When I started my VA bushiness a year ago I found what I thought would be a great theme, not too expensive, a color scheme I liked and it appeared very flexible. Unfortunately it has turned out to be a bit of a disaster - I have had nothing but problems - every time the developer does an update it messes something up in the coding elsewhere.

I'm looking to change themes, and want something that is flexible/powerful, but relatively quick to get off the ground.

The good news in all of this is that I'm rebranding myself so this is not as negative an occurrance as it could have been.

Thanks all!
Joanne

You might want to try something that is built around a framework. That way the code of the framework can be constantly updated and secured, but it won't break the theme (look and feel) of the site. There are several Wordpress Frameworks out there. I like the Genesis Framework coupled with a Studiopress theme. When you buy a SP theme for the first time, you automatically get the Genesis framework. Afterwards, if you want to update your site, you'd only need to buy another theme.

Thanks Kary, I'm narrowing down on my choice - either Studiopress, Headway or Elegant themes. I'm taking a bit of time to look at each as I want t get it right this time!

Joanne

Great! I personally don't recommend Elegant Themes. I purchased their package a few years ago and almost pulled my hair out trying to customize the themes. It was very difficult because at least at the time, they were not built on a framework. Not sure about Headway. Frameworks are easier, IMO, because you're dealing with "child themes" when you want to tweak and / or full-out customize a theme. you don't have to touch the core, which is important unless you're a WP programmer.

I paid for Headway for a year, and I really liked the flexibility of it -- but that extremely wonderful functionality was also paralyzing, because I couldn't decide. I ended up not renewing it for a second year.

I think that you have to be an experienced user of WordPress to make really good use of a framework. If you're not an experienced user, then I'd recommend finding a responsive theme with a few different choices and good documentation for customizations.

I am currently working on adapting the "Fruitful" Theme, and liking it so far. Hoping to post here when I'm ready for reviews of my new/rebuilt site.

Margretta

__________________
Margretta de Vries
AdminProfi

Hi Margretta, Although I'm not disagreeing with you about needing to be an experienced user of WP to make use of a framework. I think that statement would be accurate for anyone wanting to customize ANY type of theme. Unless you're taking the theme, as is, straight out of the box with no customizations at all...you will need to be comfortable with Wordpress.

The advantage of a Framework is simply that when you customize the theme, you are not touching the core of what runs the site. Any customizations you do is only to your theme....never the framework. It means the difference between breaking your site, or not. With frameworks like Genesis, they have what's called built-in "hooks." When you purchase from them you can read all about these on the site and google it as they're all over the web.

What a "hook" does is allow you to really customize the function and structure of your site without touching the PHP code of the framework. So for example, if you want your name to show on the top of the blog post but not the date - there is a "hook" for that. If you want to post a page without the page title/header...there is a hook for that. There are literally hundreds of hooks. Working with a non-frameworked theme, if you want to make changes like this you have to be brave enough to touch the code. EEK!

Sure, that all makes sense! I just wish I had enough time (really need to find it) to really delve into this, so I'm not paralyzed by decision-making.

__________________
Margretta de Vries
AdminProfi

I really like the Weaver II Pro theme. It is built on a framework and has many different child themes to choose from. I especially like the blank child theme. And of course this allows you to fully customize your theme without touching the core at all.

__________________

StudioPress all the way! Great customer service and they always keep up with the tech changes.

__________________
Amy
http://amygetsthingsdone.com/

If your a blogger I would suggest you to use http://diythemes.com

But if you are a marketer you should use Optimizepress