You know, I tell my clients all the time that if you don’t like your website, you won’t use it. But I never thought that it applied to me.
Yet, I stopped liking my old dmiracle.com design a long time ago. I found it clunky and difficult to use. I found it not very fun or interesting to look at. I was teaching things to clients that my site wasn’t doing on my own site. And while I was preaching how important the mobile web is I had a site that wasn’t supporting mobile devices.
The result – I stopped using my site. I stopped blogging. I stopped engaging my commenters. I stopped promoting events and programs on it. I stopped using it as much to show clients examples of how to approach things on their sites. Really, I let it just sit there and bring me little trickles of clients. What used to be the hub of my business had eroded into a liability in a lot of ways.
So I had to make a change.
Now don’t get me wrong. the old version of dmiracle.com was still a very nice site – to other people. But I launched it in 2007 and it hadn’t changed much since.
I’ve worked on new designs off and on over the past couple of years but nothing really grabbed me. Then about 4 months ago I came up with a design I love. But I just couldn’t get around to finishing it. There was client work, or the kids got sick, or a hard drive crashed (lost my client hard drive last fall), or … . Whatever the reason/excuse, I couldn’t get it finished. So, in turn I wasn’t using my website even though I was ready to again.
So I couldn’t wait anymore. I decided that rather than waiting on myself to finish my design I would put up something temporary.
So why the need for a temporary site? Why not just wait and finish what I’d been working on?
Really, there’s many reasons. Partly, my site should take advantage of the most modern features of WordPress – the old one didn’t. I also wanted to simplify my site to make it clearer to you how I can help you – the old was too complex. And with nearly 20% off all my visitors coming through an iPad, iPhone or Android device I wanted a site that looked good on mobile devises – the old one didn’t.
And I really wanted to use the Genesis Framework from my friends at StudioPress. As a matter of fact for months Brian Gardner has been bugging me about when I was finally moving to Genesis – (today, Brian, today!). So I picked the Minimum Child Theme, modified it to my needs and launched this temporary website.
No more waiting. No more excuses. I’m finally on Genesis, I’m finally able to use the most modern WordPress features and I’m stoked. And now I feel like the pressure is off. I have a more modern website – even if it’s temporary. And I can finish my new design as I have time for it (yes, I still have to make the time). Here’s the funny catch – this is the 121st site I’ve built on Genesis. Took me that long.
So you’re probably wondering, ‘what’s the big deal?’ What’s so special about this Genesis Framework thing that I just had change my site? Why was it that I couldn’t wait a few more months – especially if my site was working for me? Well…
- The StudioPress advantage
Brian Gardner has done an excellent job developing and growing StudioPress into one of the best WordPress theme developers out there. The Genesis Framework is the standard for WordPress theme design. Their excellent designs, top-notch support, and massive community make them the go-to solution for WordPress designs. And it doesn’t hurt that they’re part of the Copyblogger Media family. - Responsive design
Many are predicting that 2013 will be the year that the number of mobile web users will pass the number of computer web users. As a business owner, it’s time to stop ignoring mobile and have a website that’s mobile ‘responsive.’ Mobile responsive means that your website’s design will respond to different devices by changing its layout. So one website can look great on all devices…and you can keep your branding. Genesis is mobile responsive. Mobile is a big reason I had to update my own website. Is your site mobile-ready? - Nearly limitless customization options
Brian and his team have made Genesis incredibly versatile. For the basic user theme setup is pretty simple and straightforward. I wouldn’t say that any WordPress theme is for the novice business owner – most require some setup to get things working as you like. And for the developer there’s a whole of tools and code snippets that speeds up development and allows massive customization. Really, Genesis is the solution for anyone needing a business website. - Update your site without disturbing your visual design
Most WordPress themes are difficult to update. This is because the code that interacts with WordPress and the visual design of your website are intermingled. In this way, updating your theme (which is necessary from time-to-time) can be difficult if you’ve customized your theme in any way. A theme frameworks, like Genesis, keeps your website’s core functions separate from your visual design. With all your visual design elements in a child theme, you can update Genesis without disturbing your visual website in any way. And keeping everything up-t0-date is important to making your website secure and problem-free. - An excellent set of custom widgets
Widgets add features and content to your website without having to mess with code. Widgets make it possible to add, remove and change large parts of your website easily. Genesis comes with some excellent custom widgets that add features like slideshows, featured content areas, social media links, and latest tweets to your website. And the Genesis community has created many very useful widgets specifically for Genesis. This makes development, updating, and customization even easier. - Multiple page layout options
One cool feature of Genesis (and other theme frameworks) is having multiple layouts. You’re no longer limited to one layout for the pages of your site. Decide that you want your sidebar on the left instead of the right, change it – yourself – with a click. Want to create a few pages without a sidebar – you can do that too. Multiple page layouts give you added flexibility built right into Genesis. - State of the art security
Your WordPress website can be vulnerable to people who want to take your site down or exploit it for malicious reasons. Having your site hacked is an expensive, time-consuming hassle, it feels like crap, and it can really damage your reputation. Trust me, I’ve been through it myself and I’ve helped a couple dozen people now clean up and secure their sites after a hack. Genesis has been thoroughly audited by the same person responsible for security on the WordPress core. Using Genesis adds another layer of protect from hackers. - Genesis is search engine optimized
Everyone asks about SEO. And Genesis makes it easier. With state of the art code, smart design architecture, and easy Google Authorship identification Genesis makes it simple for search engines to see what your content and rank you well. Genesis will help your blog rank higher in the search engines. They even have some tutorials that can help you achieve even better search engine placement results. - Beautiful, professional WordPress themes
These days my business ranges from building totally custom websites to doing customization on existing themes to just setting up Genesis and a child theme for my clients. So for and my clients it’s lovely to have such beautiful theme options as those in the StudioPress stable. Even in my case with trying to finish my new, custom design. I haven’t been able too so I picked this beautiful theme StudioPress to use temporarily.
