It would be a gross understatement to say that my colleagues over at Copyblogger Media’s StudioPress division have been working like crazy on your behalf (likely because we’re now offering WordPress hosting for StudioPress customers only).
They’ve been developing and shipping so much digital goodness lately, it’s making me feel fatigued just watching.
I mean, I’m just a guy typing in his bathrobe, continually pouring coffee, and talking into a microphone once a week. I’m lucky to get a coherent sentence out in an hour.
These folks, on the other hand, are working relentlessly to make things easy for you by doing most of the heavy-lifting when it comes to website design, search optimization, and security.
If you’ve not yet heard about what’s going on over there, StudioPress makes a world-class website framework for WordPress and has currently delivered (with more on the way) 36 child themes to easily skin your site.
We’ve chatted about it before, but here’s a quick look at what you get “out of the box” when you hook yourself up with the Genesis framework + any of the 36 turnkey designs:
- Evolve with your site’s growth using several different page layout options
- Quick-change between different color schemes without touching a line of code
- Show off your latest content using the featured article function
- Logical navigation & category layout that lets your readers get to what they want, fast
- All the SEO, security, and design benefits of the Genesis Framework
- Unlimited updates, domains you can use the theme on, and support (you’re not on your own)
That said, here are a few designs direct from the StudioPress factory that’ll make your online life easier, faster, and more secure …
Hang a beautiful Tapestry on your site
You’ve seen it.
You might already be hooked by its simplicity.
The tumblog-style of blogging has become a comfortable yet powerful form of expression for many online in the last few years.
Now, you can combine the benefits of this micro-blogging genre with the muscle of the Genesis Framework, all in one easy package.
The Tapestry child theme is the way to go if you’re the type that likes to post a variety of stuff — links, video, photos, text, et cetera — and a lot of it.
Tapestry allows you to beautifully publish in eight unique formats, with posts optimized for each type of content.
Click here to get into all the layers of the Tapestry theme.
Getting Focused
The average time spent by a reader on an average single web page is measured in seconds.
The number of those precious seconds goes down every single day.
In an age of unprecedented distraction, focus is fast becoming a priceless commodity.
The Focus child theme was built to bring your message and work into sharp relief. With six super clean page layout options, and three easy-switch theme colors, the Focus theme concentrates everything on your objectives.
Click here to see exactly what the Focus theme has to offer.
Clean and Powerful Prose
The Prose child theme is an understated masterpiece.
Understated, because it specializes in elegantly getting out of your way — bloggers, copywriters, consultants, and content marketers — so that your words always sit front and center.
A masterpiece, because it is one of the most easily flexible WordPress themes ever developed, sitting safely on top of the rock-solid Genesis Framework.
The point-and-click design controls built into Prose change pretty much everything you’ve always hated about running your own website.
With a few clicks in a few minutes from within your WordPress dashboard you can control site colors, typefaces, font sizes, and other critical elements of your site design. Instantly.
Oh, and did I mention you won’t need to touch a single line of code to make those changes?
Click here to dig deeper into the amazingly versatile and pain-free Prose theme.
Oh yeah, Genesis is now on WordPress.com …
If you’re on board over at WordPress.com, you can now get the Tapestry theme or the Pretty Young Thing theme set up on your site.
Tapestry and Pretty Young Thing are our first themes available in the new WordPress.com Premium theme marketplace. If you want the all the benefits of Genesis + StudioPress without hosting your own site, this will be a game-changer for you.
And, it’s only the beginning. We’ve got more Genesis-powered StudioPress themes on the way over to WordPress.com, so stay tuned.
Or, if you want total control, click here to get more details on the Genesis Framework and find out why it’s the smartest way to build any WordPress site.
Wow that Tapestry theme is awesome. But the Freelance theme (one I use, heh) is the VERY best. I don’t know why it doesn’t get the attention Prose does.
I’ve got a Genesis question for you guys.
Me and another guy are thinking about buying the Pro Plus Package for our business. We’re doing installs for people and offering customizations too. Now, if we buy that package can we use it over and over again for commercial usage? I don’t want to do anything illegit here.
Martyn – yes, you are able to use the themes on as many client sites as you wish. Keep in mind that if you do it that way, you’ll be responsible for supporting them. (though we will support you based on your purchase)
One thing a lot of developers do is build the price of the theme into the quote to the end user. That way they get their own support forum account, which alleviates the support burden from you and all of your clients.
