Changing the theme of an established blog is never a trivial undertaking. It’s a decision that requires a lot of thought and planning before you even get into the actual redesign. A lot can go wrong, not the least of which being a poor reception from your readers.
If you spend any sizeable amount of time researching blog redesign or searching for quality Wordpress themes, you’ve probably stumbled onto Thesis. I’m not going to get into why Thesis is a remarkable Wordpress framework; I’ll let the video on the Thesis site do that for me.
I’d wanted for a long time to use Thesis on Astro-Geek:3000 for all the reasons discussed in the video – power, flexibility, and support. But the theme I’d been using for months had features I wanted to keep, in particular the featured post box in the upper right. I eventually found the plugin version of what had been built directly into the theme, so I used that as a sign. It took me a couple days of tweaking and nudging things to get it the way I wanted, but I’m happy with how it turned out.
I’m a minimalist when it comes to design, but I want as much functionality as I can get. Thesis is the same way. Its design is simple, but when you get under the hood, the things you can make it do are virtually limitless.
Thesis is a premium theme framework, and it does cost money. It costs $87 for the personal option, which will allow you to install Thesis on one blog. Or you can go with the developer’s option for $164 (the cost of two personal licenses) and install the theme on an unlimited number of blogs.
Now I know that’s a hefty chunk of change, but when you think about the time and effort that’s gone into Thesis, and the potential it has for optimizing your blog, it doesn’t seem so bad. Plus, if you purchase Thesis, you can join their affiliate program and earn money by referring others.
I am a part of the affiliate program, and if you use this link to purchase your license of Thesis, I’ll get a bit of cash to burn a hole in my pocket.
You can follow the developer of Thesis, Chris Pearson, on Twitter – @pearsonified
I love tech, but don’t have as much time or money to spend on it as I’d like. I get what I need to sustain my Geek vicariously through other sources and pass it along to you.
