Thesis theme is the original, and also the most popular, wordpress framework. A wordpress framework goes past a 'theme' because it sits in between the core wordpress code and the design of a site. It gives you a stable platform for your site's code, so that if you change the look of your site, it doesn't change your site's code. This is a big step in the evolution of wordpress themes, because before, if you changed your site's design by changing themes, you changed your site's code. And doing so risks you losing all your search engine rankings overnight.

While Thesis theme has been good to ME, it might not necessarily be for you. There IS a bit of a learning-curve, but to me it's one well worth investing some time in. In the medium run it will save you a lot of time and head scratching. I've written down a few of my thoughts about Thesis below:

Reasons why I recommend Thesis

• Thesis theme employs H1 tags for your blog'ss headlines

• You totally handle your post's title tags

• Thesis theme's interface panel tells you, in real-time, your ideal title span for Google.

• You are able to no-follow the navigational 'Home' links to your home page, thus protecting link-juice.

• Thesis theme deals with canonicalisation issues properly.

• Thesis theme no-indexes archive pages,which helps topreserve link juice.

• Thesisenables you to change the design of your site without changing your code (which often can eliminate your search engine positions).

• The theme is coded by an expert programmer, meaning clean effective code.

• Site speed is a ranking factor for Google, and Thesis removes a lot of the code 'bloat' linked to Wordpress.

• Thesis theme is Chris Pearson's only product, so it means Chris gives Thesis his 100 % focus.

• Chris Pearson is always working on updates for it, so Thesis evolves over time.

• Chris Pearson has large goals for the theme. He wants it to become the primary publishing platform pertaining to the internet. This would mean you get to be a part of this development.

• It is the original wordpress 'framework', whereby you can change a lot of the theme's setting from inside the Wordpress panel without getting your hands dirty in HTML, CSS and PHP coding.

• The theme sporned a lot of copycat themes. Chris knows this product far better than all other theme designer.

• The theme has the second largest wordpress forum on the internet, which is a huge source of advice and support.

• Thesis 2.0 (which has been in the works for months), promises a huge step forwards in the capacity for you to easily produce quality, optimized and beautiful sites.

• Chris has resolved the GPL licenses with wordpress. If you don't know what this means, do not be concerned about it too much.

• In case you are a developer, Thesis means that you can work from the same stable product for all your clients. You build their themes on top of Thesis, and so you don't have to reinvent the wheel for new projects.

• The Thesis hooks make customizations a doddle.

• You know that future updates of wordpress aren't going to break the theme, because this theme is Chris's whole business. This is a problem of a lot of themes - the owners make no money from them so they are not motivated to keep updating it.

• You can import other people's Thesis customizations into your own theme to instantly change the look and the feel of your site.

• It has a lot of SEO functions built-in to the theme, which means you don't need third party plugins like All-In-One SEO. Third party plugins contribute to 'bloated code' which makes your site run slower. Third party plugins also increase the likelihood that your site will break in future updates of wordpress, because the developers of the plugins may not be actively updating their plugins any more.|A whole host of high-profile bloggers and website-owners work with Thesis as their theme, which gives the theme credibility. Multi-million pound websites are built on Thesis now .

• Thesis theme is the most popular premium theme in the market. So it has momentum, which means that it's going to be around for a long time.| You have to pay for Thesis. Yes this isn't a bad thing! It means the creator of the theme is continually incentivized to keep the theme evolving. It is not a part-time project for him. Given the option, I will pay for something rather than get the free version more often than not..

The theme's Weak spots

• If you need a genuinely custom-made unique blog design, you do have to have a minimal bit of CSS knowledge, or you will have to get hold of a designer who works with Thesis theme. However, the majority of of the design features you need are built-in into Thesis already.

• If you are a developer and need to re-code a large portion of the wordpress core code, Thesis isn't the easiest to deal with. You can't just tweak index.php and insert something in there like with other themes. But you'll find this with all wordpress premium frameworks now.

• There has been some hot debate between the owner of Thesis theme and the owner of Wordpress. Chris Pearson has some strong opinions, and by investing in Thesis you kind of buy into Chris's viewpoint about software. If you're like most people you just want a site that works, and Thesis does certainly provide this.

• From time to time you'll need a theme where aesthetics are takes priority than the efficiency and code of a site. In cases like this, another theme 'out the box' might work better. Me, I like to spend a little while customizing Thesis to be like those other sites - that way, if I want to change the look of my site down the road, I don't change any of the main code base (and consequently risk losing all my search engine rankings).

Thesis Theme 2.0

There are lots of rumors about what Thesis Theme 2.0 is going to be, and Chris its creator is keeping things relatively secret. Some think that it will be a stand-alone Website cms, not requiring Wordpress. With Chris's run-ins with Wordpress owner Matt Mullenweg in the past, it would make sense that Chris will eventually move away from Wordpress. End users will then be left with a choice about whether they should use Wordpress plus the old Thesis theme, or follow Chris away from Wordpress and towards Thesis 2.0.

I'm a fan of the theme, and when I consult anybody beginning a blog or a web site, I suggest they a) use Wordpress and b) Use Thesis theme on top of wordpress. If you're at all serious about your website - specifically if you plan on earning money from your blog - you should look at getting Thesis. It will easily pay off its investment to you in the form of greater search engine rankings. Thesis theme can be found under the umbrella brand of DIYThemes by Chris Pearson.