May 3, 2009 49 Comments

Thesis is My Favorite Premium WordPress Theme

My website- chrisbrogan.com

I’m still really happy with Thesis as my premium WordPress theme. I am an advocate for the product for several reasons. Firstly, I’ve wanted to have a site designed by Chris Pearson ever since he did Copyblogger.com way back in the day. Second, because I wanted something a hair above the standard themes I was finding freely available. Finally, because it has some really great SEO features that I don’t know how to do on my own.

Thesis does a lot to make my WordPress software really hum. There are all kinds of design elements you can tweak without knowing any code. Here’s a quick screen cap of some of it:

Thesis Back End

I also really like the design options:

Thesis Design Options

Because of these types of features, I find that I can keep Thesis looking really fresh, keep the search engine optimization details nice and tight, and I can customize it without knowing a whole lot of code. It lets me focus on my writing and my work instead of worrying about the look of my site.

I’m an advocate for the Thesis WordPress Theme because I believe in Chris Pearson’s good work, and because it makes my site look good while improving its effectiveness. If you’re interested in upgrading your WordPress theme to something a bit more professional-looking that doesn’t cost as much as a professional designer, consider Thesis.

(And yes, if you buy Thesis, I get a couple of beers from Pearson.)

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Genesis Framework

Genesis Theme Framework

The Genesis Framework empowers you to quickly and easily build incredible websites with WordPress. Whether you're a novice or advanced developer, Genesis provides you with the secure and search-engine-optimized foundation that takes WordPress to places you never thought it could go.

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

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  • http://twittercism.com Sheamus

    Yeah, I'm definitely considering it for my future blog projects, although I will say you have benefited enormously, in an aesthetic sense, from having yours 'pimped out'. The default Thesis theme (say, at Twitip.com) is, in my opinion, a little dry. But it's so feature-packed that it makes up for it.

  • http://www.camprunapup.com Katybeth

    Big sigh of relief. This weekend, I needed a word press theme, and remembered you had talked about one that you” really like” so I google which theme it was, spent the money and downloaded it based on your recommendation. When I opened my Google Reader and saw it was still your favorite, that was very good news! Can not wait to try it out or rather can not wait for my web designer to try it out! I think it going to work great for my new blog.

  • http://shegeeks.net Corvida

    Chris I would love to do so, especially after see this: http://parnassusgroup.com/twitterconference/ (which I wish I were going to)

  • jeaston

    Chris,

    Thanks for the Thesis analysis. You mention the theme's SEO benefits quite a bit. I have a feeling that because of the poularity of your blog/site (backlink volume) you really don't need the SEO supe-up but it is probably very useful for less established sites.

    Also, I really appreciate the way you introduced your reseller status. A lot of resellers aren't so up front and honest. What goes around comes around buddy. I hope the light continues to shine on you buddy.

    John Easton
    http://www.eastonsweb.com

  • http://www.williambakhos.com William Bakhos

    Hi Chris,

    I am currently in a spin about what theme to use. I have changed themes several times since I started blogging and have never really been happy. Even looking through premium themes non of them have really stood out for me.

    But Thesis looks great… you may those few beers shortly!

    Cheers
    Will

  • http://www.nataliejoan.ca nataliejoan

    ALready using it. I'm a WordPress newbie, was introduced by a designer I'm working with. We wanted a very clean look, and something the rest of the staff could handle if I'm away. Haven't launched yet, but it's looking good.

  • http://www.bluelynxmarketing.com Kevin Alvarez

    The Thesis theme is very popular because it is effective and easy to use. However, because it is so popular, I would recommend spending some time or money for customization. Make it your own!

    Too many people buy this theme and start using it out of the box without putting their “brand” or personal touches on it. What happens is that your blog will look like a ton of others. Pick up a book on CSS and you will how easy it is to tweak the look and feel of your theme so you'll stand out from the crowd.

    As far as my own site goes – yes, I need to work on it. I am not using the Thesis theme but am using another Premium theme with minimal tweaks until I finalize the actual site.

    Good luck with everyone's site. WordPress is amazingly simple. Add the right plug-ins and you can achieve powerful results.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    That's a really great recommendation. Buying the theme is step 1. Paying a decent designer for cosmetic customization is what will make it sing.

  • http://TheBlogArtist.com marti garaughty

    Re “Buying the theme is step 1. Paying a decent designer for cosmetic customization is what will make it sing”…

    Absolutely, for those who don't have the $$$ to hire someone, check out http://cssbasics.com for an easy/free but decent crash course on CSS.

