I literally just blew my site up and, as of this writing, am doing some live testing with the Generate theme on the Genesis framework.
As in, I’ve been using the same design for a couple of years and was ready for a change. The homepage for the old design was somewhat of a business design, and did not prominently feature my latest blog posts, and I wanted to change that.
The previous site was running on the Thesis framework, which I still think rocks, but as you read above, I’m now testing out the Generate theme on the Genesis framework. Genesis and Thesis are, without a doubt, the top two WordPress frameworks that exists.
Why?
Well, without getting all gobbledegook technical on you, let me say this:
- Both use stripped down code that doesn’t get in the way of search engines (this is the non tech explanation)
- The previous point also means sites on these two frameworks load faster than most
- Both have excellent support forums where you can get help
- Both development teams are always working to make their respective themes “better”
One thing Genesis has done that Thesis hasn’t, is created what’s called child themes. These are themes that basically sit on top of the framework and provide a design.
The current child theme I’m testing is called Generate. The theme uses a nice font, and font size, and most importantly, it has an opt-in box under the header on the homepage. This is great for generating email subscriptions and having people subscribe to get my email updates. If you haven’t subscribed, do so here.
Given that I have no clue what theme I’ll be using when you read this, here are some screen shots of the Generate theme.
This is the top of the Generate homepage – take note of the opt-in box at the top.
This is what a standard posts looks like on the homepage. I’ve set the posts so that the first few paragraphs show, but then you have to click “Continue reading” to read more. You’ll also notice that I’ve placed an affiliate banner for StudioPress and Scribe in the sidebar.
Once you click to continue reading, you end up on a standard post page. Take note that the Generate opt-in box goes away on this page.
As I previously mentioned, StudioPress has a ton of child themes, and if you run a WordPress site, I highly recommend you check them out. And hey, if you like the Generate theme by Studiopress and want to buy it, feel free to do so by clicking here to use my affiliate link.
I have some ideas to flush out in my head; once that’s done the result will eventually determine the design and purpose of this site.
