For most of my blogging “career,” I used Pagelines Platform which is, in my opinion, the best and easiest free wordpress theme available. If you want an easy, free theme, I highly recommend Pagelines.
However, in early 2012 I spent the money to upgrade to a premium theme. Here's why.
Photo by Steven Depolo
1. Page Load Speed
Before I switched themes, my blog was slow. Really slow.
Speed is important if you want to keep readers on your blog, as this New York Times article can tell you, and my page load times were sometimes in the 30 second range. Miserable.
Unfortunately, for all its ease, Pagelines was driving my readers away because of its speed. It was time to upgrade.
The Genesis Framework is among the fastest themes on the market, and I don't have to worry about 30 second load times anymore. On top of that, Genesis is the theme of choice for some of the biggest blogs on the internet, including Copyblogger, Problogger, Chris Brogan, and others.
2. Google Friendly
On top of that, Genesis does an excellent job helping me get to the top of Google. The out of the box SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tools make it very easy.
3. Tribe
The most important part of your platform is your list of fans. Your goal should be, in your platform building, to create a list of hardcore, rabid fans who will read anything you ever write (and then share it with their friends). And the Tribe theme is an effective way of building that list.
I started using the Tribe theme after my friend, Jeff Goins, recommended it. Tribe enables you to turn your readers into subscribers easier. In fact, it could improve your rate of sign ups by 50%.
Why is this important? Because someday you're going to publish a book, and when you do, you'll want to send an email to your most faithful fans letting them know. Tribe will highly increase the amount of people who get that email.
It's a fairly simple decision, if you ask me.
Genesis Framework for WordPress.
Since upgrading to Genesis, I've been impressed with how fast it is and how simple it makes managing SEO. Get Genesis for $59.95.
I use PageLines Platform Pro (not free) and have long been frustrated with slow load speeds. Wonder if PageLines is causing it? Probably so since I have stripped everything else down as far as I can. Maybe I SHOULD consider Genesis?
Nice, Beth. Your blog looks great. What’s of the post pop up plugin you’re using?
nRelate Flyout I’ve been really pleased with it.
Hmm… I have nRelate popular posts and love it. I’ll have to give it a shot. Thanks Beth 🙂
If pagelines is running slow could be the use of a bloated functions file. Start by removing unused code… If scared to touch the code… Take Joe’s advice.. Or hire a pro..
Yeah that would be more than I could handle. PHP confuses the heck out of me.
Isn’t it PURE IRONY that I am in the middle of this process as you post this? You are right. You are absolutely on all of this Joe.
Thanks Jim. Good luck with the move. Let me know if I can help (of course).
Thanks buddy. I think I’m in good hands right now, but that doesn’t mean I won’t need help down the road..haha 😉
I just switched to Blog Simple. Love it!
I’m not sure about this, but shouldn’t it be “Tribe enables you to turn your readers into subscribers more easily?” 🙂
Good question, Mark. I think that would be true if “easier” wasn’t a real word. In this case it is. I could be wrong, though.
Ooh, just googled it and found this, FWIW: http://bit.ly/MeIkJS
Just curious if anyone has opinions on TemplateToaster ? For reference, it’s located here: http://goo.gl/V29mTk
Clicked on the TRIBE hyperlink…no longer available?
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