Thesis is a theme for WordPress
What’s a WordPress theme? Themes are bundles of code and images that change the appearance of your WordPress site and sometimes add functionality. Thesis adds functionality out the wazoo. Thesis is a premium theme, which means you have to pay for it. I hope the rest of this article will leave you with no doubt that the $87 price is well worth it. (There’s also a $164 Developer’s License that gives you unlimited use on your own sites and options to purchase client site licenses – a no-brainer if you’re going to run more than one Thesis site.) Here at Pocket Studios, our site design prices include a client license.
“But,” you ask me, “Aren’t there bazillions of free WordPress themes out there? Why should I pay for one?”
“I don’t think ‘bazillions’ is a real number,” I say.
“This is coming from the guy who just used the word ‘wazoo’?”
“Fair enough. I’ll tell you why you should pay for Thesis.”
Fast and Light
Thesis is lightweight, which means faster load times for your readers. There’s not much to say about this beyond the obvious, but it’s too important not to mention.
Great for SEO
WordPress is nicely Search Engine Optimized. Thesis improves on this platform with streamlined code and easy-to-use ways to maximize your on-page SEO. Each Thesis page and post allows you to enter a custom Meta Description and Title Tag. Together, these constitute what will usually be displayed in search results. The Title Tag is usually the default bookmark and sharing label, too. Thesis also makes it easy to add alt text to any images you post, and to set noindex and nofollow tags for each page or category.
The Thesis Support Community
If you buy a license, you’re also buying access to the Thesis support community, and it’s awesome. If you’ve never been part of a paid community online before, you’re in for a treat. A smaller, purposed community makes it worth searching the forums for answers. People are invested, and they tend to be patient and helpful. On rare occasions when I couldn’t find an answer by searching the forums, I’d post and would get a clear and correct response within hours. Unlike a lot of public forums, the Thesis crowd usually speaks from experience, and the results are really a pleasure to be part of.
Two Great Things about Thesis Updates:
1. Your purchase includes free updates for life.
2. All the customizations you make to Thesis are contained in one folder, so updating just means moving the folder.
#1 might seem more meaningful to you right now, and if you never use another theme (or another platform), you might not fully appreciate the second. But trust me when I tell you that upgrading customized sites is usually a pain in the keister (pardon the foul language). Thesis makes it super-easy.
Extremely Customizable
Customization is one of the big reasons that people come to Thesis, and – though I can’t believe I’m about to use this phrase – it’s great for beginners and experts. But it really is! Let me explain:
For non-designers / non-coders / beginners, Thesis gives you a huge array of click-to-change options for your design. Let’s say you’re a small businessperson who wants to set up your own site (without learning HTML, CSS, etc.). You don’t need to know anything about CSS to change colors throughout your site, or to change the layout dramatically (1, 2, or 3 column layouts – no problem). With just a little paint-by-numbers coding, you can make huge changes and add functionality using Thesis hooks. If you can copy and paste, you can make use of Thesis hooks to add all kinds of functionality to your site. Also, while you will find that Thesis looks pretty sparse out of the box, what is there is well done. The basic typography is good, which goes a very long way toward making your site look professional and easy to read. Add a header image and a post image, match some colors, and an image in the multimedia box and you’ve got a respectable website for very little time and money. If you have a designer set up your site initially, these options let you make changes without having to pay the designer for minor updates. For example, you might want to change parts of your color scheme seasonally. (Be sure to backup before making changes. It’s also a good idea to talk to your designer during the design process about things you’d like to be able to update on your own.)
For experts / designers / coders: I think of Thesis as the Un-theme. If you’re going to use WordPress, you’ll be using a theme, and Thesis is the best I have found at staying out of my way. It’s easy to get to a “clean slate” when you need to, which seems to be most every site, for me.
And you still have the benefits of the Thesis framework: Add in Google Analytics by pasting the code into a ready and waiting box. No plugin, no editing code. Feedburner script? There’s a box for that. Use the Thesis custom menu for nav instead of the WordPress menu and easily include or exclude whatever pages you like.
All customization can be done through just two text files, one for CSS, one for PHP/HTML, which keeps things clean and simple, and easy to transfer from one site to another (especially handy if you have a default set of customizations you find yourself using over and over).
Of course, all the basic customization – like easy access to the multimedia box – is great for clients to work with once you hand over the reins.
Nothing’s Perfect
The only real issue I’ve found with Thesis has to do with forms. Thesis overrides basic appearance of certain form fields, like submit buttons. It usually means adjusting the widths of the fields through the custom.css file or creating custom buttons. I usually prefer to use custom buttons anyway, but it can be annoying if you’re in a hurry and just want the default browser behavior. I hope and expect this will be fixed in Thesis 2.0.
Gimme Some Thesis!
If reading this post helped you decide to buy Thesis, please use one of the links below to purchase. I get a little back from Thesis when you do, which helps me to keep offering free help like this. (Cue “Circle of Life” music from Lion King.)
$164 for a Developer’s License (includes unlimited use on your own sites and options to purchase client site licenses)
Both come with a 30-day money back guarantee.
If you like the Thesis approach, but not the DIY, you can hire a designer. I recommend pocketstudios.com (try to look surprised). We offer basic WordPress + Thesis installs for $500 (including a Thesis client license), and full designs starting at $1500. Get in touch for a free quote.