To illustrate what I’ve said above, here’s a video introduction to the Genesis Framework:
There’s so much more to say about Genesis and why I switched. The bottom line for me is not only having a website that can meet today’s online business needs easily but also a website that will evolve as WordPress and the web evolves. And the best part is that now that I’ve made the jump to Genesis, building and installing my new, custom child theme – whenever I get it done – will be even easier.
So, what questions do you have about Genesis? About WordPress? About your website?
Can you please make some advise/recommendation about another framework theme? Thanks… Btw I like Genesis.
I will write a post in the near future comparing the 4 or 5 frameworks that I feel are the best choices for coaches, healers and other service providers. Though I’m quite partial to Genesis myself.
I really like the clean layout of your site now. I am going to seriously consider the framework. Updating my personal site to a responsive design is a big to-do for me.
Don’t make it so difficult on yourself. Select a WordPress theme that’s already responsive.
Great change, but I’ve only a lil, minor thing to say… Could you please add some color to your website?
It’s just black & white and I’ve the feeling reading a book.
Remember, this is a temporary design. The next iteration – coming soon – will incorporate colors a new, fresh way. And thanks for suggesting it.
I quite like the Black and White look. When done correctly it looks good.
This is a great post. I have personally used the genesis platform and i think it is cool. I have been also looking around the internet for a great theme for my BLOG. I found this thesis theme that just got me interested and i immediately tried it out. This theme is quite incredible someone should try it out.
There’s some great child themes for Genesis. A lot of people miss the StudioPress design community where there are some very nice child themes as well.
WordPress + Thesis framework allows for unlimited customization on your child themes. Every aspect of your on-page SEO can be customized making it one of the best options available.
I know Thesis well. I much prefer Genesis for a number of reasons. But, each to their own.
The theme looks great – very sleek. Personally, I’ve always been a big fan of the Thesis theme. That said, I can’t argue with you on the security features. Genesis keeps security tight.
And security is a greater and greater concern as WordPress continues to grow.
I have been using Genesis framework for all my new projects, Genesis is truly SEO friendly as they say. Alawyas best for fresh sites. However after i build up traffic i move to Magazine3 themes they have superb designs!
That’s the great thing – there’s so many amazing options on WordPress.
Yes, I love StudioPress’s Genesis Framework and the themes there too. Once I use it, I know my search for the perfect theme is over. I’m using one from (in)Spyre right now.
For me, I actually like the Genesis framework and all it offers even more than the child themes in StudioPress’ catalog.
I too like your clean design. I am looking for a fresh template for a new blog I have in my brain. I will look into your Genesis recommendation.
Let me know how your search goes.
I love StudioPress?s Genesis Framework and the themes there too. Once I use it, I know my search for the perfect theme is over.
Once I use it, I know my search for the perfect theme is over.
I used to use a theme from AgentPress for our real estate website and while it had a nice front end design its listing search feature limiting.
Genesis framework is wonderful, I made the switch when it was first made available. I’m sure you’ll continue to love it!
First of all, like the new design. About time your website got a face lift.
I got into the wordpress world myself not too long ago and bought a template called thesis. I came across Genesis but at the end decided to go a different way.
Do you see your new site now convert more?
Jason
Yeah, wordpress has a lot of great themes, design and plugins. I totally understand you, that’s a true fact that as the world changes to a very modern one, webdesign changes too, to a more modern one as well ! I like wordpress blogs, although i use blogger for my two blogs which I find really good too, so… 😉
First of all, like the new design. About time your website got a face lift.
