Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis?

john_kennedy · 08-27-2009, 01:55 PM

Search google for:

Quote:

Made with an easy to use WordPress theme

and you'll get quite a few sites made with the latest version of Semiologic. For a link to the website scroll back up to post 106 and check the links in the siggie. That poster is the creator for the product.

I don't use it, can't afford it right now, but would if I could!

John

LarryVan · 09-12-2009, 06:42 PM

I am a contributer and Moderator on the Semiologic forum.

If you like the Flexx theme and Semiologic, you might be interested in the Semiologic skin that I created that visually replicates the Flexx Professional Theme. I say visually replicate because it retains the complete Semiologic structure and all Semiologic plugings can be used.

All content is placed within the widget area just as Semiologic. An additional plugin for a drop-down menu was added because Semiologic does not have one.

A screenshot is attached. The site is not yet live, so a link is not available.

Larrry

fypnlp · 09-16-2009, 03:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fordannycool

Hi,

To make it very short and easy to understand....
Each theme is like a man naked body... then the skins could be the different clothing you put on... so to say the body stay the same but the clothing make it looking great and as many skins available as many look it will be!!!

Sometime theme and skin is a whole particularly when the theme has nothing else than a SINGLE SKIN... but then comes the skinners who are let say some people who make different skins to the theme which did not have so many or just one... but they sell each skin at about $20 to $100 so to say if you buy a theme with only a single skin and would like a special skin then comes the skinner who make you what you wish and charge you a cost whatever he wants or he already made some available and you choose the one you like if any and buy it!!!

Buttom line is, if for example you like Thesis and you think too few skins are available you go to:
Amazing Thesis Theme Skins for Wordpress
or to:
ThesisThemes.com - Thesis Skins
or to:
Top 10 Thesis Theme customizations

But all are premium skins and most be bought!!!

So to make it easy to understand you will pay once the Thesis Developpers price (so you can customize the theme) + the skin whatever the price is... so cost twice...

Now for Semiologic pro package:
This is a platform which means that you have a FREE Sem-Reloaded theme WITH depending the version about 28 SKINS all these FREE + 65 premium plug-ins not to be found anywhere else + WordPress 2.8.4 BUGS FREE included... we never update or upgrade directly from WP because for example the version 2.8.x got so many bugs that your whole site wile be screwed and you may even loose the whole thing... Denis de Bernardy the owner and coder fix the bugs in order to have a version working perfectly besides he is one of the main helper to get WP bugs fixed... so to say we have WP bugs free way before you got it fixed from WP

Regarding the plug-ins and what they do the best because they are about 65 is to check this link and go one by one and read what it is all about... Denis de Bernardy may go to this forum and answer you more precisely... but he said in few weeks he will make photos, videos, teaching tools available from his site... many things are new because of the new WP 2.8.4 structure...

Please check this link and go one by one in each plug-in:

WordPress Plugins

I also have attached few screen-shots of the skins available in THE OLD VERSION the new have slightly new things and some new plug-ins made especially for the new WP 2.8.4:

Cheers,

Danny

PS: I will upload more in the next post...

Fordanny cool,

I just want to thank you. I purchased thesis over the weekend and after spending 3 days trying to work with thesis. I ended up absolutely hating it (I'm not a designer and i don't know css).

But your comments have really made me change my mind about thesis and I will give it a another shot (or at least get a designer to do some work for me) and I will learn it myself as well.

Are there any good tutorial thesis sites I can use? One which explains thesis in the most basic terms possible (as I'm a complete novice and I don't understand how to code openhooks)? I've used the thesis site and frankly some of it went right over my head (esp. the bit about modifying custom.php!).

So if anyone is thinking of using thesis, I would say buy it while it's cheap (though I warn you it's not designed with the novice in mind. It's not a plug and play product) if you need a website that needs to go up quickly pay someone to do it for but learn how do use it yourself.

BeauJustin · 09-18-2009, 02:26 PM

I've developed sites using a variety of different themes, Thesis included, and in my opinion it's unmatched. You can achieve high page rank very quickly for low-medium competition keywords, if you know what you're doing. It is just an amazingly powerful theme.

That said - it is not for the faint of heart. If you are a non-geek, it is not easy to learn the workings of this theme out of the box. A majority of the tech support comes from the forum, which while helpful, more often than not requires you to have an idea what they're taking about.

For instance, one of the frustrating things about Thesis is that, while you can make changes to the custom_functions page from the admin panel, you'd better make sure your design and programming syntax is proper, because if it isn't, it breaks the entire site - including the admin side, and you have to reupload a good copy of the custom functions page to fix it.

