors: Change your primary color (links, buttons, accents), background colors, header and footer colors, text colors. Pick brand colors or just something that feels right.
- Typography: Choose from several font pairings—modern sans-serifs, classic serifs, bold display fonts. Adjust font sizes for headings and body text if the defaults don’t work for you.
- Header customization: Add your logo, adjust header layout, customize your site title and tagline styling, control navigation menu appearance.
- Layout options: Sidebar on the left, right, or no sidebar at all. Full-width pages or contained layouts. Different templates for your homepage, blog archive, and individual posts.
- Widget areas: Customize what appears in your sidebar and footer. Add recent posts, categories, search bars, custom HTML, images—whatever fits your blog’s purpose.
- Background images and patterns: Add visual interest with custom backgrounds in different sections.
- Custom CSS: If you know CSS, you can add your own styles to fine-tune anything the standard customizer doesn’t cover.
Honestly, that’s more customization than most bloggers use. The limitation isn’t the theme—it’s usually just figuring out what you actually want your blog to look like.
Accessing Your Theme Customization Options
Ready to personalize your blog? Here’s how you get to the theme controls.
Log into your WordPress dashboard
Navigate to your admin area
Find Appearance in the left sidebar
Hover over it to see the submenu
Click Customize
This opens the WordPress Customizer—a live preview interface
The Customizer shows your blog on the right side of the screen and a settings menu on the left. As you change settings, the preview updates immediately so you can see exactly what you’re getting.
What You’ll Find in the Customizer
Let’s walk through the main sections you’ll see in the left panel:
Site Identity: This is where you edit your site title, tagline, and upload a logo or site icon (favicon). Your site icon’s that tiny image that appears in browser tabs next to your site name.
Colors: Pick your primary color scheme. You’ll usually see options for link colors, button colors, header background, footer background, and text colors. Some themes offer preset color palettes or let you choose custom colors with a color picker.
Typography: Select font combinations for headings and body text. Most themes show you a preview of each font pairing so you can see how they look together before applying them.
Header: Customize your header area—logo placement, header layout style, navigation menu appearance, header background color or image.
Menus: Create and manage navigation menus. You can have different menus in different locations (main navigation, footer menu, mobile menu).
Widgets: Add, remove, and arrange widgets in your sidebar and footer areas. Widgets are little blocks of content like “Recent Posts,” “Categories,” “Search,” “Text,” “Image,” etc.
Homepage Settings: Choose whether your homepage displays your latest blog posts or a static page you’ve created.
Additional CSS: A text box where you can add custom CSS code if you know how. This lets you override default styles for advanced customization.
Each section expands when you click it, showing more specific options. Don’t be intimidated by the number of settings—you don’t need to touch all of them. Most people adjust colors, fonts, and maybe add a logo, then they’re done.
Customizing Your Colors
Click Colors in the Customizer menu. You’ll see options for various color settings—usually a primary color, link color, background colors, and text colors.
Primary Color: This affects links, buttons, and accent elements throughout your blog. Pick something that represents your brand or personality. Blue’s safe and professional. Bright colors add energy. Darker tones feel sophisticated.
Click the color box and you’ll get a color picker. Drag the selector around until you find a shade you like, or enter a specific hex code if you’ve got brand colors already defined.
Background Colors: Usually separate options for your main content background, header background, footer background, and sidebar background. Most people keep the main content white or light for readability, but you can get creative with header and footer colors.
Text Colors: Control your body text color and heading colors. Black or very dark gray text on white backgrounds is easiest to read. Don’t go wild here—readability matters more than creativity when it comes to body text.
Play around with different combinations. The preview updates live, so you’ll immediately see if your choices look good together or if they clash horribly.
Selecting Your Fonts
Typography makes a huge difference in how your blog feels. Professional and polished? Casual and friendly? Bold and modern?
In the Customizer, click Typography or Fonts (the exact label varies). You’ll see options for:
Heading Font: Used for your post titles, page titles, and section headings. This is where you can get a bit more expressive.
Body Font: Used for all your regular text—paragraphs, lists, captions. Pick something highly readable. You’re choosing this for hundreds or thousands of words, so prioritize clarity over style.
