If you like my WordPress theme, I have some very good news for you. After going through numerous WordPress themes over the past 14 months, I finally found one that is easy to customize and the forum support is great.
The theme is called Thesis and it was created by Chris Pearson and sold by DIYThemes. Chris is known for designing many of the popular blogs out here so it’s no surprise that Thesis has been such a huge hit with the blogging world.
Get this theme, and you’ll never want to use anything else again.
Want to move a sidebar to the other side of your page? No problem. Want to change the color or positioning of your horizontal nav bar? No problem.
Want to add Google ads below your header or at the end of your posts? It’s never been easier thanks to the free Thesis OpenHook plugin.
And what’s even better is you can make all those updates without having to edit the code. Many of the design updates can be made right from the WordPress control panel.
I said “bye-bye” to the free themes for good and I’m a true Thesis fan. Watch my video below to learn more about it.
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 (especially with version 1.6!). Plus, you can make easy 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 and how to use the very cool Thesis hook feature. I taught myself the basics and I’m glad I did.
Get Thesis now!
Do you have a boyfriend, your Great! lol… just playin … mostly .. 🙂 I have to say I like your site and hope to learn from you. I’ve been using Thesis for about a year now and and am finally taking the bull by the horns and learning the html and css I need to make it work right. Anyways just thought I’d say Hi and good to ‘meet’ ya …
-Aaron
Sorry, I think that I figured out how to link this comments to twitter id right now, thank you anyway.
Hello Lisa,
I really like the way you use your twitter user’s comments here, can you make a video on how to link the twitter or facebook comments to your own blog?
Many thanks
Heidi
Hi Lisa,
Your website has been of tremendous help while building my own. Mine is a java/jsp based website focussed on career counselling. I wanted to know whether I can install WordPress in a subdomain inside my domain as i intend to run a blog section in it. My domain runs on Tomcat websever. So is the mix possible ?
HI this is chiru i have asmall web i have to use my one in my friends also
Lisa — Is there any way to use Thesis (or some other wordpress theme) to design a site that looks and functions like SBI’s 3-tiered system instead of posts in categories?
I really like the way my SBI sites work, particularly using a 3 tier structure (I’ve got a $2k/mth Site Build It site that’s now more than 4 years old–love it), but I want to build sites for resale on Flippa, but most Flippa buyers won’t touch an SBI site.
Is there some way to 3-tier a wordpress theme to get the best of both worlds?
Hi Jeremy, while I love SBI! and think it’s a fabulous system, you can create a site that is just as successful with Thesis or any blog theme. You could manually get the 3-tier system by creating STATIC pages in WordPress and linking them together. If you think about SBI’s 3-tier system that’s really all it is. Just understand that if you use Thesis or any blog theme, you simply don’t get the keyword tools and all the other goodness that comes with it. But if 3-tier linking is all you’re after, you can do that manually with HTML and creating static pages within your blog.
Thanks for the quick response!
Okay, so I make PAGES instead of POSTS in wordpress.
How do I tell WP which pages are Tier 2s (meaning, should be on the menu bar) and which should not? Doesn’t WP treat all pages the same?
In HTML, of course, I just have a server side include for the menu and put all my T2 links there.
I don’t like the whole “category” system and the chronological focus of most blogging platforms. It makes it really hard to leave a site on autopilot when everyone can see that your latest post was from September of 2008! Ruins a big part of the passive income aspect of internet marketing.
Besides, for many topics, timeliness is unimportant–quality abdominal exercises are the same in 2010 as they were in 2005 and will be the same in 2050 because the human body is the same.
That’s where the magic of Thesis comes in! When you install it there will be a section in WP called “Site Options”. From there, you can literally tell which pages you want to be nav buttons and even change the name of the tab/title without changing the actual title page. Love it!
You also have the option of turning off the date on your posts in case you’re worrying about it looking out of date. Another great Thesis option!