You can do some great customization with thesis once you learn the terminology associated with hooks and functions. But, in my humble opinion, to get the most out of Thesis, if you're not already familiar with Wordpress functions, and don't have a high technical aptitude either get ready to learn, or hire someone to make the changes for you. You could just use the stock theme out of the box, and don't worry about changing the code. It's a beautifully simple layout, and works for a lot of people who do just that.

Some other premium theme offerings out there which are making ripples in the Parent Theme category (like Thesis) are the Vigilance theme - which I like a lot, and seems to have as much SEO readiness as Thesis, and the WP-Frugal theme, which is also a gorgeously simple theme, which bears a lot of resemblance to Thesis.

Both Vigilance and WP-Frugal have free offerings of their themes. The primary difference is that Vigilance is a fully functioning theme, the paid version simply gives you access to forums, some very cool addons, access to the support team, developers rights, etc.. Wordpress Frugal has a free version which is nice and simple, and a paid version which comes with lots placement spots similar to Thesis hooks, but without all the programming.

Therein lies the difference in these two parent themes versus a majority of the free parent themes, and Thesis, as well, is that the programming requirements are low. You'll still have to know decent HTML to achieve a truly unique design, but you don't have to fool around with learning all the terminology of Thesis.

By the way, I love Thesis and have used it on numerous sites. It's just not as simple out of the box as they claim.

Google Wordpress Vigilance, and Wordpress Frugal and see what you think.

God bless you and your business!

Beau

BeauJustin · 09-18-2009, 07:21 PM

I've tried both the Frugal and Vigilance and like them both. Vigilance has similar SEO power to Thesis, but with the added benefit of not being quite as tech-maddening.

Vigilance has it's own learning curve, but it's nowhere near as steep as Thesis. Something which is a little overwhelming with Vigilance, at first, is the level of control which is readily available right there in the backend control panel. There are so many different control parameters for adjusting borders, font sizes, colors, spacing size, columns etc., it's hard to figure out what control on the backend, changes which element on the front page. I mean there are just tons of control parameters back there! Still better than having to code a custom_css file, like in Thesis.

The great thing about Vigilance is that you can check it out for free, fully functioning, and keep it if you like it. To join the community and get the benefits there is only $44.

Frugal has a very similar backend to Vigilance, but perhaps not the SEO functionality readily available in Thesis or Vigilance. The free version is very nice and clean and in my opinion can be used for a lot of different purposes.

But the paid version, design wise, it is probably more versatile out of the box than Thesis and Vigilance put together. If you know your css, you can get some really crafty designs quick. If you go to the front page of Frugal you'll see all these grid boxes on the front page. Those spots are what's available with the Pro Frugal theme. The support team is awesome.

James Pateman · 09-19-2009, 01:29 AM

Hi Ralf,

There are so many great free themes, why pay for them. I have been told that if you are building a blog network then you might want to use several different themes so that they look different to the search engines. I like inove, fluid-blue, and lessismore themes.

cheers.

Oriam · 09-19-2009, 02:18 PM

$300 for Semiologic pro package is to expensive for me right now, maybe later when i start making money in my IM.
Is this amount just for the first year, how much to renew ?
I know nothing about php coding or css, is this site
or other sites like Thesis easy to edit my webpage ?
Don't get me wrong, i will learn php and css, but right now i already purchased 2 domain names and 2 years of business web hosting with hostgator.
So what I'm saying, time is money and i don't have much money left right now.
Sorry if this sounds like ranting, i feel a bit lost and overwhelmed by all this incertitude of my part

I do appreciate all your informative post and wish you all a Great weekend !!!

dseisner · 12-19-2009, 12:04 AM

Gotta say...

I found this thread after I was looking to find the best wordpress theme out there. See, I put up 5 blogs. 2 with 1 theme, 2 with another, 1 with another. The first 2 have been indexed deep but with a bunch of duplicate content. Same instance for the standalone blog. The other 2 have not been indexed more than 1 page COMBINED. I did everything the exact same on all the blogs pretty much except content. And I learned a little more about what search engines are looking for and decided to handle this problem.

I decided not to spend money and try the Semiologic Reloaded on one of the non-working blogs and Vigilance on the other. FYI, I could not find a free version of Frugal. Was quite pricey for the pay one.

They are both simple looking themes, which I like. I just installed them, so I don't know the results yet, but at first glance, Semiologic seems MUCH MORE robust than Vigilance. Seems as though there's way more options. And the thing I like most is I know that the content is loaded before the navi bars because it says so on their sales page - which means if I put anchor text in my posts, it will actually count. I will of course look at the code to make sure all the right tags are there, but I'm not quite there yet. I will report back.

This is just an at-first-glance of two FREE themes. I will come back with results soon.

