How the heck would I know? Last year I repeated a rumour telling the community a beta for the long awaited Thesis 2.0 would be released in 2009. That’s more than six months ago and I still can’t see the beta in my downloads tab (I’m a developer, so I should be first to know!).

One guy over at famousbloggers.net claims to have seen AdSense ads that say: “Buy Thesis while it’s cheap. Prices will increase…”

I haven’t seen any evidence to prove that and I think it’s another rumour to make people buy it (from famousbloggers.net of course).

Funny thing to mention: Months ago I said I would even pay $ 300,- for the Thesis Theme and said blogger is now repeating the price would be $ 297,- for the developer edition when Thesis 2.0 hits the market…

Do you know the Thesis 2.0 release date?

If so, please comment on this post and share your wisdom with us. After being a bit disappointed by DIYthemes (for tossing a 2009ish date and just giving me Thesis 1.7) I now don’t want to riddle any longer about it.

Yesterday I was just optimizing my (already outdated) Thesis 1.7 beta post and a few hours later, Chris Pearson tweeted about the final version. I was late, but not today: Thesis 1.7 is out and it’s pretty amazing. You can download this masterpiece of a WordPress theme right over at DIYthemes.com – now it’s finally available for those who don’t have the developer option activated.

If you want to learn how to create a custom Thesis 1.7 design within 2 minutes you should have a look at this post.

Along with 20′000+ Thesis Theme users I was desperately looking forward to another improvement on Thesis by Chris Pearson! A few days ago Chris did two things to me: #1 He disappoints me since Thesis 2.0 is still far away and #2 makes me smile because he dropped the Thesis 1.7 Beta for curious users who are proud owners of the Thesis Developer Edition!

Thesis 1.7 Featuring…

1. Improved SEO options – you can now redefine important SEO stuff on every single post and/or page!
2. Save & Restore – you are finally able to save your exhausting customizations with a single click (for later re-use or because of nostalgic reasons)
3. Redesigned options menu – choose from: Improved Site Options, Design Options, Page Options, Custom File Editor, and a brandnew Options Manager
4. Faster page loads – since header.php and footer.php have been moved to the recylce bin your website will load within seconds
5. Choose your JS library – all our favorite JavaScript Enhancement Tools are only a few clicks away instead of digging into ugly folder mess
6. A killer comment system – drag and drop your trackbacks and comments as you want them to be shown
7. Improved internationalization – many parts of the old Thesis Theme code were not accessible for translation purposes, now they are
8. more detailed info on this subject are available on the official site: http://diythemes.com/thesis/version-17-features/

Early Thought About Thesis 1.7 Beta

Trustworthy resources already tested the benefits, have a look at them:

• Thesis 1.7 beta: Early Thoughts
• Thesis 1.7 Upgrades and SEO Features
• A Quick Peek in to Thesis 1.7 Beta

If you are already a satisfied Thesis Theme user you are for sure going to love the new features. But if you are still searching for the perfect WordPress Theme for your blog, you should have a look at my description pages and learn Why Thesis is perfect, Try Thesis to realize it really is perfect and finally Buy Thesis as it costs very little compared to your effort to create a beautiful blog with other themes (time is money).

Well, it’s not totally fresh news since DIYthemes already moved their beloved Inhouse Affiliate System to ShareASale.com a few months ago, but still: It’s worth mentioning it again from another perspective! I do believe that this move is not one of the best. It’s not a move I would have expected from Chris Pearson and his folks at DIYthemes. But, alas, I’m not the mastermind behind the hugely successful Wordpress Theme Forge…

Bad News For Thesis Theme Affiliates?

Nope. I don’t think so. While I was enjoying the superfast and reliable payout service all Thesis Theme Affiliates experienced I do NOT enjoy the new system at ShareASale. But that is only because I HATE their layout and design. I wish, their website would use the Thesis Theme aswell ;-)

Since I’m serving very old “news” today, many things happened in the meantime:

1. Thesis Theme Affiliates do not have to worry about their promotion website being non-English! ShareASale clearly stated, that it is more than okay to publish Thesis Ads on websites in other languages than English.
2. You are explicitly allowed (and welcomed) to use your own advertising materials – as long as those banners and text links do not violate the TOS which DIYthemes already formulated loosely enough.
3. Yes, if you are not a citizen of the USA you have to pay about $3 to $7 to get your payout. But: Instead of using the Paypal system you are now getting your submissions served directly into your bank account. I would like to have Paypal as an option but I can live without it…

The Future Of Thesis Theme Affiliates

Some time ago, Brian Clark mentioned on his website the following amazing fact: DIYthemes paid more than $392,828.80 to their affiliates in 2009. Me included! I’m not only proud to have the power to help people buy good stuff – I’m also very satisfied with DIYthemes’ methods of interacting with me!

I started as a customer and ended as a partner. What a career! At all times I feel that I’m part of a big movement into the right direction. Of course it’s mostly about making money but in the end that doesn’t matter as long as the crippled Wordpress Theme Scene is evolving so fast.

