thesis for wordpress

Thesis WordPress Theme Review

Before starting the review I want to make a few things clear. First, I have worked with Thesis many times for client websites and Second, wpexplorer.com is an affiliate of Thesis which means that I make a commission from any Thesis sale generated through my affiliate link. This said, I wanted to let you know that this is not your average bs review that sounds more like an advertisement. Rather I wanted to create an Informative Review of Thesis so you can better understand everything about the theme.

I could sit here for hours and write about how awesome thesis is, however, you probably rather read about the factual in-and-outs of this theme.

There is a lot to read on this Thesis Review…This is why I have provided these nice big headers so you can skip to whatever sounds interesting. Enjoy!

Visit Thesis

What is the Thesis WordPress Theme Framework?

Thesis is a Premium WordPress Theme Framework developed by Chris Pearson and has become one of the most popular and downloaded/purchased Premium themes out there. In fact, I can not go a single day without browsing the web and seeing a site running on thesis. It is unbelievable.

You have probably encountered many blogs or sites that are using thesis and possibly recognized their similar appearances. At the same time, you may have also seeing many sites that were using this framework and you had no idea. The reason for this, is that Thesis is an awesome theme right “out-of-the-box” but it can also be customized really easily too look like “anything”.

But what actually is Thesis? I guess you could call Thesis a WordPress Theme, however, it is much more then that. It is a code and design Framework built around WordPress that delivers a rock-solid SEO website code plus design flexibility that requires no knowledge of HTML or CSS to make customizations to your website’s design.

Thesis Admin Control Panel

The Thesis Admin Panel is what makes this platform truly stand out (in my opinion). Sure many themes out there let you customize your twitter account or upload a logo for your header, but Thesis is different. This powerful platform will allow you to make tons of adjustments from including pages in the navigation bar to selecting a custom CSS style-sheet. You will have the power to customize your site completely, right through your WordPress administration area.

The admin panel makes it really easy for bloggers that do not want to get their hands dirty with any code but still want to do some basic editing to their website design and make customizations to their on-page Search Engine Optimization.

Admin Panel Screenshot

Here is a quick screenshot of one of the admin setting pages so you can see more or less what they look like. The control panel is really clean and makes use of drop down containers so everything is nicely organized and you can find what you need without having to scroll down forever.

Customizing Thesis & Thesis Skins

As mentioned earlier, one of the best things about the DYI Thesis Theme is the ability to customize the look and function of your site via theme control panel which is easy to use and very intuitive. But you can also customize the look of your site via what are called “child themes”, which are themes designed to work with the Thesis Framework and can be uploaded via your theme panel and they will automatically add a new style/design to your site. There are many places where you can find Thesis skins and they are available both for free and for purchase. This ability makes Thesis great for bloggers who don’t want to spend anytime customizing their site or need some extra features that are available via other skins. And it is also a great for web designers who are looking to use the Thesis Framework for all their clients.

Is Thesis Really That Awesome for SEO?

While any theme or site can be edited for Search Engine Optimization many are not optimized to start with. This can be a real hassle for amateur/inter-mediate bloggers which is why the Thesis Framework has been designed to be search engine friendly right out-of-the-box. In fact, most people download external plugins such as “All In One SEO”. But what if you could have your SEO built into your theme? This would make everything run more smoothly with cleaner code and it will make it much easier for you to make overall SEO changes to your site. Plus, Thesis is already very SEO-Friendly right out-of-the-box, so you can install it and feel comfortable that your site will be indexed.

Some of the key components that makes this framework good for SEO purposes are:

• Title tags and Meta Description fields on pages/posts
• Noindexing options for pages and psots
• Alt text for images
• Clean and simple back-end code
• Simple design – faster loading (google has added speed as a measure of search engine rankings)

You must remember that simply by installing Thesis on your site you will not automatically rank number 1 on Google, rather the framework provides a very good base and clean code to help make your SEO efforts easier and possibly more successful.

Target Advertisement with Thesis & Thesis For Affiliates

Now here is a really neat feature about Thesis you are going to love: “The Multimedia Box”. This is a 300px by 250px (size can be changed) advertisement block that is by default on the top of the sidebar and it will allow you to rotate between different media (images, video, adsense).

So what? A rotating media box. Sure this is true, but what makes the multimedia box of Thesis so unique is that you can edit what appears in that area for every page. This means that you can provide better targeted advertisement based on your page content. So for example on a Thesis Review post you could have an affiliate banner for DIY Themes and on a post about WordPress SEO you may want to have an amazon link to a corresponding SEO book. For posts that you do not have any affiliate links to post you may consider using that spot for adsense.

Ultimately with the media box you will be able to provide relevant advertisement to your visitors and help increase your affiliate sales.

With the latest version of Thesis (1.7) there is a new feature that affiliate marketers will love and it is the ability to easily create 301 redirect links out of your affiliate links. This means that you can transform all your ugly affiliate links into ones that look like they are on your site and with pretty slugs. This way people will not be discourage to click on them and you can help increase your click-through rates.

How Unique is Thesis?

Uniqueness is very important to generate visitor loyalty and help encourage a community on your site. The problem is that many people are using the same WordPress Themes as everyone else, so when you browse the web you find sites that look just like every other site. At least for me, this is a real turn-off.

There are currently thousands of people using Thesis and many people are using thesis with the basic settings applied and nothing customized. The beauty is that this framework is so easy to customize that you can make your site look 100% unique in just minutes. Ultimately it is up to you…You can go for the plain and basic design or you can edit it a bit and no one will even know you are using the Framework.

