If you are considering buying the Thesis Wordpress Theme make sure to check out both the Gallery of Thesis Sites and the Thesis Testimonial Page.
For those just looking for a quick overview of Thesis read below. If you want the full Thesis Review click here to skip to it.
10 Reasons Why YOU Should Upgrade to Thesis.
- Brilliantly Flexible out of the box – 1 Column, 2 Column (right and left), 3 column themes available with just a few clicks.
- Outstanding Typography – Chris Pearson’s sites have always stood out in this aspect. Thesis is no exception.
- Intuitive Customizations – Utilizes hooks allowing you to put all of your customizations in one place.
- Outstanding Support Team and Community – Lots of themes/plugins say this, but Thesis has the best I’ve seen.
- Rock Solid SEO – Stop tweaking old themes to optimize them for SEO.
- Post Specific Features – Specify a photo for a post, the title tag, the media box.
- Future Compatibility – Never worry about a Wordpress or theme upgrade ruining your past hard work.
- Easy Ad targeting with Multimedia Box.
- Threaded Comments Built in.
- Prebuilt Customizations: Tons of custom hooks available to customize your theme thesis with little coding experience. (Just Google Thesis tutorial or check out Art of Blog’s Thesis Tutorials.)
Now for those of you still with us, here is the story of why I made the switch:
Free Themes Are Great Except…
While I love free themes, let’s face it, not everyone thinks or writes code the way I do. I’m not saying my way is the right way, I’m just saying that I like to do things my way. After working on several of my own projects using free themes it became apparent that working with a familiar framework would increase my productivity tremendously. There really is nothing more frustrating that having to completely learn someone else’s mangled CSS to figure out why it isn’t displaying correctly in every browser.
Time to Simplify
When I first made this move towards simplicity, I began using a theme put together by the Studs over at AUInteractive theme known as “A Dream to Host.” In my opinion this theme is the best two column Wordpress theme around, not only is it quick loading but it has clean CSS and a slick looking layout to boot.
Needless to say my productivity skyrocketed. No longer would I spend hours testing out new themes on my sites, I would just drop in my standard theme and mod the CSS accordingly. Admittedly I might spend a few hours modding the CSS to meet my needs, but at least I had a unique theme. This process was working great until a couple of my site started getting some decent traffic and had boatloads of content.
Monetization Time
With all this content and traffic I decided it was time to start monetizing it. To start I had a few conditional PHP statements here to control advertisements and special content. This worked great there but suddenly it grew out of hand. I was consistently having to dig through each separate theme file to find out what customizations where running where. It was a real nightmare. No one wants to spend time memorizing what custom loops or ads were running much less where in the code and under what conditions!
There had to be a solution. I knew Wordpress had a nifty feature called “hooks” to help you place content in the header, the footer, or even the comments area, though I had never used them the idea sounded brilliant. What I really needed was one theme that allowed me to edit ONE file to control the customization of the whole theme.
A Premium Wordpress Theme? No Way, Not ME!
Mid last year there was some buzz in the SEO community about some nifty new “PREMIUM” Wordpress theme that had great SEO Capabilities. Naturally, it sparked my interest. Being nosy I checked it out, but I couldn’t get the fact I had to pay for it. Being hard headed and slightly arrogant I didn’t even look at the feature list. I had never paid for a theme before and sure as hell didn’t want to start. Needless to say I walked away head held high until I ran across Sugarrae’s post Thesis Hooks for Dummies.
This post blew my socks off. Low and behold the solution to my problem was right under my nose but I had been too busy looking at the price tag to understand why people would pay for it. Heck, I even had rants conversations with friends about absurd idea that anyone would spend a penny on a PREMIUM theme. Needless to say my stubbornness had slapped me in the face.
How does the saying go? For most people to succeed they just need to get out of their own way. Never before had this statement made soo much sense.
With my head held high I broke down and bought Thesis and haven’t used another theme since!
Now where is where the real review starts.
People ask me why I like Thesis. Well my reasoning is as follows:
1. Flexibility
It is extremely flexible right out of the gate. A quick One-Click wordpress install using Dreamhost and a quick file upload via the Wordpress theme manager (thanks 2.8) and the ball is rolling. From here I can choose a 1 column layout (great for landing pages), or a two column layout (like on this blog), or even a 3 column layout (perfect for content rich sites). From here I can choose my options as far as media box and/or feature box and fonts and write the home page meta tags and customize the title tags. So far we are talking 2 minutes after we are logged into the backend, no extra plugging necessary. From this point on you can focus on content or you can continue to customize. For a full list of thesis options I have included the screen shots below.
