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5 Cool Thesis Customizations for Your New WordPress Website

By on October 3, 2011

Got a fresh install of WordPress and Thesis?

Don’t know what to do next?

We can help!

WordPress and Thesis are a match made in heaven, and when you figure out how to fine tune your Thesis theme, you’ll have a website that not only runs great, but looks amazing as well. This is at the top of the list for the best WordPress themes available.

Since Thesis looks rather unimpressive out of the box, we’re going to give you 5 simple, yet powerful thesis customizations that you can implement right away.

Let’s get started.

Thesis Customization #1: Change the colors.

Thesis Customization

Customize it!

Now this might not sound like an amazingly cool thesis customization, but it’ll immediately breathe life into your site and help you start building your brand right away.

So, if you haven’t done so already, you’ll need to select a color scheme that you want to use with your site. And the best tool to help you do that is, COLOURlovers.

Once there, just go to, “Browse” and then select, “Palettes”. Then look at the, “Most Loved” or, “Most Favorites” and you’ll easily fall in love with something there.

In order to make the Thesis customization, just go to, “Thesis”, and then, “Design Options”, and finally, “Fonts, Colors, And More!” There you can change the background colors, and text colors.

Thesis Customization #2: Change the layout.

Again, I know this isn’t revolutionary stuff here, but it will make a huge difference in the way your site looks.

It will also affect how your visitors interact with your content; which can determine whether or not they find what they’re looking and how long they stay on your site.

So to change your layout, just head over to, “Thesis”, “Design Options”, “Site Layout”, and do the following.

  • The number of columns.
    I recommend that you keep it simple and limit yourself to two columns. It’s important to eliminate distractions and only keep what adds value to the page.
  • The width of the columns.
    You’ll have to decide on a width that suits your needs. Just don’t make your content column too wide as it’ll create long sentences, which are hard to read.
  • The order of the columns.
    Since we read from left to right, put the most important stuff–your content–on the left, and the less important stuff–your sidebar–on the right.

I also like to add an extra navigation menu to the footer in Thesis.

Thesis Customization #3: Create a custom header with your logo.

You could stick with the default text header that Thesis creates for you… but that’s boring and doesn’t make an impression on your visitors.

What you want is something that adds some style and screams your brand at the same time. You can do this by creating and uploading a custom header image for your next cool Thesis customization.

So bust out Photoshop, or even Paint if you have to, and make that branded header image. You don’t need any fancy graphics. Just create a simple text-based logo with a cool font. or try Logonerds for $27. Just make sure to incorporate colors from the palette you chose earlier, and you’re on your way.

Thesis makes it extremely easy to insert your newly designed header by giving you a place to upload it. All you need to do is go to, “Thesis”, “Header Image”, and click on the, “Browse” button to select your custom header file. Heck, Thesis even tells you the optimum size that the header image should be, before you upload it.

thesis customization

Thesis Customization #4: Remove the Thesis attribution link.

Okay, sorry Thesis. We like you and everything, but we just can’t have you moving in on our branding action. So, we’re going to have to say, “Audios” to that Thesis attribution link in the footer.

But wait… is it okay to do that, and how exactly do you remove it?

Well, first, make sure you have a developer’s license. Once you’ve confirmed that, just follow these steps:

  1. Go to, “Thesis”, “Custom File Editor”.
  2. Select, “custom_functions.php” from the dropdown menu.
  3. Click the “Edit Selected File” button.
  4. Scroll down to the bottom of the file window.
  5. Add the following line:  remove_action(‘thesis_hook_footer’, ‘thesis_attribution’);
  6. Then click the, “Big Ass Save Button”.

That’s it for this Thesis customization!

thesis customization

Thesis Customization #5: Install the Thesis OpenHook plugin.

The way I see it, with 33 reviews and 5 stars, I had to at least check it out.

What the Thesis OpenHook Plugin promises to do is eliminate the need to open and edit your custom_functions.php file. (Which we just did in #4. Man, what a pain.)

And boy does it ever deliver on that promise.

In fact, if you had already had the Thesis OpenHook Plugin installed, you could have done the #4. Thesis customization by just scrolling down to the, “Footer” hook, and checking the box that says, “Remove Thesis Attribution”.

See how easy that would have been… install it, activate it, and start loving your life with Thesis!

Bonus Thesis Customization: Put a newsletter signup form in the Multimedia Box.

I knew there was a good use for the Thesis Multimedia Box, I just couldn’t decide exactly what to do with it… until a few days ago.

I finally figured out how to integrate a newsletter signup form that I had created with my mailing list service provider, MailChimp.

Here’s the quick and dirty on how to do that:

  1. Create a free account with MailChimp.
  2. Create a new list and form with MailChimp.
  3. Grab the code for the form from MailChimp.
  4. Paste it into the Thesis Hook for Multimedia Box (using Thesis OpenHook).

Done!

If you suffer from OCD, like me, you may have to fiddle around with the CSS to get it just how you like it. But otherwise, it’s a simple way to have a newsletter form showing up on every page of your site.