This is what makes Thesis so great. Unlike many other themes out there you will have to do a lot of CSS and XHTML editing to make your site look unique, but with Thesis you can log into your admin panel the second you activate it and make some changes really quickly and easily. Or you can upload ad use your own custom style-sheet.

Is Thesis The Perfect Theme?

No theme is “Perfect”, as any theme can virtually be improved in one way or another, however, there are probably many users out there that would argue that Thesis is very close to being a perfect theme. Below I highlight some of the advantages and disadvantages of Thesis so you can see what things are awesome and what could be improved.

Thesis WordPress Theme Advantages

• Clean code and minimalistic design
• Search Engine friendly and optimized
• Make easy theme customizations without touching any code
• Streamlines with custom child themes
• Relatively cheap developer license

Thesis WordPress Theme Disadvantages

• Plain and simple default design
• Blogger layout – may not be as good for businesses without a child theme
• CSS knowledge is still highly recommended to be able to make design changes to your site

How Much Does It Cost and Is It A Good Deal?

There are 2 pricing options for Thesis, the Developer option and the Personal option. The developer license costs $164 while the personal one is only $87. And while this may seem expensive, especially in comparison to the price of other themes, it is in fact a very good deal for what you are getting. You could spend over $500 paying someone for a custom designed website or you can buy this theme for $87 and customize it yourself. If you want your site to look and function great as well as rank on search engines, then it may be worth the money.

Below you can see what each of the different plans comes with…As you can see, if you are planning on using this theme on multiple sites, the Developer option is still cheaper then purchasing 2 personal option licenses!

Developer’s Option $164

• Unlimited use of Thesis on sites that you own1
• Access to all-new beta versions of Thesis before final release!2
• Access to Client Site Options, which allow you to deploy Thesis on sites for clients3
• Access to members-only Answers and Forums
• Lifetime Thesis upgrades
• 30-day money back guarantee

Personal Option $87

• Use of Thesis on one live website and one localized development server
• Access to the Developer’s Option Upgrade for only $774

Paying For A WordPress Theme

I remember when I first started with WordPress I was very skeptical and reluctant to buy any template and there are thousands of people out there that currently do not like the idea of paying for a theme when there are thousands if not millions of free themes out there. However, I have changed and hopefully I have somewhat convinced you other wise as well.

When you think about the TONS of extra features you will get by paying a little but for a Premium template. Think about it…If purchasing a premium theme helps your search engine rankings and increases even just a few more conversions from your site’s advertisements or products than it has been totally worth it.

And best of all with Premium Themes you do not need to worry about having to keep any footer links, spam that could have been added to a free theme, and most importantly you will be able to edit your site much more easily so you can avoid tons of hardship when trying to customize your site.

Should I Buy Thesis?

Of course since I am trying to make some affiliate sales here I would say YES click on the link below and buy this wicked-awesome theme. However, instead I want to give you a list of some things you can think about and possibly write down your answers so you can see if it really is worth it for your. And if you do consider purchasing this theme, you can do so through my links and I will get my respective commission. Thanks!

Things To Think About Before Purchase

• $87 for a theme you can easily customize and make it look like anything, is that a good deal?
• If you are a developer could Thesis make your life easier by providing you with a faster way to create client sites?
• Thesis has some great SEO features and comes with a nice clean code. Is SEO a concern for you?
• Would editing one theme over and over again be more efficient that buying or finding a new free theme for every new site or whenever you want to change the look of one.
• Will Thesis make your life easier? (it has for many)
• “22,100 savy webmasters rely on this framework” would you care to join?
• If you buy it and it wasn’t as cool as you thought it would be, was $80 worth the try? (there is a 30-day money back guarantee)

Thesis Now With A Split License

For those of you concerned about the GPL license of WordPress, DYI Thesis announced just a couple weeks ago that they have added a split license to their theme making everything to do with WordPress GPL and all the Thesis Framework code to be the property of DYI Themes.

Visit Thesis To Learn More & Purchase Today

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When I first uncovered Thesis about 10 years ago, it really was the best. Mostly it was easy to use. But now, Thesis is extremely user-UNfriendly. For reasons I cannot imagine, Thesis has been redesigned to make the easiest things impossible to accomplish. I found myself Googling for how to do things that were so simple in earlier versions. For example, what did happen to the “Admin Panel Screenshot” where a user could define columns and widgets and search bars and colors, etc.? Everything was nicely in one place. Now, a user must go back and forth all over the Theme for perhaps hours trying to accomplish what once was done in 10 minutes. It looks like an intentional effort to make the Theme complicated. But why? After several hours of looking, I was never able to find how to remove the widgets from the sidebar, despite the fact that my site was one column. How can there be widgets in the sidebar when I should not have a sidebar? I had no choice but to use another theme. So extremely disappointed.

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Focus WordPress Theme

Focus is the world’s fastest and smartest WordPress Theme .

It’s also the only WordPress Theme designed for the way internet behavior has changed in the age of social media.

I built it because WordPress websites are fundamentally broken—they’re slow, clunky, hard to manage, and grossly overcomplicated.

It’s time for a generational change. It’s time for Focus.

WordPress sites are slow. Focus makes your site fast .

Because it runs on my Thesis platform, Focus inherits optimizations and performance benefits no other WordPress Theme can match:

• perfect HTML enhanced with structured data
• the most optimized CSS that has ever existed
• darn-near-magical design and display options

Data-driven for Easier Management 📊

Typical WordPress Themes run on files , and this means the bulk of your customizations will involve futzing with files and code.

Focus runs on data , which enables you to make changes through a simple UI instead of messing with files, code, or needing to hire a developer to perform otherwise-intuitive modifications.

You can quite literally do more with Focus, and you can do it faster!

Smarter Design Customizations 🧠

Focus is built on the Golden Ratio Typography design system , which gives it serious superpowers.

When you make a change—to a primary font size, for example—Focus smartly adjusts everything else in your design to accommodate this change. It’s basically AI for your design!

Designed for the Social Media Age 🤳

“Modern” WordPress Themes have it all wrong. They’re still designed for the previous era where blogs reigned and people actually browsed websites.

In the social media age, nobody does this anymore. We browse social media and occasionally click through to websites, but we don’t really browse sites anymore.

In other words, when we visit websites, we are looking for specific information . If the website doesn’t deliver quickly and clearly, we’ll leave and return to the dopamine-friendly social media environment.

Focus is designed around the transactions that take place in the social media age. When you visit a website, you want an immediate payoff for what you hoped to find.

But if the site is slow, busy, or otherwise gets in your way, you’re out of there!

Focus delivers clear results on all devices , which means your site will look great and work perfectly no matter how a person gets there.

Slow sites suck. Focus makes yours fast.

• blazing speed that delights visitors
• responsive and consistent design on all devices
• optimized for both search engines and people
• highly customizable without wrecking performance
• easy to manage over time

Check out Focus →

© Chris Pearson 2005-2024. All rights reserved.

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Home / Blog / Reviews / Thesis Theme Review: Is this the Ultimate Website Builder for WordPress?

Thesis Theme Review: Is this the Ultimate Website Builder for WordPress?

If you like the idea of creating your own custom WordPress website design, but lack the development skills to do so, then Thesis could be just what you are looking for.

Thesis is a website builder for WordPress that essentially allows you to change the design and layout of your site. After installing the Thesis theme, you can choose from one of the included designs, or pick a third party option, and then customize that skin using the built-in editor .

Thesis makes use of a drag and drop interface for building the layout of your website. The layout elements and the overall design and appearance of your website can then be customized through the settings pages. This allows you to personalize almost every aspect of your website , including page widths, color schemes, fonts, and more.

All of the personalization and design work takes place through a custom-built editor, with no coding knowledge required by the user .

This all sounds very impressive on paper; so let’s take a look and see what this website builder tool can do, and how easy it is to use, in our Thesis for WordPress review .

Thesis Features: What Can This Website Builder Do

Although Thesis has been built to run atop of WordPress, it has its own ecosystem and terminology. Thesis has three core features that help make it unique. These are its skins, boxes, and site tools.

By explaining these three core aspects of Thesis, you should hopefully get a better understanding of what this tool has to offer, and how it works.

Thesis Skins

Thesis uses skins to transform the appearance of your WordPress website. These skins can then be modified using the Thesis editor tool, which we will cover later on in this review.

Each installation of Thesis includes the Classic Responsive Skin . This is a skin for your WordPress website which has a clean and minimal design, that is also mobile-friendly. This makes it a great place to start when creating your own custom website design. You can test out this skin and a few others on the demo page . The Classic Responsive Skin is a design you may well be familiar with from visiting other blogs that have been built using Thesis.

Third party skins are also available. These are designs that have been built by other developers, which they are then selling from their own websites. You can also find a number of Thesis skin customization shops . These outfits will personalize your Thesis-powered website and deliver a custom design according to your specifications.

The closest approximation to skins for Thesis in WordPress terminology, are child themes for regular themes and frameworks, such as Genesis .

To be honest, the skins available from Thesis aren’t very inspiring. Out of the box, they look rather dated compared to most modern WordPress themes. However, as they can be customized using Thesis, that isn’t too much of a problem , provided you are prepared to roll up your selves and get stuck in.

On the other hand, there are some very impressive third party skins out there. These designs do a great job of showing off the potential of Thesis and giving you an idea of what can achieved.

Thesis Boxes

Likened to apps for your website , Boxes are elements of functionality that can be dropped into your designs. Rather than installing another WordPress plugin, you can choose from the library of boxes to add a specific feature to your website.

The basic Thesis license  includes 16 boxes . These core boxes are best described as elements you would typically find in a regular WordPress theme. The included boxes give you the ability to insert comment forms, navigation menus, HTML containers, post lists, and widgets into your designs.

However, this number can be expanded by installing additional boxes , or creating your own. Free and premium boxes are available from third party developers and these options are much more akin to apps for your website, as opposed to being standard features of a WordPress theme.

Some examples of premium third party boxes include email opt-ins, related posts boxes, floating share bars, content sliders, author bios, and much more. You can view a list of Thesis boxes from around the web on this page .

After you’ve found a box, it can be downloaded to your computer, and then uploaded to your WordPress website, through the Thesis interface. Then it’s just a case of dropping them into your custom design and configuring them to meet your needs.

Thesis Site Tools

The third core component of Thesis is the set of site tools. These tools are focused on website optimization and performance . The goal of this is to improve the rank of your content in the search engines, and deliver more visitors to your website.

Through the site tools you can quickly and easily enable  features such as enabling Google Authorship, using markup schema, uploading favicons, adding tracking scripts and site verification for Google and Bing, as well as controlling your 404 error pages, and some other options.

Once you’ve gotten to grips with the main concepts and features of Thesis, it’s time to start putting them all together to create the custom design for your WordPress website. This all takes place through the Skin Editor which we will take a look at now.

Thesis Review: the User Experience

Having great features and components for creating a custom website doesn’t mean much if the interface for crafting those designs is difficult to use. The Thesis Skin Editor is where the creation and customization of the design of your website takes place.