2. Easy Customization
So let’s say that I wanted to spend more time and customize the site from the standard theme. I have a few options. I can either find a thesis skin or hack together the CSS myself. Now hacking together your own theme sounds a lot more complex than it really is. Thesis uses an intuitive custom style sheet; by simply adding .custom to any of the default styles you can over ride any of the defaults. This element alone should sell thesis. Anyone who understands the difference between an #id and a .class can now look like a CSS genius. On top of that there are skins like I suggested which allow you to quickly and easily setup your thesis theme with a new layout.
3. Thesis has HOOKS
So now that you see how we go about customizing thesis’s style sheet, lets do a rundown of my favorite part. HOOKS. As outlined in the story above these are vital to easily customizing and managing a large blog or website.
Essentially Thesis is laid out with place holders, these place holders are known as hooks. For a visual display of hooks check out ThesisHooks.com. At each of these placeholders you can attach a php function. A simple function may just output basic HTML.
Using Hooks
For those unfamiliar with hooks here is a quick tutorial on how hooks work.
For take the following function which will print out a header.
<? function show_html(){ ?> <h3>Here is a Header</h3> <? } ?>
This header can be output on any of the available thesis hooks. Currently in version 1.51 Thesis has 49 hooks which build upon wordpress’s standard hooks. For example let’s say we wanted to show this header above this post to do this we would use the hook “thesis_hook_before_headline”.
So let’s combine this together.
<? function show_html(){ ?> <h3>Here is a Header</h3> <? } ?> <? add_action('thesis_hook_before_headline','show_html'); ?>
The add action line basically says “at this hook” add “this function.” This example is very basic but you can do all sorts of customizations based on conditional statements. I will save some more advanced examples for another tutorial.
Other Hooks might do much more complex thing but I will outline some of those at a later date. Hopefully you understand the power of never having to delve into a Wordpress theme file to make customizations, because all of your customizations are in one place.
4. Future compatibility
Because your thesis customizations don’t modify the core code and your CSS changes are held in a separate file, thesis can easily be upgraded. Chris Pearson and team have done a great job continually upgrading thesis making it even easier to use by continually adding features and improving on the core code set.
5. Thesis Has an Outstanding Community around the Theme
Finally the Thesis community should not go unnoticed. This is probably the biggest perk of buying thesis. This super active community is one of a kind. If php isn’t your forte there are tons of free customization tutorials which will help you hone your skills and do some very impressive things. No longer will you have to poke around on a PHP or Wordpress forum to get help with your theme. Have a question and the whole community will do their best to help out. Some notable contributors I follow are @godhammer (http://www.godhammer.com/) and @kristarella (http://www.kristarella.com/) though there are many more I have left out.
Room for Improvement:
Now let’s face it, Thesis is a great theme/framework but it isn’t perfect. If I could suggest some improvements they would be:
Homepage Display:
The homepage display should be easily customized, by allowing the user to limit posts that are shown through the admin area. You can change it through the settings but that limits all of your archives. This leaves you the option of modifying the query, this isn’t exactly user friendly and still has some bugs.
Feature Box:
The feature box should have more customizations available to the user, who isn’t code savvy. This could be a Content slider, or even a text box where people could format text which would be displayed there. Right now you can use hooks but there is definitely room for improvement.
Thick Footer:
Option to add a “Thick Footer” (aka fat footer) to a sidebar theme. Though there is code in the forums which will teach you how to add a thick footer, it isn’t easy for non code gurus.
Wordpress Attachments:
In Wordpress 2.5 they released a Gallery feature which has it’s own issues, but thesis doesn’t elegantly handle attachment pages. They need improvement and I would like to see the ability to customize them better.
Photodropper Integration:
While Thesis does have support for a few important plugins, I would love to see it support Photodropper. Right now it is an easy hack to add the custom CSS, but I would love to see it standard. I will go into the use of Photodropper in another post.
Wrap Up:
If this extensive review hasn’t convinced you that you should be building your sites on thesis, then I’m not sure what will. If you are serious about making money online you should be using Thesis for Wordpress. Buy it you won’t regret it. If you are still thinking on it and need another review I would suggest checking out the Art of Blog Thesis Theme Review.
Disclosure: The outgoing links are affiliate links. If you are thinking of buying Thesis theme, I would appreciate it if you used the links 
. If you have further questions I have not answered here I will be happy to answer them via the contact form or in the comments.
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I am almost convinced to buy a developer license for the Thesis WP theme, but have a question about controlling the number of columns across pages.
If I set the number of columns for my post pages as 2 or 3, how can I create a home or “money” page that the post pages point back to so that the home sales page has no links or “distractions” (i.e. 1 column only)?
Is it necessary to install the Thesis theme in a sub-directory (e.g. mydomain.com/blog) so that the theme doesn’t affect the home sales page? Or is there a more elegant solution from inside the theme itself? Also, what are the upsides/downsides to doing so?