***Update: No results yet but I did want to say that Semi is really only more customizable when it comes to site layout (very nice job here), coding, and adding a header.

Vigilance has less options for page layout and also has a spot for google analytics (not a big deal).

More soon...

lalit.burma · 12-25-2009, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ralf Skirr

I know there are many great designs. The reasons why I mentioned semiologic and thesis:
- They are both known for good SEO
- They have a history of updates that adjust the theme to the current wordpress versions

For my main blog I shelled out 200 bucks or so for a theme from a designer who - as it turns out later - does not do much to update it and adopt it to the new wordpress versions. I'm totally NOT happy about this.

This is why a reliable history of updating the theme will be one of my main buying criteria.

Given how fast wordpress changes having a great looking theme isn't enough. It's absolutely necessary that the theme is under continued development.

Ralf

Quite agree with you. There is no point to pay $200 for any theme if they are not going to update themselves and their themes according to current wordpress.

Because ultimately its wordpress which matter the most.

I near future I am going for thesis only.

K Goel · 12-25-2009, 10:43 PM

Thesis is a good theme...Very elegant and
good looking. But, many of us can't pay $87 for it.

You might want to check out it's "clone" that is available for free!

Thesis Wordpress Theme Clone – Save Those $87 | Gizmoko - Cool Websites, New Softwares And Computing

Joe2 · 12-27-2009, 05:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fordannycool

Yes it is possible!!!

Cheers,

Danny

Hello fordannycool

This was your reply re a query on using Semiologic on Conduit sites. Is it possible to expand on this. BTW thanks for all your info on this thread

Joe

Joe2 · 12-30-2009, 04:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fordannycool

Hi Joe,

Not so much time to reply... try this:

Just another WordPress weblog

Besides write a post on the forum after you applied for a free membership:

Semiologic Forum - All Discussions

try these also:

Semiologic Forum - Location to load backround images for Reloaded Skins

Search Results – skins

Hope that will help...

Cheers,

Danny

Thanks Danny. Much appreciated

Joe

Denis de Bernardy · 12-31-2009, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lbwardellsr

Thesis is the best by far

Being the author of the Semiologic theme, I'd say that Thesis is very different, actually. :-)

Over the years, the underlying idea behind the Semiologic theme has been to keep things simple for end users, so that they can focus on their marketing.

By contrast, the Thesis theme has evolved and turned into a Tool that allows CSS savvy users to create whichever look and feel they like. So, it's really a different approach.

Keep in mind that for a very CSS savvy user, most everything you can do with Thesis can also be done with the Semiologic theme. We're regularly asked to create a skin that looks like this/that and the Semiologic theme's canvas has allowed us to do so on a consistent basis.

For less a CSS savvy user, it really goes down to how happy one is with sticking to a collection of built-in skins and the ability to change his site's header, and maybe a few colors (using the Custom CSS editor) here and there. The target audience is users who have better things to do than spending hours customizing the way their site looks.

I'd also like to rehash most of what I highlighted above: the Semiologic theme is just that: a (free) theme.

Semiologic Pro, which comprises about 60 plugins in addition, is where the real value is. My own highlights would include:

Google Analytics, Ad Manager, Newsletter Manager
Script Manager, Redirect Manager
Fuzzy Widgets, Related Widgets, Silo Widgets
Inline Widgets, Feed Widgets, Widget Contexts
Search Reloaded
Mediacaster
Smart Links, Semiologic SEO, XML Sitemaps
Semiologic Cache

When looking at them individually, many a WP savvy user would dismiss the whole idea because there are similar, free plugins in the wild. I'm fine with that idea, since they're not the target audience.

For other users, these Sem Pro plugins are a one-stop shop, they're easier to use (as a rule of thumb, we enforce a best practice rather than add an option) and they're much better maintained. Most importantly, the plugins play well together and are built with the Semiologic theme in mind; and their users are not left to help themselves in the WP support forum when they've a problem.

Joe2 · 12-31-2009, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Denis de Bernardy

Being the author of the Semiologic theme, I'd say that Thesis is very different, actually. :-)

Over the years, the underlying idea behind the Semiologic theme has been to keep things simple for end users, so that they can focus on their marketing.

By contrast, the Thesis theme has evolved and turned into a Tool that allows CSS savvy users to create whichever look and feel they like. So, it's really a different approach.

Keep in mind that for a very CSS savvy user, most everything you can do with Thesis can also be done with the Semiologic theme. We're regularly asked to create a skin that looks like this/that and the Semiologic theme's canvas has allowed us to do so on a consistent basis.