After choosing a skin for your website, you can then begin customizing it to make it your own. Thesis clearly isn’t a front-end editor, and all the work takes place in a back-end editor that uses boxes and containers to represent the front-end layout of your website.

The skin editor is primarily focused on the layout of your website, and which elements it should include. When it comes to changing the color scheme , this takes place on the Skin Design section of Thesis.

From the skin design page, you can change the color of the individual elements of your website, such as the primary text, links, background, and more. You can use the color picker to select from an unlimited number of choices for each element.

Alternatively you can use the Thesis ColorScale tool to pick a scheme of colors that work well together. This is a nice feature, as it helps non-designers be able to choose a set of colors that don’t clash on the page.

You can also set the fonts and color options for each of the text styles of your website. This includes headings, paragraphs, titles, block quotes, and more.

Furthermore, you can set the layout and dimensions of your site. You can opt for either a one or two column layout, with the option of setting a custom width for each column.

Other options on the sidebar menu allow you to upload a header image, add custom CSS, and access the skin editor.

Once you launch the skin editor, you can see how the layout of your chosen skin has been structured. The editor actually has five modes or views: HTML, CSS, images, manager, and canvas.

From the HTML view, you can drag and drop the various elements that make up your skin into place. This could see you move the header below the main navigation menu, or any other rearrangement that is necessary for building your desired design.

From the HTML view you can add new boxes to your layout , as well as removing any that it includes already. You can also customize each of the boxes or elements of your layout. Depending on the box, this could be setting the number of posts to display, or changing the id or class of an element.

One of the good things about the Thesis website builder is that it makes it easy to create multiple layouts or templates for your WordPress website. This allows you to build a homepage layout, then work on the individual post and page layouts, as well as creating custom archive pages for categories, tags, authors, and more.

You can also create landing pages or product pages for your online store. The template manager makes it easy to copy a template so that you can use it as a base for a new layout.

Another useful view or mode, is the CSS editor. While the interface for customizing the underlying CSS of your skin or theme is less than intuitive , once you get the hang of it, it does make it quicker to find the variables you wish to change.

It would be nice if the CSS editor included some kind of builder or CSS generator. As is it, you need to know how to write, or edit the CSS that is used to customize your website, or at least know where to copy it from. While using the CSS editor is easier than working directly on the stylesheet files, it’s still not enough to be make it accessible to those unfamiliar with CSS.

However, not all users of Thesis will want, or need, this level of control over their designs; so perhaps the ease of use of the CSS editor is a moot point.

Exit Strategy

As Thesis is a WordPress theme, albeit one with advanced customization capabilities , if you do deactivate the product, or remove it from your website, you will lose access to the designs you have created.

However, your content will remain in place, as this is stored in your WordPress database, usually as posts and pages. This means you can change themes as you would with a regular WordPress theme and still retain your blog posts and pages.

Unlike some WordPress page builder plugins, you won’t be left with a large clean up job on your hands after deactivating Thesis. However, you will lose your custom layouts and designs, as they will be replaced with whatever theme you install in place of Thesis. Also, any Thesis boxes you’ve installed, or made use of, to add extra functionality to your website, will no longer be available to you.

Thesis is available on three pricing plans:

• Basic Plus: $164
• Professional: $197

While the professional license covers use on an unlimited number of domains, both the basic plans support just one installation of Thesis. The basic plans grant you access to email support, the support forum, and product updates for 12 months; while the professional plan gives you lifetime access to all three.

The plan you choose will also dictate how many skins you get access to, as well as how many boxes are included in your package.

You can find out more, and view the full details of the plans on the Thesis pricing page .

Conclusion and Recommendations

As an experienced WordPress user, getting started with Thesis felt quite overwhelming . This tool doesn’t feel so much like an add-on for WordPress, such as a theme or plugin, but more like a totally new system that happens to run inside your WordPress website.

There is definitely a learning curve here.  Despite the action taking place in your WordPress admin area, you will have to learn a new interface and way of working . Not only that, but the terminology such as skins and boxes, are unique to Thesis too.

However, as Thesis aims to give you a code-free way of creating your own custom website designs , it’s not surprising that the developers had to go out on their own and build something from the ground up. While some of the other popular theme frameworks and page builders are built more in line with The WordPress Way of doing things, they don’t offer non-coders as much control over the whole design and appearance of their website.

If you understand that Thesis is more like a new system for creating custom website designs for WordPress, and you are willing to invest the time in learning this new system, then you should be able to get a lot out of this tool.

Thesis is backed up by its own community of skin designers, customization shops, and box developers. This fact should help make you feel more comfortable about installing this WordPress website builder. While there is official online documentation for Thesis, it’s not the easiest set of pages to navigate and find your way around. Therefore it’s nice to know there are other websites providing information on using Thesis.

Thesis is one of the most customizable options for building a personalized WordPress website , without the need to edit any code. So if that is something that appeals to you, then you should definitely give Thesis a try.

Get started with Thesis today

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Thesis WordPress Theme – Mastering Custom Hooks and Functions in Thesis

Thesis is a really versatile theme. It may be custom-made very simply utilizing what builders name “Thesis Hooks.”

Thesis Hooks can change each a part of your WordPress weblog. On this WordPress tutorial, I’ll present you how you can modify your Navigation Menu.

You’ve in all probability observed that the default set up all the time has the Navigation Menu on prime of the default display. You’ll be able to change the default location through the use of Thesis hooks. Through the use of Thesis Hooks, you possibly can transfer the Navigation menu to seem under the weblog title and weblog description.

So, let’s get began with utilizing customized hooks and features within the Thesis theme for WordPress.

