Just a quick post about my blogging software and theme of choice. This is not a site about blogging, but I know many aspiring producers and filmmakers out there keep blogs or are thinking about starting one.
After much hemming and hawing, I settled on the free blogging platform WordPress here at Joke and Biagio. This decision crystallized when I chose to take a $25 chance on a guy named Justin Tadlock, and his incredible WordPress theme dubbed Hybrid.
The Theme is Free
To be clear, Justin gives his theme away for free. Without getting in to too much web gobbledygook, the site you’re now reading is based on Justin’s Hybrid-News child-theme (if you want to know what a child theme is, check it out here on Justin’s site.)
However, I am a super-ultra-ridiculously-infantile web novice on my best day. On my worst, I’m a CSS disaster waiting to happen. That’s why I signed up for Justin’s $25 a year service.
Worth Every Penny
With Justin’s service, you get access to the ThemeHybrid support formus…but these aren’t the kind of support forums you’re used to. Unlike many support forums on the web, these aren’t purely user-driven (though users can be and often are very vocal and helpful.)
Rather, Justin himself personally answers every support question (at least, every one I’ve ever seen submitted.) The answers usually come within a few hours, making me wonder how Justin ever sleeps.
This is also why these forums deserve to charge for access.
I’ve posed “support” questions to Justin about the Hybrid theme itself, but if I’m being honest, many of my questions have been more along the lines of “I suck at CSS. I screwed up my personalization of your theme. Can you help me?”
Justin has never failed me.
If You are Blogging or Starting a Blog, You Must Check Out Justin Tadlock’s ThemeHybrid Site and Service
Let me be clear. I am NOT a ThemeHybrid affiliate. I make no money recommending Justin’s site or service. I’ve never even met Justin.
Unlike the thousands of people out there pushing certain themes to make a commission, I am recommending Justin, his themes, and his service purely because it’s the very best money I’ve ever spent on blogging. For $25 I feel like I’ve already received at least $5000 in web consulting advice.
Now let’s just hope Justin doesn’t read that and raise his prices!
UPDATE: After posting, I learned Justin had just cracked the top ten downloaded themes at WordPress.org. Congrats Justin!