I recently found "Socrates" which is a premium wordpress theme(which means you have to pay for it) while looking for a product to promote in clickbank.
As I often do with clickbank products, I purchased it to see if it was a quality product and therefore worth promoting.
"Socrates" is both.
"Socrates" is a theme developed for Internet Marketers by Internet Marketers.
I will start with their sales page. It is excellent from the standpoint that you don't need to read a thing if you don't want to. The video does all the heavy lifting and does a wonderful job of showing all the features of the product. Also a nice marketing technique, the video I mean.
My favorite feature is one that I have been looking for in Wordpress for a long time, and that is the "Ad Rotater" I know there are plugins for this but it is great to have it "built in" to the theme. This allows you to place your own html ads in a rotation with 2 clickbank ads that are pre-supplied. You just enter your clickbank id (if you have one) in the appropriate spot in the admin area and you are all set.
That brings me to the admin panel. All "Socrates" setup is done from a link on the dashboard labled (What else?) "Socrates"
Once you click that link you get the "Socrates" admin panel which allows you to control the different areas of the theme.
Those areas are. Layout, Navigation, Styling, Header and Background. These are all areas that I used to have to go into the .css file to control. ( I have been away from Wordpress for a while though so some of this has changed) There is no need to edit the stylesheet to make any of these changes.
Another feature that is lacking in most Content Management Systems is Header Control. I see this question asked a lot in forums. "How do I change my header graphic ?" It is the first thing most of us do when loading a new theme and is handled beautifully within "Socrates". There are lots of header designs to choose from and they are organized much like a theme download site in niche or style order like Business, People, Textures... You can even upload your own headers and it tells you what size to make it with an upload area.
Other marketing features include a Social Media slider (Haven't tried this yet)
Up to 4 custom Navigation bars.
A leader board area at the top to put adsense or banners(This is not the rotator)
A spot to put in your clickbank Id so you can make money off people interested in purchasing Socrates. I noticed the link does not work if you don't have a clickbank id selected ( I think this is a bug) The link is at the bottom of the page where people are used to looking for the design of the theme if they like what they see and want it for their own site. I would Highly recommend anybody purchasing this theme to get a clickbank account to take advantage of this.
Those are the main marketing features that I liked and the rest are layout and styling features and all pretty easy to figure out and implement.
For new users there is support once you purchase in the way of tutorials and videos. I didn't need them so I did not view them and therefore can't offer an opinion on them at this time. But the tutorials are not limited to the theme and include internet marketing tutorials as well.
I installed the theme on only one of my sites to check it out. The site is www.topwebsecrets.com. Instead of placing a blatant affiliate link here in the post, I will just tell you to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the word "Socrates" in the bottom Right Corner and you will be taken to the sales page with my clickbank ID embedded (Which you don't see unless your eyes are very fast)
I hope you enjoy this review and add to it if you use or purchase it.
Pablo
Socrates was a great Thinker, Philosopher and Teacher. I hope this theme will honor his name.
This theme looks like it fills a need and has a lot of value for its target market. People who are "code-phobic," inexperienced, or just don't want to mess around in the theme editor would love it!
How has this theme been performing for you so far?
So far so good. I haven't spent a lot of time with it, but I like how quickly I can change it, not that it was ever that difficult for me(I am quite a techie) but I would rather spend time doing more important things like social networking and other promotion, than working on design.
You should watch the videos that are on the Socrates site, if you have time.
I always learn something new. I have been uploading my themes via FTP for so long, I didn't even know you could do it right through WP now with the zipped version of the theme. This is a huge timesaver.
The Socrates theme has it's limitations, but it is great from a marketers standpoint to be able to get it up and running quickly with very little effort.
I will probably start a new site just to promote it and if I do I think I will make a video.
No Video yet, but I did put up the site. Learned lots of great stuff about setting up new sites using WP.
I have been away from WP for a while so some of this may be old hat for most of you.
Here are 3 plugins that I learned about that really made a difference in setting up an affiliate site.
1. gocodes- This plugin allows you to mask affiliate links by setting a trigger like "offical-site" then you set up the affiliate link that you want it to redirect to. Now any time you put a link with /offical-site at the end it redirects to the affiliate link and no one can see the affiliate link. Very cool.
2. Google XML Sitemaps - This one I knew about but forgot to use. This creates a sitemap of your wp site that you can then plug in to the google webmaster site to let google know the structure of you site.-
3. All in One SEO Pack- Lets you put in the text you want the Search engines to show when your site gets indexed.
These are probably listed in some other posts here, but I thought I would share since it's fresh in my mind.
You can check out the site in my signature to see the newest addition to my growing empire of sites. LOL
Again, great review, Pablo! I've been a fan of Joel Comm and Dan Nickerson just a few months now and am liking the way they work. The hosting Dan puts out, Pagellan, is really packed full of cool stuff and you can email him any time and he is right on it..kinda begs for an affiliate link there for it, huh?
I have no idea about wordpress (okay a little tiny bit) and I'm sure I can get the hang of it, once I'm making some money and can sit back a bit while I outsource other stuff but right now I just want to get up and going and it seems like that is a really good theme to be able to do so with.
Wordpress itself has gotten a whole lot easier, for example you can upload and search for themes right from the admin area. I was still doing it the old way until I watched the socrates video.
If you watch my video or the one Dan does on the official site, it really is as easy as what you see and you can literally be set up in minutes. It takes only a few extra minutes to install wordpress if you have fantastico or simple scripts on your hosting service cpanel.
The price tag of $77 is a little high but it is cheaper than Thesis which is another premium theme that does a lot more stuff than Socrates.
I would investigate that one as well. Socrates is more geared towards internet marketing and specifically towards the affiliate marketer.
Good luck and remember there are lots of experienced folks here at SSWT that are more than happy to help on any of the technical details. (Including me )
Socrates WP Theme review
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