The theme typically offers several pre-paired combinations that work well together. These pairings match a display font for headings with a complementary text font for body content.
If you’re not sure what to pick, go with a sans-serif for both (like Open Sans or Roboto). Modern, clean, works for almost any blog topic. Serif fonts (like Merriweather or Lora) add a more traditional, literary feel—nice for long-form content or personal essays.
You might also see options to adjust font sizes. The defaults usually work, but if your audience skews older or you just prefer larger text, bump it up a notch.
Adding Your Logo
A logo makes your blog feel professional and branded. It’s not required, but it helps with recognition and trust.
Go to Site Identity in the Customizer
You’ll see an option to upload a logo
Click Select Logo
This opens your Media Library
Upload your logo file
Click Upload Files and choose your logo from your computer
Select and apply
Once uploaded, click your logo to select it
Once you select your logo, the theme displays it in your header area. Depending on the theme settings, your logo might replace your site title text, appear next to it, or sit above it.
Customizing Your Header and Navigation
Your header’s the first thing visitors see. It includes your site title (or logo), tagline, and navigation menu.
In the Customizer, find the Header section. You’ll typically see options like:
Header Layout: Choose between centered layouts (logo and menu centered), left-aligned (logo left, menu right), or other variations the theme offers.
Header Background: Set a solid color, gradient, or background image for your header area. Most blogs keep this simple—solid color or subtle gradient. Background images can look great but make sure your logo and menu stay readable.
Sticky Header: Some themes let you enable a sticky header that stays at the top as visitors scroll down the page. Handy for navigation but takes up screen space on mobile.
For navigation menus, you’ll usually customize those in the Menus section. Create a menu, add pages or custom links, arrange the order by dragging items, then assign that menu to your “Primary Menu” location.
Your header menu typically shows pages like Home, About, Blog, Contact—whatever you want easily accessible. You can add external links too if you want to link to your social media profiles or other sites.
Working with Widgets
Widgets populate your sidebar and footer with useful content blocks.
In the Customizer, click Widgets. You’ll see widget areas like “Sidebar,” “Footer Area 1,” “Footer Area 2,” etc.
Click a widget area to expand it. You’ll see what widgets are currently active in that area.
To add a widget, click Add a Widget and choose from the available options:
- Search: Adds a search box so visitors can search your blog
- Recent Posts: Displays your latest blog posts with links
- Categories: Lists your post categories
- Archives: Shows your posts organized by month/year
- Tag Cloud: Displays your post tags in a cloud format
- Text: Custom text or HTML—good for adding a bio or custom message
- Image: Display an image with optional link
- Custom HTML: Add any HTML code you want
Drag widgets to reorder them within an area. Click a widget to expand its settings—you can usually customize the title and specific options for each widget type.
Layout Options
Most themes offer some layout flexibility. Look for a Layout section in the Customizer, or check under specific areas like Homepage Settings or Blog Settings.
Sidebar position: Left, right, or no sidebar. Right sidebar’s most common (people’s eyes naturally scan left to right, so content on the left gets priority). Left sidebar’s less common but can make your blog feel distinctive. No sidebar gives you full-width content—great for image-heavy blogs or long-form writing.
Content width: Some themes let you choose between full-width (content stretches the entire browser window) or boxed/contained (content sits in a centered column with space on the sides). Contained layouts are usually more readable, especially on large monitors.
Blog layout: Grid view (posts displayed as cards in a grid) vs. list view (posts stacked vertically with excerpts). Grid view looks modern and visual. List view’s more traditional and text-focused.
These options depend on what the Badass Network theme specifically offers. If you don’t see a setting, the theme probably has a default that works well for most blogs.
Homepage Customization
Your homepage makes your first impression. You’ve got two main approaches:
Latest Posts: Your most recent blog posts appear in reverse chronological order. Classic blog format. Every time you publish, it automatically shows up at the top. Go with this if your blog’s your primary focus and you’re posting regularly.