In Conclusion

As promised, we’ve looked at 5 cool Thesis customizations (and one bonus one) that will get you started with creating a website that not only looks amazing but is extremely functional as well. I fully recommend you keep this Thesis theme in your premium themes toolbox.

No doubt, there are many more that you could do, but be careful to not get too wrapped up in getting everything perfect before you start adding content. You can make other customizations as you go along.

Most important of all, always remember to… keep it SIMPLE!

If you have any questions about a specific Thesis customization that I’ve written about here, or another that you’re trying to use, please ask in the comments below.

And my final question to you is…

Which Thesis customization are you going to implement first on your new WordPress website?

Photo by: Elsie esq.

About Todd

101 Comments

  1. document assembly

    April 16, 2012 at 8:27 pm

    I think your new logo looks great, and it sounds like you’re satisfied with their service too.

    Reply

  2. Prakash

    March 23, 2012 at 4:20 pm

    This is nice customization procedure. it really very useful. I uses thesis one of my blogs.
    thanks for sharing it……….
    Prakash recently posted..Simsimi: chat with simsimi by your devices iPhone, iPad and Android

    Reply

  3. Koffein

    December 28, 2011 at 3:34 am

    Congratulations Todd,
    the thesis seems very popular. I keep changing my theme in the hopes to find something that runs much faster.

    Reply

  4. Pascal

    December 5, 2011 at 11:25 pm

    Nice Thesis Customization tips. I wonder how I missed this post to see. Just I was in Google and found this one. Todd, You have done a good job here.

    Reply

  5. Cary

    December 3, 2011 at 3:17 pm

    Thesis continues to be one of my favorite all-time premium themes for WP. It’s pretty impressive the number of highly popular sites I continue to see that are powered by Thesis (even after all these years). It goes to show what making ONE really good product can do for you!
    Cary recently posted..Alternate WordPress Theme (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      December 6, 2011 at 2:27 pm

      Hi Cary!

      I have to agree with you. I’ve tried a number of premium themes, and I always come back to Thesis for its power and simplicity. I love it for those two things and have yet to find a replacement.

      Thanks for commenting here!

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..The Simple Way To Create Beautiful CSS Buttons For Free (dofollow)

      Reply

  6. ruku

    November 23, 2011 at 2:50 pm

    I created one of my WordPress site using thesis theme, so I found your five tips very important for easy customization. Another good area of thesis theme is that we can create header widget as well along with sidebar by just placing some code in custom file editor. Thank you for your nice post.
    ruku recently posted..SEO Schweiz (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      December 6, 2011 at 2:30 pm

      Hi Ruku!

      I’m glad to hear that you used Thesis on your site and were able to use some of the tips that I discussed here.

      Thanks for the added tip. I’ll have to give that a try some time.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..The 10 Best WordPress Plugins EVERY Website Should Have (dofollow)

      Reply

  7. Frances

    November 16, 2011 at 5:13 am

    Using Thesis theme in word press, is their an easy way to install a recent video roll so people can see all the videos you have done….

    Reply

    • Todd

      November 17, 2011 at 8:34 am

      Hi Frances!

      I don’t know of a plugin that will create a video roll for you. I’ve used the oQey Gallery plugin for pictures, and they’re supposed to be coming out with a video version of it.

      I’ll keep my eye open for something for video, and leave an update here if I find one.
      Todd recently posted..How To Install WordPress Plugins The Easy Way (dofollow)

      Reply

  8. Taba Rama

    November 15, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    @Todd, i have been visiting the Thesis Sites in looking for themes but as you know they don’t have the themes gallery to show, this makes me feel doubt ( doubt on whether i will get the one m looking for it )
    I want an Magazine themes bit similar to Arras theme ( since it isn’t available in wordpress.org theme anymore )..
    Any suggestion..? will i get it..?
    Taba Rama recently posted..Funny Jokes, The Indian Couple (dofollow)

    Reply

  9. Mary Frumkin

    November 3, 2011 at 3:21 pm

    Even though I’m not using Thesis, I found your article really inspiring. I’m fairly new to WordPress, and not too happy with the mostly boring look of WordPress blogs. Now I’m going to do all the tweaking I can to make my sites look more interesting. Maybe I’ll even use Thesis on my next blog, and follow your advice!
    Mary Frumkin recently posted..Ebook Writing Essentials (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      November 4, 2011 at 12:50 am

      Hi Mary!

      Thanks for taking the time to comment. I’m glad that you were able to get some ideas for your own site and wish you luck with implementing them.

      The key is to not be afraid to experiment, especially when creating websites. Try something, and if it doesn’t work out, you can easily change it back or try something else.

      Some of the things we talked about here (mainly the first 3 points) don’t even require Thesis, and can be done with almost any theme.
      Todd recently posted..How To Install WordPress Plugins The Easy Way (dofollow)

      Reply

  10. terry

    October 31, 2011 at 11:22 pm

    Those really are pretty cool costumization! nice job!
    terry recently posted..Tactics and Fencing’s Tactical Wheel (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      November 1, 2011 at 1:38 am

      Hi Terry!

      Thanks, I’m happy to hear you liked them. I tried to keep them simple, yet effective. So hopefully people will give them a try. Let us know if you use any of them.