Thesis comes with a whole bunch of “Thesis Only” Site Options that allows you to do sitewide things like remove/add the date from posts, number of comments, etc. and it’s all done thru their two Design and Site Options panel that will appear after you install Thesis.
Awesome, Lisa!
When I’m finished with my move next week, I’ll buy a copy of Thesis through your link.
If you made a tutorial on how to use Thesis to make a blog “look like a website”, I guarantee you’d get a ton of attention and probably sell a lot of Thesis themes.
WordPress is great for flipping sites (because buyers are used to it and many buyers/investors don’t want to learn a new system just to buy your site), but the chronological blog format + categories is sub-optimal for niche sites and effective tiering (plus it create duplicate content and pr leaks).
Using pages to make a blog look like a site is huge.
I have not tried Thesis, but I just want to say that if you are very specific about how you want your site to look and plan on expanding it, you should learn CSS and HTML and create your own templates. Trust me it comes in handy. In about 3 weeks time, I taught myself HTML, CSS, and some php, and I created styles for wordpress and phpbb that match together perfectly – all while going to school full time.
w3schools.com + google are all you need.
thesis theme is a awesome ..by far the best wordpress theme i have ever used
Hey Lisa, the Thesis OpenHook plugin link is not working 🙁
Hi Lisa. I am Shaon from Bangladesh. I was knew about you by J U Hasan. I read your ebook about website design. really it was very helpful for me. Thanks a lot …. . It was my first comments in your blog.
See You Next Time
Thanks
Hay Guys,
If you don’t know CSS PLEASE Don’t buy TESIS THEMES.
You will be very disappointed. Don’t blame nobody if still buy.
Nobies-Don’t Buy-Don’t Buy-Don’t Buy
CSS experts- You might like it but suit yourself.
Hi Lisa I had a look at some themes created with Thesis and they look good but I am not sure how easy will be to create a personalised theme with this. I haven’t seen a trail period. So I can’t really try it. At the moment I am using artisteer, a theme generator which is very easy to use. It also offers you a trial version and the price is reasonable, $49.95 for the Home & AcademicEdition. Have you heard about this them generator? If not could you check it out and give us your opinion?
This is the theme I’ve crated for my blog site http://www.spanish-aid.co.uk
And this is the web site for the software http://www.artisteer.com
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for you web sites and blog as they are helping me a lot.
Luis
Still trying to figure out if Thesis or Flex Squeeze is easier for someone who (has challenges), lets say, with learning codes , php,etc. WHich one is more of a point and click, good look with least css etc codes?Love to get more feed back on that.
This thesis of ours is no boys’ play. It needs time and some good investment — could work if time could allow for some of us as we do blogging part time. Good post though!
Excellent theme
Wow Lisa! I think I’m in love & I haven’t even downloaded the Thesis Theme! I am pretty new to the blog scene & have limited experience but I have learned a great deal via trial & error and like you have changed my WP Theme a number of times due to various walls/Fails/incapabilities that some themes have. I am definitely going to get this theme. Thanks 4 all the info you share! I don’t know where I would be w/o you! 🙂
Hi Lisa,
Last night I bought the Thesis Theme plug in through your link and I am ecstatic with the results. I had built a blog on Blogger (spent hundreds of hours) because it’s very user friendly, but I was not so happy with the fact that they don’t let you create pages. I wanted to move over to WordPress but was stumped every time because it’s just not as user friendly. (even tried WordPress Direct for a monthly fee).
I kept coming back to your website as a reference and then I noticed your Thesis Theme video. I bought – installed – and am excited with the initial results.
Web development is always a work in progress as you know, but Thesis give you a running start! Thanks!!!
Hi Lisa,
I have been reading your blog for a month now on 2createawebsite. I have a wordpress blog, and I am planning to make my own website. I am a little confused about something-
1. Is a THESIS THEME only for a wordpress blog?
Hey Lisa,
I just have to ask if you have used iThemes Flexx themes? I have to say that they are the top WordPress themes. They are simpler and have more features than Thesis. Also the iTheme staff is outstanding. Great support. The new theme that they came out with on the 16th is the BEST WordPress theme bar none. Check them out, I think you will agree. 🙂
No, I’ve never used them. Ever since I found Thesis, I haven’t looked elsewhere.
