How to Create a Website with a Magazine Theme
A lot of people are now able to access the internet and with that, the ability to create and share content online has never been more accessible. In the past, people may have had to rely on physical
magazines to explore the world of arts and entertainment or depend on the radio to listen to their favorite songs, but with the advent of online web publishers and podcasters,
there is now an endless amount of content that can be consumed and shared at any time via the web.
This is great for audiences, but can be cumbersome for content creators who may not always be able to keep up with printing and distributing magazines or preparing
radio episodes. To address this, online magazine themes were created to give content creators the ability to quickly and easily set up a polished looking magazine
website in a matter of minutes.
Below we will discuss how you can use a range of free tools to build a functional website using a magazine theme, as well as give you some inspiration on
what to include in your magazine website.
The Basics
To create a magazine website using web technologies, all you need are a laptop or desktop computer, a broadband internet connection, and a microphone. You’ll also need to have
a domain name for your site (e.g., artistics.com) and a hosting service (e.g., GoDaddy). If you don’t have these things yet, you can get them
all for free (with a free trial) from Big
Daddy, the parent company of GoDaddy.
Once you have a working laptop with the abovementioned necessities, you can start your magazine website by visiting the Big Daddy homepage. From
there, you should be able to click on free domain name (use this link to get to the free domain name offer), click on the Get Started
button, and follow the on-screen instructions to set up your hosting service with a free domain name (this also installs
cPanel, which is a widely accepted platform for managing a website).
After that, you can return to the Big Daddy homepage and click on the Get Started button again. This
will then lead you to a configuration page where you can configure your site address (just enter a @ symbol followed by your site’s domain name in this field),
listen to a brief tutorial on how to use cPanel (this will only play if you have opted to have the platform automatically installed on your
site), and click on the Create Your Website button to proceed to the next step.
Step One: Choosing a Magazine Theme
A magazine theme is simply a template or style of a magazine website that you can use to build your own. There are a large number of free magazine themes
available online that you can download and use to launch your magazine website. Some of the more popular magazine themes are:
- Gatsby – This is the theme of the popular American literary magazine Gatsby. You can download it and use it
to build a classy looking magazine website. It features a clean and modern looking design with subtle shades of blue linking the elements contained
within the template (e.g., fonts, icons, navigation). - Blue Magazine – This is a beautiful and simple magazine theme. You can download it and use it to build
a classy looking magazine website in no time at all. As the name suggests, the main color used in the template is a stunning shade of blue (e.g.,
the ocean). - Cosmo – This is a minimalistic, yet very functional free magazine website template. It features a unique blend of
cosmo flower patterns (derived from traditional Japanese artwork) that create a sense of Japanese design influence. You can download it and use it to
quickly get up and running with a nice looking magazine website. - Michele – This is a free magazine website template that
is suitable for various niche publications, from fashion to lifestyle. It was designed by Michele Sanfelice, a freelance graphic designer
and art director from Brooklyn, New York. You can download it and use it to put together a stylish, yet functional magazine website in no time at
all. - Cosmo Lite – This is a simplified and lite version of the abovementioned Cosmo magazine theme. The name
Cosmo itself stands for concise, modern, and organic. This version of the theme eliminates a lot of the complexity by keeping only the
fundamental design elements and by slimming down the template’s size (e.g., removing some of the sidebar items and integrating the social media
features). - InFocus Magazine – This is a beautiful, yet simple and functional magazine site template. It was designed by InFocus
Magazine, a design-focused news and entertainment website, and you can download it and use it to put together a classy looking magazine
website. - Panther – This is a modern and stylish magazine website template. It has a simple and clean layout, featuring a large image
above the fold, with a full-width background image below it. The main focus is on the content itself, as there are no fancy frills or extra decoration
outside of the text. - The Racket – This is a free magazine website template that is suitable for various niche publications,
from sports to entertainment. It was designed by Aaron Schmitz, a freelance digital marketer. You can download it and use it to put
together a stylish and functional magazine website.
As you can see, there are a lot of beautiful and unique magazine themes available for download. So, what are you waiting for? You can start creating your
magazine website using one of these great themes in no time at all.
Step Two: Coding the Basics
The next step in establishing your online magazine is to write some dummy content for your website. You don’t need to have a full-blown magazine
in mind when you do this. Simply write some articles, short stories, or whatever you can think of, and save them on your computer. To ensure
that your articles look polished and professional, you can use the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor or manually go through and correct all the
spelling and grammar errors before publishing (this is a tedious and time-consuming process, so you might regret doing it manually).
Once you have your basic content ready, you can move on to the next step: designing the layout of your website. This is the part that
can be the most time-consuming. To make things easy for yourself, you can use one of the great WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web editors
available online. These tools allow you to create and design your website without having to worry about any code.
Some of the most popular WYSIWYG web editors are: