There were many things that kept from starting this blog sooner – the choice of design, my lack of technical knowledge and choosing the right template that suits my taste. Thinking that a year ago, I did not even know what the difference is between “uploading” and “downloading, I’m proud to say that I did most of the customization of this layout – font, size, column, column orders, sidebars, widgets, spacing.
I am a dedicated researcher and an untiring student. I want to learn everything there is about a certain topic before starting my own project. Before starting this blog, I read a lot of books and browsed through different sites and blogs. Among the hundreds of blogs in the web that write about blogging and the SEO hype, I found Problogger and Copyblogger the most helpful. Among other things that I learned from these two sites about the best approach to blogging, I was directed to a site that provides templates with easy to follow steps for customization. It’s called the Wordpress THESIS template. No, it doesn’t require any HTML coding knowledge. So I decided to transfer my content from the (free) Wordpress template I was using to the THESIS template. The only downside: You have to pay for it. But read on, you will realize that the price of 87 dollars is nothing compared to the endless hours you will spend in trying to figure out how to alter the code just to change the font size of your header.
Here are the reasons why I transferred to THESIS:
1. It is easy to navigate.
As I’ve said, I am not a coder and I’m not interested in being one. This is one of the dealbreakers for me when choosing a template. The THESIS template has a pinpoint font controls where you just need to click on the options you have. You can choose the number of columns, column order, sidebars, widgets and many more – all with a single click.
2. It has a clean and uncluttered look with all the features that I want.
There are many nice free templates out there that you can choose from. But it is very difficult to find a template with all the settings that you want. I ended up choosing a two-column template with a nice header (I thought it’s wiser to spend more time in writing the content than customizing the header). The free template I chose had a very clean look but it was very difficult for me to change anything. I had to make a lot of compromises with the design so every time I look at my site, it’s hard not to wish for something better. The THESIS template offered me exactly what I needed. I have full control of the appearance of the site, making it easier for me to achieve that clean look that I’ve always wanted.
3. It offers good support services.
Even though the setup of the site was not that difficult as opposed to the previous template that I had, I still have a couple of questions that I wanted to ask. I logged in to the forum and got an answer in just a few hours. This is a service that I never had with my previous template. I am very keen on keeping my blog simple, uncluttered and most of all, reader friendly. In just a few hours after I installed the Thesis template, I achieved just that.
That said, I think for bloggers like me who do not know so much about CSS but wish to be able to customize the template on their own, you might want to check out the THESIS template. My husband and I got the developer’s license so we can use the template for multiple blogs. I’d say this is the best investment we’ve made so far for our sites.
Check out the video below or click here to go to their site:
