Have you ever tried to find a suitable and user-friendly theme for your WordPress blog or publishing platform?
As a blogger, publisher, platform entrepreneur or whatever you call this thing we do, you don’t want to spend your time on things outside creating, publishing and marketing content. And of course building relationships.
Spending a lot of time searching for a theme or fixing a problem will not help your blog to grow. It rather saps your energy and distracts you from doing what’s necessary.
Recently, I was talking on phone with a friend about setting up a blog platform with the right theme. We were discussing on how to find the right theme for a blog. Should you go for free theme? What should you look for when searching for a theme?
Our discussion reminded me how time consuming it can be with searching and finding a theme that meets your need.
You may find a theme that meets 65% of your need. What about the remaining 35%? You keep searching for the perfect match.
I once spent an entire week searching for a good free theme for my blog. That was around 2010. I got fed up and decided to end the madness and just pay for a premium theme.
With a little search, I picked a premium theme that works just fine for what I was looking for. It was a great theme, but not from popular theme developers.
After a couple of WordPress updates, the theme started developing compatibility issues.
This was another time wasting period. I decided to do a final theme research and settle for the best thing out there. I came across the two most popular and most robust WordPress theme frameworks – Thesis by DIYthemes and Genesis by Studiopress.
I must admit, making a decision between these two theme frameworks was no easy task. I read almost every blog post that compares both themes at that time.
Finally, I settled with Genesis theme. Before I tell you why I chose Genesis over every other WordPress theme out there, let me tell you about theme Frameworks – and why you should get one.
The difference and advantage of a theme Framework over a traditional WordPress theme
WordPress is dynamic; updated regularly. And every reliable theme development company updates their theme regularly to meet WordPress changing requirements.
With a traditional WordPress theme, all the changes or customisation you make within your theme will be lost once you update to a new version. You’ll have to start all over again.
A theme framework separates your actual visible theme from the main structure. You can customise your theme as much as you want, and no matter how many times you upgrade, your customization will remain intact. You only update the framework. The visible theme will remain as you want it.
As a former building construction engineer, I think of a theme framework as the skeletal structure of a building.
Once the structure is complete, how the building looks and feels in terms of colour, decoration, exterior and interior design, all depends on what the owner wants. If you decide to change the look and feel after some years, you can do that without touching the underlying structure of the building.
That is typically how a framework differentiates the secured and optimised structure of your platform (the parent theme) from the design, look and feel (the Child theme).
Without a framework, you are simply designing your blog/platform right inside the template (structure) – that is risky.
If long term does not mean anything to your business model, you probably don’t need a theme framework like Genesis. But if you intend to build a brand for long term, Genesis Framework by StudioPress is the tool.
7 reasons you should consider using Genesis Theme Framework for Your Blog or Website
- Genesis Framework has a great supporting Community
One of the reasons to embrace WordPress as the choice tool for building your online platform is the huge community of dedicated developers, designers and publishers/website owners.
With a massive community of users and fans, almost every question you have about Genesis is just a click away. The community is so large and active that some WordPress developers and designers build their business around Genesis Framework. There is a huge resource out there to answer any question you may have. StudioPress also provides easy to follow tutorials and guides to help you learn how to tinker with Genesis.
In addition it has a strong group of internet celebrities backing it including Matt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress), Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse etc. And it is owned by one of the most respected and successful bloggers – Brian Clark of CopyBlogger.
- Genesis Framework is Search Engine Optimized
Choosing the wrong WordPress theme can hurt your SEO – Search Engine Optimization. Genesis comes with built-in SEO features to help enhance your websites visibility in search engine. After putting a lot of work into your website, you want to make sure that you are ranking well in the search engines so that readers, customers and clients can find you.
Genesis offers clean optimized code, with smart design architecture to help you achieve the best ranking possible. The developers hired Greg Boser, one of the best SEOs in the industry to make sure Genesis is as SEO friendly as possible. Speed can make a difference between which website gets a higher preference from search engines. Genesis is built to make web pages load fast within seconds.
- Responsive Design
Typical developers will charge you a fortune for cross-platform website design – that is to make your blog respond to different devices and screen sizes like laptop, table, mobile and other devices. Genesis offers sleek professional designs that offers you an array of beautiful frames for your content on all devices using HTML5 technology.
HTML5 is a new code standard which will make your site compatible with future changes on the web. It enhance cross-browser compatibility and make your website naturally mobile friendly by being responsive.
- Enhanced Security
WordPress sites can be vulnerable to attacks and exploitation. Genesis was built with security experts like Mark Jacquith to make sure Genesis Framework has the best possible security.
- Instant update
The Genesis Framework has undergone several upgrades since creation. As WordPress continues to add new features, Genesis has grown and evolved with it. And because of the Parent/Child theme structure that the framework is built on, just like the building structure not interfering with the design, theme upgrades will never break your site.
- Genesis Framework reduces the time and cost of web development, design and customization and makes it much easier
Genesis offers features to make it simple to set up your platform exactly the way you want it. And if you change your mind later, you’re just a few clicks away from creating new sections and functions.
In addition it comes with powerful advanced custom widgets, hooks and layout features that make your website function the way you want it.
With the associated widgets, plugins and layout specifically for Genesis framework, building your blog/website on Genesis will save you more time and money in web development. As a result, you can focus much of your time on creating content and marketing your platform and business.
Unlike custom coded websites, other developers can easily pick up where another left off. This means that if you were ever to switch web developers, a new developer that is familiar with Genesis can jump right into the code and easily make updates without a long and costly learning curve
- Genesis Framework is User friendly
Can you imagine what it was like to build a website 8 years ago? Now you don’t have to waste time on building your online platform. You can concentrate on marketing, creating content, building relationships and growing your business. What more can you ask for?
In reality, 90% of web platforms built today could cut development time and cost by using a web building platform and framework like Genesis. The combination of WordPress and Genesis framework gives you amazing blogging and platform building experience.
I’ve been using Genesis Framework since 2012 for clients and my online platforms. And we’ve all been satisfied with so far.
To start using this powerful platform building tool, check out the Genesis Framework at Studiopress.
If you have questions about Genesis Framework, WordPress or platform building, I’ll be glad to answer them in the comment section below. Or you can contact me for personal discussions
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Thanks for the info. I could see that this blog uses Genesis. But can one place advert on this for making money? Once more, thanks.
Sure. You can place whatever you want on your blog
Good privilege.