June 12, 2009 22 Comments

Great Thesis Resources

First, let me be clear that I am an advocate of the Thesis Premium WordPress theme, created by Chris Pearson. That’s the theme running on this blog.

I got curious as to what resources were out there for people who agreed with me that they should buy Thesis, but who might be wondering what to do next. I found some great videos and tutorials. These are just a few:

This came from Chris Pearson himself. I liked his work, and found another video of his that explained design elements:

I also found a nice little general review here:

Lisa has a longer review, and it’s very conversational, but it definitely gave me some information I didn’t have before.

My personal favorite Thesis tutorial person is Sugar Rae. She has lots and lots and lots of tutorials. If you read nothing more, swing by her site and check it out.

I’m really thrilled that I have Thesis as the theme for this blog. It’s so flexible and powerful. If you’re interested in learning more, check it out. If you decide to buy it (It’s cheap – $87 US), and you click one of my links, I get a few dollars (beer money, not enough for a free pony), but you can also visit the folks who created the videos above and buy from their sites, as they did all the heavy lifting. Either way, it’s a really cool product and you can see everyone’s pretty enthusiastic about what Thesis does for your WordPress blog.

thesis logo

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Genesis Framework

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With automatic theme updates and world-class support included, Genesis is the smart choice for your WordPress website or blog.

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  • Matthew

    Chris… Thesis is is like Microsoft Office… lots of features, but it takes a big learning curve to use them. Sometimes us geeks forget about that. The price of Thesis is much less than it's cost which is much less than it's massively potential ROI. We need to remind bloggers this is not a beginner's theme. I think their help is pathetic for the beginner.

    Once you are through the learning curve, this is an awesome theme. But, let's not promote something w/out the proper caveats. I think it's worth the learning curve, but, even as a geek, I was disappointed with the backend interface… you have to get into tags and pseudo code.

    I know you are an affiliate, as am I. Let's just be real upfront about the learning curve.

  • http://dannybrown.me/ Danny Brown

    Got to agree with Matthew. I love Thesis (I'm running a few blogs with it) but for beginners it's not an easy theme to manage. Even with the Open Hooks system, you need to know a little bit more than some other premium themes.

    If I was recommending a theme for a beginner, it would be something else. Them once they're up to scratch with theme optimization, then I'd suggest they try Thesis.

    Plus, doesn't Chris Pearson optimize your theme? This obviously won't happen for the average Thesis user, so as Matthew says, something to keep in mind when trying to make Thesis a bit prettier than the out-of-the-box option.

  • fab9

    Hey guys, here's a brand new Thesis resource (video tutorials) to add to the list: http://thesis101.com

    We add videos every week. I'm sure newbies will find it helpful. Keep in mind it's still under construction so please forgive any rough edges.

    Fabi

  • http://davidwmullen.com/ David Mullen

    I was skeptical of Thesis and all its hype, as well as reluctant to pay for a theme when there are so many free ones out there. But every free theme I tried always had little things about it that I didn't like – number of comments at the end of posts, but not at the beginning; font sizes; one sidebar instead of two; etc. If I wanted help with the code I had to pay for support.

    I would try to toy with the CSS, but I don't know much about code. When I saw a Thesis tutorial that shared all of the easily changeable design options through drop-down menus, I was sold. I bought Thesis a couple weeks ago and within 30 minutes I was IN LOVE with it.

    I have to disagree with the first two comments here based on my unique experience. I don't know code, yet it was so easy to change a lot of the things that I couldn't change with other themes. We're talking drop-down menus. It couldn't get any easier, in my humble opinion. Sure, my site won't ever be customized to the effect that yours is without some steep learning or help. But I've been thoroughly impressed with how much change I do have control over. In my mind, that makes it a great theme for beginners to start with.

    Clearly I have a theme crush on Thesis. I've been recommending it to everybody I know. And just it case someone thinks it's for another reason, I'm not even part of the affiliate program.

  • http://dannybrown.me/ Danny Brown

    Hey there David,

    I agree that it's reasonably easy to change simple things within the admin area of Thesis, but if you want a customized theme, I think you answered your own question, as well as both Matthew and myself's points.

    Thesis offers great customization options, but to do so really well is a steep learning curve, or help. Something that should be simple is a customized header image, but it's not.

    Compare that to iThemes or Revolution or even WooThemes, then Thesis (as good as it is) falls a little bit behind.

    I notice on your theme (like Chris's) you have featured posts and teasers. Many premium themes I have used for clients have made it incredibly easy to have thumbnail images on the front page for teaser posts. Thesis needs you to understand either image URL or some HTML for this.

    Then you have the Open Hooks system which, as much as it wants to make Thesis easier, can actually confuse the issue as to where HTML or PHP code goes for stuff like CommentLuv and TwitID.

    Don't get me wrong -Thesis is an awesome theme, I just think there are simpler ones for beginners.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    My perspective? It's a great theme for designers and develops to modify, but all the parts mere mortals can touch are much simpler than what else is out there. Does that clarify my position.

  • http://www.janngorske.com/ Jann Gorske

    Appreciate the review & resources on Word Press thesis! As a quasi technical user – find it overwhelming @ times to learn how to activate/utilize all the great features. Hoping that others continue to share & help us all learn to fish.

  • http://dannybrown.me/ Danny Brown

    It does indeed Chris :)

    (Though having used multi-themes from other developers, I'd have to say there are simpler ones than Thesis for “mere mortals”) ;-)

  • http://www.greenandchic.com/blog Carla| Green and Chic

    Wow! I never heard of Thesis until now! I wonder if my blog could use something like that. I would probably have to have my theme redone, but it may be worth it.

  • girlie

    Those first two videos are actually the work of Chris Pearson himself (he even introduces himself at the beginning of the first one); looks to me like someone else just snagged them from diythemes.com and uploaded them to YouTube as a way to promote their own Thesis affiliate link.

  • girlie

    Those first two videos are actually the work of Chris Pearson himself (he even introduces himself at the beginning of the first one); looks to me like someone else just snagged them from diythemes.com and uploaded them to YouTube as a way to promote their own Thesis affiliate link.

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