About a month ago, I was the very blessed winner of a giveaway on Kelly’s blog. With it came a brand new, custom blog design along with a slew of other things, like a sponsorship package with Brita. (Go check out all of her awesome posts on marriage and feminism!)
Needless to say, I was quite excited about the idea of having a more put together, completely me design. What I didn’t realize I would love is the Genesis Framework that came with my new blog! It’s so much more than I imagined, and I can’t imagine going back to what I had before (aka nothing).
If you’re currently on the fence, let me convince you! Here are the things that I didn’t realize I was missing out on until I got the Genesis Framework.
Consistent styling
One of my biggest pet peeves with my old blog design was the lack of uniformity. No matter how many plugins I installed or tutorials I watched, I could never get my buttons, header, email subscription box, etc. to look alike. Don’t even get me started on the terribly boring search bar!
With the Genesis Framework (and Kelly’s pretty sweet design), everything is streamlined and has the same look about it with the same fonts and colors. Basically instead of being a bunch of different posts and plugins, my blog now looks like one cohesive website.
Genesis-specific plugins
Who knew these were even a thing?! I certainly did not. But they’ve been a huge help and have filled in some holes between how I want my blog to function and how it actually works.
Currently I use Genesis eNews Extended to connect my email subscribers to MailChimp (hint hint), and the Genesis Favicon Uploader, which is kind of self-explanatory. I’m also planning to take a stab at Genesis Grid to make some of my pages a little prettier!
I don’t think I’ve talked much about it here, but I’m kind of obsessed with Nadine and her new blog, Blog Brighter. Every time I see an email update from her, I know I’m going to learn something new about blogging and how to make mine a better representation of me. If you’re looking to use any of the plugins above, I would consider checking our her post about Genesis-specific plugins!
A huge, helpful community
There are tons of other bloggers and creatives on the Genesis Framework, which means when I have no clue how to do something, I can easily find a blog post or video tutorial to walk me through it. Sometimes it’s a matter of visiting Pinterest and searching my favorite blogging boards, and occasionally I don’t realize just how much I need to add something to my blog until Kelly explains how to do it through her whole series on Genesis and WordPress!
If you’re missing all of these things from your current blog theme, I would seriously encourage you to head over to Kelly’s design site. Her designs are fresh and clean, her prices are unbeatable, and she’s seriously the sweetest person to work with! I’d never had a custom design experience, and she was more than willing to walk me through everything and work with me to get everything just the way I wanted it. It was a dream!
Are you currently on the Genesis Framework? In what little way does it make your life easier?
P.S. This is just one of many things I learned in a year of blogging.
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