Is a custom theme really necessary or can you get away with a premade template and still get plenty of traffic and stand out in your niche?
Custom theme helps with the branding aspect, however it is still vary much possible to use premade and even stock theme and succeed.
Indeed! Agreed with Yogesh! However, its always a plus if you do have a custom theme as it shows character and dedication and the seriousness of the blogger as a whole. Its definitely not a requirement, but something you can opt to do.
is it necessary? - no Can you get traffic with them - yes can you stand out? - well kind a Simply put I would suggest that you get a template...and alter it in some way...When I was on wordpress I used one of those free themes that I liked...I was happy until I saw someone in the same niche use the same theme...then I started dinking with it...I added a third column and I added a custom header... I think the very least you want to do is get a custom header...you can go to the contest section of this site and put up a contest for as little as 15 bucks to get a header... In short...don't let the lack of a custom theme stop you from blogging...but try to put a little "custom" into your theme to give it some individuality...