If you choose to go that route, all you need to do is purchase each time through our site. Then just create a support forum account for them, send them the login information and have them ask any questions should they have them.
Make sense?
You guys have been working hard, and I like the sound of that better. We could even pull a Johnny Truant stunt and have our clients buy it themselves so we could get an affiliate cut.
Thanks Brian. I’ve customized themes like Thesis and Headway before, but I have to say that from the standpoint of someone who actually knows code, Genesis is the most intuitive theme I’ve ever worked with.
Appreciate that Martyn – really I do.
We have the infrastructure to do the support – and it *really* makes sense for folks who charge thousands of dollars to their client, to build the $75 in and not have to worry about supporting it.
Martyn, tell us what you love about Freelance!
You know how it is, when you have 35 kids sometimes they don’t get the attention they should.
Well, Freelance is just … so clean. As you guys here at Copyblogger know that conversions increase with the fewer options you give people. For example, the Prose theme has two “navigations.” That’s okay for some people, but most beginning bloggers don’t need that many pages on their site. I heard Chris Brogan say that the Prose theme and Agency theme are two he really likes but he didn’t mention Freelance… *whimper*
I guess Freelance is just the neglected child.
I’ve gotten lots of people telling me how good my site looks and asking where the theme came from. That sort of makes me a brand evangelist. Heh.
Cool, thanks. It’s very interesting to see what different folks find valuable. I do like how your site looks — you’re right, the attention is totally focused on the content.
I use Prose on my book promo sites – slick, easy to work with. Can’t go wrong.
Sounds like a future tagline for the Genesis Framework.
Amazing how far along the genesis framework has come along. Congrat on getting onto wordpress dot com.
Thanks – we’ve worked hard over the past 16 months. As for WordPress.com, we’ve VERY excited about that – and should have the Tapestry theme available there soon!
“Just a guy in his bathrobe.” I like that. Book? Blog title?
Elegant is definitely the word of choice here, looking forward to seeing the tapestry theme on wordpress.
Can you do custom HTML headers on Prose?
Does Focus and Tapestry have the same Design Controls as Prose? Just wondering. Thanks. Sorry if I somehow missed it in the demo.
Mike, no they don’t – that’s what makes Prose so special. For what it’s worth, I am considering the idea of a way to branch out the design controls to themes other than Prose.
Brian, Sonia, & Co.,
I use Prose for my site as well because not only does it start out very clean, it is so easy to manipulate into a full service site (widgeted footers, easily customized nav bar, etc.) that if you looked at my site (http://bizdevsamurai.com), you would be hard pressed to know it was Prose!
The only downside to customizing the site, Is I couldn’t use Sonia’s halo caricature!
Damian
Damian – wow, that’s one heckuva Prose customization.
You should be proud!
Thanks Brian! After messing around with Prose and then Enterprise child themes, I haven’t touched Headway or Thesis since!
All future sites for myself & clients will be on the Genesis framework…
Hi Robert,
Thank you for sharing, have re-tweeted your article on deepvisionimage twitter site.
Have a great day.
Always love those Genesis child themes.
They look awesome.
Keep them coming…
Too bad I’m late to the game on this post. Serves me right for not reading copyblogger every day.
I bought the basic Genesis setup for my own website. I was so impressed by the easy customization of the Agency theme that I decided to make Genesis themes as part of my design packages: http://www.democracydesigns.com
That’s a good idea to put the support back on Genesis. Thanks for the post, keep them coming!
Interesting. The Tapestry themes looks great. Looking forward to see Tapestry on WordPress. The attention is totally focused on the content. Thanks for the share.
Tapesty is a fantastic StudioPress release. It gives bloggers AND businesses another type of blogging option. I speak with small business owners and I know that writing blog posts is something that gets put on the back burner because of the mindset you need to sit down and craft a 500 word quality article. This takes time, often something many small business owners lack.
The Tapestry Tumblog is the perfect blogging solution for many small businesses that find they simply don’t publish blog posts as frequently as they should. Tapestry’s layout is such that extremely brief posts won’t seem odd because of the “streaming look” of the posts on one page. This way business owners can slam out micro-bits of info to their customers and prospective customers quickly yet keep their blog up-to-date and informative without looking “odd” with short posts.
Hi,
Just wondering. (Nubie question) What is the relationship between Genesis and Premise. Do I need both?
Perhaps a blog post would be helpful to explain this.
kwdceo
http://www.copyblogger.com/genesis-framework-for-wordpress/