Divi Theme Experience - Super Affiliate Challenge Week 2
Hello everyone!
Thanks for reading my first blog post.
As part of the SAC challenge we are supposed to post to our blog weekly. I don't know why I have avoided this before, maybe because I feel everyone here is so knowledgeable I wouldn't have much to contribute. So I decided to share my experience using the Divi Wordpress theme.
I bought the Divi theme!!
Last November, on Black Friday, I invested in the Divi wordpress theme. It was something I wanted to buy for months, I heard a lot of great things about this theme and it was a good deal compared to the regular prices. I did not get the lifetime membership, I only subscribed for one year of updates to the theme and plugins to see how I would like it before spending all the money for the lifetime.
When the Affiliate Challenge started I uploaded it to the blog I started for this challenge. I have been messing around with it for a few weeks trying to get it just how I wanted it. It seemed like everyday I was not moving forward in the challenge because I was trying to make this perfect website.
So about 3 days ago I switched back to a free theme that was a lot simpler.
What was wrong?
I feel like you can make some beautiful pages with Divi but it is a lot of work. Every single page or post I try with this theme (on 2 different blogs) has taken a ton of time. I would not say I am experienced all that much with wordpress, I have never done any coding or changed that much with my websites, so maybe someone with more experience would have an easier time with this.
You could go with the easy way and just post a regular post, which I did end up doing for some things, but then I feel like you have this theme that can do so much and you are wasting it.
The theme itself is set up in modules, which then have rows inside the module, then inside the rows are sections. You can customize the backgrounds of the modules, rows and sections. The sections are the areas where you add your text, images or whatever content you want, you can add blurbs, buttons....
In the end separating the sections into text areas was too much work instead of just writing out a blog post and adding images. The few pages I did put the time into (hours) I was not really happy with the end result. I am sure I could still mess around with them and come up with a page I love but I don't want to spend hours arranging and designing a post every single time.
Would I recommend Divi?
I think if you have some experience with website building, you might love Divi. I would probably recommend it if you were building a website for a brick and mortar business where you would just be making a website and not continually putting up content.
For a blog type of business that you will post a lot of content, I would recommend something that will be easier to post more often and you don't have to design something every single post. They do have some templates you can use for your website but those too seemed like a lot of work. You can change them to work for you with your own branding but it would initially be a lot of work setting up templates to use for regular posts.
Will I continue my subscription?
In November, when my subscription ends I have the option to pay for the lifetime membership at a pro rated price. I can do that now also, I don't have to wait until November and the cost for the first year is pro rated from the lifetime subscription for updates for themes and plugins.
I will probably not continue using Divi. If I made a lot of landing pages in my business I would probably continue the subscription but I think to just have the theme for blog posts is not the best use of my money, the theme is expensive.
I also wanted to mention the site says it has a ton of other themes. The themes they have are not ready to use, you get PSD files and you have to change things to your own branding. I also found this was a lot more work than I wanted to do.
Do you use Divi? How do you like it? I would love to hear what others think or if there is some secret to make it easier to use.
Recent Comments
8
Wow, I feel like you must have been in the live chat and wrote this because I swear I was just asking about this lol. Somehow I ended up on the website to purchase the Divi theme. I was chatting with support and JUST about to purchase it but people in the chatroom convinced me to wait. I am so new here I do not even have my niche down yet or know how to create the basic websites so it's probably not the best choice for me to start spending money or different themes and what not.
I am going through this same issue however, I am so focused on trying to create such an extravagant website when I haven't even mastered the basics lol. I swear this was a very strange but MUCH NEEDED coincidence because after reading your review I definitely am going to hold off. You lost me at the part when you are talking about the theme setting up in modules, which then have rows inside the module, then inside the rows are sections. You can customize the backgrounds of the modules, rows, and sections. The sections are the areas where you add your text, images or whatever content you want, you can add blurbs, buttons....
I really want to purchase it and I know a lot of WA members do use it but it seems like you have much more experience than me and if you are having a hard time then I will die hahah.
Sorry for the long-winded comment, I just couldn't believe I saw this blog when I LITERALLY was just chatting with them and about to make a purchase!
I also forgot to mention that the theme was very slow. I tried using it in different browsers and it didn't make a difference.
If you are just starting out, a free theme is all you need. Concentrate on your content.
And, yes, don't buy Divi unless you are a designer or a Divi specialist.
Best,
Alenka
The speed issue might do with the images on your pages/posts that are not optimized properly.
My site speed improved over time and now is really good. However, there are a couple of pages that are slow because of the poorly optimized images.
As a result of months and months of trying to do it all by myself, I have now hired a Divi designer/developer and they are going to revamp my site for me. Why did I think I can be a blogger, SEO specialist, Divi designer, Pinterest Person, and everything else...beats me. The lack of experience I guess.
Best,
Alenka
That is probably it since I have no idea how to optimize images lol.
I am starting to think the same thing, I am just going to stick to something basic and then when I feel like I need to upgrade I will hire someone to do that for me. I just can not figure every single thing out anymore... it sucks up way too much time.
I went through the "selecting a good, easy to use theme" syndrome just last week and I was willing to spend $ just to get my time back form trying to work with Oceanwp theme that I was using.
I also wanted to have a theme that would be a natural to progress into Thrive Themes as that seems to have all the necessary tool, bells & whistles for marketing..
One of the WA members - Hagstf suggested trying Astra theme.
So far, I am very pleased with it.
Thought you may like to know.
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Thanks for the info Anita.