Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Popular Articles
About Us 2007 is when I began creating niche stores. Many kind and giving people shared their knowledge with me, making it easier to improve my sites. I have gathered much of what I've learned and put it here, on this site, as a way of giving back. It is my hope that this site will help you improve your niche stores and sites, too. ~ Rochelle
Flexibility Theme is Amazing!
Posted by
Rochelle in 
Earlier today I downloaded the free Flexibility theme and my jaw just about hit the floor after I activated it and started fiddling with this theme’s options.
“Holy crap!” was, I believe, my first thought.
If you are looking for a WordPress theme that will allow you to EASILY customize MANY aspects of your blog, then Flexibility is for you!
I should back up a bit so you can appreciate why I am so impressed with this theme. A few months ago I paid for the Thesis theme because I read several rave reviews about it. The Home page for the Thesis site had a video, made by a user of the theme, that actually showed how easy it is to use this theme for easy customization of a site. I bought the theme and installed it.
It wasn’t long before I realized that Thesis isn’t nearly as user-friendly as the reviewers would have one believe. They were just trying to make a quick affiliate buck with their reviews. Yes, you can customize your site fairly well with Thesis, but it isn’t really easy. Plus, you need to install a free plugin that is not mentioned anywhere (called Thesis-hooks, I think), to really get the most from this theme. I spent quite a bit of time trying to replicate what others had done before I finally realized the plugin was needed. Why couldn’t the Thesis guys have added a link to this plugin? I can tell you that I am not the only one upset about this, as it is discussed in many blogs and the support forum.
Also, some technical knowledge is needed to really tweak Thesis. I am fairly knowledgeable, but many non-techies will (and do) struggle with this theme.
Lastly, I was highly disappointed to learn that it doesn’t tweak colors. Meaning, the default white background is what you get unless you want to hack the code. This is a theme that is supposedly so easy to use that you don’t have to hack the code. But they can’t include how to change colors? Sheesh!
You may (or may not) have noticed at this point that I have never before written about Thesis. I don’t recommend something that I am not impressed with. Yes, I am using it on a few of my sites, but I’ve not been happy with it.
Ok, end of back story.
So, today, I started using Flexibility, and was totally amazed at how it DOES make customizing one’s blog truly easy! Honestly, it is what Thesis should be. AND IT’S FREE!!!
I was so impressed that I actually purchased the upgraded version, called FlexSqueeze. The FlexSqueeze theme does all that Flexibility does, but has even more options, which I am not going into at this time because I am not yet familiar with them all. I can say that changing colors is SUPER SIMPLE! It is as easy as a few mouse clicks.
Some of you may wonder why I have not switched this blog to my new Flexibility theme. The only reason is because I really like the way my blog looks with my Elegant Themes theme, so I am keeping it (I still love Elegant Themes, too).
Go try the free Flexibility theme for yourself and see if you like it. If so, you may be even happier with the paid version, as I am.
If any of you have experience with Flexibility theme, FlexSqueeze theme, or Thesis theme, please share them below.
Similar niche store strategies:
15 Responses to “Flexibility Theme is Amazing!”
Leave a Reply
| ||||||
Subscribe
Hey Rochelle, I did the same thing with Thesis and I am still trying to figure out a lot of it.
I am learning more about Thesis every time I go in and make a change but I did think it was going to be so much easier. I am still enjoying it though.
I went ahead and followed your link through to Flexibility and signed up so I could download it.
I won’t get to it today but the first of the week I will dive right in and see what it will do for me.
Thanks
James,
I will be curious to hear your thoughts on Thesis vs. Flexibility after you have a chance to get a feel for both. I have continued to play with FlexSqueeze (the paid version of Flexibility, which is great even if you don’t need squeeze pages) and continue to be amazed at it. Plus, the support has been outstanding. I’ve had a few questions/issues, and the creator of the Flexibility/FlexSqueeze themes has been on it immediately. So, that impresses me even more.
In comparison, I had a few questions/issues with Thesis and am still waiting for help on at least on of them. I’m sure you can find it in the Thesis forum (had to do with the image not rotating, and I’ve gicen up on it as the creator hasn’t done anything to help me and none of the suggestions from forum members helped).
There is no doubt that Thesis is powerful, but it is misleading in how simple it is. There are actually a few features of Thesis that I would like to see in Flexibility, but overall, Flexibility/FlexSqueeze wins hands down for me.
Rochelle
Hi Rochelle
I have to agree with you completely, it’s an awesome theme. I use it on many WordPress review sites and it works very well, I also use flexysqueeze which is quite good to use for PPC landing pages aswell.