    I've seen way too many generic looking Thesis based themes out there in the past few months and it doesn't take much to do some slight customizing to create a totally original look. Later…

  • http://www.howtomakemyblog.com Marko Saric

    Chris might have got it pimped out by a professional but even someone who doesn't know much about it can make their Thesis pretty unique. Darren uses it “out-of-the-box” without much customization, but you basically just need couple of settings changes in the Thesis interface and couple of CSS codes that you can copy / paste into your site from Thesis tips sites and you will have your own unique Thesis design.

  • http://www.tributebandreviews.co.uk Tribute Bands – John O'Hara

    Hi Chris

    I downloaded the current version of the Thesis theme yesterday and I must say that it's a huge improvement functionality-wise over the previous version.

    However, I still think it could be improved. The thing is, I'm not a technical person, I need to be able to use the design options running behind the theme to change things to the way I'd like them without having to get involved with code changes which I'm completely clueless about.

    The latest thesis them does have loads of built in design functionality which makes it super easy to change things around. However, I'd still like to be able to change the following things which version 1.5. won't allow me to do just by clicking a button.

    1] Change the background colour any page or the background colour of any individual section within the page (e.g. header, footer, sidebar, post area)

    2] Change the colour of the text in any area of the page

    3] Change the colour of the borders which divide the page into sections

    You've changed the colours of different areas of your blog but this can't be done just by clicking a button, I assume Chris had to go in and make the changes to the code?

    To sum up, the latest thesis theme is a big lead forward from the previous incarnation but it could still be greatly improved in my 'newbie' opinion for what it's worth.

  • http://www.alertrank.com/mrgooglealerts MrGoogleAlerts

    One Thesis option I strongly recommend using for SEO is the Meta Description field. If I fill that in for each post, Google uses it exactly as written for the search result snippet. I just have to limit it to about 120 characters. It lets me turn each search result into a mini-ad. I make sure to include the major keywords in this text, so they get bold faced when Google displays them. My current blog was built on Thesis, and it received a PR 5 within 3 weeks of it launching.

  • http://www.joemescher.com Joe Mescher

    Here Here!

    I'm a huge fan of Thesis, run it on my own sites, and smile whenever I notice it being used by my favorite bloggers (like you, Chris).

    This is how I've chosen to make the theme my own on three sites:

    http://www.joemescher.com

    http://www.youtubewatercooler.com

    http://www.firstcollegenowwhat.com

  • http://www.fogofeternity.com/ fogofeternity

    Thesis does seem exceptionally popular. As a designer I think it's pretty good from an aesthetic point of view, but the functionality and “non techie” ability to tweak seems to be the biggest selling point.

    Developing a couple of WordPress themes is on my to do list. To that end, what are 'must haves' for you when you're looking at a template to use for a site? And what would really put you off a theme?

  • http://dannybrown.me Danny Brown

    I'd agree with John.

    I use Thesis for my blog and have it optimized, but it could be a lot better out of the box. If I'm paying $90 for a premium theme, it should come pretty much ready to go and “pretty”. Otherwise, wouldn't it make sense just to use a completely blank template and build from there (if you're going to throw down bucks for a designer)?

    It's one of the reasons I like developers like iThemes, Revolution2 and Woo Themes – just some very slight tinkering and you're good to go, and they have some great behind the scenes stuff available with just one “button switch”.

    Don't get me wrong – Thesis is cool but for a “premium theme” it could offer a lot more.

  • http://www.donaldlafferty.com/about Don Lafferty

    I use it and pass the client version on to everyone I work with.

    Like you said, it gives us the freedom to do what we do best.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Actually, most of the WordPress designers I know use an existing theme as a template. It's like when car-mod people start with a certain car ecaude it's easy to customize.

  • http://dannybrown.me Danny Brown

    Oh, I agree with that :)

    I'm more on about the people that aren't too savvy with either HTML or CSS language (even in help forums where it's not always clear what's meant), and can't afford to have a designer rip up a theme for them. That's where the other guys score some points over Chris (Pearson's) template.

    There's no real need for HTML or CSS coding with the ones I mentioned – just hit a few check buttons and you're good to go. :)

  • http://www.rknstudio.com kristy Nuttall

    I agree with Don. We use Thesis for our site and we have our clients pay for it on their sites too. Our favorite thing is that once we've designed and set it up for them, it's EASY for them to do all that they want to do.

    It's a GREAT tool to build upon.

  • http://www.rookiemoms.com RookieMom Whitney

    We love it too! It's amazing to see how different we can make our sites look from each other with this theme.

  • http://www.sportsfan4.com Adam

    Love thesis theme too. Got to work on customizing it a bit more on some of our sites but even in its default state I think it looks much better than a majority of the themes out there.