For less a CSS savvy user, it really goes down to how happy one is with sticking to a collection of built-in skins and the ability to change his site's header, and maybe a few colors (using the Custom CSS editor) here and there. The target audience is users who have better things to do than spending hours customizing the way their site looks.

I'd also like to rehash most of what I highlighted above: the Semiologic theme is just that: a (free) theme.

Semiologic Pro, which comprises about 60 plugins in addition, is where the real value is. My own highlights would include:

Google Analytics, Ad Manager, Newsletter Manager
Script Manager, Redirect Manager
Fuzzy Widgets, Related Widgets, Silo Widgets
Inline Widgets, Feed Widgets, Widget Contexts
Search Reloaded
Mediacaster
Smart Links, Semiologic SEO, XML Sitemaps
Semiologic Cache

When looking at them individually, many a WP savvy user would dismiss the whole idea because there are similar, free plugins in the wild. I'm fine with that idea, since they're not the target audience.

For other users, these Sem Pro plugins are a one-stop shop, they're easier to use (as a rule of thumb, we enforce a best practice rather than add an option) and they're much better maintained. Most importantly, the plugins play well together and are built with the Semiologic theme in mind; and their users are not left to help themselves in the WP support forum when they've a problem.

Could you tell me if semiologoic is OK for someone who is just starting out but has a basic understanding of internet marketing or is more experience needed to use it and gain the most out of it?

Also, what advantages does it have when applied to straight affiliate marketing or something like conduit sites (review sites) as outlined by Chris Rempel.

Thank you
Joe

Joe2 · 12-31-2009, 09:56 PM

I should have said Semiologic Pro in my last post

Joe

Mike Adams · 12-31-2009, 11:33 PM

Headway... Unreal, Literal Point & Click: Headway Premium WordPress Theme

zcrafts · 01-01-2010, 07:05 AM

Hello,

I will surely vote for : Thesis
I like this theme both in terms of SEO and design.

Joe2 · 01-04-2010, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fordannycool

Hi Joe,

Yes as Denis de Bernardy said Semiologic Pro has been built with the newbie in mind... and I will not say the same to Thesis... or others, many newbies are frustrated :-)

However I like thesis a lot BUT it is really difficult to customize and some help are needed on a daily basis for the newbie... to make it working right at the first place... without being in despair... besides so many things are integrated and for most of the internet marketers the customization provided within is more than sufficient... besides Denis has been for the past months through the forum listening to his customers and made now a very simple CSS customization available which fulfills most of the end users wishes...

It seems as far as you are concerned you better stick with Semiologic... or better the Pro version and its 60 SEO plugins within, if you have the budget for it... no paid theme is able to offer so many powerful premium integrated plugins even though Thesis offer few good items... but far from being at Sem Pro level... Sem Pro is a platform...

The question is as simple:
Do you really need a highly customized theme with all its tweaking and difficulties or a highly optimized theme with a simple set up and 60 optimized SEO plugins, besides many skinners offer for a fair price your beloved customization?

Besides I already mentioned as well as Denis de Bernardy the Sem Pro author , it it is possible to buy the pro version in order to get the 60 plugins and still use Thesis if it is your beloved theme, but not recommended at all if you are a newbie!!!

What has to be compared is as simple as this:
- Is the theme FREE?
Sem theme, YES
- Is the theme updated as soon as a new WP version is available?
Sem + Pro, YES
- Is the theme has any restriction in the Free or trial version?
Sem free version, 100% NO, neither in features, nor time limit...
- Is the theme built with newbie in mind?
Sem + the Pro version, YES...
- Is it easy to focus on the marketing job?
Sem pro, YES
- Can we get help immediately?
Sem Pro, definitively, YES through support ticket and within the forum
- Are the WP bugs IMMEDIATELY corrected with the new theme version?
Sem Pro, YES
- Are the WP bugs fixed WITHIN the Theme, even before WP issues correctives?
Sem Pro, YES
- Are the premium plugins tested and SEO focused?
Sem pro, YES
- Is the WP new version included withing the Theme?
Sem Pro, YES and the installation is done all at once
- Is it easy to install and tweaking and customizing few things alone?
Sem Pro, Yes

In Closing I will quote again Denis de Bernardy:
"Keep in mind that for a very CSS savvy user, most everything you can do with Thesis can also be done with the Semiologic theme. We're regularly asked to create a skin that looks like this/that and the Semiologic theme's canvas has allowed us to do so on a consistent basis.
For less a CSS savvy user, it really goes down to how happy one is with sticking to a collection of built-in skins and the ability to change his site's header, and maybe a few colors (using the Custom CSS editor) here and there. The target audience is users who have better things to do than spending hours customizing the way their site looks.