      Todd

      Reply

  11. joe

    October 29, 2011 at 12:20 am

    Well the thesis theme seems like a wonderful option and I think other bloggers are also looking into changing theirs to this one.. Pretty up to date post and very useful for me as well.. thanks for sharing this with us.
    joe recently posted..Muscle Massage Tools updated Tue Sep 20 2011 11:00 am CDT (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      November 1, 2011 at 1:36 am

      Hi Joe!

      I’m glad you liked it and found it useful.

      Thesis is a pretty amazing theme. As I mentioned in the comments above, it takes a little time to figure out where to change everything. But the interface is really intuitive, and overall, you have complete flexibility and control. And that’s what I look for in a theme.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Todd

      Reply

  12. Mary

    October 19, 2011 at 10:21 pm

    The good thing with customizing your own thesis is for you to create a design based on what you need and your taste as well. Personal, what I like most among the above tip is creating a custom header with your logo. Not all actually care of having their own logo but for visitors like me, it’s much more appealing to see a logo so that I can easily recognized the site.
    Mary recently posted..How To Choose A Good Anti-Aging Skin Cream (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 20, 2011 at 4:35 pm

      Hi Mary!

      I’d have to agree with you about creating a custom header. It’s one of the first things that people see on every page, and can make a huge impact on your branding efforts.

      Thanks for reading and commenting.

      Todd

      Reply

      • Mary

        October 22, 2011 at 1:56 pm

        Yup! Based from my experienced, I can remember most of the blogs I used to visit with their headers and logos. I seldom recall the title of the blog itself because most of the time, some blogs sound like the other blogs. SO having a eye catching header and logo is the best choice!
        Mary recently posted..Causes And Symptoms Of Aging (dofollow)

        Reply

  13. Monica

    October 14, 2011 at 2:10 am

    Timely article for me, as I am planning to create a new blog and I will be using Thesis. Reading all the responses has given me some great tips to follow, and because it will be a blog geared towards crafts/art and not a business blog, I’m looking forward to being more creative with the design. Thanks for the information!
    Monica recently posted..Occupy Wall Street – Righteous Revolution or Revoltingly Right? (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 15, 2011 at 5:29 am

      Hi Monica!

      I’m glad you were able to get some tips from this article and the comment section too.

      Your blog that you have right now looks great! Let us know when you get your new blog up. It sounds like a fun project. I’d love to see it when you’re done.

      Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Facebook, Friends, And The Power Of “Like” Marketing (dofollow)

      Reply

  14. Ricardus

    October 12, 2011 at 11:55 pm

    I think these options are great.Hope I can experiment with it. I find that Elegant Themes load slight slow but definitely i think the cheaper among all other premium themes out there
    Ricardus recently posted..Oktoberfest with 50% off for Freedom Plan (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 15, 2011 at 5:25 am

      Hi Ricardus!

      I’m glad you like them and hope you’ll give them a try on you blog.

      I don’t have any experience with Elegant Themes. Maybe I’ll have to check them out, as they sound like a good alternative.

      Thanks for commenting!

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Facebook, Friends, And The Power Of “Like” Marketing (dofollow)

      Reply

      • mitz

        October 15, 2011 at 9:20 am

        Hey guys I use thesis and Elegant themes! They both are top themes in their own way! :)

        Reply

  15. FB covers

    October 11, 2011 at 6:56 am

    Thnxx mate, but one thing is that i dont have any experince about coding. can i try thesis ??
    FB covers recently posted..Logout Funny Facebook cover (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 11, 2011 at 3:32 pm

      I’d have to agree with Mitz. No matter which theme you pick, there’s going to be a learning period involved. With Thesis, you can make a great looking site without having to get into the code at all.

      You will, however, need to learn where everything is, and what can be changed. Thesis has great documentation for this and a very supportive online forum as well.
      Todd recently posted..Facebook, Friends, And The Power Of “Like” Marketing (dofollow)

      Reply

    • mitz

      October 11, 2011 at 3:17 pm

      Not many people know about coding but seem to pick it up…Thesis provides a shell and then the website (DIYthemes) provides tutorials for every step. It basically gives you code to paste into a file and that is how everything is changed.

      Reply

  16. Toby

    October 7, 2011 at 9:42 pm

    Thanks for the guide, will try some things out :)

    Reply

  17. Edward Culligan

    October 7, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    Hi Todd,
    The Thesis seems very popular. I keep changing my theme in the hopes to find something that runs much faster. Right now my blog is running slow and I know I am loosing Customers. Nice post.
    Edward Culligan recently posted..Debt Relief – How to Improve Your Credit (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 7, 2011 at 2:18 pm

      Hi there Edward!

      I just visited your blog and it seemed to load a little slow, but not too bad. Changing themes may help with load times, but I’m not sure if that will fully resolve the issue in your case.

      If you’re still having problems with it loading, you might look into changing your hosting provider. I’ve had to do that before, but once I found HostGator, I’ve been very happy.

      I know that Mitz recommends them as well. The only problem is that it’s a lot of work to move everything.

