Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!sing bad themes has continued to haunt me.

My first theme was from ThemeForest which was created by an independent developer who abandoned his theme. Next was Outreach Pro theme in Genesis Framework (no complaints really). Then I was sold on “spicing it up” with Elementor which I should’ve known better and caused the majority of issues I’ve been facing. I hired help to convert the theme to Gutenberg with ACF and some custom code which made my site faster, but left me with a list of problems.

I was still left the mediocre design, no templates to create blocks/pages (even editing the site seemed impossible), too much CSS from table/gallery plugins, and a very bloated additional CSS file. Redesigning my blog using this theme seemed impossible without paying someone. When I had to pay a developer to add a single image to my homepage, I knew I had to move on.

GeneratePress has fixed every issue so far, even more so since Gutenberg and GenerateBlocks have built-in tables and galleries so I don’t need to use plugins. I can pretty much edit anything and have my block templates. While it’s still early and I’m writing this GeneratePress review on a staging site, I’m excited so far and am finally motivated to fix all the problems from my old blog, and more. It took me way too long to move to a block editor. I’m playing catch up, but I’m here.

1. Problems With My Old Blog
2. Starter Templates
3. GenerateBlocks
4. Reducing Plugins With Gutenberg Blocks
5. Reusable Blocks Are Saving Me Time
6. Better Compatibility Than Classic Editor
7. Modules
8. Elements
9. Theme Customizer
10. Fast & Lightweight
11. GeneratePress Free vs. Premium
12. Well-Maintained With Documentation
13. Conclusion: I’m Very Happy With My New Blog

1. Problems With My Old Blog

I got frustrated with my old blog for several reasons:

• Limitations – when you’re not able to change things on your site without calling your developer, it get expensive and time consuming. I didn’t think this would be a problem considering all my pages in Genesis Framework were custom coded. But just to give you an idea, it took my developer a little over 30 minutes just to add a single image to a page.
• No Templates – there were no design templates and if there were, I didn’t know how to use them. Plus, I was holding onto the classic editor for dear life and didn’t want to adapt.
• Poor Design – redesigning my site in Elementor was a huge step backwards not only for speed, but the design too. Fonts, layouts, colors, branding… it was way worse than before.
• Featured Images – I never used category pages on my old blog, so I spent an entire week in Canva creating (or redesigning) the “main images” for all 220 of my posts: featured images, top post image, Facebook/Twitter og:images. I made most them (but Twitter) the same ratio as Facebook’s og:image (1200×630) so they can be resized easily and save time.
• Navigation  – since this is a blog, it makes sense to have category pages instead of manually creating the navigation menu with long dropdowns of posts like my old blog.
• Bloat – I saw a big improvement after switching from Elementor to Gutenberg. But even then, the old blog used 2 fonts and lots of CSS from NinjaTables, Galleries, and a massive additional CSS file. The new site uses 1 font and lightweight Gutenberg tables/galleries.
• Handholding – Pronaya (my developer) and I are constantly on Google Chat while we build the site. There’s something to be said about finding someone who is not only good with communication, but steers you in the right direction nearly every time. Most of my old developers either had issues with communication or didn’t understand what I want.

2. Starter Templates

The GeneratePress Starter Templates have always been on my radar, but I never saw a template that really caught my attention until they released the “Search” Starter template.

At the same time, I saw Anil Agarwal from BloggersPassion redesign his site which looked like the Search theme. Obviously I didn’t want to copy his but it gave me motivation and inspiration.

Astra Starter Templates with Gutenberg and the Kadence Theme were also on my radar, but I chose GeneratePress after seeing GenerateBlocks which seems to fit my needs perfectly. So I installed the Search Template on a staging site and Pronaya and started with the main design.

Starter Template Instructions

• Buy GeneratePress and download their GP Premium plugin.
• Upload the GP premium plugin to WordPress.
• Go to Appearance →  Themes →  Add New.
• Search “GeneratePress” and install the theme.
• Go to Appearance → GeneratePress.
• Add your license key and activate the “Site Library” module.
• Once activated, you will see a new “Site Library” tab in your menu.
• Select a starter template, import it, and start customizing your site.

3. GenerateBlocks

GenerateBlocks was a key part in redesigning my blog (view demos here).

It’s simple, lightweight, and has many elements/layouts that fit my needs. For example, my entire homepage uses an info box template to showcase my popular tutorials. I also used info boxes for my about page (the 50 random and disturbing things about me section). The hover boxes, hero, and call to action templates are also nice. It filled in things GeneratePress lacked.