Back in 2016, I posted a List of best WordPress Themes for Viral Blogs, It became an instant hit, helped a lot of people who were looking to create a viral blog and ride along the trend of generating huge traffic using attention-grabbing headlines and appealing visuals.
It’s 2017 (I’ve updated the article in 2019) and I’ve seen a lot of new WordPress themes emerging that are created specifically for showcasing the content is the most visual manner possible. They look good on both mobile and desktops as well as they’ve got pretty nice features to engage users and increase page views.
Here is a list of the best visually appealing WordPress themes for Viral Content sites/ blog in
1. Boombox
Boombox is listed on Themeforest, it’s been sold more than thousand times, but sales is not a parameter why Boombox makes it to this list. I used a couple of WordPress themes, I’ve even tried designs and layouts outside of WordPress capability. So I know what I am talking about.
I am currently using Boombox one of my websites and it looks pretty amazing. As a Publisher, I want my website to be fast and showcase my content strategically, Boombox does it best.
Here is the Pingdom test, which shows the loading speed of a website, considering Visual content sites are kind of heavy, it’s pretty amazing to see that the website loads in less than 3 seconds.
Live Demo | Download from ThemeForest
2. Bimber
Bimber is another great example of how a viral website theme should look and funtion. I used it in early 2016, at that time it was the best WordPress theme for visual content. In Early March, they brought a major update to their theme and now it’s even more appealing than before.
If for some reason you don’t want to pick Boombox, Bimber theme should be an obvious choice since it also offers the same features of creating a community-based site with BuddyPress integration.
Their Version 4 brings more skins to the theme, my personal favourite is the Geeky theme (see image above)
View Demo | Download from Themeforest
3 Bunchy
The Bunchy WordPress theme is built by the same developers who built Bimber, in fact, I’ve done a separate review of Bunchy WordPress Theme when I started using it for one of my blogs.
Bunchy also offers similar features as Bimber but a little more perfectly since it was specially designed to work with their Posts Submission Script Snax (which is also sold separately at CondeCanyon).
Live Demo | Download from ThemeForest
4. Furious
Furious may look like just another WordPress themes, but the reasons I’ve included it in the list of Best Viral WordPress themes because of two main reasons.
One is, it’s super fast loading theme. Two, it is also non-nonsense visually rich themes with large post thumbnails.
It’s great for the blogs that get updated several times a day since Furious makes it possible to visit the site just once a day and still look at all the updated blog posts. It is something to be considered.
Despite it’s simple yet appealing design, it has all the features you would need in making a blog popular. The fact that it comes from Different Themes makes this theme future proof.
Live Demo | Download from Theme Forest
5. ViralFeed
The ViralFeed is also by the same developers, Different Themes. It’s a little more polished than Furious to make it look good to the eyes.
Personally, there is not much to show if since the majority of users will be coming from Mobile Phones, which is why the Furious theme gets my vote.
If your viral site is about funny Cat videos (this WP theme is Cat-friendly) or if you have a community-based site, ViralFeel will surely impress your readers with it’s clean design. If you look at the Demo, everything looks perfect from the logo area to icons to fonts to Ads placements.
If you are really looking to make something big, ViralFeed is the theme to pick.
Live Demo | Download from ThemeForest
6. GDN Magazine Theme
GDN Magazine Theme is one of the most selling themes in ThemeForest. It has more than a dozen layouts and with different combination and a unique logo, the possibilities of getting a unique site is endless.
From a dozen of their designs, my personal favourite is the Videos Channel and MensMag. Themes designs look fabulous on every screen size and efficient usage of space which makes it perfect for monetizing with Google Adsense because of the smart ads placements.
Currently, they are running a deal to celebrate the success of their theme and offers 50% Discount. So get the theme at half of original price. I would say it’s quite a steal deal.
Live Demo | Download from ThemeForest
7. Hotsugar
Hotsugar WordPress Theme falls in the category of Furious theme, which is simple yet loaded with the features required for a viral blog.
A balance of clean design and stunning visuals. You need Nothing Fancy when your content it speaks for itself. The single post layout is beautifully done.
Live Demo | Download from ThemeForest
8. SocialNow
SocialNow Comes from MyThemeShop, the same developers who built the popular Socially Viral WordPress theme, which was the super hit viral theme for 2015 and 2016, I’ve seen a lot of people using Social Viral.
Their new theme SocialNow, brings design and features up to the standards of 2017, where the design looks good on Mobile and as well as loads faster. I’ve done a separate post where I reviewed the SocialNow theme by MyThemesShop.
Live Demo | Download from MYThemeShop
9. Newspaper .v7
Even though the Newspaper theme made it to the list of Best WordPress themes for Viral Blogs last year, the reason I am adding it here again is that they’ve brought so many new things in the last one year, It’s now version 7. And there are more layouts to choose from.
My favorites are the Dark Version of Newspaper theme, the Food Blog Layout and the Say What? layout. There are so many reasons this theme still on of the best choice.
In the last few years, the best viral websites I’ve visited use this theme, even some bigger publication sites are built on this theme. So many combinations give you a unique website.
Plus the mobile version of Newspaper theme is blazing fast, developers claim it to be 1.3 seconds, but I’ve found it to be 3 seconds for my website, which is still impressive considering the average loading speed of a site on a mobile is 18 seconds. And 3 seconds is considered best.
Live Demo | Download from ThemeForest
The Newspaper theme has been updated to v8.0 bringing more features and more styles to choose from. I have also written a details post as to why you should go for Newspaper Theme if your site is content based.