I have studied both iThemes’ new Flex theme and Thesis extensively, and I have to side with Thesis.
The main advantage of Flex vs. Thesis is that you can use a visual drag & drop layout designer to create and save an unlimited number of layouts for various purposes (i.e. squeeze/sales pages without sidebars, single side bar for static pages, etc) and then easily apply them to individual pages. It’s unique in that respect.
However, the advantage seem to stop with that. Thesis offers much more advanced control over every other aspect of the site from it’s control panel, including fonts, backgrounds, borders, menu and sidebar styles, and much more.
Also, Thesis offers the same ability to create unlimited custom layouts using its hook functions and by assigning a unique CSS class to individual pages. Hooks should really be called module positions. It’s not that difficult to learn, and once your layout is set, it’s not likely you’ll need to change it around much anyway.
Either way, you still have to know a bit of css, as Lisa points out, to format the module positions, whether in Flex or Thesis to get that “just right” look.
ThemeDreamer is a cool extension for Dreamweaver which lets you visually edit the css of a WordPress Theme. Install XAMMP (free) on your Windows or Mac desktop, and you can run WordPress on a simulated server on your local machine to speed up customizing your theme via ThemeDreamer.
I also like FlexiPanels, a handy Dreamweaver extension that quickly makes advanced css style panels to go in your hook positions… perfect to highlight products, articles, etc.
@Phee,
“My biggest question is that I want to have my home page NOT be a blog, and to have the blog within the web site. Can Thesis do that, or is it a blog all the way through?”
Got to settings-reading- then select “A static page.” Choose what page, or create your home page. You now have a home page and a blog. ALL themes do this and you DO NOT have to know any code. I use Flexx Themes. Top of the line.
I just have to say that Manish has a lot of Jay Leno look going on… keep that chin up Manish and never look down.
Lisa
Nice Video, I learned about the OpenHook today which I was wondering about from some days ..
Is it different that the hooks code which put in the custom.css file . Like I added some code to bring my nav menu below the Header . So it Openhook the same thing like those or its completely different thing ?
Manish
Lisa–
I am seriously considering switching from my current WordPress theme to Thesis. But I have two questions
1) how good is the support? When visiting the theme site, the “contact us” is not clearly visible. This makes me nervous. I’ve purchased stuff in the past and found little to no support after my money had been paid.
2) My current site has an eye catching carousel feature that I’d like to keep. I also have code for creating an accordion affect with images. Would I automatically lose the features I liked in my existing theme? Would there be support provided to help me to get those features back?
Thanks for the great work you are doing. I love your site and your willingness to share information.
Sharon
Okay I’m confused now. I was all excited because I was going to build my own static Thesis for a website vs a website. I thought I saw on your site how to install WordPress and Thesis and all and I got the WP installed but no Thesis installed. I also was reading the comments and it seems you replied to someone that you cannot use WP as a homepage and you still have to build a homepage and fool WP into thinking you have a homepage? Do you have a video for that one??
Hello Lisa,
This is a great website!
Thanks for the intro to Thesis, Lisa. My questions are ,how do you imbed video onto your blog? Maybe a short tutorial for us newbies? Also how did you tile your blog background on Thesis and which affiliates are you getting the code from for your ‘moving ads’? I know this is loaded with questions but I’m trying to figure this all out and it can be overwhelming at times.
Thanks again, love your willingness to help.
not bad !but u need to try !
This may be a crazy question, but how did everyone get their picture in the right hand corner of their post?
Dear Scarlet, to have a personal image of yourself in the right top you’ll have to sign up with Gravatar (http://www.gravatar.com) – it’s free!