      Thanks for your comment! Let me know if you have any other questions.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

      • Edward

        October 7, 2011 at 2:21 pm

        Thanks for the quick reply Todd. I am actually using Hostgator and glad you recommended them. It must be a problem with perhaps some of the plugins I am using. Hopefully I can figure it out soon.
        Edward recently posted..Debt Relief – How to Improve Your Credit (dofollow)

        Reply

        • Todd

          October 8, 2011 at 1:55 pm

          Hey Edward. That’s good to hear your using Hostgator.

          I tried your site again, and it seemed to load just fine from here. I have a pretty consistent 1.5Mbps connection, which isn’t that fast. So I’d say your site isn’t that slow.

          You might try doing a speed test on your local connection. Here’s a good one that I use from time to time: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

          It may have something to do with the plugins as well. You might want to look into a caching plugin if you’re not using one already.
          Todd recently posted..My Big Mistake And How You Can Learn From It (dofollow)

          Reply

  18. Alison Barrows

    October 6, 2011 at 10:43 pm

    Hi Todd,

    I have just finished removing the thesis attribution link, as per your guidelines above. Sweet! Thanks a lot,

    Alison
    Alison Barrows recently posted..Sea Salt Colon Cleanse (dofollow)

    Reply

  19. Michael

    October 6, 2011 at 10:33 pm

    Thanks for sharing the http://www.colourlovers.com/ resource. I’m using Thesis on my blog and I was planning on experimenting with colors a bit :)
    Michael recently posted..Florida Auto Insurance Requirements (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 7, 2011 at 2:05 pm

      Hi Michael!

      I have to admit that I learned the COLOURlovers tip from someone else. Prior to that, I had a really hard time deciding on color schemes for my websites. Now it’s so much easier.

      I’m sure you’ll find some amazing palettes there. Don’t be afraid to change them a little too.

      Nice, simple looking blog, by the way. Have fun playing around with your colors.

      Thanks for reading and commenting.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

  20. Zumara Chohan

    October 6, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    Nice brief tutorial, and thanks for the tips, i agree with you on all points, and i like the most important tip to keep the things simple, n i am also using the Thesis OpenHook plugin it is a great plugin to customize the thesis theme. Keep sharing such helpful tutorial, i hope i will learn alot from it…
    Zumara Chohan recently posted..World’s Cheapest tablet in India Price 35$ (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 7, 2011 at 1:58 pm

      Hey Zumara!

      I’m glad to hear that you’re using Thesis and have already been making use of Thesis OpenHook. It sure makes life easier, doesn’t it?

      Your website looks great! Nice and simple just like you said.

      Thanks for stopping by to read and comment.

      Todd

      Reply

  21. Jean-Luc

    October 5, 2011 at 11:57 pm

    yep thesis is great ^^
    studiopress too ^^
    i use expose theme child and it’s great
    Jean-Luc recently posted..Comment Etre Heureux (dofollow)

    Reply

  22. Ryan

    October 5, 2011 at 9:16 am

    Thanks for the response, Todd. Just subscribed to your rss feed.
    Ryan recently posted..Student Loan Forgiveness – Keeper or Crap? (dofollow)

    Reply

  23. Glen

    October 5, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    Haha. Really? We can remove that footer link over there? I’ve been looking into recreating Thesis for our free WP themes, but it seems like it’s a lot of work at first glance. After reading this, I may need to look at it again. Thanks.

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 6, 2011 at 2:09 pm

      Hey Glen!

      Yep, as long as you have the developer’s license, you can remove it. And there are a lot of other customizations that are quite simple with Thesis. Maybe I’ll have to do another “Thesis Customizations” post.

      Thanks for your thoughts. Let us know how Thesis works out for you if you use it.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

  24. Jonny

    October 4, 2011 at 9:43 pm

    Thesis Best Theme for wordpress! A lot of settings you can alter it almost beyond recognition

    Reply

  25. DiTesco

    October 5, 2011 at 5:16 am

    Cool! I use Thesis myself and these tips are definitely interesting. I particularly like the “open hook” plugin as it saves me a lot of time and also it is great for not so tech savvy guys like me :) The one thing I have not yet done is to put the optin form in the MM ox. I have it disabled for now, but will maybe give it a test drive on my other site. Thanks!
    DiTesco recently posted..6 Reasons Why Your Blog Should Be CommentLuv Premium Enabled (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 5, 2011 at 2:56 pm

      Hey Francisco!

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      I’m glad to hear that the Thesis OpenHook Plugin will be of use to you. It’s saved me a lot of time and headaches in the past, since I’m not very tech savvy myself.

      When you go to put your newsletter code in the Multimedia Box, I said to use the OpenHook field, but you can also put under, “Thesis”, “Design Options”, “Multimedia Box”.

      Just select “Custom Code” from the dropdown menu and a box will appear where you can paste the code. It’s just another option.

      I really enjoyed your post about CommentLuv Premium. I’ll have to do a bit more reading on your site.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

  26. Annie

    October 5, 2011 at 3:17 am

    I think having a well-designed header is key, but I may be biased. Plain text headers don’t portray much authority or look very savvy, and that header is the first impression.

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 5, 2011 at 2:11 pm

      Hi Annie!

      Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!