I'd also like to rehash most of what I highlighted above: the Semiologic theme is just that: a (free) theme.

Semiologic Pro, which comprises about 60 plugins in addition, is where the real value is. My own highlights would include:

* Google Analytics, Ad Manager, Newsletter Manager
* Script Manager, Redirect Manager
* Fuzzy Widgets, Related Widgets, Silo Widgets
* Inline Widgets, Feed Widgets, Widget Contexts
* Search Reloaded
* Mediacaster
* Smart Links, Semiologic SEO, XML Sitemaps
* Semiologic Cache

When looking at them individually, many a WP savvy user would dismiss the whole idea because there are similar, free plugins in the wild. I'm fine with that idea, since they're not the target audience.

For other users, these Sem Pro plugins are a one-stop shop, they're easier to use (as a rule of thumb, we enforce a best practice rather than add an option) and they're much better maintained. Most importantly, the plugins play well together and are built with the Semiologic theme in mind; and their users are not left to help themselves in the WP support forum when they've a problem."
End of quote

If you are interested to buy the Sem Pro package AND get free coaching for few weeks in order to optimize your site and get a fast top ranking... then please go to my affiliate link here:
Meaningful Technology
or
Best Blogging Software

and write to me at:
fordannycool@gmail.com

with your name and your Semiologic Pro order number... then I will contact you ASAP...

Thanks a lot,

Cheers,

Danny

Danny

Whilst you obviously have a vested interest in Semiologic, I really appreciate your 'in depth' answer to my query.

Joe

TelegramSam · 01-04-2010, 09:13 AM

Hey Danny,

Can you ease off on the sales push?

I come here to give and share data, not get sold into something.

Share your info if you choose too, but please don't push it into my face. There are thousands of other places I could go to if I wanted that.

Thank you,

Sam

TelegramSam · 01-04-2010, 09:40 AM

Thanks Danny. No problem.

I don't know the exact selling/advertising rules of the forum, as I do neither here.

But I see most people put things in their signature files.

Just see what other members do.

This way, you won't come across as a pushy salesman ;-)

Sam

Andrew Wilson · 01-04-2010, 06:59 PM

Semiologic Pro was the first 'premium' theme I bought. In my eyes it was kinda like WordPress might be if it was a paid for product.
Somebody else mentioned the word 'platform', exactly.

Sites I made with Semiologic, hundreds of them, still see traffic although untouched for many months/years!

I can see the point about appearance but I also think the simplicity is actually a benefit. I WANT folks to be able to find stuff and to just 'know' where to look. Some of the themes mentioned here are, to my old eyes, hard to use as a user (and let's forget for now the complexity of setting some of them up!)

Craig is correct, pages back, about the importance of links and IMHO the off-page stuff is much more important than the on-page stuff but it is good to have Semiologic Pro holding up the banner for me on the on-page SEO while I get on with the off-page SEM.

For me Semiologic Pro makes it easier to do the rest of the stuff that makes more of the difference.

mobetman · 01-13-2010, 05:57 PM

I own and use both Frugal and Thesis and can give you a good honest opinion of both. More people own Thesis because it's been out longer and has an active community of owners. They both are great and I think you can't go wrong with either but it really depends on what you're using them for. Here's a breakdown:

Easy of Use - Winner > Frugal

Frugal is easier to use, especially for newbies. Frugal's admin is cleaner and more user friendly. It also offers more built in customization options. With Thesis you'll have to get into the code to make certain changes (Be sure to download the Thesis Hooks plugin to do this). Although Thesis just upgraded to 1.6 which makes some customization easier like drop down menus, it's still not as user (especially newbie) friendly as Frugal.

SEO - Winner > Thesis

One of Thesis' strengths has always been it's so SEO friendly. You don't need to install the usual plugins like All-In-One SEO, etc. because it's already built into Thesis. Also, the fewer plugins, the faster your site should render - so Thesis is usually fast. Now, Frugal just upgraded to version 3.2 and now has built in SEO as well. I haven't used or tested the new SEO features and can't vouch for it. So for now Thesis is the champ here.

Built In Customization/Website Variety - Winner > Frugal

This may seem a strange category but one of Frugal's best assets is it's ability to create a variety of websites directly from the admin (no code digging). What do I mean? With Frugal you can create actual websites (not just blogs) because it has an option for a separate homepage and a few other page templates. So let's say you want to create a website for a small business you have, it very, very easy to do with Frugal. You can create your standard business looking (no sidebars, comments, etc) Homepage, About, Products/Services, Contact, etc. and then still have a business blog section too.

