I know there are lots of WordPress users out there that loves the Thesis Theme by Chris Pearson but like me, simply cannot cough up the money to buy the Theme. If so, you can try this free alternative to the Thesis Theme that I have modded here which is also based on a theme from the same programmer.
First let me emphasize that nothing will beat the original. No matter how hard I try to make this theme look like the real Thesis, it will always remain as a cheap alternative. I can only change the look, but I can never copy the framework of the Thesis Theme. Based on what I have seen when I was modding this Theme, I believe the framework of the Thesis theme would be really solid and second to none in terms of a Search Engine Optimization. I have been saving up to buy the Developer Version which allows me to use it on unlimited sites. My advise is, if you have $87 to spare for the Personal Version, stop reading and go buy the Thesis Theme. It will be worth every penny.
Okay, so you are still here reading. LOL. That means you are either as broke as me or you simply do not like spending money on Themes. Well then, let me tell you why I believe the Thesis Theme will be the ultimate Theme for me.
Whenever I want to mod a Theme, I will always look at how the theme is built. I do not want to break any important codes that might screw up the Theme. Normally, I will go through each php file and see the relations between them and observe which functions are called up in each file.
In most Free Themes, it will be pretty standard. Most amateur Theme designers will take the easy way out and grab most of their codes from established and stable Themes like the default Kubrik Theme that comes with WordPress. They will then use these codes and base their Theme upon them. Some with better knowledge will alter some tags to make the Theme more visible to Search Engines and call their themes SEO friendly while some will add a couple more php files for you to insert Adsense and call their themes Adsense Optimized.
That’s pretty standard procedure and lots of professional programmers resort to this also. If they see some codes that are well written and on par with what they can come up with, it saves them the time by incorporating those codes into their themes, with credits to the original programmer of course.
Back to this theme. This theme is modded from the original 3 Column Neoclassical Theme by Chris Pearson. I have briefly explained what I did in my previous posts so I will not go into that area again. What prompted me to say what I said in the beginning, that I believe the Thesis Theme is one Theme that you should use, is due to the fact that I saw how Chris Pearson has structured this theme when I was modifying it.
To me, a good Theme need not have fancy colors, images or backgrounds. This will only makes it look good externally and furthermore all those fancy stuffs will increase the loading time of your site or blog. The most important factor when choosing a theme, is to consider the SEO aspect of the Theme. If you do not know what that means read “How To Optimize Your Blog For Search Engines” by Neil Patel, who also by the way, is using the Thesis Theme.
The problem is, the majority of you do not understand how to go about doing it themselves. Let me tell you, you do not have to go and wreck your brains learning how. It will kill all the enthusiasm for blogging that you had initially because you will be so concerned that Google will not see your blog and you won’t be getting any traffic. All you have to do is to get a theme that has already been coded for SEO. Like this theme, or again if you can afford it, the Thesis Theme.
The Neoclassical Theme, of which the modded version you are seeing here, is so tightly optimized for Search Engines that you do not have to do most of the things that Mr. Patel has written. You do not even need to have excerpts in the front page, because within this theme the “Home” page is “nofollowed”. Which means if Google lands on the post that you have just written in the single post page and if that post is still shown in your home page, it will not follow the “Home” link in your navigation bar to see a duplicate post.
That’s how “tight” this theme is coded. All instances of any leakage has been plugged up with “nofollows” so that when Search Robots comes, your posts will retain all the juices. I have used this free theme in many of my niche blogs and believe it or not, I see good spike in Search Traffic after 1 or 2 weeks of using it.
Now imagine. If Chris Pearson can do this for a free Theme, what else can you expect for the Thesis Theme that he is charging money for? Now you see why I keep telling you to get the Thesis Theme?
Then of course, if you still haven’t saved up enough or if you are still skeptical, you can always download this Free Alternative To The Thesis Theme. If anything, it at least has some look and feel of the real Thesis. And it is very friendly with Google. 
This version have been tested on Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3. All those who have downloaded the version before the April 20th. 2009, please re-download this IE7 compatible current version. Sorry.. can’t guarantee for those using IE6, but you can try.
LATEST UPDATE: 4 FEBRUARY 2010 – This is the latest WordPress 2.9 version
DOWNLOAD THE 2 COLUMN NEOCLASSICAL THEME
or if you afford it, go for the real thing Thesis Latest Version
Hi Ray,
This modded 2 column version took care of that. Whatever pages you add will appear automatically at the navigation bar.
Nice work on the Theme!
Just found your blog by searching for Theasis reviews…
So you knuckled under, and became another Thesis shill. It’s not a scam, it’s a fine theme—and so are a hundred others. Their famous after-purchase support? Hell-o, anyone can run a forum. Chris Pearson is a cyber-bully, the whole Thesis thing is smart marketing for newbs and suckers. What about the GPL?
Damn shame.
Thank you so much for adjusting this theme. I love Thesis but it’s too complicated for me to keep endlessly messing with it and trying to figure it out. I’m just trying to put up a simple blog! Also, there was a very spirited discussion on Chris Brogan’s blog about Thesis not being GPL and Matt Mullenburg not endorsing the theme for that reason. It is ironic that the platform that allows them to build and promote Thesis (WP) is now being exploited by them for profit. I am not against paying for premium themes but the fact that they don’t allow this theme on unlimited sites unless you pay a “developer’s fee” is against the spirit of open source – what wordpress is all about.
I dont think theme matters, I use Arthemia , its doing good for me.
But thanks for this, I love it too.
I am very new to wp. I use go daddy for hosting, I downloaded and installed this theme and I am having a hard time changing the header image. I told ya I’m a rookie… help?
Hi Jen,
Sorry to say, but godaddy hosting sucks. LOL. When the account expires, I suggest to change host that uses cPanel.
Anyway, even if it sucks, the header image should still show. Is the default header image showing? If it is, you do not need to do any changes to the codes.
All you have to do is to make your own header image, set it to 910px wide and 200px in height. Name the image as ‘header’ and save it as jpg. so now your image is called ‘header.jpg’
Now you go to your server, look for this theme folder. Inside you will find another folder called images. Open the images folder upload your new image to that folder. It will overwrite the old header image.
Go to your blog, Hit CTRL + F5 to force re-load. The new image should show up.
Let me know if it works.
This is very nice and cool. But Thesis is the no.1.
downloaded… and trying out on my pc localhost.. anyway how do i do the advertisement pop out at them bottom of the page.. so cool
Use the Action Slider Plugin
http://actionslider.com/
(working on a blogg in wordpress), But this is great. I have one question about h-tagg for the subject to the post. From my perspective the blogpost subject should have the h1-tagg, and the blogg name h-2 tagg.
Google read the Title, description, de subject and then the text that answers the question I ask to Google search engine. Altough the subject needs the serten keyword I wich to be wisible to. And the subject to the article should allso have h-1 tagg so that Google reads, “This is the most imoportant subject”. I have seen some big changes in the “serp” when I have created h1-tagg for the blog-post title.
So I bee glad if everybody hwo do themes do this h-tagg outher way orund.
Hi Madeline,
I don’t think there is an imitation Thesis Theme ala an imitation LV if that’s what you mean. There are of course, lots of pirated illegal ones circulating around.
Be warned though that those leeched Thesis contains encrypted malicious codes hidden within that links to suspicious sites. You might get heavily penalized by Search Engines if you use them.
As for free 3 column Themes, there are plenty of free and good ones around.You just have to spend a little time looking for what you like.