About 20 months ago I decided to take a risk and purchase the Genesis Premium WordPress Theme by StudioPress. I debated between Thesis and the Genesis Framework but in the end liked what they had to offer a little more. Since then I have used it for many of my blogs and have purchased two child themes. I went with the Pretty Young Thing Theme and the Prose Theme. I liked Pretty Young Thing because it was cute and that is what I wanted for the blog that I was using it on. I decided to go with Prose, which is what I am using for this blog, because it is the easiest one to work with. You can customize this one on the WordPress Dashboard.
Why would someone want to use a premium WordPress theme vs one of the free ones?
There is a really nice selection of free themes on the Internet. However, a premium theme offers a lot more. Genesis for example has many different plugins to make life a little easier. You can easily enter code to get things looking the way you want. There is just more to a premium theme and can help your blog grow a little faster. I also think it makes your blog look a little more professional. Usually when I have tried to find a good free theme I come up short and find myself a little frustrated.
Is Genesis as easy to use as they claim?
On the Genesis website it says, “GENESIS MAKES CUSTOMIZING YOUR SITE INCREDIBLY EASY.” I wanted to talk about this because it isn’t that simple. Genesis is a lot easier to change then doing all the coding yourself. And the Prose theme makes it even easier. I can very easily change my colors and fonts around. I can add widgets and change the layout. On the other hand I do know a little tiny bit about html and codes. If you don’t know anything about it, Genesis might be a little more difficult for you. It isn’t as easy as Blogger which I think sometimes people are looking for. You have to play around with it a bit, ask questions and might need to read some tutorials to really figure out how to get it the way that you want.
What about SEO?
SEO and unlimited everything are a few more reasons you might want to check out Genesis. All of the themes are fully search optimized. This is why I feel like I receive better traffic when I am using a Genesis theme. They also offer unlimited updates, unlimited support and best of all unlimited sites. You don’t have to just decid between a few, you can use it for every site. Buy a few different child themes and you can really customize each of your blogs the way that you want. I am thinking about purchasing a new child theme that would be better for my photography blog. They also have a great support system. You have access to a forum and are able to ask them any questions you might have.
What is a Child theme?
You might be wondering what a child theme is. Look at the Genesis Framework as the backbone of the theme and the child theme helps you customize things a little more. Each child theme is going to give you a little bit of a different look. You can take a look all of the StudioPress Themes for WordPress or go with the StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Package and purchase them all. You can also see previews of the different themes and how other people have used them. Another benefit to using a child theme is that you won’t have to redo everything every time Genesis does an update.
Pricing varies a bit depending on the child theme you want to use. You can purchase the Genesis Framework and Prose child theme for $84.95. I know when you are first starting out and not making a lot of money that might seem like a lot but I thought it was worth it. The Prose child theme by itself is cheaper but you need to have the Genesis framework already installed.
There are other choices when it comes to a premium design but I am really happy with Genesis. There is still more that I have to learn but I really am glad I went with them.
Do you use a premium theme?
Thank you Julie for this review! I’ve been wanting to buy a premium theme for awhile but have been intimidated due to my lack of knowledge regarding HTML and code, but I think I’m up for the challenge. You have confirmed to me that Gensis is easier to use than Thesis which is what I needed to know! Thanks again Julie.
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Great review Julie, thank you.
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Hey Julie, just wanted to give you an update. After installing Genesis I spent several days reading about hooks and theme mods and even began dabbling with some html. Once I felt a little comfortable i started uploading content to my new site. I had about 5 or 6 posts ready to go. To my surprise, the site was indexed within 2 days and I’m on page 2 of google for one of my main keywords! I’ve never had this happen with other themes. While I am still a little leary of trying to do too many mods, I have my site set like I want it and can concentrate on creating content. Thanks again for reccomending Genesis Julie, it is amazing!!!!
Hey Julie, I am a big fan of Genesis too thanks to its simplicity and flexibilities. I do know some coding skills, but it’s just enough to edit basic thing. I definitely can’t write a theme, but with Genesis, I can add some changes or just Google for the tutorial and apply on my blog. Pretty Easy and simple
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