Generate Pro Genesis child theme

There aren’t many things in the world of business blogging that everyone agrees with, but one thing that is always met with nods of knowing approval is that… you need to build an email list.

You could do lots of reading on the internet about how to add an opt-in form, where it should be placed for best results and how to connect to a subscription service.
Or you could use a dedicated list building theme like the Generate Pro theme and save yourself a lot of time, hassle and effort.

For StudioPress themes, and every other Copyblogger product, email is the number one driver of new and repeat sales.
And this is why we created a child theme for the Genesis framework that is focused on helping you capture more email addresses, so you can build the list that will build your business.
Brian Gardner – StudioPress

Generate Pro features

The Generate Pro theme is a modern Genesis 2.0 child theme, which means that it comes with HTML5 markup, mobile responsiveness, airtight security, and fabulous support from the guys over at StudioPress.

It also has a design that is bright, modern and elegant and a layout that leads your visitors to one action… subscribing to your email list.

The Generate Pro Theme also comes with the following features:

1. Four colour schemes – choose a colour scheme that matches your corporate image and colours. Choose from blue, green, orange and red. The demo site uses red.
2. Three layout options – choose from three layouts for your pages and posts including a full-width option.
3. Featured images – supports WordPress featured images.
4. Footer widgets – includes three optional widget areas that display in the site footer when widgets are added to the individual Footer Widget Areas.
5. Threaded comments enabled – see the flow of comments easily with “inset” threaded comments enabled.
6. HTML5 markup – HTML5 markup makes your website future compatible, improves cross-browser compatibility and makes your site truly mobile-friendly.
7. Mobile responsive – adapts to your visitors screen size and gives them the optimum viewing experience. A must-have feature to future-proof your website.

In the end, it all comes down to your list: your email list.
If you need to generate more and better email leads, you need web design that specifically supports that goal.
StudioPress

Generate Pro’s list building feature

So what makes Generate Pro such a great list building theme?
Because it has a “Home – Featured Widget Area” just below the Primary Navigation, where you can add a special message or a Call To Action to subscribe to your email list.

This is the perfect place to have your most important message and you add it using the Genesis eNews Extended widget, which allows you to use your own wording and subscription service details and… absolutely no coding skills required.

Take a look further down this post to see how easy it is to set up this all important area.

Setting up Generate Pro

Setting up your Generate Pro website is pretty easy; it uses a combination of Plugins, Genesis theme settings and widget areas.

The Generate Pro theme demo site uses two plugins, which are:

Simple Social Icons – used in the Primary Sidebar area to display links to your social networks.
Genesis – eNews Extended – used to display a “subscribe to your mailing list” form just below the Primary Navigation.

The StudioPress setup documentation for Generate Pro gives full details on how each area is configured to match the demo site and the documentation is broken down into the following six sections:

As you can see the setup information is thorough and comprehensive allowing you to set up your theme easily and… absolutely no coding skills required.

In the next section I’ll show you how simple it is to set up the list building feature.

Setting up Generate Pro’s list building feature

The Home – Featured Widget Area in the Generate Pro theme displays content just below the Primary Navigation. This is the perfect place to add a special message or a Call To Action to subscribe to your email list.

The Genesis eNews Extended widget is used to create the subscribe form so to get started you need to install the Genesis – eNews Extended plugin

Go to Appearance > Widgets, and drag a Genesis – eNews Extended widget into the Home – Featured Widget Area.
Click the title bar to open the widget, and configure as below:

#1 Add your general information

This is where you add your general text, which you can change at any time.

1. Title: Optional, can be left blank. The theme demo uses Get Fresh Content Delivered.
2. Text to show before form: Include the text you wish to display. The theme demo uses Join and get free content delivered automatically each time we publish.
3. Text to show after form: Include the text you wish to display. Note: Due to the design, this text will also show to the left of the form.

#2 Connect to your subscription service

This section contains the fields necessary to connect your form to your subscription service.

#3 Customise the text for the form fields and submit button

This section allows you to change the text that displays in the form fields as well as changing the label of the form submit button.

Once you’ve filled in the widget click Save at the bottom of the widget and you’re all done.

Start building your list… with the Generate Pro theme

When I wrote my original review of Generate 1.0, I called it a lean mean…. list building theme and that’s exactly what it is.

Generate Pro has brought the theme bang up to date but it remains the perfect WordPress theme for any business blogger who is looking to generate a list and grow their business.

For details of pricing head on over to StudioPress, put Generate Pro through its paces and pick up your copy today.

The Generate theme aims all the power and flexibility of Genesis at your most important asset.
It’s designed to elegantly lead your site traffic to one action – join the email list.
StudioPress

Hope you enjoyed the review and found it helpful and if you have any thoughts on WordPress list building themes in general or Generate Pro in particular, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
And if you’d like to spread the word about this fabulous theme please use my social sharing buttons.

Credits:
My thanks and gratitude to StudioPress for the graphics and details of the Generate Pro theme used in this post.