  • http://www.ebizexperiment.com Making bucks online

    Heads up Chris for the suggestion…indeed I am thinking if I should switch to the thesis theme…I currently use a tweaked out minima template on blogger. Perhaps you can tell me if there's anything I can improve on my theme or if there's too much to change then I might just go with the thesis theme like u said… Cheers for the heads up though!

  • http://www.catholicfoodie.com Jeff Young

    Thank you so much for posting this!

    I am a Blogger user who is seriously considering making the jump to WordPress. The problem is that I haven't seen many WordPress themes that I like… except Thesis. It seems that people really love Thesis, and it looks great!

    Do you have any advice for this Blogger user? Especially where I can go to get a good tutorial on how to use WordPress?

    Thanks again for this post. I love your blog and I check it every day in my Google Reader.

    Keep up the good work!

  • http://www.simonstapleton.com Simon Stapleton

    You've implemented Thesis brilliantly. It looks clean and neat. I am considering a move to Thesis myself. Thing is, when one has been blogging for a while and made tweaks to a theme to get it 'just right', it's quite a job moving to another theme.

  • http://www.aliceharold.com Alice

    I just bought on your recommendation – I've been searching for an easily-customised theme for a while now. Thanks!

    Now to work on its customisation…

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  • http://www.techshots.net Jaremy

    Sometimes I wish I'd downloaded/bought a theme of my own for my blog, but honestly, not having one has helped me to learn my way around WordPress a lot better than I would have otherwise, and has allowed for a great deal of customization. I might change themes/formats in a little while, but as of right now, I'm pretty happy. I like the look of Thesis, but I prefer individuality.

  • http://www.erikfolgate.com Erik Folgate

    I recently bought the developer's version of Thesis, and I hope to use it on all websites that I develop. It's good to hear so many good recommendations about it, because I have been searching for a WordPress theme that doesn't require you to be a whiz a PHP and CSS.

  • http://www.shefaly-yogendra.com/blog Shefaly

    Hi Jeff.

    Are you going from Blogger to hosted WP (WP.org)? If so, Thesis may be for you.

    In the move itself, you will find WP communities and volunteers very helpful. I did move one blog from Blogger to WP.com (not hosted; although I do have another hosted blog too, where I use Thesis – see link) and it was very easy. You will need to move images uploaded etc manually though which is understandable. But do look at WP.com for its forums. Good luck. WP is much better in its community and promotion etc. They don't pay me to say all this. I believe the word we seek is consumer evangelism!

  • http://geekmommy.net GeekMommy

    Does it tell you anything that my brain couldn't find the name “Thesis” in whatever neural crevice it was hiding – but it could and did say “that one that Chris Brogan uses that I love” – so I came here to remember what it was and where to get it.

    Tell Chris P he owes you another beer! ;)

  • http://imsecretsrevealed.com/ Rezbi

    Hi Chris,

    I'm fluctuating (in my mind) between thesis and semiologic.

    While semi costs a little more to start off with, it does have some extra features which make it worth the money.

    However, if thesis is better overall I would prefer to go with that.

    Which would you recommend of the two?

  • http://dannybrown.me Danny Brown

    Hi Rezbi,

    I currently run the Thesis theme on my blog and a couple of other websites. I downloaded the Semiologic theme and I have to say it gives Thesis a pretty good run for its money. It's more user-friendly from the box, with a bunch of great template and design options built in.

    There are also some excellent Semiologic theme-specific plug-ins available on the homepage, such as social bookmarking options, a newsletter sign-up and landing page options. For support, there is an excellent forum for users.

    Considering that Semiologic is actually free to download – http://www.semiologic.com/software/sem-theme/ – it's a terrific alternative to Thesis and one that I'll be looking at a lot closer in the coming weeks.

    Hope this helps!

  • http://futureofinfomarketing.co.uk/ Rezbi

    Thanks, Danny, that was very helpful.

  • http://www.socialmagnet.co.uk David Prior

    My new company site only went live a month ago and I'm already seeing some first-page results for localized keywords. Definitely the best WordPress theme I've used so far.

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  • http://www.SocialMediaCommando.com JoeMescher

    Agreed,

    Your site is very easy to read and enjoy with the Thesis Theme, Chris. I was inspired to create an entire Thesis Theme E-Course, for people who want to use the Theme effectively — and get recognized on the Web.

    Did I mention it's free?

    http://www.socialmediacommando.com/2009/07/23/t…

  • http://www.SocialMediaCommando.com JoeMescher

    Agreed,

    Your site is very easy to read and enjoy with the Thesis Theme, Chris. I was inspired to create an entire Thesis Theme E-Course, for people who want to use the Theme effectively — and get recognized on the Web.

    Did I mention it's free?

    http://www.socialmediacommando.com/2009/07/23/t…

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