Why I Moved to WooThemes

Posted on 31. Dec, 2009 by Isaac Yassar in WordPress

moveHello people!

If you have come here before, perhaps you notice that I have changed my WordPress theme. I used FrugalTheme in the past, now I am using WooThemes.

I am not saying FrugalTheme is bad. It’s nice in some ways, with advanced frameworks and stuff. However, I learned that framework themes (like frugal, thesis, etc) require a good designer / tweaker to perform optimally. It means if you want to make it look good, you need to tweak it good.

That was too much for me.

When I tried to change the look of my frugal theme, I could not achieve any satisfying result while it had taken much of my time and energy. The time and energy that I think would be better spent for building content and online profile.

WooThemes is much simpler to use. Mine is called Busy Bee. It has 13 color schemes, all of them look nice. I mean I don’t need to tweak it much yet it’s already looking great. It also has some spots ready for advertising.

What I really needed to make it work well is only a new logo. So I made my current logo using PhotoShop with a format of PNG with transparent background. However, I’m still waiting for my designer friend to finish my brand new logo.

This theme is quite simple in options, not like framework themes. That is good for me, because more flexibility doesn’t always mean better.

busy-bee

I am happy with my new theme. Now I don’t have to worry about design and I can focus on building content and establish online presence.

What do you think of my new theme?

Tags: theme, WordPress

38 Responses to “Why I Moved to WooThemes”

  1. Blogging Tips

    31. Dec, 2009

    First of all congrats on achieving PR 5.I liked both the themes of Go blogger.

    My suggestion is you add your avatar to the header.The header column is looking somewhat empty.

    Reply to this comment

    • Isaac Yassar

      31. Dec, 2009

      Thanks buddy. Yeah, I have a good designer creating a brand new header for me. I hope he create a fancy one.

      My avatar doesn’t have transparent background so it will look bad there.

      Reply to this comment

  2. Dan

    31. Dec, 2009

    I like it, very web2.0

    My comment: I don’t like the green though, kind of ugly imho.

    Reply to this comment

    • Isaac Yassar

      31. Dec, 2009

      Thanks Dan. The green is the stock color, I’ll probably experiment with it in the custom.css once I have some time. Note: I’m not very good with colors, so I probably do more harm than good :lol:

      My future plan is to have this theme pimped by a professional designer, the affiliated Woo workers.

      Reply to this comment

  3. BestofBlogger

    31. Dec, 2009

    I am using thesis theme also. But i could not costimeze . I will change my theme. I found one. :)

    Reply to this comment

    • Isaac Yassar

      31. Dec, 2009

      Good luck buddy! Yeah, Thesis looks fantastic on copyblogger.com and authorityrules.com , but it’s not the regular Thesis. It’s pimped by the creator of Thesis, Chris Pearson.

      Reply to this comment

  4. David Hobson

    31. Dec, 2009

    Im not a really big fan of woothemes although they do have some nice looking themes. Im liking my Studiopress themes at the moment.

    Reply to this comment

  5. Jim Hardin

    31. Dec, 2009

    I like it Isaac! Still clean and neat like frugal theme and if it is easier to customize without a lot of headache even better so that you can focus more on the content.

    Reply to this comment

    • Isaac Yassar

      31. Dec, 2009

      Thanks Jim! Yeah, too much spending time and energy on design made me felt like being on the wrong track. Now I can use my time and energy to build content, online profile, and connections :-)

      Reply to this comment

  6. steppinout

    31. Dec, 2009

    Woothemes is always one of my favorite. They do have a lot of neat and professional themes

    Reply to this comment

    • Isaac Yassar

      01. Jan, 2010

      True my friend, they do. And they are easy to use too. For me, building content and online presence is hard enough without design concerns ;-)

      Reply to this comment

  7. Vaibhav - Programming Kid

    31. Dec, 2009

    You correctly pointed out that one needs a designer for framework themes like thesis. I’d one doesn’t need a designer, one just needs someone who understands CSS and WordPress.

    Anyone who knows that can work around with CSS and change the theme according to your requirement.

    One disadvantage of using stock themes without framework is that they look identical everywhere whereas themes like Hybrid. Thesis can look way different depending upon how well they have been designed.