Comply with theses steps:

• Entry the Consumer Information
• Discover the help web page
• Click on on Thesis Default Hook Utilization
• Entry the Member’s Space
• Discover, click on, and skim the web page referred to as “Learn how to Customise Like a Professional with Thesis Hooks”
• Entry the hyperlink “Make Your Header Show Above your Navigation Menu”
• Discover the suitable code, and replica it
• Return to your WordPress weblog
• Paste the code within the entry field in Customized File Editor

Thesis Default Hook Utilization:

Go forward and entry the Thesis Theme Member’s Space to get began. On this web page, you possibly can entry details about Thesis Hooks and which precise hooks are wanted to realize totally different seems on Thesis. Usually talking, every perform requires a pair of codes. The primary code is known as the perform. The second code is known as the hook. It’s essential enter each of those codes in an effort to construct a customized perform in Thesis.

Discover the web page referred to as “The right way to Customise Like a Professional with Thesis Hooks.” There, you will see that a tutorial together with actual examples. Go forward and click on on the hyperlink to entry the tutorial. Be happy to learn by means of all the web page.

Subsequent, discover the hyperlink referred to as “Make Your Header Show Above your Navigation Menu.” Discover the code, after which copy it. Subsequent, return to your WordPress weblog. You’ll paste this code in your Customized File Editor.

Allow your Thesis hook features by altering WordPress settings:

• Discover the Thesis Choices tab
• Click on on Customized File Editor
• Choose the custom_functions choice
• Click on on Edit Chosen File
• Entry WordPress utilizing FTP
• Click on on wp-content
• Click on on Themes
• Click on on Thesis
• Click on on Customized
• Entry the custom_functions.php web page
• Proper click on the hyperlink
• Select File Permissions
• Change the permissions to 777
• Click on on OK

The subsequent step is to seek out the Thesis Choices tab. Click on on Customized File Editor. Then, from the drop-down menu, you’ll be able to both choose customized.css, format.css, or custom_functions. For this objective, you must choose the custom_functions class. Then, click on on Edit Chosen File. With a purpose to run custom_function, you want to arrange the right file permissions in your WordPress weblog.

Entry your WordPress website utilizing an FTP software. Then, click on on wp-content. Click on on Themes. Then, click on on Thesis. Subsequent, click on on Customized. You will notice the custom_functions.php web page. Proper click on this hyperlink, after which select File Permissions. Change the permissions to 777 after which click on on OK.

Transfer the Navigation Menu through the use of Thesis Hooks

• Return to Member’s Space
• Take away the Thesis Navigation menu utilizing thesis_hook_before_header
• Copy the code
• Return to Thesis Customized File Editor
• Discover entry field, paste the copied code
• Click on on Save
• Refresh the web page to confirm settings

For now, let’s return to the Members Space code once more. With a purpose to make the Navigation Menu transfer from the highest to the beneath the header, there are two units of actions that must be accomplished. The primary is a take away motion, which is to take away the Thesis Navigation menu from the present location of thesis_hook_before_header.

The second motion is so as to add the motion again into the suitable space on Thesis Hooks. Copy this code, after which return to the Thesis Customized File Editor. As soon as you’re on the Thesis Customized File Editor web page, you will notice feedback and notes that seem by default. These feedback and notes present you learn how to add customized hooks, or customized features. Discover the entry field, and paste the copied code precisely because it appeared within the Members Space instance. Then, click on the Save button.

After you could have clicked save, it is going to affirm the modifications. Refresh the web page. Now, check out the modifications. You possibly can see that the Navigation Menu now seems earlier than the header and beneath the weblog title and outline.

Take away the Thesis Attribution Hyperlink utilizing Thesis Hooks

• Click on on the hyperlink “Get Sensible with the Thesis WordPress Theme from DIY Themes”
• Return to Member’s Space to entry the code format to take away a perform
• Discover the precise Thesis attribution code hyperlink
• Return to File Editor
• Paste the copied perform
• Return to Help Space
• Click on on Consumer Information
• Discover Thesis Default Hook Utilization
• Discover and click on on the pair of codes referred to as Thesis Attribution
• Copy the perform
• Paste the perform into the entry field
• Copy the hook
• Paste the hook into the entry field alongside the perform copy

Within the subsequent instance, let’s talk about eradicating the Thesis attribution hyperlink. If you wish to take away the default Thesis attribution hyperlink, click on on the hyperlink that reads, “Get Sensible with the Thesis WordPress Theme from DIY Themes.” Return to the Member’s Space to seek out the code format to take away a perform. Discover the code for the Thesis attribution hyperlink. Copy the code, after which return to File Editor. Proper under the physique of textual content, go forward and paste the copied perform.

Subsequent, discover the right hook identify and the right perform to finish the method.

Now, return to the Help Space. Click on on Consumer Information. Then, search for Thesis Default Hook Utilization. Upon getting accessed the web page, you’ll discover a helpful instance as to the pair of codes which might be wanted to make this modification work. Click on on the codes, after which discover the one referred to as Thesis Attribution.

Subsequent, copy the perform. Then, paste the perform within the entry field. Now, copy the hook. You’ll paste the hook into the entry field alongside the perform copy. Click on on Save. Then, you’ll be prompted with a affirmation message. To verify the modifications, refresh the web page and the footer ought to be gone.

Through the use of Thesis Hooks, you possibly can nearly customise Thesis nevertheless you need. For those who want further assist, you need to use on-line help boards and the consumer information. The boards are lively with a whole lot of superior WordPress and Thesis customers. Utilizing the out there assets is useful in case you run into any customization points utilizing Thesis Hooks for WordPress.

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Thesis – a WordPress Theme Design Worth Considering

Not it’s not the start to a bad joke and yes the answer could be many things – but today I’m excited because one of my favorite blog designers, Chris Pearson has teamed up with one of my favorite bloggers, Brian Clark from CopyBlogger to put together a fantastic Premium WordPress theme called Thesis .

This theme is already getting some great reviews around the blogosphere (you can see some testimonials here ) and it is no wonder – because it’s got some great things going for it including:

• SEO – WP is generally pretty well optimized to start with but Thesis takes it a step further and gives you every chance of ranking well in Google.
• Accessibility – this theme will be able to be accessed by those using all kinds of browsers, mobile browsing and those with special needs
• Customizable – you don’t want a design that looks exactly the same as everyone else’s – Chris has put together a theme that can have different backgrounds, has support for custom CSS and more. You can have rotating images to make your design even more unique. Alternatively you can use this multimedia box show six 125×125 ads, a video or even disable it. All this is done from within WP’s admin (see picture below) – very cool. Check out the ‘ showcase ‘ page on the Thesis site to see how others have been using the theme already.
• Feature Rich – it plays nicely with Google Analytics and Mint, manages your RSS feed for you, separates comments and trackbacks, gives you lots of control over whether to show dates and author bylines on posts and much more.
• Well Laid Out Design – Thesis is easy to get around and quite intuitive for those arriving on your site of all levels of web experience
• Simple to Use – Thesis is easy to use and while I’m sure Chris will continue to add features and ways to use the theme it’s quite intuitive to get up and running and looking the way you want it.
• Support – one thing that I love about Thesis is the support forum that Chris has built for those who invests in this theme. It’s already pretty active and covers a lot of the questions that you’d have as someone using it.
• Free Upgrades – Chris has already released an update to Thesis which gives an indication that he’s still

You’ll want to check out Thesis for yourself – a good place to start is on it’s About Page .

Thesis comes with two license options. The personal license is $87 and the developer’s license is $164. The main difference is that the dev license allows you unlimited use of the theme across as many sites as you like.

If I were starting out today with a new blog and didn’t have the budget to get a custom design or the ability to design my own – Thesis would be something I’d serious look at investing in. In fact if I were starting a blog network today it’d be an ideal investment to grab the dev license as it is a great way to have a variety of blogs that share a similar look yet are customizable.

PS : here’s a look at the fantastic options panel that gives you control over many aspects of this theme (click to enlarge).

I’d like to say that the Thesis theme is damn amazing. Its typography and SEO is mouth watering. I’m going to use it for my next blog.

@Ganesh – Be sure to check out the new features in the 1.2 release. I posted about it on my Thesis Theme blog here:

Thesis Theme 1.2 Revealed

There are so many new options that I’m having to do a series of blog posts to cover them all. :-)

Yep, this is the one. I love the fact that you can purchase a personal license then upgrade by throwing another $87 to clench the dream deal on this theme steal. Love it… Just Love it!

Keep Shining

thanks for suggesting thesis. It doesn’t do everything but it is very helpful. Building a website requires A LOT of effort, learning and time. Thesis reduces a lot of that.

Just what I need. I’m looking for a good wordpress designer for weeks….I will check these guys out…

Rich options, but too expansive for me.

Love you blog by the way!!

I recently have been working as a consultant to hep expand a clients business. I decided a blog was absolutely the way to go in her case in particular. I researched various blogs, and decided that i liked WordPress features the best, but eventually went with Blogger because WordPress wouldn’t allow forms, and i really wanted to include the Feedburner email sign up form, and have the option of perhaps others in the future.

Now i’m confused… i take it this ‘Thesis’ template is in WordPress, and i see you have forms on your page here. Grrrr… was i mistaken/mislead? My client has already posted several successful post on her Blogger blog….

I find the Blogger tempaltes very limited, and the features also…

Any thoughts/advice?

I bought Thesis and am running on my Load of BS blog. Not at all what I expected. I thought it was supposed to be easy to configure but unless you are good with CSS and Hooks it isn’t.

I had earlier heard of Thesis so much.. from so many people that it seemed like a damp marketing squib. But now I stand convinced that Thesis is the best thing to have happened to WP. It is indeed a great piece of code for churning out websites in no time.

My blog looks cleaner with Thesis. It is simply wonderful that a new-bee like me got started on it in no time. The extent of customisation one can do is great. Kudos to CP!

The thesis site itself needs work. I have been looking for hours for a screenshot of the admin options page, and finally I find it here on problogger!

Thesis’ features look amazing. However, I’m turned off by the price tag. If they can reduce it a bit, then I’ll consider paying for it.

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Wordpress Plugins

7 must see wordpress plugins for thesis.

There was a time when we did not cover Thesis here. We considered it to be difficult for newbies to master. Many folks who pick up Thesis have unrealistic expectations anyway. Since adopting the Thesis theme, we are very impressed with how easy it is to customize. In order to customize your Thesis theme, you need to know your way around hooks. Knowing your CSS and PHP is a good idea too. These 7 plugins enhance Thesis’ features and let you get even more out it:

SEO Data Transporter : one of the biggest challenges of adopting the Thesis theme is transporting your SEO options from your old theme. This plugin is designed to handle that part.

Thesis Toolbar : adds useful admin links for the Thesis Theme to your WordPress toolbar. It is a time saver.

Ultimate Thesis Theme Options : a useful plugin if you have trouble customizing the Thesis theme. You won’t have to know any PHP to get started with this.