I got into the wordpress world myself not too long ago and bought a template called thesis. I came across Genesis but at the end decided to go a different way.
Do you see your new site now convert more?
I LOVE the use of white space here – it makes everything easily readable. I’d be interested to know why you picked such a large font too – what is it? 18?
Thanks for this article. It is exactly what I need to show to my partners to get permissions re-build one of our websites. I heard a lot of positive about Genesis ans now finally need to try it.
Will soon shift to wordpress, all the informations where very usefull. genesis framework is really amazing.
Thanks
Congratulations on your migration to Genesis. I’ve been using it for about 2 years, and I never look back. As a developer, I do most of my for works for client using this framework, due to it’s flexibility and great code,
i have a few sites to which i am going to change in to wordpress now so thank you very much for the great post and suggestion to the new bloggers. many thanks
Your site really looks good! I always believe that a website is the central to the online reputation and expert credentials so it must be the best and can always adapt to the rapid change of the world wide web.
I had done my website with the Socrates Theme which is OK but it’s kind of plain, but it was supposed to be optimized for an Affiliate site but I’m not sure I’m convinced. It does have a lot of nice widgets and options. I considered Thesis and Genesis and was leaning towards Genesis but it seemed like so much more then I really needed. I’ve also created another site with a premium theme based on bootstrap. This site has proven to be a little faster and started ranking better, but the topic was a little more mainstream as well. I still might use Genesis as I’ve read a lot of good things about it. There are just so many options out there and I’m still relatively new to website building (really restarting after being away from it for many years). I did conclude on using WordPress though because I really want to avoid coding as much as possible. I made a site on it many years ago and was happy to see that it’s still going strong.
Thanks for sharing about WordPress Genesis Framework. I have never heard of this before….but I think your web site looks great now. Very helpful to new bloggers like myself.
I try to help my friends out with websites and I use the WordPress themes also. However, I’m not totally sure I understand what the Genesis theme is. You can move things around and build it as you would like it? If that is the case, where do I get some of the cool widgets like your social widget?
I’ve been using genesis as well and it is definitely a great theme. I would recommend it to anyone.
I have used the genesis platform but my techies prefer to work with Headway. I do howver have a very soft spot for Genesis and would certainly recommend it for a modern look.
Great ..
I too like your clean design !
thanks for sharing about WordPress Genesis Framework !
Very informative post. I have considered changing from frommtaxes.wordpress.com to the Genesis type wordpress.org arrangement for my blog. The problem for me is that I would have to change the name of my blog and I would lose my Alexa ranking with a new blog name. But otherwise I see the value of points you make in this post. Thanks for the insights.
I am not a fan of any framework or theme. I find with my clients that as soon as it is installed that hey want to tweak and change. Admittedly frameworks like Geneisis are powerful and can help but ultimately people want to tweak and change and you end up with much more work than coming from a clean design in the first place.
This isn’t me fishing for work as a website designer just experience. Even Themeforest which has some great themes you can often end up with more work when you get down to tweaking and changing.
The best way to go with WordPress is to take a barebones framework that has a lot of good cross browser CSS already there and has some responsive code in it and build from that over time.
Great post! I do love Genesis thesis! They give your site a facelift!!
I need to change my main site to Genesis! 🙂
i’ve played with genesis a bit over the years, and honestly, i gave up on it about 2 years ago. i’ve been using canvas (by woo themes) with great success. i’m a designer, primarily, and the flexibility is really unparalleled. like i’ve said – i’ve not used genesis for a while, but i was wondering if you had experience with canvas and could comment on the differences and any pros/cons with both.
thanks for the blog, though. good info all ’round!
Great post! I love Genesis
thesis framework.They give your site a
good look
I think i need to change my main site to
Genesis!
I’ll have to beg to differ with your comment about how a genesis upgrade doesn’t affect the visual design. I upgraded one of my sites from the 1.9 to the 2.whatever and it practically blew my site sky-high. It was a complete disaster. No way I wanted to sit there and re-figure the css. I just went back to the 1.9 to get everything back in place, – – and will definitely not upgrade again. I find the latest genesis upgrade next to impossible to achieve custom designs through the style page that I was easily achieving in the earlier version. Very disappointed, to say the least. BTW, – – as a safety measure, – – I ‘unchecked’ any automatic upgrade features in all of my genesis sites . . .
I didn’t like Genesis that much either, and stayed with woo themes like daily edition and canvas. I was wondering how you feel about genesis now? Since your post is quite old and no further updates have been posted. Are you alright?
Genesis is really a very flexibile theme that you can do a lot with. It is also very good for ranking and SEO friendly. Nice write up btw, I’m a regular visitor to your blog from here on.
Very informative post. I try to help my friends out with websites. I?ve been using genesis as well and it is definitely a great theme.
Thanks for this blog post.