    Reply to this comment

    • Isaac Yassar

      01. Jan, 2010

      I know CSS, and my frugaltheme was very easy to set. In fact I could change everything via options page, no need to edit the css. The problem was that I couldn’t find the right combination of color, margin, padding, width, etc, to make it look good (at least for my personal taste).

      My current theme has 13 color schemes to choose. So it’s not very similar to other users. Besides, I still have the custom.css and some images to edit if I want to. But for now, I’d better spent my time to build content and online presence ;-)

      Reply to this comment

  8. Nick

    01. Jan, 2010

    Hi Isaac. Your theme is very clean. I’m using Thesis theme on one of my three sites, but I think that WT is more better. Maybe, I will change my theme.

    Reply to this comment

  9. Ricky

    01. Jan, 2010

    Theme looks great. Wt has some nice collection of themes. If you need any help with tweaking your theme you can contact me. I do own thesis and onetheme.

    Reply to this comment

  10. chandan

    01. Jan, 2010

    Hi I have come to your blog by seeing your nice comment on someone blog. Your blog design is really very nice.

    Keep it up..

    Reply to this comment

  11. Deepika

    01. Jan, 2010

    Hi friend,

    Your blog looking good.. Me also planned to change my blog theme.. Have got few themes including busy bee.. I will be implementing good theme in my blog soon…

    Happy New Year :D

    Reply to this comment

    • Isaac Yassar

      01. Jan, 2010

      Thanks Deepika. Yeah, Busy Bee is truly a nice premium theme. However, some people posted it on torrent. Beware, it has malicious code inside, encrypted on its footer. Always get the legitimate one my friend. That is good.

      Reply to this comment

  12. Jared P Little

    01. Jan, 2010

    Isaac,

    Looks good glad to here you like woo theme I have heard good things about them. Yes you have enough going on running a blog you need a theme that is easy to work with sounds like you found a winner.

    Reply to this comment

    • Isaac Yassar

      02. Jan, 2010

      Yeah, I think this theme is the winner. It’s good enough for now. In future, I’ll probably have a designer pimping it ;-)

      Reply to this comment

  13. Sire

    01. Jan, 2010

    Looking good Isaac. It’s great that you found a Theme you like mate. I actually bought Thesis and I can say it’s not what it’s made out to be, Lucky for me I kept looking till I found my perfect theme, one with true flexibility.

    Reply to this comment

    • Isaac Yassar

      02. Jan, 2010

      Thanks Sire. What they say as the best is probably the best for them, but not always for us. In the end we got to find ourselves which one is truly the best for our need. And it sometimes needs a process to figure out.

      Reply to this comment

    • @donpower

      06. Jan, 2010

      Sire – I’m not stalking you – I promise – but once again I have to agree with my buddy Sire. I bought Thesis based on the rep that thre wold be no need for coding…

      Wrong!

      I spent way too much of my newbie blogger anxiety trying to figure out “hooks” (still don’t know how to use those – just found code snippits on the web for what I needed).

      But ask me to change anything now – I don’t think I could (I tried to comment the code snippets as best I could – harkening back to my brief stint as a program code auditor) but man – way too technical for me.

      Now I’m looking for a new theme for a reviewer type site. Needs lots of categories/subcategories and has to look “laid back cool” . I don’t mind paying – as long as there’s NO F%&^*&*ing coding involved!!

      Thanks Isaac!

      - Don

      Reply to this comment

      • Sire

        06. Jan, 2010

        No worries Don. As to the theme you should seriously consider Flexsqueeze. I recommend trying Flexibility, the free version, first.

        Reply to this comment

  14. Rose

    02. Jan, 2010

    Isaac, thanks for visiting my blog. I really like your theme. Nice clean and professional.

    Reply to this comment

  15. Gabe | freebloghelp.com

    02. Jan, 2010

    As a frugal theme user for multiple sites, I guess I can say I’m a big fan of the theme. I also like Woo Themes too. You really can’t go wrong with either.

    Reply to this comment

  16. Uttoran Sen

    03. Jan, 2010

    This one surely is more clean and clear, actually its more professional looking :)

    and, congrats for the pr5, its a great achievement :)

    Reply to this comment

  17. earningstep

    06. Jan, 2010

    so this is why you blog look different…lol…
    yeah…. woo themes is quite popular too

    Reply to this comment

  18. Dhananjay

    11. Jan, 2010

    Blog looking excellent!!

    Reply to this comment

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