Customization - Winner > Thesis

If you want to make MAJOR changes, additions, etc to your website over and above the built in customization then Thesis is what you need. If you like digging into the code, Thesis is just easier to play with than Frugal (please note that I haven't tested this on the newest version of Frugal which just came out the week before this post). Just go to the Thesis website and you can see a few of the many customization people have made. So if you know your way around code Thesis may be for you.

I hope this helps.

Andrew Wilson · 02-05-2010, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oriam

$300 for Semiologic pro package is to expensive for me right now, maybe later when i start making money in my IM.
Is this amount just for the first year, how much to renew ?
I know nothing about php coding or css, is this site
or other sites like Thesis easy to edit my webpage ?
Don't get me wrong, i will learn php and css, but right now i already purchased 2 domain names and 2 years of business web hosting with hostgator.
So what I'm saying, time is money and i don't have much money left right now.
Sorry if this sounds like ranting, i feel a bit lost and overwhelmed by all this incertitude of my part

I do appreciate all your informative post and wish you all a Great weekend !!!

Remember, this is a business and like ALL businesses it requires a degree of investment. Don't worry about affording Semiologic for a moment. First sit down and write a busieness plan, this'll help you to understand the resources that you will need. If you come tot he conclusion that you will NEED Semiologic or some other paid tool or service then you can plan how to acquire them.
A couple of thoughts, given that cash is tight...
1) Why pay upfront for two years of hosting? That money would have paid for Semiologic and as your busienss is going to generate cash then it will pay the ongoing cost of the hosting.
2) Same question for domain names. Why buy until you are ready to use them?

Look at how you are spending money, you may find that by planning your business and paying for resources when you need them and not in advance that your cash flow looks better and enables you to pay for stuff you need NOW not in 23 or 24 months from now.

09-12-2009, 06:42 PM	#102
LarryVan Warrior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Port Charlotte,FL ,USA . Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Contact Info	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? I am a contributer and Moderator on the Semiologic forum. If you like the Flexx theme and Semiologic, you might be interested in the Semiologic skin that I created that visually replicates the Flexx Professional Theme. I say visually replicate because it retains the complete Semiologic structure and all Semiologic plugings can be used. All content is placed within the widget area just as Semiologic. An additional plugin for a drop-down menu was added because Semiologic does not have one. A screenshot is attached. The site is not yet live, so a link is not available. Larrry Attached Thumbnails
	Larry E. VanOsdol President Meaningful Technologies Corporation http://meaningfultechnologies.com Last edited by LarryVan; 09-12-2009 at 06:57 PM. Reason: typo

09-18-2009, 02:26 PM	#104
BeauJustin Active Warrior Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 67 Thanks: 16 Thanked 13 Times in 10 Posts	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? I've developed sites using a variety of different themes, Thesis included, and in my opinion it's unmatched. You can achieve high page rank very quickly for low-medium competition keywords, if you know what you're doing. It is just an amazingly powerful theme. That said - it is not for the faint of heart. If you are a non-geek, it is not easy to learn the workings of this theme out of the box. A majority of the tech support comes from the forum, which while helpful, more often than not requires you to have an idea what they're taking about. For instance, one of the frustrating things about Thesis is that, while you can make changes to the custom_functions page from the admin panel, you'd better make sure your design and programming syntax is proper, because if it isn't, it breaks the entire site - including the admin side, and you have to reupload a good copy of the custom functions page to fix it. You can do some great customization with thesis once you learn the terminology associated with hooks and functions. But, in my humble opinion, to get the most out of Thesis, if you're not already familiar with Wordpress functions, and don't have a high technical aptitude either get ready to learn, or hire someone to make the changes for you. You could just use the stock theme out of the box, and don't worry about changing the code. It's a beautifully simple layout, and works for a lot of people who do just that. Some other premium theme offerings out there which are making ripples in the Parent Theme category (like Thesis) are the Vigilance theme - which I like a lot, and seems to have as much SEO readiness as Thesis, and the WP-Frugal theme, which is also a gorgeously simple theme, which bears a lot of resemblance to Thesis. Both Vigilance and WP-Frugal have free offerings of their themes. The primary difference is that Vigilance is a fully functioning theme, the paid version simply gives you access to forums, some very cool addons, access to the support team, developers rights, etc.. Wordpress Frugal has a free version which is nice and simple, and a paid version which comes with lots placement spots similar to Thesis hooks, but without all the programming. Therein lies the difference in these two parent themes versus a majority of the free parent themes, and Thesis, as well, is that the programming requirements are low. You'll still have to know decent HTML to achieve a truly unique design, but you don't have to fool around with learning all the terminology of Thesis. By the way, I love Thesis and have used it on numerous sites. It's just not as simple out of the box as they claim. Google Wordpress Vigilance, and Wordpress Frugal and see what you think. God bless you and your business! Beau
	The IMer's Ultimate Wordpress Help Desk - Phone Communication - Fix, Improve, and OptimizeWordpress!