      I agree that the header is a very critical element of your website design. It says a lot about how professional you are and should appeal to your target audience.

      I really think that a text header can look very professional and the overall design and content can contribute to that feeling as well.

      I also think that text headers will suite some audiences better than others. For example, if you’re a company that’s trying to sell a product or service, you may want to have a logo designed.

      Here are a few examples where I think a just a plain text header works quite well:

      http://www.ErikPettee.com – Photography
      http://www.CopyBlogger.com – Blogging
      http://www.SixRevisions.com – Web Development

      I’d love to hear your thoughts on these sites.

      Thanks again for contributing.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

      • Annie

        October 8, 2011 at 1:25 am

        Good point. Touche! Erik’s is particularly nice and yet simple. I was thinking more of designs where it’s very obviously just text plugged into a theme and very primitive looking, if that makes sense.

        Reply

        • Todd

          October 8, 2011 at 1:47 pm

          Hey Annie! Thanks for taking the time to respond again.

          Erik is my brother who is a web designer and aspiring photographer. His was one of the first that came to mind and I wanted to use it because it was a good example of an artist’s website.

          I know what you mean about the plain text headers, like the ones that are generated by WordPress. I would never recommend using something like that. Just a nice, simple text header created in Photoshop.

          I really like your site. It looks like you guys do some really nice work there.

          Todd
          Todd recently posted..My Big Mistake And How You Can Learn From It (dofollow)

          Reply

  27. Ryan

    October 4, 2011 at 3:35 pm

    Great post. I knew about some of these things but the Open Hook plugin was new to me. I just installed it and I’m sure it will save me a lot of time. Thanks!
    Ryan recently posted..Student Loan Forgiveness – Keeper or Crap? (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 5, 2011 at 4:15 am

      Hey Ryan!

      Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!

      I’m glad to hear that you’ll be installing Thesis OpenHook. It may not become immediately useful, but as you go along, you’ll find that it comes in handy more and more.

      I love the plugin and it’s always the first one I install after activating my Thesis theme.

      I like the topic of your blog. I wish I had access to that kind of information when I was going through school.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

  28. Aaron

    October 4, 2011 at 9:05 pm

    That’s why I trying to learn more about wordpress and its customization, I know it’s very easy and simple but unless there is expert with you who can answer your query you can’t learn it more thoroughly.
    Aaron recently posted..Goa Carnival 2012 (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 5, 2011 at 4:25 am

      Hi Aaron!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Yes, WordPress can be a bit difficult to understand and put to use in the beginning. Just stick with it, because it’s the best content publishing platform for those without much technical experience.

      You’ll get the hang of it with time. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

      • Aaron

        October 5, 2011 at 3:10 pm

        Thanks for your support Todd!! I’ll keep visit here to learn more.
        Aaron recently posted..Goa Carnival 2012 (dofollow)

        Reply

  29. Albert

    October 4, 2011 at 8:02 am

    Amazing article Todd….I’ve saved it as pdf:
    I’m going to buy Thesis before year ends,so I will read your guide again and again!
    Thank you so much
    Albert recently posted..Social Networking Websites – Business Tips (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 4, 2011 at 4:16 pm

      Hey Albert!

      Thanks so much for the compliment.

      I’m glad to hear that you’re planning to give Thesis a try. I’m sure that you’ll have a great experience with it and I look forward to seeing your site when it’s done.

      Keep us updated and let me know if you have any questions.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

  30. Rob

    October 4, 2011 at 4:40 pm

    Hi Todd!
    That’s a very nice guide you wrote. I’ve been looking at Thesis for quite a time but didn’t decide to use. Now I think it’s high time to correct this mistake)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 5, 2011 at 4:21 am

      Hi Rob!

      Thanks for reading and commenting here! I’m glad you liked it.

      Great to hear that you’ll be taking the leap to Thesis. I know it took me a while too, but once I did, I wondered why I put it off for so long.

      I hope you find it easy to work with, and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me or anyone else in the community here.

      Have fun customizing your new theme! Let us know when you it’s done.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

  31. Sam

    October 4, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    Thanks for your indepth core knowledge of wordpress designing.I love thesis theme and with this customization it will be really awesome. I recently read in mashable that there was some legal battled between thesis owner and wordpress owner. Can you write a post about that? I never understood that,
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    Reply

    • Todd

      October 4, 2011 at 4:37 pm

      Hi Sam!

      Thanks for your kind words.

      I’m still a student of WordPress and Thesis, but I’m happy to share what little I know and glad to hear that you’ll be able to make use of some of the customizations.

      It seems that the creators of WordPress and Thesis were clashing over the suspected misuse of the GPL licensing that WordPress is released under. This was back in 2010, and it seems that they came to some kind of agreement on licensing terms.

      I haven’t head any news on this lately, so I think things may have cooled down and no legal action has been initiated, as far as I know.

      Thanks for taking the time to comment. Let me know if there’s anything I can help with.

      Todd
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      Reply

  32. vhein

    October 4, 2011 at 12:05 pm

    Thanks for guide in this plugin. Looking forward to try this next week but I would take some advises first. I’m just a bit curious of how would this affect my design. Does this thesis work on you just fine? What are your readers feedback?

