October 31, 2009 36 Comments

Thesis Ups Its Game With New Design Options

This blog is designed using the Thesis Premium WordPress theme, and I am so in love with the product that I am an affiliate for the theme. (In a previous article, I tell you why I promote the HELL out of Thesis. The short answer: I love what Chris Pearson did for Copyblogger.com over the years, and this is my chance to have quality design and powerful SEO tools built into my blog.)

The new design options are spectacular. They answer a few people’s concerns that thesis can look pretty similar when just turned on and applied to your blog. There’s a video showing you some of the design options here:

Click here if you can’t see it.

This will give you a bit more design control. The thing is, MOST people use Thesis as a starting point and then use a designer to make it pretty. I can strongly recommend WeFixWP and Coffeehouse Ideas as two groups who can up your design.

Anyhow, if you want to pick up my vote for the best wordpress theme out there, and if you want to earn me three beers worth of loot for doing so, check out Thesis and get the best SEO boost your site’s had in a while mixed with flexible design and features that I feel improve the performance and the presentation of your site.

There are many other great WordPress themes out there. I’m supporting Thesis because I like the team, I like what it does for my blog, and I believe a quality theme goes a long way towards earning me more success.

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.

Find out more about the framework features
Check out the Genesis demo and the wide variety of child themes
See example designs in the Genesis design showcase

Become a StudioPress Affiliate

http://www.lifewithoutpants.com Matt Cheuvront

100% agree that Thesis is the way to go Chris – I made the switch months ago and swear by it – using it myself and for all of my clients. The number one benefit? The SUPPORT you get – whether you reach out to Chris himself on Twitter, or through the Thesis forums – every question I've ever had has been answered within 24 hours. You can't beat that! Have a great Halloween buddy!
http://www.kylechowning.com Chownage

This looks like a great theme. I've also found the Woothemes.com and studiopress.com to be great resources for WordPress based sites. But seriously, where would we be without WordPress? It's the primary tool which us entrepreneurs live by.
http://twitter.com/gsempe guillaume sempe

Great thesis theme update. Great video example.
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http://www.facebook.com/hans.schiefelbein Hans Schiefelbein

This is a great post – excellent detail for some of us amateurs. I'm hitting the pause button a lot. Thanks for promoting such a great product.
david365

Yes I've just upgraded to the developer package. Great theme
http://twitter.com/Cajun_Mama Shannon Hurst Lane

I use Thesis and tell everyone I know about it! It rocks and it is true about how fantastic the support is. Well worth the investment.
http://noteasytoforget.com James Ball

After looking into many different options, and already knowing I was going with WordPress, I decided to go with Thesis based on your recommendation, and I'm glad that I did. This was my first WordPress experience in general, and I couldn't be happier! The product itself won me over, and I can't say enough about the excellent support!
http://dannybrown.me Danny Brown

WordPress rocks as a platform for any website or blog and the themes around offer something for everyone's level. Not sure about most people employing a designer after buying a theme, mind you – why not just get a designer to build you something from scratch if you're that way inclined? ;-)
http://www.jontusmedia.com Jon Buscall

I am a big Thesis fan too. It's the theme I recommend to clients and use on my own website(s). After ditching ExpressionEngine at the start of 2009 and switching to WordPress + Thesis I've seen a massive increase in sales, hits and page rank.

Happy !
http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

So the way it works is that some themes are built as starting points for designers. Frugal theme is another, by Eric Hamm. They do a lot of the grunt work, but are like when a carpenter roughs out a house's facade. That's probably the simplest way to look at it.

Modders, including the folks who do game modification, do this all the time. The Quake engine, for instance, was a great system to work from to build new games. The Half-Life engine was what they used to build CounterStrike, which ended up being more popular than the original game.

So Thesis falls into that category. Make sense?
http://www.chilesadvertising.com Lawton Chiles

Even I guy like me can use Thesis to achieve (pretty much) all of my design goals for my site. I highly recommend it, the support is STELLAR, and well, Chris knows I use it…so…. :)

Seriously, don't think. Just get it. P.S- check the comments, they echo my support claims. How's that for social proof?
http://www.chilesadvertising.com Lawton Chiles

@chownage I know! WP is so crucial-remember when we had to figure out Blogger.com? Uh!
http://www.chilesadvertising.com Lawton Chiles

Hans, Chris posts tons of great, “think on this for a week” type of posts. And, get Thesis. It is fantastic.
http://snowydaydesign.com/ Nico

From a designer perspective:

Using Thesis allows for easy customization and, even when hiring a designer, helps keeps costs down. It's solid and well coded. But for some sites it's not enough. It can actually get on the way, and make coding harder. For a complex site with very specific requirements, I'd always start from scratch.