The OpenHook Customizations Manager : a nice plugin for customizing Thesis from your admin panel. Another time-saving Thesis plugin.

ThesisReady Product Manager : if you have downloaded Thesis child themes to your server but don’t know how to get them to work, this plugin can help. Works with ThesisReady child themes.

• 4 Cool Plugins To Enhance Your Thesis-based Blog
• Thesis 1.7 vs. Thesis 1.6: What Has Changed
• Thesis 1.6 Available for Download
• Enhance Thesis Theme with Thesis OpenHook

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Better Alternatives to Thesis Theme Framework

Once upon a time, Thesis Theme was the gold standard for WordPress themes. More of a framework than a standalone theme, Thesis is an incredibly flexible backbone that let you craft nearly any type of design or site.

But several (debatable) missteps by Thesis’s developer (DIY Themes) have damaged its reputation, and dozens of high-profile bloggers have jumped ship. Pat Flynn, Matt Cutts and Harsh Agrawal all dumped Thesis Theme in favor of alternatives (most moved to Genesis).

Nowadays, few new sites are built on Thesis as there are dozens of better (and cheaper) options.

These are the best Thesis Theme alternatives worth considering.

Genesis Framework

Genesis is easily the closest competitor to Thesis Theme both in terms of design and longevity. Initially launched in 2010 (2 years after Thesis), Genesis is a survivor in a crowded industry. And legions of talented devs swear by it.

Like Thesis, Genesis is a framework, meaning it’s meant to be used with a child theme (to handle the styling) while Genesis powers the functions behind the site.

Benefits of Genesis

• Steep learning curve
• Non-devs need to buy a professional child-theme
• No visual styling controls
• Many tutorials are gated behind paywalls

Our Take: Genesis is an excellent backbone for sites managed by a developer, but isn’t the best choice for most solo-bloggers. It’s hard to customize and relies on a php-based hook system to change layouts and edit the theme’s front-end. I built my first WordPress site on Genesis, but have since moved it to GeneratePress.

Pro Tip: Dynamik Child Theme adds visual styling controls and pre-built ‘skins’ which makes Genesis much more accessible to non-coders. It’s a great child theme, and one I’ve used personally on multiple sites.

GeneratePress Theme

GeneratePress is what Genesis could have been if it was built for the average WordPress user.

It’s an incredibly powerful framework-like theme that can be used to build any type of website. But it’s still accessible to non-coders thanks to the excellent addons bundled with GeneratePress Premium.

The premium version lets you build site components with Gutenberg blocks (headers & footers for example) or inject any type of content into the dozens of hook locations built into GeneratePress templates.

Want to insert a custom opt-in form at the top of posts in a specific category? This is incredibly easy to do with a few clicks inside the GeneratePress Elements module, and you never have to touch PHP code (unlike Genesis).

Advantages of GeneratePress Theme

• Few 3rd-party child themes available
• Some customizations require PHP snippets (free via support forum)
• Prioritizes flexibility over simplicity

I personally use GeneratePress on most of my latest projects (including this website). There’s a bit of a learning curve to harness its full power, but once you do you’ll feel like Neo in the Matrix.

Our Take: If you’re a WordPress power-user or have same basic CSS skills, GeneratePress could be the perfect Thesis Alternative. Especially if you’re speed-obsessed like we are. There’s a free version but it’s quite limited. I highly recommend going pro .

Astra is the most-downloaded theme in the WordPress repository, surpassing 1 million installs.

In many ways its very similar to GeneratePress. It’s quite flexible with adjustable layouts and relies on a hook system for customization.

The free version of Astra has better styling controls than most of the other themes on this list, and Pro upgrade makes it even better. Pro gives you a hooks module, header builder, more styling controls, and better layout/design options.

Compared to Thesis, Astra is a revelation. Not only is it easily customizable by beginners, even the free version is usable. You can even import full demo sites (from a limited site library) in Astra free.

Personally, I chose GeneratePress over Astra (I own both, though) because of the better quality of the support team, the cheaper lifetime license, and better Gutenberg integration. But I also am well versed in CSS and passable at PHP. For Beginners, Astra may be the better choice.

Advantages of Astra Theme

• Some frustrating quirks and missing documentation
• Support can be flaky

Blocksy is a relative newcomer, but I’m incredibly impressed by both the quality and general approach Blocksy takes to theming.

Like Thesis (and the other themes above), Blocksy is designed more like a flexible framework. But it packs even more power under the hood than competitors like Astra & GeneratePress.

And it’s even easier to use than those themes too. In fact, the primary drawback of Blocksy might be the shear overwhelming capability it has.

Here’s a sampling of what you get with Blocksy pro:

• Theme hooks
• Inject Gutenberg blocks into any hook or layout
• Custom sidebars (conditionally loaded per category or even per page)
• Visual menu builder (mega menu)
• Woocommerce Integration
• Adobe Typekit and Google fonts integration
• Local font hosting
• Per-page CSS and Javascript injection (optional)

Whew, that’s a lot. And if you’re a power-user, Blocksy might be your dream theme.

Kadence Theme

Kadence Theme is very similar in concept to Astra and GeneratePress, though the team takes a different approach to customization.

It’s got customizer controls for typography, branding and colors. But that’s just a start. You also get full layout control, including customizable sidebars, headers, footers and menus.

Kadence lets you visually build your header and footer with an intuitive drag-n-drop interface. Or you can just import a pre-built template from their extensive site library.

Advantages of Kadence Theme

• Support average, not outstanding
• No Gutenberg integration (insert blocks into hooks)

Avada is one of the bestselling premium themes of all time, and one of the few that I recommend from the Themeforest marketplace.

