For all the RSS and Email subscribers, you may not have noticed, but this last weekend CPF underwent some pretty big changes. Most of them were on the backend and won’t be noticed by visitors (but will save me tons of time, energy, and frustration!), but the site clearly has a “new look” as well. Stop on by if you want to check it out.
I have about 5-6 more tweaks that I want to make, to improve functionality, usability, and navigation that I will hopefully be able to get figured out in the next week or so. If you see anything that you think could or should be changed, drop me a line and let me know. Also if you have any ideas for features or other things you would like to see, I would love to hear about it!
Switching my Wordpress Theme
Since people have been asking, I will explain the software changes (If you are not a blogger, this is probably boring to you, so I would move on to ESPN.com). 
For the last 2 years I have been using the Semiologic Wordpress Theme, which has been great. It allowed me to accomplish many things that I couldn’t do (since I am not a programmer by trade) in order to make the site more functional for users and more profitable. When I started using it, it was the best theme I could find anywhere for any price. It cost $300 a year and I was and still would be fine paying that, BUT I found something better.
I really didn’t think there was anything better out there, but I got to hand it to the DIYthemes team, they really created a masterpiece with the Thesis Theme. I have been trying it out on my other sites for the last few weeks and really have been blown away by it’s simplicity, beauty, ease of use, and best of all – it’s ability to future-proof itself. Right out of the box, it provides you with a very pretty looking site that is very easy to customize. It is SEO optimized very well, has a ton of support for it, and if you use it in conjunction with the OpenHook plugin you can easily customize it to oblivion if you want. The kicker is that you can buy it and get lifetime updates for a one-time payment of $87.
If you haven’t made any money with your blog yet, I don’t think I would run out and buy it. I would focus on using what you have until you start making a few bucks. But when you get to the point when you can reinvest some money into the blog to take it to the next level, I don’t know of a better $87 you could spend.
Other perks
The Thesis Theme does have an affiliate program, which was why I thought I was hearing about it so much, but just like a few other smart companies out there, they coupled a great product with an affiliate program to really get the word out. This seems to be the key to success, which is why I never recommend products I don’t believe in, no matter how great of an affiliate program they have. But on those occasions I come across a great product that I would recommend that has an affiliate program, it sounds like a win-win-win to me. With Thesis, this is pretty easy, because it is hands-down the best Wordpress Theme I have found.
A Video about Thesis
(Subscribers might have to visit the site to view it)
Thesis Wordpress Theme
by bluefoxmarketing
Questions?
I have been answering readers questions about Thesis the last few days, so if you have any others you can drop them in the comments below.
Related posts:
- Thesis Theme giveaway…
- How to make money with a blog
- Christian Finance
- The 23 best freeware programs for windows
- Free and Legal TV and Movies online
- Amazon Gift Card Giveaway
- iPod shuffle giveaway
- $40 survey for CPF readers
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
We just installed the Thesis theme on our blog, too. Working with it takes a little bit of adjustment, but it’s exciting. Congratulations on the sweet new design!
Looks great, Bob.
Thesis and openhooks rocks!!!
If anyone is interested in getting getting a blog started and up and running with Thesis, I would be happy to help them out. Just come contact me at my blog. We can negotiate pricing
Though for Bob’s readers I promise to make it economical. I will even install some of the best plug ins I know to make it even more SEO friendly.
It saves a ton of time and make life so easy. Plus the functionality of it allows a non programmer to make a lot of changes themselves. It has been the best investment I made in a long time.
I must say, that as someone who is new to the blogging world, I have spent a lot of time playing with the design of my site, only to be frustrated with some of the results. While I believe that it gets better with every try, it never seems quite there. I really like the way your site looks and may have to look into thesis. Thanks for the info!
Looks great, Bob. I’ve been using Thesis for over 6 months and I love it so far. I’m not too big on design, so I had help there. But I love the ease of use for everything else.
Hey, I like it! It looks clean, easy to see links and not cluttered at all.
Site looks good, thanks for sharing some details behind your switch.
Very nice – thanks for sharing about Thesis, looking forward to checking it out!
Bob,
The new theme looks great!