Static Page: A custom page you design that stays the same until you edit it. Good if you want your homepage to be more of a landing page—welcome message, featured content, call-to-action buttons, sections highlighting different parts of your site.
You set this in Homepage Settings within the Customizer. Choose “Your latest posts” or “A static page.” If you pick static page, you’ll need to create a page first (in Pages > Add New), then select it from the dropdown.
If you go with a static homepage, you can also choose a separate page for your blog posts (like a page called “Blog” or “Articles”). This way your posts don’t disappear—they just live on a different page instead of the homepage.
Adding Custom CSS
For those who know a bit of CSS, the Customizer includes an Additional CSS panel.
Click it and you’ll see a text box where you can type CSS code. This lets you override default styles without editing theme files directly.
Common uses:
- Adjust specific spacing or padding
- Change font sizes for certain elements
- Modify colors for specific sections
- Add borders, shadows, or other visual effects
- Fix small design quirks that bother you
Type your CSS, and the preview updates in real-time. When you’re happy with it, click Publish to apply the changes site-wide.
Don’t know CSS? That’s fine. You don’t need it. The standard customization options cover 95% of what bloggers want to adjust. Custom CSS is just there if you want to get really specific with your design.
Previewing Before You Publish
Here’s the beauty of the Customizer: Everything you change is just a preview until you hit Publish.
Make all the changes you want—adjust colors, swap fonts, move widgets around, upload a logo. Your live site stays exactly as it was until you decide you’re happy with the preview and click that blue Publish button at the top of the panel.
If you make changes and then decide you hate them, just click the X at the top to close the Customizer without saving. None of your changes will go live.
You can also preview how your site looks on different devices. Look for the device icons at the bottom of the preview panel—desktop, tablet, and mobile views. This lets you see how your design decisions affect the mobile experience, which is critical since most people browse on phones.
Comparing Your Customized Blog to Others
One thing people worry about: “If everyone has the same theme, won’t all Badass Network blogs look identical?”
No. Not even close.
Your color choices, typography, logo, header style, sidebar content, and layout decisions create a unique look. Two blogs with the same theme but different customization can feel completely different—one might be minimalist with lots of white space and a sans-serif font, while another might be colorful with a bold serif font and rich imagery.
Plus, your content makes the biggest difference. Your writing voice, the images you choose, the topics you cover—that’s what makes your blog yours, not the underlying theme framework.
Think of the theme as the canvas. Everyone gets the same canvas size and texture, but what you paint on it is entirely up to you.
There aren’t other themes to preview—Badass Network uses one theme for all blogs. But you can customize it extensively, so think of it as having hundreds of variations available within one framework.
Reach out to support. We’re open to feedback about what customization options bloggers need. If enough people want something specific, we can add it to the theme. But try customizing first—most people who think they hate the theme just haven’t explored the customization options yet.
We maintain and update the theme regularly for security, performance, and new features. Updates apply automatically without breaking your customizations. If we add new features, you’ll see them appear as new options in the Customizer.
The theme’s responsive, meaning it automatically adapts to different screen sizes. Your color and font choices carry over to mobile, but the layout might adjust—sidebar moves below content, menus collapse into a hamburger icon, etc. Use the device preview in the Customizer to check how your changes look on mobile.
Unfortunately there’s no one-click “undo all customizations” button. But you can manually reset everything by going through each Customizer section and changing settings back to defaults. Or contact support and we can help restore your blog to default theme settings.
What Actually Matters for Your Blog
Honestly? Theme customization matters way less than most bloggers think.
Your content matters. Your writing voice matters. Posting consistently matters. Connecting with your audience matters.
Your exact shade of blue for links? Not so much.
I’m not saying design doesn’t matter at all—it does. A clean, readable, professional-looking blog builds trust and keeps people on the page longer. But you don’t need to spend hours agonizing over fonts or debating whether your header should be centered or left-aligned.
Pick colors you like. Choose a readable font. Add your logo if you’ve got one. Make sure your sidebar isn’t cluttered. Done.
Then go write something great.
The best-looking blog in the world doesn’t matter if the content’s boring. And a simple, straightforward design won’t stop great content from finding an audience.