Not only is it incredibly flexible, but Avada comes with a ton of pre-built layouts and starter sites that can save you hours of time that you’d spend on setup on customization.

Avada is more like a classic theme than Thesis (less of a framework) but is still highly flexible. Add to that an integrated page builder (which also works as a theme builder) and you’ve got a powerful package.

And because of Themeforest’s licensing, you only pay once but get updates for life, which can be a better deal than recurring licenses like Astra and Thesis if you only need it for one site.

Advantages of Avada

• No lifetime license
• Support limited to 1 year
• No Gutenberg integration
• Theme lock-in

Divi isn’t for everyone, but there’s no arguing with its success. According to WPThemedetector, it’s the #2 most popular WordPress theme (behind Genesis).

Divi’s success is a direct result of it’s usability. Even novice WP users can get full control over their site’s design and layout. It’s infinitely customizable with the integrated Divi page builder.

And you don’t just get to control basics like typography, colors and widget areas. You get full template control and can easily build new templates for your posts, pages, or custom post types. This level of customization usually requires PHP abilities, but Divi makes it drag-and-drop simple.

Of course all of this comes at a cost, mostly speed and lock-in risk (hard to switch to another theme without rebuilding your entire site). That’s not to say Divi is slow, but it’s easy to overdo it with so much power at your fingertips.

Advantages of Divi

• Can get bloated

OceanWP is quite similar to Astra and GeneratePress in its flexible framework-y approach. But this is no cookie cutter clone.

OceanWP differentiates itself with its bundled modular extensions (in pro) which let you bolt on all kinds of functionality. Whether it’s a GDPR cookie notice, off-canvas panel, sticky widgets, or custom footer, OceanWP has you covered.

And you can enable only the modules you need, keeping your site leaner and load times faster.

But OceanWP doesn’t stop there. There’s deep integration with both WooCommerce and Elementor. OceanWP Pro even comes with custom Elementor widgets, making it a great choice if Elementor is your page builder of choice.

Pricing: OceanWP Pro starts at $29/year

What happened to Thesis Theme?

Thesis theme originally launched in 2008 and quickly achieved god-like status in the WordPress community. It was frequently mentioned as the go-to framework for WordPress power-users and high-traffic blogs.

The first spot of tr ouble came when Matt Mullenweg (the creator of WordPress) announced that all WordPress themes needed to be GPL-licensed in order to be listed in the WordPress repository. Matt took it further and contented that anything built atop WordPress was GPL by definition.

Chris Pearson (creator of Thesis) held out and refused to change the theme’s licensing. As a result, sales plateaued and the feud dragged on in public for years.

In the meantime, Thesis angered some of its customizers directly by refusing to support Yoast SEO (the most popular SEO plugin at the time). Despite Thesis’s built-in SEO functionality, this was a dealbreaker for many bloggers. And I don’t blame them.

Eventually, Pearson capitulated and decided that the next generation of Thesis Theme (Thesis 2.0) would be GPL-compatible. Unfortunately, the Thesis upgrade wasn’t managed well (according to several thesis devotees).

One of the most noticeable errors was the lack of good documentation before the release, making the migration from 1.X to Thesis 2.0 incredibly painful. This was the last straw for well-known blogger Harsh Agrawal.

Since 2012 (the year Thesis 2 was released) interest has dwindled, and it’s well outside the top 25 most popular themes now, behind even aged releases like the official twenty-twelve theme.

Though it’s still around, Thesis Theme isn’t the go-to option for many new sites. There are so many better, more powerful themes available that Thesis has largely fallen by the wayside.

And it’s not just about functionality, it’s about documentation and education too. There are hundreds of free tutorials for Genesis, GeneratePress and Astra that will hand-hold you through the entire site-building process.

But for Thesis? Not so much.

Themes I recommend instead of Thesis:

• GeneratePress – Best if you know some CSS, want Gutenberg integration and value top-notch support.
• OceanWP – Great for beginners without being overwhelming. A great choice if you use Elementor.
• Blocksy – Blocksy is perfect if you want maximum control over the look of your site, without touching PHP code.
• Genesis – Genesis is really only viable for developers (you need PHP abilities to customize it). But it’s still one of the most popular and best supported frameworks, and is the closest cousin to Thesis.

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WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org

Any WP Engine customers having trouble with their sites should contact WP Engine support and ask them to fix it .

WP Engine needs a trademark license, they don’t have one. I won’t bore you with the story of how WP Engine broke thousands of customer sites yesterday in their haphazard attempt to block our attempts to inform the wider WordPress community regarding their disabling and locking down a WordPress core feature in order to extract profit.

What I will tell you is that, pending their legal claims and litigation against WordPress.org, WP Engine no longer has free access to WordPress.org’s resources.

WP Engine wants to control your WordPress experience, they need to run their own user login system, update servers, plugin directory, theme directory, pattern directory, block directory, translations, photo directory, job board, meetups, conferences, bug tracker, forums, Slack, Ping-o-matic, and showcase. Their servers can no longer access our servers for free.

The reason WordPress sites don’t get hacked as much anymore is we work with hosts to block vulnerabilities at the network layer, WP Engine will need to replicate that security research on their own.

Why should WordPress.org provide these services to WP Engine for free, given their attacks on us?

WP Engine is free to offer their hacked up, bastardized simulacra of WordPress’s GPL code to their customers, and they can experience WordPress as WP Engine envisions it, with them getting all of the profits and providing all of the services.

If you want to experience WordPress, use any other host in the world besides WP Engine. WP Engine is not WordPress .

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