Thanks in advance.
Brian,
What you are speaking of doing is pretty easily. You would create a static home page, using the default wordpress settings.
On the page you specify as the home page you would select the template “no sidebars.”
This would be a static page and then your other settings within Thesis will still work on other parts of your site.
Hope this is clear.
Thesis tutor has a good video tutorial to get you started.
http://thesistutor.com/how-to-make-a-static-homepage-with-wordpress-and-thesis/
Thanks for the info, but I would prefer more information;
I have purchased the Thesis WP theme and thank you for your help, but you have not answered my question about installation directories. I have noticed on your website that you appear to have more than one blog installations under one domain.
Why is it advisable to install WordPress and associated themes in sub-directories as you have apparently done? You seem to have multiple WP blogs in sub-directories; why do you do this and is this something the rest of us may wish to adopt?
You explained in your prior response as to setting up a sales or landing page without having it affect the blog pages, e.g. set the Thesis page settings accordingly. I thank you for that information in every way, but it was not quite enough.
The feedback you provided was very helpful. I just want to know more about how to do what I am still uncertain of doing with respect to WP installations and directories before I proced with other websites.
Thanks in advance, and thank you for the Thesis theme.
Brian, I think what you might be referring to is how I have pages like.
http://www.nicholasreese.com/contact/
This isn’t actually in a sub directory it just looks that way. This is done through what is known as url rewrites which are built into wordpress.
For what it sounds like you are trying to do. I would set up a blog in the root of your domain (www.yourdomain.com/) and then change your wordpress blog to display a static page as the home page. (link I dropped last time explains). Once you have a static page, write your sales page and on the edit screen you should see a template drop down. Find it and select “No Sidebars” template. This is now ready to show the sales page on your home page.
Now on to the rest of the site that looks like it is in subdirectories. All of this is handled via the wordpress permalink settings. To change it go to your admin area and select “Settings -> Permalinks” once there change it to a custom structure and past in “/%postname%/”
This will display every post title as if it is in a subdirectory, when it really isnt. So if your post was titled “test post” wordpress would change the permalink to “www.yourdomain/test-post/”
Now this is great, but what if you want to change it from post to post? Well under the title you can change the permalink. You should see a greyish area, click on the part that says “/test-post/” You can change this to anything you want for each post/page. So in this case you could change it to “/not-a-test-post/” and it would still look like it is in a subdirectory.
Hopefully this is clearer. Though there are instances where you may want to have multiple wordpress installs I don’t recommend it for most blogs, only when you are doing supercomplex stuff, and sometimes wordpress has a tendancy to mess up other installs. So long story short. I would recommend sticking with one install and changing your permalinks to “/%postname%/”.
Best of luck.
Thanks for your informative reply, but as a new buyer of the Thesis theme, I still have a few more questions. Presented in reverse order of importance, at least to me, these are as follows:
#4 Why are you displaying such a lame banner at the top of your page? I would consider that you are more worthy and able to present one of higher quality that the rest of us would consider of graphic merit. If you do change this, please indicate how; it will only help make all our sites more appealing. A recommendation with respect to any graphic designer for banners/headers/backgrounds, etc. would be more than welcome.
#3 You have explained how to set a sales page apart from any blog post, and this means that it is possible to create a static page that can act as as landing or sales page. The styles of each are dictated by parameters within the Thesis WP theme. I thank you again for this. Apparently, there is no need to install WP in a separate sub-directory. Some others may disagree.
#2 What if I have multiple sales/landing pages linking from multiple content pages that could point back to any of the landing pages. Can I create multiple static sales/landing pages that are pointed back via multiple content pages? If possible, do the same principles apply, or is something else necessary?
#1 I think that you are mistaken about the difference between permalinks and domain/subdomain structures and this has nothing to do regarding multiple WP installations within any selected domain structure. As I have discovered previously, it is possible and sometimes warranted to install two WordPress installations, one on the outside and another on the inside. (e.g. /mydomain.com, mydomain.com/blog).
The purpose of doing so would be to have two separate WP Blog environments, each distinct and each having different presentations. There would then be an outer WP Blog and thus an inner WP Blog. The two blogs would ideally complement each other and indirectly help each other. As per your prior feedback, this seems irrelevant as the Thesis theme is able to be configured for any particular page and not necessary to address any other pages.
You include further comments about permalinks, but do not elaborate enough for your readers to understand. Here is what you stated:
“This will display every post title as if it is in a subdirectory, when it really isnt”
I do not feel comfortable with such a statement, and if it “isn’t”, please tell us why; so bottom line is why bother with nested WP installation at all? It may be reasonable to ask and explain to others. Enquiring minds would like to know.
If I appear to be an annoying contributor please accept my apologies.
Nuff Said!
I am using Thesis Full-Width Framework and I would like to style my About Page differently by creating a colored border around my text and having a color background inside the border. How is that possible as every page uses the div class=”format_text” so if i use css to style one then it will apply to all. I see i can apply a new CSS Class Name in the wordpress page options but not sure what to do. Here is my code
Sherwin,
Just like you style over the default thesis code. You would style with the assigned class.
When you add a class it adds it to the body.
So if you wanted to style the “About U Text Goes Here” you would use the following. (Since your custom class added via the page panel in thesis is “about-us”)
Add this code to your custom.css file and it should do the trick.
WOW WOW WOW …. that is what i have to say. Thank you for the FAST reply to my question and it worked PERFECTLY. I have been trying to get this for 2 days now and finally i have it. Thank you man. THANK YOU.
I have one more question about that piece of code that you sent me. I did it and it worked but if i break up my big paragraph into 3 smaller paragraphs i will get a new border box around each paragraph text and it would look like 3 border boxes around my text. What i really want is for each answer to be in a separate border box so on the page i can have like say 6 questions and 6 answers each having their own box around it (same style of box). I hope i am making sense. Following is an example of what i am looking for …
Question 1 ….. Tell me about yourself
Answer …. border box from code above start here…. i am blah blah and i am a blogger.
new paragraph … blah blah blah blah.
new paragraph … blah blah blah blah.
border box ends here
Question 2
With the example above when i press enter to create a new paragraph to continue my answer i will get 3 separate border and boxes around my text. What can i do to solve that.
Sherwin, Glad I was able to help.
Sounds like you are editing via the visual editor. This is something you would need to do via the html editor. Change the [ and ] to < and >.
Your css would then be:
If you wanted them to be wrapped in the same box just wrap the box div around both question and answer.
I have to say it again …. WOW WOW WOW. Once again you were on the button with a fast response and a perfect solution. I really appreciate what you have done for me today. I sure am bookmarking your website as i am sure i can read some stuff and WILL learn something new all the time. Thanks Nicholas. If only i were as good as you !!!
I would like to have a small navmenu (not a collapsible menu) inside of my header to the left of my logo. I am keeping the thesis navmenu under my header which i am making it to collapse to show other options but i just can’t seem to figure out how to add the small menu to the header. Can you help me please? (I’m using Full-Width Framework if that will be important for your answer).
Sherwin, drop a link to your site and I’ll check it out. Not sure I understand what you are looking for.
My website is http://grabyouroffers.com
I would like to have just 4 button links (Home, Past Offers, Contact and About us) to the right side of the header area or right of logo. Now on the navbar under the header i will be putting in some nav links to categories like Electronics, Computers, etc and they will all have a drop down menu. My website will not really be a blog but more of an affiliate site.
Sherwin,
Here is some code that “should” work to do what you need it to. It will require extra css styling.
This hooks takes out the standard header and replaces it with a modified one. One that includes your links.
remove_action('thesis_hook_header','thesis_default_header'); function thesis_custom_header(){ ?> <div class="headerwrap"> <div class="navleft"><? thesis_default_header(); ?></div> <div class="navright"> <ul> <li>Link </li> <li>Link </li> <li>Link </li> <li>link </li> </ul> </div> </div> <? } add_action('thesis_hook_header', 'thesis_custom_header');You just need to drop the hook in your custom_functions.php folder.
The first 2 lines (the Hooks and function text) are showing up in my header and pushing my logo away but i will try some tweaking and see if i can figure it out. I know i need to style it to move it across but i will have to figure out why its showing up. I tried it using OpenHooks and Custom_Functions but got the same thing but i will tweak it some more. Thanks once more for your help as you have done a lot for me so far.
I would like to know how to insert the [gallery] with Thesis hooks. Any thoughts? If I try echo “[gallery]“; it just says, [gallery] on the page.
Hi Nicholas
Thesis looks great to me but I have a question…
If you buy the “developer option”, it says that you can use it on….. “Unlimited use of Thesis on sites that you own”.
Sites that you own are defined as….. “Sites that you own” are any sites where you are listed as the person (or business) who registered the domain.
When I set up sites for clients, I buy the domains and they are registered with me.
If I buy a “developer option” does that mean that I can use Thesis on all my clients sites or do I have to buy a license for each client?
Keith,
In the case you described you would have to have a client option for each site.
Once you buy the developer verison you can buy client options in 3 packages:
$40 – 1 License
$180 – 5 Licenses
$320 – 10 Licenses
Alternatively they could buy a individual license.
Thanks Nicholas
A great theme but it starts to get a bit expensive.