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 4, 2011 at 4:23 pm

      Hi Vhein!

      Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I’m glad you liked it!

      I’ve used Thesis on several blogs and I’ve always been very pleased with the results. It always gets a positive response from my readers as well.

      Let me know if you have any other questions.

      Todd
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      Reply

  33. Natasha

    October 4, 2011 at 2:05 am

    I had no idea how to change the the attribution link until now. Thanks for the great post, very useful!

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 4, 2011 at 3:37 pm

      Hi Natasha!

      I’m glad you found the attribution link removal useful.

      That’s one I had to search for when i wanted to do it myself. But it was well documented and easy to remove, especially with the Thesis OpenHook Plugin.

      Have fun removing that unsightly thing :) , and let me know if you have any questions.

      Todd
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      Reply

  34. Mark

    October 3, 2011 at 6:58 pm

    Great article. I had problems customizing a thesis theme a while ago so this helps me out quite a bit
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    Reply

    • Todd

      October 4, 2011 at 3:37 am

      Hey Mark!

      Thanks for reading and I really hope that you can utilize them!

      Just don’t underestimate the effect that a great color palette and custom fonts can have on your brand and overall look of your website.

      For the longest time, I kept trying to find an a theme that looked amazing “out of the box”. Well, in my experience, there is no such theme out there.

      You can read my response to Paul above where I talk about this in a little more detail, but I feel that Thesis allows me to easily customize and create something on my own that looks great.

      And I’m sure you’ll be able to do the same with a little practice. :)

      Please feel free to contact me with any questions that you might have.

      Keep at it, Mark!

      Todd
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      Reply

    • mitz

      October 3, 2011 at 9:55 pm

      Hi Mark
      Todd has done a great job here..I am collecting Thesis customizations…I love them! :)

      Reply

  35. Ted

    October 4, 2011 at 1:05 am

    Todd,

    I realize that Thesis is among the most popular WordPress Theme out there. I always thought that the main reason for it was because of the potential affiliate coin that a person can make while promoting it.

    For years I never purchased a theme. I always took the cheap route and opted for a free theme that I would then hack however I want to in order to get the look and functionality that I desired. This past year I bought my first paid theme that cost me like $75 for a developer license. The theme (like Thesis) was marketed as easily configurable even for a WordPress noob. It sounded appealing to me even though I am not a WP noob. I was thinking that I would be able to bang out a few sites really quick that actually looked more professional due to the easily configured blog theme.

    To my dismay, instead of being a simple configuration, it looked like I was going to have to learn a whole new language of programming in shortcodes instead of PHP. Having spent several years hacking away at PHP I have gotten pretty good at it.

    Without dragging this comment out any farther than I already have, if someone were to use the Thesis them and the customization that you talk about here, how easy is it really going to be to implement them? Are they going to have to learn the Thesis way of doing it? Do you think an experienced WordPress theme hacker would prefer the Thesis way or would they more likely want to keep just modifying the theme files individually according to their own likes?
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    Reply

    • Todd

      October 4, 2011 at 3:20 pm

      Hi Ted!

      Thanks for reading and asking a very pertinent and succinct question! I thinks it’s a very important one to answer, so I’ll do my best to give any insights that might be helpful.

      I fully understand (or at least I think I do, based on what you wrote), how you feel about purchasing a premium theme and then having to learn how to use it. I used to feel the exact same way myself.

      Every theme that I’ve tried, whether free or paid, has had some oddity to it that made it too frustrating to attempt to learn. All I wanted was a “point-and-click”, “drag-and-drop” theme that gave me control over the major elements and functionality of the site, and at the same time provided a clean and simple design to start working with.

      Well, to make a long story short, I finally found all of that in Thesis.

      Now that’s not to say that there wasn’t a learning curve involved with Thesis. I did have to learn where to make all of the changes I wanted, but I found everything to be quite intuitive and easy to add my own customizations without getting into any code. Thesis also has excellent documentation and support, which really helped out when I had a question that I couldn’t figure out on my own.

      And here’s a little more information on why I think Thesis is such a professional, straightforward theme…

      Thesis is developed by a genius (in my opinion) developer that really knows what he’s doing. Chris Pearson, has created something that functions efficiently behind the curtains (SEO, page load times, etc.); and is based on sound design and usability standards up front (layout, navigation, etc.).

      He’s built many features into Thesis that most users will never know are there, but which make it easier to customize while at the same time improve site performance. From the ground up, he’s built Thesis with hooks, which allow for, expanded features to be added on his end, and greater flexibility with customizations on the user’s end.

      You may or may not care about all of that stuff, but what it produces is a theme that is powerful, efficient and intuitive. I’ve learned to use Thesis just by using it and consulting the documentation a few times when I got stuck.

      There may be other great themes out there that can provide these same benefits, and many more, but I didn’t find one before I started using Thesis, and I didn’t need to continue looking after I started using Thesis.

      These are just my personal experiences and opinions and they will probably be different for each person. So the best advice I can give is to give it a try on a test installation for 30 days, and if it doesn’t work out, ask for a refund.