It's all about needs. Sometimes using a framework theme such as Thesis is a good idea, but it's not the ultimate solution. A good web designer should help you choose what's best for you.
http://jeremyvaught.com jeremyvaught

Oh? This is interesting. I've been using WordPress since b2evolution and was thinking of dabbling with Expression Engine. But your post puts a serious dent in that. :)

Thanks for the WP encouragement, Jon.
http://www.jontusmedia.com Jon Buscall

I used EE for years and was very happy with how easy it is to customize but it was just seriously lacking when it comes to SEO despite hours of tweaking. I missed EE for a couple of days but I've found the SEO effect of WP/Thesis a massive boost.

The draw back with WP is all the security upgrades and plugin upgrades but I've found the community very supportive. There is just so much support.

The other factor is new tools. It took the EE community ages to come up with the equivalent of Tweetmeme plugin.
http://themes.jestro.com/ Drew Strojny

Chris as done a fantastic job with Thesis, it truly is a great package. One thing I have noticed is the more design control you give your users the uglier the average site gets (not all the time, but most of the time).

So it is a double edged sword of sorts. If you have the budget I think it is worthwhile to hire a designer (as Chris B mentions) to at least guide you in the right direction and make sure you don't “design” yourself a site that looks horrible.
http://brandonsutton.com Brandon101

Great info, and very timely. I've been soul searching for the past few days on what to do with my site from a platform and design perspective. I was 90% sold on WordPress already, but this might seal the deal. Thanks for the tip!
http://dannybrown.me Danny Brown

Chris, I can see what you're saying, and to a degree I kinda agree. (Funny you mention Frugal, I looked at that before).

But I guess the way I look at it is that you buy a “premium theme” so that it allows you to do things yourself without the need for a designer. Otherwise, why not just go for one of the countless free ones out there?

Also, from a framework point of view, I'd rather pay someone to come up with their own design that I offer the aesthetic input from, as opposed to “tying” them into the boundaries of someone else's ideas of what can and can't be done.

I think Nico explains it better than me (and from a designer viewpoint), but yeah – if I can't do it myself and need to hire a designer, then I'll go with their recommendations and engine.
http://twitter.com/steve_e Steve Evans

3 beers? You can buy me one next time you're in the UK, I think you may owe me one of those :-) I got Thesis yesterday having seen it on your blog. First impressions are that it's really flexible, easy to customise and seems SEO friendly so thanks for the tip Chris!
http://www.vizstreamstudios.com/ Yvonne

The design controls offer amazing layout options and looking at the thesis based gallery showcase really brings this home best
danmurray

Chris;

I'm looking over theme because I'm moving a Drupal site to WordPress. I really like Thesis. It appears to be very easy to implement modifications and with people such a yourself relying on it's SEO I'm convinced.

My only pause is the lack of adherence to GPL. What are your thoughts that topic?
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http://themes.jestro.com/ Drew Strojny

Good points by Nico and Danny about hiring a designer.

If you did hire someone to code a WordPress theme “from scratch” you could also avoid much of the code overhead associated with a theme framework like Thesis. Don't get me wrong, it provides great value and easy customization but will not be as light and fast as a well built custom theme (assuming you don't load it down with plugins). With that being said, we are talking about two totally different price points.
cheapwebdesignuk

I would like to learn about game designing does it include under web designing.
http://www.zoombits.co.uk/christmas-gifts christmas stocking fillers

Very nice video.I use Thesis 1.6.I simply can’t wait to teach you how to use this new platform to take charge of the design on your site…
modem

Hey i like this wordpress theme. It is really nice. I saw the video of it and it is also superb. Thanks for sharing.

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http://www.thevirtualasst.com/ @mmangen

I agree – Thesis ROCKS! With it I actually feel as though I really, really “know” what I'm doing. I've done quite a few customizations with my site and have more planned – there are some great resources out there and the forum people (esp @GodHammer) are totally helpful.
marryroy01

Not sure about most people employing a designer after buying a theme, mind you – why not just get a designer to build you something from scratch.Modders, including the folks who do game modification, do this all the time. The Quake engine, for instance, was a great system to work from to build new games.

jeux video
marryroy01

Not sure about most people employing a designer after buying a theme, mind you – why not just get a designer to build you something from scratch.Modders, including the folks who do game modification, do this all the time. The Quake engine, for instance, was a great system to work from to build new games.

jeux video
http://www.vitabits.de/multivitamine/multivitamine-(eine-am-tag)/16481 multivitamine

Hi,
Very informative post for me.I believe choosing the right WordPress theme for your blog can be one of the most confusing and fun parts about blogging. Unfortunately, most beginning bloggers spend so much time deciding on a theme that they are wasting valuable time that could be spent on content production and promotion.
http://www.pacebutler.com/ used cell phones

It is truly a great package. One thing I have noticed is the more design control you give your users the uglier the average site gets (not all the time, but most of the time).But not everyone can make theme by using this. Because even it needs some HTML & CSS knowledge.
http://www.memorybits.co.uk/ memory cards

After looking at several different options, and already knowing I was going with WordPress, based on your recommendation I decided to go with research, and I'm glad I did. The general experience was my first WordPress, and I could not be happier! Products won on me, and I can not say enough about the excellent support!
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I’m impressed, It’s very matured!

Thesis Ups Its Game With New Design Options

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