Easy process by the way: You sign up and then specify an Email adress to become related to any image you want to upload. WordPress (or in this case the famous Thesis Theme) will fetch this very picture you uploaded to Gravatar.com and then show it here or on every blog that you participate with. This of course does only work if you use the Email adress which you specified at Gravatar.com…
You can even have more pictures for different Email accounts 😉 Join the party, Scarlet, looking forward to you pic!
do this really work i mean i been watchin some of these videos and i been wanted to do somethen like this for a very long time but now i think i should
Hi Lisa,
I’m new to the whole WordPress thing. Being new, everything looks complicated. I have a blog with blogger and I’ve been thinking about transfering it over to WordPress. WordPress does have a bit more flexibility. You mentioned above in one of your comments that a bit of CSS should be learned in order to put together a Theme. My blog will be an offset to my website, which I believe would be a good idea seeing that my website isn’t a website like 2createawebsite. It’s promoting a product. Would it be difficult to learn CSS as I am not too familiar with WordPress?
Hi Scarlet
If you have the right resources it won’t be difficult to learn. Sites like HTMLDog.com have wonderful tutorials. I learned CSS by editing existing free templates and just played around with the code. It took me longer than I would have liked to learn it but I think if I had started with a more structured tutorial like HTMLDog.com I would have picked it up quicker. It’s one of those things where you never know unless you just try it.
Thanks Lisa for your rapid response.
It seems an unfortunate oversight that it can’t be clicked on and off in the options. I suppose I’ll have to learn some CSS but I thought one of the points of Thesis was to avoid this
Tony
Hey Tony, you could avoid the horizontal scroll bars while zooming in by just increasing the columns and the font sizes. That would fix your (and your readers) problems.
Besides: Learning CSS and HTML is a good choice for any blogger or website creator because with decent knowlegde of your tools like Thesis you have got the power 😉
@Lisa: You made a great video and I suppose you are glad to see it embedded in some of my websites in a couple of days, aren’t you? A nice review indeed and a well-earned feature on diythemes.com itself!
Hi Frederick
Thanks – I’m sure you’re right. But if it’s so easy why does no one do it? I mean – I haven’t found a single Thesis theme website which doesn’t scroll horizontally after a couple of text size increases – including your site (which looks great by the way). Does no one over 50 use Thesis?
What I want is make the site expand like http://friendfeed.com/. Try increasing the text size and watch what happens to the columns. That is my ideal.
Meanwhile, I’ve been playing with the Cutline theme CSS and I’ve discovered one very simple tweak: font:xx% – changes the size of everything. That’s a good compromise for now
Tony
That’s because the columns are fixed by default (as are most themes). If you know CSS well enough you can make the theme fluid/liquid so when you increase the text size the columns don’t expand. It’s more of a coding/CSS thing than a Thesis thing.
Tony, sorry about my last reply. I respond to so many comments that I didn’t realize I pretty much said the same thing as I did earlier and I didn’t reference your original comment. I wouldn’t say that part is easy. Changing many of the features in Thesis is easy (number of columns, fonts, colors, etc.) but when you want to change the the layout from fixed to liquid, it requires quite a bit more CSS knowledge.
Thanks Lisa
Perhaps in a future video you could address the pros and cons of fixed and fluid themes. It may be something that few designers think about.
Tony
Hi Lisa
Many thanks for your excellent site and advice.
I love your theme and I’m thinking of getting Thesis but there’s one thing I’m not sure about. I’ve looked at many Thesis-powered sites and none seems to have flexible columns. You’re young Lisa so perhaps you’ve don’t know how useful it is to be able to increase the font size. This is so easy with FF and Chrome (CTL +). The problem with fixed width columns is that after only to size increase the dreaded horizontal scoll bar appears, meaning that I can no longer see the whole screen. It also means that the reader has to read text with spans the full width of the screen – this makes reading more difficult.
This doesn’t happens on most Google sites (search, Gmail, news, Reader), or on Wiki, and many others.
So my question – do you know if Thesis supports flexible columns?
I appreciate your answer and thanks for reading.