      Hope that helps out. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

  36. Zhyra Bonete

    October 3, 2011 at 8:40 pm

    I always look for thesis wordpress theme for customizations, formerly knew as Thesis hooks. I think this will help many new designers who wanted to customize their thesis theme. Its not very hard to learn customizing thesis, but you should be good at CSS, HTML and a bit knowledge about PHP will do.
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    Reply

    • Todd

      October 4, 2011 at 5:33 am

      Hi there Zhyra!

      Thanks for reading and commenting.

      I think you’re right. It does help to have a bit of knowledge about CSS, HTML and PHP, especially if you want to really customize the functionality of your site.

      At the same time, I don’t think that they’re necessary to make a great website with WordPress and Thesis.

      And now that we have the Thesis OpenHook Plugin, it makes it even easier to get by without editing any files or code.

      Thanks again for your input!

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

    • Bruker

      October 3, 2011 at 10:12 pm

      wordpress is the easiest way to build a website as comparison to using PHP,HTML,CSS. you can build a website by these tools but designing will be not so good
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      Reply

      • Todd

        October 4, 2011 at 5:44 am

        Hello Bruker!

        Yes, WordPress rules!! I’ve never used anything else.

        And that’s why I was so happy to find WordPress Website Builder. It’s such a great community and resource for anything related to WordPress.

        Thanks for contributing!

        Todd
        Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

        Reply

  37. Ana

    October 3, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    Excellent tutorial. Of course, I use Aweber autoresponder.

    The best piece of advice here is to keep it simple.
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    Reply

    • Todd

      October 4, 2011 at 4:15 am

      Hi Ana!

      Thanks for chiming in here! I must say that I’ve learned a lot from your blog and appreciate the encouragement from someone like you.

      I think a lot of people use Aweber, as they provide an excellent service; have been around for a long time; and are very trusted.

      I’ve tried, Aweber, iContact and MailChimp. I liked all of them, but ultimately went with MailChimp because it’s both free and provided the most flexible form to place in the multimedia box.

      Yes, I can’t stress it enough. I’ve wasted so much time, energy and money by not keeping things simple. It looks like you feel the same way.

      Thanks again, Ana!

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Millions Of Free Images To Legally Use On Your Site (dofollow)

      Reply

    • mitz

      October 3, 2011 at 9:54 pm

      Hi Ana
      I agree to keep it simple. :)

      Reply

  38. Jean

    October 3, 2011 at 5:46 pm

    Thanks a lot for recommending the OpenHook plugin. I did not know about it. Still very new to Thesis theme and I agree about the custom_functions.php file being a pain! My photoshop skills are not that good either so perhaps I will take a look at Logonerds as well.

    -Jean
    Jean recently posted..The risks of driving on worn tires (dofollow)

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 4, 2011 at 3:19 am

      Hi there Jean!

      Thanks for reading, and I’m glad to hear that you’ll be able to make use of the Thesis OpenHook Plugin!

      I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used it to make easy customizations. Here are a few things I do with it now.

      1. I use it to insert my header. Even though you can do that through the Thesis, “Header Image” option. I like the fact that I have a little more control using, Thesis OpenHook.

      2. I use it to inject my customized my footer.

      3. Sometimes I use it for placing my code for the multimedia box, even though you can do that under the Thesis, “Design Options”.

      4. I use it for my Google Analytics script, even though it can be added under the Thesis, “Site Options”.

      So I guess I use it for convenience as well. It allows me to make and manage these customizations in one place and it provides big text entry fields that are easier to work with too.

      Let me know how things go with LogoNerds if you give them a try.

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

    • mitz

      October 3, 2011 at 9:57 pm

      Hi Jean.. If you do use Logonerds I would be interested to see how you go…It is so cheap! :)

      Reply

      • Jean

        October 3, 2011 at 11:42 pm

        Oh, it is definitely a good price for the good quality work that they do, going by the previews on their site alone. I’m just waiting on a friend who is good at graphics work using Paintshop Pro to show me what he can come up with and if it’s not good enough, I’m turning to Logonerds.

        -Jean
        Jean recently posted..The risks of driving on worn tires (dofollow)

        Reply

  39. Paul G

    October 3, 2011 at 5:42 pm

    Hi Todd,

    Great first post and I also enjoyed your post on building an online brand over at your site.

    Just a quick question about your experience with Thesis. I have been thinking about starting a blog using this template for a while now and I just wondered how steep the learning curve is for this theme?

    Thanks

    Paul

    Reply

    • Todd

      October 4, 2011 at 2:58 am

      Hi Paul,

      Thanks so much for the encouraging words! I’m glad to hear you liked the post on branding as well!

      To answer your question about Thesis… I think it all depends on what your expectations are.

      I know that in the past, I used to think, “If I just get this one theme that looks really cool when I look at the ‘demo’ blog, then I’ll be able to create a blog that looks just as impressive.”

      Then I’d buy the theme; try to make my customizations to match those of the demo blog; and be disappointed when my blog looked quite different than what I’d imagined because the content, images and layout weren’t the same.

      So, finally, I realized that I needed to start looking for a simple, clean, practical theme that would give me the power to create what I imagined, instead of trying to emulate someone else’ work.

