Thesis Theme

Hi:

I really appreciate your quick response.

Thesis has been suggested by several bloggers especially partly because it’s design is very SEO friendly, which is something important in this business, and apparently it has other very attractive features. I am looking at this as a full-time profession, so investing in a theme is not a concern, although I would not want to spend thousands of dollars hiring a web designer initially. I do want to make sure that functionality is not the only thing Thesis offers. Form is important, and wouldn’t want to use a theme that is not attractive to the reader. The Weaver II theme you suggest appears acceptable, but being somewhat technically challenged, I can’t visualize the variety of possibilities with the theme. Do you know of any users I might be able to look at that might open my eyes to the possibilities?

I cannot answer your question about the specific functionality I’m looking for because I’m fairly ignorant about all this, but I do want my customers and readers to have a delightful visual experience, as well as a user-friendly one, and if Thesis provides that, then that’s probably the best choice for me, short of custom design. Where can I learn about what Weaver II offers that Thesis doesn’t?

What are your thoughts on any of the above?

I appreciate the Thesis link you sent, and will definitely study it carefully. Once again, I do appreciate your time and prompt response.

Alex.

Hi:

Once again, thank you for your quick response.

So, in the spirit of some comic relief, I’m beginning to feel like a deer caught in the headlights AND in a snowstorm as I read your very helpful response.

Trying to decide on a theme is a truly becoming an overwhelming experience, especially for someone like me who knows absolutely nothing about this. Let me give you an example: I read a couple of reviews of Genesis (which seems to be highly regarded) but some of the criticism is that it’s deficient in tabs, toggles, retina support, testimonial sliders, etc., all of which might as well be written in Chinese, for I have to now research this terminology to understand why not having these capabilities will negatively impact my site.

Please correct me if I’m wrong about the following: for example, you state that ‘Thesis is fairly bland coming out of the box’, and requires a good bit of customization (which, by the way, is not a problem, for I’m pretty persistent and intense when it comes to learning anything, so learning how to make changes on either Thesis, Genesis or Weaver could take me a couple of minutes but I will figure it out). However, if we are talking about having to write code in order to do some customization, I just simply don’t have that kind of skill, and if as you say I will probably require the assistance of a designer to customize any of these three themes, then how is it that they advertise these products as “do it yourself”, and not requiring additional expense or a professional touch to achieve at least some of what you want? There’s an awful amount of detail I’m not sure how to approach. For example, you state that some themes require “big images to work properly”, how do I determine that from reading the details of any particular theme? In response to your question, yes there are some themes I liked in wordpress, but I was inspired and influenced by the Thesis description I was given, and quite frankly by the client support offered when purchasing a theme, rather than using a free one. At least some support is important to me from time to time, and will be a constant visitor with questions in the forums.

In my limited experience with this subject, it seems like it could potentially take months (at least for someone like me) to select from just a few themes after doing careful analysis, never mind doing an in depth study of many themes to decide which is the best for me. There seems to be an ocean of details to consider: plug ins, coding, etc. So, after these very valuable exchanges with you, I’m finding myself with three choices in the interest of time: Thesis, Genesis and Weaver. The question now is which one do I select if I narrow it down to these three choices? I don’t care about the cost of the theme. I don’t care how much time I have to spend learning how to customize, but if after all that time spent there is the potential of having to hire a designer because it’s just not really possible to “do it yourself” then we enter the zone of serious expense paying a developer by the hour.

It seems like the challenge at this point for me is determining which of these three is the less likely to lead me to pulling out the little hair I have left on my head in the process of learning…in order to avoid a huge bill from a developer. Keep in mind as I said earlier that I’m pretty tenacious and resourceful. I don’t drown easily. I just don’t want to step into deeper waters under the impression given by these theme developers that they are a fairly uncomplicated solutions to what appears to be a very, seriously complex endeavor no matter how easily they attempt to make it for the ignorant user like myself.

You give me a great deal to think about, and look forward to your response. You have been very helpful, and once again I thank you for your patience, time and very sound advice. I will be looking into meet-ups. Very good suggestion.

Sincerely,

Alex.