Hey Bloggers! I’m in Love With Thesis! [Video]

Update:  I no longer use or recommend Thesis unless you’re using version 1.0. The latest release is completely different from the one reviewed here.  I now use The Prose Theme.

I have a confession to make.

I used to have major trouble with commitment.

Commitment to WordPress themes, that is. 😉

I have been using WordPress for 14 months and bounced from theme to theme because I kept running into walls when it came to the customization piece.

And even though I’m not a complete novice when it comes to CSS, I’ve never been a fan of manipulating sections and columns of a pre-designed theme because I would often get lost in the nested div tags.

In English, that just means I could never get the design to do what I wanted. 😀 Nothing seemed to give me the no-hassle flexibility that I desired.

Until now.

You’ve probably heard the buzz about the Thesis WordPress theme. I have to admit, I wasn’t impressed when I first read about it because the out-of-the-box template looked a little bland to me.

“Why in the world would I pay for that??” is what I initially thought.

So I started researching it a little more, viewed a few blogs using the theme and eventually discovered Thesis offered three features I was looking for…

1) Easy customization

2) Support

3) SEO Optimized

DIYThemes boasts Thesis “does the heavy lifting behind the scenes” and allows you to “command your site with ease.”  Boy, are they right.  Never have I had a theme that is so easy to customize and I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to explore Thesis.

And if you’re reading or assuming it’s only for beginners, I would challenge you on that thought.  Even though Thesis targets people who want a professional-looking blog without having to know much about coding, if you are savvy with CSS and PHP, this theme gives you even more flexibility to create amazing designs.

But don’t just take my word for it.  Let me SHOW you what Thesis can do…

Thanks, Thesis for curing my commitment phobia.  It’s just the therapy I needed. 😉

Lisa’s Advice: In my personal opinion, knowing CSS will help you unlock the real power of Thesis.  You don’t HAVE to be fluent, but the more you know, the more you’ll be able to customize your theme’s design.

If you don’t know CSS, you can still move elements around the page (sidebars, etc.) without getting into the code.  Plus, you can make more custom edits using the OpenHook plugin.

But if you want to really customize your header and make your overall design very different from the default, you should learn CSS.  I taught myself the basics and I’m glad I did.