Tony
Hi Tony
If you know how to do fluid layouts with CSS then you can change that with the code, just like you can with any theme. So my answer would be, Yes you can. Even though Thesis is fixed by default, you can change it by adjusting the code.
Cool, The issue was that some themes have conflicts with plugins or widgets that use js, for example “Sponsors Slideshow” is one plugin that I would love to use in thesis.
I think I’ll buy it soon, I wish it works.
Thank you for your quick answer 😀
Great Blog!
I’m planning to buy the theme, but my concern is if I will be able to use all my plugins, because some themes break them.
And I’d like to know if google friend connect will work on Firefox, my theme doesn’t show it.
Sorry about these questions but I didn’t find the section to ask to the creators.
Again, great blog, I’m becoming a fan.
Hi Rogelio
I have about 15 plugins and so far no problems with any of them. I don’t use Google Friend connect so I’m not sure about that. But I did find this Thesis blog and it appears to be using Google Friend Connect
http://www.shoutmeloud.com/are-you-a-google-friend-connect-user.html
The Thesis theme blows up when viewed in Firefox 3.5.2
Odd. That’s what I’m using and it’s fine. Checked on 3 different sets.
Wow Ive been studying your site daily and just when I thought I had the hang of afflliate income. Im so lost on this subject. Does this mean maybe Im to much of a newbie.
Carla
Love your site! But I do have a question for you….
I’d love to be able to easy create customized menu’s for the sidebar and customized category pages to allow me to present information more like a content management system and less like a blog.
Now, I ask you this, as you have used the thesis theme and I’m wondering if this has been added to the theme to easily do these things.
Thanks again!
Frank
Hi Frank,
If you want to do extensive menu customization, you really have to know CSS. Thesis does a wonderful job of making some things very simple (moving columns around, replacing certain sections of the site by editing one file, global font updates, etc.) However when it comes to actual design aspects then you need a CSS background.
There are some Thesis owners out there that have some very good Thesis-based tutorials. Kristarella is one that comes to mind. http://www.kristarella.com/2009/03/thesis-nav-menus/
But once you get a grasp on how Thesis works and learn to use their Hook feature, there’s nothing like it. It took me about a week or so to get in the groove but I just told the developer of Thesis last week that I have never stuck with a theme this long and I am a true Thesis groupie! LOL
Thanks a mint for the quick reply Lisa. As a matter of fact I did come across some of Kirstarella’s work. I’m going to head back there now to peek again.
I think my main concern was to overcome the limitations of wp when it comes to it’s menuing. I did do a bit further hunting last night after leaving a comment here and discovered that the theme would permit one to create links in the menu from anything, including custom pages/posts. Very cool. That would overcome one of my problems with some creative thinking.
Well to shed light on what I’m trying to do is create a membership site selling online course content in a particular niche. Trouble is, with standard wordpress, organizing content in a ‘natural’ manner for a membership site is extremely difficult. I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to have the menuing exactly like I want it, is to manually create it. But I’m always holding out for some widget or such that will allow me to use a ‘gui’ interface to do this instead of having to go in and try to code the whole darn thing.
Thanks very much!
Frank
Multilevel navigation plugin is long way out as wp plugin and in a completely simple way can do what you were looking for so long, long long before thesis to come around… so, it is not that much of thesis than you, as wp user and developer.
very good that there is also smth good looking for wp non-profis greets!
Lisa,
Thanks for the great review of the Thesis Theme. I had just seen it on someone’s blog, and was very interested. Then I found your review at the DIYthemes page. I’m sold.
Greg
Lisa you are so amazing!
That was a great video for sure!
The funny thing is that I was thinking about using Thesis but was kind of chicken about it at first, but after viewing I am moving forward. Thanks for sharing with us!
I tried Thesis for a bit. You definitely need to comfortable messing with the code or forget it! It was way too technical for me. I ended up going with flexsqueeze and found it fantastic….just much, much simpler to use.
Hi Lisa,
I ‘m interested in getting a Thesis theme. I’m just wondering if you could add a header to the theme?
What do you think about using Thesis as a website (for real estate investing) Is there anyway I can have the homeowners to input their information into Thesis. I guess I would use Aweber? Thanks in advance.
Hi EJ,
You can customize your Thesis header and I learned how by getting help from their forums. The header you see on my blog is a complete custom design by me.
Thesis drives your blog’s design, it has nothing to do with the customer interface. If you want people to be able to input information into your blog, that requires you to get a form for your blog and you would need to do this regardless of what theme you use.
AWeber is a way to collect email addresses. So if you’re asking if you can use AWeber with Thesis, yes you can. You can use AWeber with any WP theme because it’s just a matter of pasting code into your blog.
Rather than using thesis, you can always code your own. For those who can’t code, it’s great!
Hi Lisa,
I saw your video in DIYThemes website and I really liked your way of delivering speech and presentation. Then I came to your website.
I’ve bought the theme and in process of customization.
Hi, read some of your other comments, and I wanted to let you know. All of the word press themes I’ve used, (about to start up number 5) have had the option of setting a static theme page as the home page. Allowing you to customise it all you want.
With a little simple CSS editing, you can change sidebars and add what you want (and I mean beginner kind of simple).
You have a great site here and I’ll be considering thesis for my next project.
Hello,
I´m thinking to migrate to WordPress and feel for choosing Thesis as the theme. Now, do you know how I can get a newspaper or magazine look to my site once my product is content news focused the lesbian public as well a social network. Also, do you know if there is a social network platform for WordPress?
Hi Tatiana,
I don’t really understand the first part of your question. But if you learn how to customize Thesis (use the hooks, etc.) you can do whatever you want with your design.
If you want a social networking site, it’s probably best to create a website and use a CMS like Joomla. I wouldn’t recommend WordPress for that kind of site.
Tks for the reply! I just installed WP and am amazed about how easy is to setup things such as feeds, google analytics, etc. Those are a pain when you dont have the control but a design agency does. I setup a personal page blog to test and soon will migrate my main site to Thesis. All I need now is to find a great skin for thesis..tks a lot for ur reply, very kind=)
Hi Lisa
I Stumbled on your website this morning thru youtube. I must say, me, as a starter in affiliate marketing, I am very impressed with your site and knowledge base. I joined the babble blog to get some information on a site that i am going to copy as a theme. The site has many pages and I want all of the changes to apply to them. I use dreamweaver cs3. and tried it while using your youtube on the css file. The content that i change in the index.html only chages that page and not the others. Can you help?
Not that experienced in dreamweaver. Also when i downloaded the site to my desktop using a software, it took all the files, which i did not want. What files do i need to duplicate.
Thanks Lisa…that is what I thought. At least I know where I am going now. Cheers
Hi Lisa
I love your website. Great stuff!
I have a question about the thesis. Although I see the value of the software I dont know if this would work if I already have uploaded one of the studiopress theme…css is hard work!
I appreciate your advice on this.
Thanks
Ranka
Hi Ranka,
Thesis is best if you are going to start from scratch with a new theme. I wouldn’t recommend it if you are trying to use it with another theme. That would require a ton of coding knowledge to mix both themes. So you either need to go all Thesis or nothing.
Thank you so much!
Hi, I have a question for you. Is Thesis really easy to use for a total beginner that has never even used WordPress? My biggest question is that I want to have my home page NOT be a blog, and to have the blog within the web site. Can Thesis do that, or is it a blog all the way through?
Thanks!
Hi Phee,
The best way to accomplish this with WordPress (no matter what Theme you use) is to create your own custom homepage manually, and that does require you to know a little about CSS, HTML. The more you know, the better off you’ll be.
Thesis does not really have a feature that allows you to style a custom homepage (other than their teaser feature which allows you to display excerpts of your most recent posts). Other than that, it’s best to create your customized homepage yourself and then in the WordPress control panel, tell WordPress to display this new page as your blog’s homepage.