      And that’s what I found in Thesis. If you look at the blogs that are running Thesis, they all look very similar. Sure, their colors and fonts are different, but the basic elements and functionality are almost the same and they all look and run great.

      So, that’s what I really like about Thesis. I could make some very easy customizations that allowed me to create some branding for my site and still come out looking great after I was done.

      All of that to say… I don’t think the learning curve is steep at all with Thesis.

      I’ll be honest and say that I do have a technical background that allows me to make some more complex customizations, but pretty much everything you see on my blog or here on WordPress Website Builder can be done through the point and click interface, which does take a little time to get used to.

      My recommendation would be to try it for 30 days, and see what you think. If you don’t like it, then you can get a full refund, and try to find something else. Chris Pearson, the developer for Thesis, is a very stand-up guy who can be trusted.

      If you give it a try, let us know what you think. And feel free to contact me with any questions that you might have.

      Thanks again for reading, Paul!

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

  40. Bruce

    October 3, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    Cool primer, Todd. I’ve been looking into Thesis recently, but with so many options out there, it’s hard to pull the trigger. It sounds like Thesis is easy to customize, and it already looks pretty good. I guess my main concern is future support. Do you think the developers will continue working and improving it? I bought some WordPress themes in the past that, sadly, were abandoned…

    And thanks for the link to LogoNerds. I’ve been looking for an affordable service to craft some headers for my websites. A lot of the logo makers that Google brings up charge well into the 3-figures. I’m definitely going to try it for $27.
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    Reply

    • Todd

      October 3, 2011 at 5:28 pm

      Hi Bruce.

      Thanks for the feedback! I’m glad you liked it!

      I know how you feel about trying to decide on which theme to go with. I was in the same position myself not too long ago. What I did was a little survey of themes that the top bloggers were using at the time, and that’s what helped me decide on, Thesis.

      There were so many people using it, and each of them seemed to have their own reasons. But I ultimately went with Thesis because of these 4 things.

      It has great SEO features built in.
      It had a simple layout that’s easy to customize.
      It has excellent support through documentation and moderated forums.
      And finally, I also liked the 30-day money back guarantee that they had.

      I figured I’d just install and activate it, and start working with it right away. If I didn’t like it, then I’d just ask for my money back.

      I kept it… so I guess I was impressed. :)

      I’ve only used one other “premium” theme and several free themes too. None of them even come close to Thesis.

      But that’s not to say there aren’t other themes out there that might suite your needs. I like what the “Headway Theme” seems to offer, but can’t recommend it either way as I don’t have any experience with it yet.

      To address your question about continued development, I’d say… “absolutely”. I’ve owned Thesis for a couple of years now, and they regularly release security updates when needed and are always working on adding features to upcoming versions.

      The LogoNerds was a little new to me and something that Mitz is more familiar with. So, I’ll have to defer any questions about that service to her. It looks good though!

      By the way, I like the look of your site with the theme you have now. Nice clean layout! Interesting content too!

      Todd
      Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

      Reply

    • mitz

      October 3, 2011 at 10:03 pm

      I haven’t used them yet but a few readers have jumped in…It is just an interesting option and an amazing price. I actually mentioned this company in an article about making money after you have sold your blog as these guys offer a two tier affiliate program.

      Reply

      • Sanjeev

        October 4, 2011 at 1:28 am

        Yes the price is amazing, I am working with them right now (though you will get your share for it.). So far it is looking good, will update once it is done.
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        Reply

        • Todd

          October 4, 2011 at 2:22 am

          Sanjeev & Mitz,

          LogoNerds look like they produce some great designs for A LOT of companies.

          Their pricing looks really fair too.

          I’d be really interested to know how it all works out for you, Sanjeev.

          Todd
          Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

          Reply

          • Sanjeev

            October 5, 2011 at 3:58 am

            Todd, If you want to take a look at their work, you can check at my blog. My logo is up now. I like the service, prompt reply and reasonable price.
            Sanjeev recently posted..How to Create a Professional Facebook Page in 5 min (dofollow)

          • mitz

            October 5, 2011 at 7:45 am

            Wow that is a nice logo Sanjeev! :)

          • Sanjeev

            October 8, 2011 at 1:13 am

            Thanks Mitz, I like it with the price I paid for it…:)

            Thanks Todd for a visit, my blog is still in progress I should have it complete by this month end but thanks for liking it.
            Sanjeev recently posted..How to Create a Professional Facebook Page in 5 min (dofollow)

          • Todd

            October 5, 2011 at 4:41 am

            Hi Sanjeev,

            Wow, that was quick! Thanks for updating us!

            I think your new logo looks great, and it sounds like you’re satisfied with their service too.

            Very nice! I’ll look into them further.

            Your site looks great too! I like what you’ve done with Thesis.

            Todd
            Todd recently posted..Simple Start Guide: A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Brand Online (dofollow)

        • Bruker

          October 21, 2011 at 10:15 pm

          Yeah sanjeev its good and at the same time its valuable and attractive also.
          Bruker recently posted..Polymer Analysis (dofollow)

          Reply

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