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As a designer and WordPress user I am all for designing your own themes and having a custom look that no one else has. But for some, this may not be possible. This could because they do not have the knowledge to design their own theme or its not in their budget to do a ground up custom theme for their website.
Because of these reasons and more, WordPress owners use free skins or premium skins that have that custom look and feel to them. Although Evolutionary Designs uses a free skin (working on a own Thesis skin), I rarely recommend using a free skin unless you find them in the WordPress directory. Getting free themes or getting a premium themes that someone hacked and released as a freeware can sometimes have malicious code in there that can do all sorts of bad things to your reputation and your brands reputation.
To avoid these issues I only recommend premium themes and my favorite theme is Thesis. It has almost everything you need built right into to the framework. By having a lot of important and useful tools built right into the framework, this cuts down on how many plugins or coding you have to do to add features to the site.
What is Thesis? What’s So Good About It?
Thesis isn’t just a WordPress theme its a premium Theme Framework template system designed to work for any kind of website. Thesis Framework has built in search engine optimization (SEO), faster load times, and point-and-click design controls
“Simply put, Thesis is powerful. It has a remarkably efficient HTML +
CSS +
PHP framework and easy-to-use controls that you can use to fine-tune each and every page of your site with a tactical precision that has never been possible before. The days of worrying about your in-site SEO are over—with Thesis, your strategy is “just add killer content.” – DIY Themes (Thesis)
Websites Using Thesis
Today I decided to look for sites using Thesis and what custom Thesis skin they are using. Every time I found one, I looked carefully at the design and the ones that stood out, I bookmarked so I can go back to them for reference and inspiration. Out of the site I found, a lot of the sites that seem to look the same. By that I mean, they made a few small changes but if you closely they have the same basic look.
When I see this, it reminds of cookie cutter sites and that is a big turn off. I believe, that this might be reason why a lot of people choose to use other premium themes instead of thesis. But with a little time and little knowledge about WordPress and Thesis almost anyone can make changes that will change the look of the theme.
For those that do not have the time or do not want to worry about a designing a theme, there is the option of going with a premium Thesis skin. Out of all of the premium Thesis skins available, I currently recommend looking in Blogussion which is one of the more popular premium Thesis skins available. But recently new Thesis skin designer is out on the market and the new site is ThesisAwesome. About a month ago I was able to get my hands on a site using their BlogSkin Thesis skin. Not only was I able to test the public areas of the skin but I was able to test the admin areas. I have to say, this is a great skin full of additional extras. Read my review here.
Since a lot of people think that every Thesis site has the same look, I decided share with you 13 sites that use Thesis that look nothing a like and have a great look!
FamousBloggers
FamousBloggers has used Thesis for as long as I can remember, and the owner, Hesham, has made various changes to Thesis to make his different from other Thesis sites.
ThesisAwesome
ThesisAwesome is premium Thesis skin site that sells premium Thesis skins and the site itself runs on Thesis along with a custom theme created by ThesisAwesome.
iBlogZone
IBlogZone is a business resource site for those running an online business. This site uses a custom three column Thesis skin.
Kristarella.com
Kristarella.com is a personal blog that shares resources for thesis, photography, and variety of other stuff. This site also uses Thesis.
ThemeThesis
Theme Thesis is a Thesis resource blog that not only share Thesis resources but also uses Theses for their theme.
Eric Scouten
Eric Scouten is photography blog that uses the Thesis Theme.
VocalEdge
Project Burning Bush
GroupMind Media
DigitalDoyle
Simple Mom
Blogussion
Blogussion is blog for bloggers. This site is all about blogging and helping other bloggers be successful. Blogussion uses a premium Thesis skin that you can purchase from Koakube.
Kolakube
Kolakube offers premium Thesis skins, resources & tutorials and their site runs off of Thesis.
Final Thoughts
Thesis is one of my favorite premium themes for WordPress, but it can be difficult to master, if you are not familiar with WordPress design and web design. If you want to use Thesis, I would definitely look into go with a premium skin when using Thesis. If two sites I have listed here do not have the look you are looking for, subscribe to our feed. In the near future, I will be doing some research on Thesis premium skins and other premium themes for WordPress. When I find themes and skins and that are worth looking into I will share them with you….
If you know of other Thesis skin sites out there, let us know. I will give those credit that help me find more skins and premium skins and themes for WordPress.
Hesham of Famous Blogger has some great designing skills so does Alex Fraiser of Blogussion. I like their blogs and websites the most. I even love the skins that they are providing in their respective Thesis skins site: ThesisAwesome and Kolakube
Hi Shiva,
I both Alex and Hesham offer some great skins and their blogs are in my list of frequent blogs I visit.
I personally love Thesis; it’s amazing what you can do with it.
I also think Hesham did a great job with his skins; I wish I had that when I first got the theme.
We actually did a lot of customizations yesterday; would love to see what you think, James.
http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com
Ana
Hi Ana, sorry for replying to your comment so late. I found it in the spam folder.
Any ways your changes look good. I Like new colors.