Just imagine what the blogosphere (yup, I also hate that term) around Wordpress as a CMS/Blog System would be without Thesis.

BTW: You might also like to read about “The Move” over at howtomakemyblog.com

Honeymoon to boot and you are already sick of your companion, namely Thesis Theme for WordPress!? There is now a new feature coming with our beloved premium theme: A divorce within 30 days is now totally legal and of course you’ll get your money back. Another top-notch reason to just try things out and play around a bit :-) If you aren’t already using Thesis: Why not czeching it out for free?

30-day Money Back Guarantee

Rocks! Chris Pearson not only re-mixed the whole enchilada at DIYthemes.com a few days ago but also he states the following phrase, czech it out (for free!):

Over 15,000 savvy webmasters rely on the Thesis website framework. Try it today at no risk! @pearsonified

Man, it feels good to be part of such a great community. 15,000 people rocking their blog with the Thesis Theme – that’s stunning.

Question: How come that from more than 9,159,268 downloads of WordPress 2.8 only 0.16% are using the best theme on the planet? I know, you are probably one of the other 99,84% using a “free theme” for your blog…

But in comparison to a marriage you are most likely going to ditch your free partner very soon. With Thesis you now have the option to break Chris’ heart and go for the better (which I would not know what it is) – 30 days without a risk. No marriage is meant to be like that :-|

You either go the whole way or you don’t start at all. That’s my opinion. But for cowards it’s a nice hoot-hoot to boot-boot. Sorry for that one.

Skip The Shit: Get Paid for using Thesis

30 days is a long time to think about your decision. It’s VERY likely that while you are czeching Thesis out you’ll fall in love with it – I did and as I mentioned: 15,000 other people from the community also did!

So, if you are going to stay with us and still feel like being on the fence with the 87$ – perhaps you should try the DIYthemes Affiliate Program and make some cash. Promote only three copies of the personal edition and you’ll break even. That’s like expanding the 30-days thing to a lifetime saving. Beat it!

That would be a great gift to the Thesis Community and I (naturally) believe in Chris Pearson’s positive & constructive energy to release a Thesis 2.0 Beta in 2009. Of course this short article is based completely on a “rumour” sent into Thesiverse by the master himself ;-) What do you think about the following statement? Hoax or Hallelujah?

To stay up-to-date you should consider subscribing to the Thesis Dev Blog RSS Feed right now. If there is any candy being given to the community you can put your grubby hands on it. The “rumour” I’m talking about is from that source, too: http://diythemes.com/dev/thesis-16-final/

Chris Pearson finally released his precious Thesis Theme in version 1.6 – you are gonna love it! It has all of the features we were wishing Thesis 1.5.x had. Today (with this WordPress theme) creating a website has become about 90% easier. In fact I bet my black cat (I wish I had one!) could create a website in a glance. As usual you’ve got two options: Either go with the flow and purchase the Thesis Developer Edition (highly recommended!) or use the Thesis Personal Edition. There are, however, many reasons why you should buy the “big one” from the get-go.

1. With the Developer Option you can create as many websites as you like (as long as you own the very domains you are using it on!)
2. You will receive news, updates and freaky beta releases much earlier than others
3. With a Developer Edition you are able to create websites for customers! You are charged only 40 bucks for every site you maintain for customers. Professional decision for professional webdesigners.

Everybody who is in love with Thesis 1.5.x will now literally admire Chris Pearson’s new attempt to make the blogging world a better one! Thesis 1.6 is coming and I think it will be rather soon than late. Yesterday Beta 2 was announced and is now ready for interested developers to be downloaded from diythemes.com – with a original masterpiece made even better you are now close to becoming a blog superstar. Well, in fact you have to do something about it in the first place ;-)

Discard your nerdy custom.css

People designing their blogs with Thesis 1.5 had to make any CSS customizations with an old-fashioned custom.css, now – with Thesis 1.6 (beta2) – you can just re-color e.g. your header navigation with a few clicks. That is, however, a change that most of us would have expected long ago. Well, now it has arrived and we are of course all happier than ever!

Even those sophisticated drop-down menus are ready to take off right in your very blog. The options are now implanted into the already close-to-perfect options menu. Attention: This new feature is know to be highly addictive, so you might find yourself spending hours on customizing your nav bars…

Beware of these things before upgrading

Because Chris wants all the custom files in one special place he finally moved your nerdy custom.css and the rotator directory into the custom folder. This is of course the only place where custom files belong, so let’s be happy about this improvement instead of whining. It’s easier to maintain and thereby simply the better choice. Another feature which some of us missed in prior releases.

However, the cute Thesis 1.6 Beta “Girlie” shouts out loud not to use the new beta 2 with serious projects where life and death depend on. Look at the screenshot I took from the forums.

What you can do with an improved Thesis 1.6

Marko Saric made a great video on how to use the new Thesis 1.6 beta 2 options galore and I of course want to share that with you. Do not miss his website howtomakemyblog.com as it serves you great pieces of useful information on blogging in general and with a special section for our daily Thesis Theme Love.