Ben
Hi Rochelle,
I’m so glad you wrote about this as I’m one of those who are technically challenged.
I have and use the free version of flexibility for one of my blogs and am stumped about the options of how to add my own adsense code and yahoo publisher codes and also where are all of the places these codes can be added in this particular theme.
Any help you can provide would be so very appreciated.
Thanks for all your help!
Sunshine,
I use the All in One Adsense and YPN plugin for adding AdSense ads, so I haven’t tried the AdSense aspect of Flexibility. I’m afraid I’m no help at all regarding your inquiry. But, I really like the All in One Adsense and YPN, as it makes it pretty easy to add AdSense where I want them. You might try that and see if it is less challenging for you.
If you still need help with AdSense and Flexibility, I strongly encourage you to use the Flexibility forum. It is one of the better forums on the Internet.
Rochelle
[...] Thanks for visiting!I am working with a new theme I found thanks to a post on Rochelle’s Niche Store Strategies blog. It’s called The Flexibility Theme for [...]
Thank you for the review – I’ve been looking at various WP options for affiliate sites myself, I’ve been using a template that is optimized for AdSense but that’s it (although I’ve been able to make about $1k from aff links in 3 months so far – I think I’d close more sales with a aff-optimized site).
I looked at the same Thesis video, almost bought it, but in the video you see the author of the code adjusting some CSS and .php code…way over my head – I just want to get running.
This review helps, for sure. Do you have an aff link for the upgrade? I’d gladly buy from you (after my daughter’s 16th birthday coming up – that’s going to cost a little mint).
.-= JamestheJust on Elance´s last blog ..My daughter is doing much better =-.
James,
It’s been a while since I posted this review, and I still love Flexibility.
I actually like Thesis a bit more, after their recent upgrade to v1.6. It made it a bit easier, though they still have a ways to go on making color changes as easy as Flexibility. Right now, I go back and forth between the two themes, depending on my mood.
Interestingly, I changed to the Thesis theme on my best AdSense site, and the click-through ratio increased quite a bit. It went from ~5% click-through with Flexibility to ~10% with Thesis. That’s a pretty significant jump! I’m not sure what it is about Thesis that made the difference, but my guess is the plainness of Thesis. I don’t know what else might have done it.
That may not mean anything to you, but just thought I’d share my most recent experiences with Thesis.
If you are still interested in Flexibility, my affiliate link is https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=224006&c=ib&aff=28294 – whether or not you actually purchase it, I appreciate the thought.
Rochelle
Thanks for the input. I saw Thesis before I read this, but again it’s the amount of the learning curve I’m concerned with. I like the elegance of Thesis, but the flexibility of the other theme and speed of install.
I would guess your CTR has everything to do with the fact that Thesis is so plain – which is the same theory behind the XFactor Masters course on Adsense (a system I’m enjoying for its pure effectiveness and speed).
I appreciate the feedback, thanks.
.-= JamestheJust on Elance´s last blog ..My daughter is doing much better =-.
Do you have any plans in the near future to post a tutorial for flexibility for those of us who may be a bit more technically challenged?
DrBob,
No, I hadn’t thought of doing that. The forum for Flexibility is so good that I don’t think there would be much for me to write about. I encourage you to check it out if you need a bit more help.
Rochelle
Hello, my blog always seemd like it a works in progress. I want to add video into my Top Side Bars and/or on my blog page. The issue I’m having is when I paste the embedded code the on half a portion of the video is show the other half is cut off I guess becase there isnt enough room. Any Suggestion?
BTW my total width is 960 560 on the blog panel 180 180 are the side bars.
Anthony,
It sounds like you are using a video size that is too large for your sidebar area. Try selecting the next smaller YouTube video size and see if that fits better.
Rochelle
Hi Rochelle,
Interesting to read your perspective, I’ve been using Flexibility 2 for a while and just upgraded to Flexibility 3, which is brilliant. Very easy to customize.
I was thinking of changing to Thesis, mainly for SEO reasons, but Flex3 takes care of some of the issues with that as well.
Highly recommended, and I think I’ll ditch my plans to try out Thesis for now.
Jym
.-= Jym´s last blog ..The MLM Alpha Leader – part II =-.
Jym,
I love Flexibility, though I have not yet upgraded to v3. I still use Thesis on a few sites, but mainly because I paid for it and figure I ought to get my money’s worth. But I don’t recommend it over Flexibility, that’s for sure!
Rochelle