09-18-2009, 07:21 PM	#105
BeauJustin Active Warrior Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 67 Thanks: 16 Thanked 13 Times in 10 Posts	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? I've tried both the Frugal and Vigilance and like them both. Vigilance has similar SEO power to Thesis, but with the added benefit of not being quite as tech-maddening. Vigilance has it's own learning curve, but it's nowhere near as steep as Thesis. Something which is a little overwhelming with Vigilance, at first, is the level of control which is readily available right there in the backend control panel. There are so many different control parameters for adjusting borders, font sizes, colors, spacing size, columns etc., it's hard to figure out what control on the backend, changes which element on the front page. I mean there are just tons of control parameters back there! Still better than having to code a custom_css file, like in Thesis. The great thing about Vigilance is that you can check it out for free, fully functioning, and keep it if you like it. To join the community and get the benefits there is only $44. Frugal has a very similar backend to Vigilance, but perhaps not the SEO functionality readily available in Thesis or Vigilance. The free version is very nice and clean and in my opinion can be used for a lot of different purposes. But the paid version, design wise, it is probably more versatile out of the box than Thesis and Vigilance put together. If you know your css, you can get some really crafty designs quick. If you go to the front page of Frugal you'll see all these grid boxes on the front page. Those spots are what's available with the Pro Frugal theme. The support team is awesome.
	The IMer's Ultimate Wordpress Help Desk - Phone Communication - Fix, Improve, and OptimizeWordpress!

09-19-2009, 01:29 AM	#106
James Pateman James Pateman War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Nowra (3 hours south of Sydney, Australia) Posts: 84 Thanks: 4 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? Hi Ralf, There are so many great free themes, why pay for them. I have been told that if you are building a blog network then you might want to use several different themes so that they look different to the search engines. I like inove, fluid-blue, and lessismore themes. cheers.
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09-19-2009, 02:18 PM	#107
Oriam Warrior Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Gatineau, Quebec, Canada Posts: 29 Thanks: 5 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? $300 for Semiologic pro package is to expensive for me right now, maybe later when i start making money in my IM. Is this amount just for the first year, how much to renew ? I know nothing about php coding or css, is this site or other sites like Thesis easy to edit my webpage ? Don't get me wrong, i will learn php and css, but right now i already purchased 2 domain names and 2 years of business web hosting with hostgator. So what I'm saying, time is money and i don't have much money left right now. Sorry if this sounds like ranting, i feel a bit lost and overwhelmed by all this incertitude of my part I do appreciate all your informative post and wish you all a Great weekend !!!

12-19-2009, 12:04 AM	#108
dseisner Peaceful Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Connecticut Posts: 131 Thanks: 3 Thanked 11 Times in 10 Posts Contact Info	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? Gotta say... I found this thread after I was looking to find the best wordpress theme out there. See, I put up 5 blogs. 2 with 1 theme, 2 with another, 1 with another. The first 2 have been indexed deep but with a bunch of duplicate content. Same instance for the standalone blog. The other 2 have not been indexed more than 1 page COMBINED. I did everything the exact same on all the blogs pretty much except content. And I learned a little more about what search engines are looking for and decided to handle this problem. I decided not to spend money and try the Semiologic Reloaded on one of the non-working blogs and Vigilance on the other. FYI, I could not find a free version of Frugal. Was quite pricey for the pay one. They are both simple looking themes, which I like. I just installed them, so I don't know the results yet, but at first glance, Semiologic seems MUCH MORE robust than Vigilance. Seems as though there's way more options. And the thing I like most is I know that the content is loaded before the navi bars because it says so on their sales page - which means if I put anchor text in my posts, it will actually count. I will of course look at the code to make sure all the right tags are there, but I'm not quite there yet. I will report back. This is just an at-first-glance of two FREE themes. I will come back with results soon. ***Update: No results yet but I did want to say that Semi is really only more customizable when it comes to site layout (very nice job here), coding, and adding a header. Vigilance has less options for page layout and also has a spot for google analytics (not a big deal). More soon...

