*when HiFi is just not an option

Every once in awhile, someone asks me why I have pink hair.
(You ever notice that no one asks why anyone has blonde hair, or red hair? But pink, it seems, requires a good reason.)
There are a lot of ways I could answer that question, but the simplest is probably that I don’t really buy into [...]

Earlier this year, Brian and I created a course called Freelance X Factor.
It was designed for the “typical” Copyblogger reader. (Smart, interested in writing, pretty savvy about social media . . . but possibly “not there yet” when it comes to packaging all of that up and turning it into income.)
The course is designed to [...]

So I’ve created something brand new, and it occurred to me it would be pretty silly if I didn’t let you know about it.
I put it together in response to a lot of frustration I was hearing about overwhelm. We’ve got hundreds of great resources. All kinds of good advice about this big, complicated problem [...]

There’s a new version of Thesis out that has our customers excited, thanks to some really cool new features. And it occurred to me that there are a lot of new Copyblogger subscribers who might use WordPress, and yet not really “get” what this Thesis thing is all about.

So in this post I’ll tell you what’s brand new in Thesis 1.6, and also bring everyone up to speed on why Thesis makes WordPress way better.

What is the Thesis Theme for WordPress?

Thesis is the flagship product of DIY Themes, a partnership between Chris Pearson and I. It’s the theme framework that powers Copyblogger and many other high-traffic sites.

In a nutshell, Thesis is software that delivers rock-solid SEO website code, plus unprecedented design flexibility for WordPress — without requiring the novice user to code anything.

For sophisticated users, Thesis is a search-optimized development framework that allows designers and web developers to build sites better and faster than ever before.

* SEO

Search legend Danny Sullivan, Google’s Matt Cutts, and Microsoft search engineer Jeremiah Andrick all use Thesis for their sites. So does search and affiliate marketing entrepreneur Rae Hoffman, SEO guru Michael Gray, top bloggers Darren Rowse and Robert Scoble, web-hosting entrepreneur Scott Beale, social media darling Chris Brogan, and thousands of others.

To find out why the Thesis approach to site code results in maximum search engine crawlibility, watch this quick video I put together.

* Design Flexibility

With most WordPress themes, you’re stuck with the basic look and feel that the theme designer decided on. With Thesis, you can choose between one, two, or three column layouts (and the size of each column), change font types and sizes, create a magazine-style layout, and lots more. Again, watch this video for an overview, and then dive into the three demo videos listed below the general video to see what Thesis can do.

* Support

Even with everything that Thesis makes easier, we know that people don’t want to be hung out to dry. Our support forums have evolved into a truly supportive community of over 10,000 of your fellow webmasters and bloggers. You’ll have help from DIY Themes support professionals, Thesis Certified Designers, and tons of your peers who simply enjoy lending a helping hand.

What’s New in Thesis 1.6?

Now, here’s the new goodness. Thesis 1.6 offers a lot of improvements throughout, plus two major innovative capabilities – you can now change colors throughout the theme without getting into the CSS markup, and you can create drop-down interactive navigation menus right from the control panel in the WordPress dashboard.

* Change Colors Throughout the Theme Without Code

This is huge for someone like me, who would never mess with CSS in order to change background colors, column colors, etc. I only know enough code to be dangerous, but now if I want to throw up a new site with a varied color scheme, I can do it without bugging Chris or Tony.

Watch this video to see how to build a site with Thesis 1.6.

* Create Killer Navigation Menus

This is another awesome feature for people who don’t code. Now you can create interactive navigation menus with drop-down subpages for each choice, all point-and-click from the Thesis design panel. It was cool the other day when Mark McGuiness proudly emailed me to check out his new interactive navigation menu (Mark’s a poet and a creativity consultant, not a coder).

Watch this quick video that shows how to work the navigation options.

What About Thesis 2.0?

The buzz is already building about the highly-anticipated Thesis 2.0 – a complete next generation approach to an already innovative theme. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s hard to believe this is the natural evolution from what we started with a year-and-a-half ago.

But don’t think you have to wait. Our current model and pricing provides all Thesis customers with every future update and unlimited access to support… so you can get started with Thesis today and never miss out on what’s coming next.

(And if you caught the hint by my use of the word “current,” you understand that this will change in the near future. Come join the Thesis community today).

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and co-founder of DIY Themes, creator of the innovative Thesis Theme for WordPress. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

Brian and I are heading out to the BlogWorld and New Media Expo this week, where we hope to meet plenty of Copyblogger readers.
As you might know, one of the smartest things you can do at a conference is to see if there’s someone you can learn from at the bar after the [...]

It’s that time of year again…
Summer’s just about over, the kids are heading back to school, and Teaching Sells is opening up for the Fall semester.
Many of you might not be familiar with Teaching Sells, and that’s perfectly fine.
Here’s what we’ve got to introduce you:
For starters, a 22-page PDF report (or audio version) called Forget [...]

I haven’t posted anything about our Thesis Theme for Wordpress lately, which is criminally negligent on my part given that it’s one of the main ways that pays the bills around here.
But this time I wanted to do something a bit more than a product update.
So I was thinking… one of the big selling [...]