12-25-2009, 10:43 PM	#110
K Goel Gizmoko.com War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: India Posts: 336 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 75 Thanked 17 Times in 16 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? Thesis is a good theme...Very elegant and good looking. But, many of us can't pay $87 for it. You might want to check out it's "clone" that is available for free! Thesis Wordpress Theme Clone – Save Those $87 \| Gizmoko - Cool Websites, New Softwares And Computing
	You should follow me on Twitter here. Blogging Tips And Tricks By Karan Goel Internet Marketing Blog By a 16-Year Old

12-31-2009, 09:56 PM	#115
Joe2 Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: , , Thailand. Posts: 96 Thanks: 2 Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? I should have said Semiologic Pro in my last post Joe
	Joe

12-31-2009, 11:33 PM	#116
Mike Adams Long Time Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: United States Posts: 308 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 14 Thanked 58 Times in 25 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? Headway... Unreal, Literal Point & Click: Headway Premium WordPress Theme
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01-01-2010, 07:05 AM	#117
zcrafts Warrior Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 20 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? Hello, I will surely vote for : Thesis I like this theme both in terms of SEO and design.
	zcrafts.com \| Design your Dreams

01-04-2010, 09:13 AM	#119
TelegramSam Telegram Expert ;-) Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA/UK Posts: 622 Thanks: 33 Thanked 137 Times in 75 Posts	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? Hey Danny, Can you ease off on the sales push? I come here to give and share data, not get sold into something. Share your info if you choose too, but please don't push it into my face. There are thousands of other places I could go to if I wanted that. Thank you, Sam

01-04-2010, 09:40 AM	#120
TelegramSam Telegram Expert ;-) Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA/UK Posts: 622 Thanks: 33 Thanked 137 Times in 75 Posts	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? Thanks Danny. No problem. I don't know the exact selling/advertising rules of the forum, as I do neither here. But I see most people put things in their signature files. Just see what other members do. This way, you won't come across as a pushy salesman ;-) Sam

01-04-2010, 06:59 PM	#121
Andrew Wilson Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Estonia Posts: 1,146 Thanks: 9 Thanked 11 Times in 10 Posts Contact Info	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? Semiologic Pro was the first 'premium' theme I bought. In my eyes it was kinda like WordPress might be if it was a paid for product. Somebody else mentioned the word 'platform', exactly. Sites I made with Semiologic, hundreds of them, still see traffic although untouched for many months/years! I can see the point about appearance but I also think the simplicity is actually a benefit. I WANT folks to be able to find stuff and to just 'know' where to look. Some of the themes mentioned here are, to my old eyes, hard to use as a user (and let's forget for now the complexity of setting some of them up!) Craig is correct, pages back, about the importance of links and IMHO the off-page stuff is much more important than the on-page stuff but it is good to have Semiologic Pro holding up the banner for me on the on-page SEO while I get on with the off-page SEM. For me Semiologic Pro makes it easier to do the rest of the stuff that makes more of the difference.

01-13-2010, 05:57 PM	#122
mobetman Your Renegade Marketer Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Washington DC Posts: 17 Thanks: 1 Thanked 2 Times in 1 Post Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Best Wordpress Theme Ever, Semiologic or Thesis? I own and use both Frugal and Thesis and can give you a good honest opinion of both. More people own Thesis because it's been out longer and has an active community of owners. They both are great and I think you can't go wrong with either but it really depends on what you're using them for. Here's a breakdown: Easy of Use - Winner > Frugal Frugal is easier to use, especially for newbies. Frugal's admin is cleaner and more user friendly. It also offers more built in customization options. With Thesis you'll have to get into the code to make certain changes (Be sure to download the Thesis Hooks plugin to do this). Although Thesis just upgraded to 1.6 which makes some customization easier like drop down menus, it's still not as user (especially newbie) friendly as Frugal. SEO - Winner > Thesis One of Thesis' strengths has always been it's so SEO friendly. You don't need to install the usual plugins like All-In-One SEO, etc. because it's already built into Thesis. Also, the fewer plugins, the faster your site should render - so Thesis is usually fast. Now, Frugal just upgraded to version 3.2 and now has built in SEO as well. I haven't used or tested the new SEO features and can't vouch for it. So for now Thesis is the champ here. Built In Customization/Website Variety - Winner > Frugal This may seem a strange category but one of Frugal's best assets is it's ability to create a variety of websites directly from the admin (no code digging). What do I mean? With Frugal you can create actual websites (not just blogs) because it has an option for a separate homepage and a few other page templates. So let's say you want to create a website for a small business you have, it very, very easy to do with Frugal. You can create your standard business looking (no sidebars, comments, etc) Homepage, About, Products/Services, Contact, etc. and then still have a business blog section too. Customization - Winner > Thesis If you want to make MAJOR changes, additions, etc to your website over and above the built in customization then Thesis is what you need. If you like digging into the code, Thesis is just easier to play with than Frugal (please note that I haven't tested this on the newest version of Frugal which just came out the week before this post). Just go to the Thesis website and you can see a few of the many customization people have made. So if you know your way around code Thesis may be for you. I hope this helps.