The Get Noticed Theme on Genuine Kentucky
This review for the Get Noticed WordPress Theme is, admittedly lengthy, but I hope you’ll stick with me. The pros will roll out after the cons and they are just as important… maybe more so.
(After reading the review, be sure to see the EDIT at the bottom!)
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NEW: As you’ll notice, I no longer have the Get Noticed theme on Self Help Daily. They went two forevers offering next-to-nothing in the way of support, then recently decided that IF you wanted support (which they haven’t proven to be able to provide), you had to pay an additional $198! On top of already buying a pretty pricey theme.
Support is supposed to COME WITH A THEME. Seriously, all I can hear right now is the lady in the commercial, “That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.” Click HERE for a few more words about it.
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I write a lot of reviews and I mean A LOT. So many, in fact, that I feel like I should have a t-shirt that says, “I have either reviewed you, am reviewing you, or WILL review you.”
I’m pretty sure I won’t have one printed up, however, for too many reasons to even count.
But, seriously, I am a prolific reviewer. I write…
- restaurant reviews for my Kentucky website.
- cookbook, kitchen gadget, and food reviews for my food blog.
- office gadget, furniture, and gizmo reviews for my office supply blog.
- countless book reviews on Self Help Daily and other blogs.
- cat toys and cat furniture for my cat website.
See the temptation for the t-shirt?
I bring all of this up to set the stage for the following review of the fairly new Get Noticed Theme for WordPress. This is one of the most difficult reviews I’ve ever tried to write. In fact, I’ve actually attempted five…. FIVE… different times to sit down and gather all of my thoughts together, only to have them run free like wild, untamed buffalo.
What can I say, I have big thoughts.
Why is this so difficult? Well, because I am – in equal amounts, no less – thrilled AND disappointed with the Get Noticed Theme. Because I am, by nature, a Mary Poppins, Suzy Sunshine type… for better or worse… I’ll want to end my review on a high note, so let’s get the low notes out of the way.
The Get Noticed Theme Costs More Than Other Premium Themes
Allow me to say this – I don’t blame people for trying to get as much money as they can out of a product. If you put a lot of work into something, you should get all that you can out of it. I never hesitate to pay more for something it it’s worth it. In fact, my family often teases me for my love of “name brands” and my aversion to “off brands.” There are exceptions, but very often you get what you pay for.
I also approve, and even applaud, the fact that charging more for this theme will keep it from popping up everywhere and causing everyone’s website to look the same. This happened with the Thesis WordPress Theme years ago – the internet began to look so much like Suburbia, America that you weren’t sure which site you were on.
It reminded me of a story my dad once told me of a drunk going home one night (in one of those neighborhoods with houses that all look the same) and spending an hour trying his key in different doors until he found his own!
No one really wants to look just like everyone else, so the concept of a higher price keeping this from happening is fine by me.
Also, when thinking about the price, I want you to keep this in mind because (in my experience) this is very important. Many functions that you would have to pay a coder for if you used a cheaper premium theme are built into the Get Noticed Theme.
For example, the mobile responsiveness. Other theme developers aren’t doing as good a job as the Get Noticed Theme when it comes to making their themes completely mobile responsive.
CAN they? Absolutely, because their own websites are glorious on all devices. However, when you try to make a lot of their themes look just as good on all devices, you’ll end up banging your head against the wall.
Want to know something else you’ll end up doing? Paying a coder to achieve what you’re looking for… and coders do not come cheap.
Get Noticed is higher in price, but they include a great number of things that would, in the end, cost you even more to have a coder do for you.
Having said all of that, when you set your price for something, you set everyone’s expectations. If you put your price on a rocket to the moon, mark it down, the expectations will shadow you the entire trip.
Set your price high… set expectations high. Simple.
If someone is willing to roll up their sleeves, put in long hours, never stop learning and improving, and honor the pre-set expectations… MAGIC will happen.
If they fail to hold up their end… if they stop fueling their rocket ship, well, I’m afraid there won’t be much MAGIC. It’s like Bullwinkle reaching into the hat, saying, “Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat… Presto…” and… no rabbit in sight.
Everyone ends up being as disappointed as Rocky the Squirrel. “Ohhhh, Bullwinkle…”
What We Have Here is a Failure to Fuel
Over the many years that I’ve been in web publishing, I’ve used countless different premium themes. While each one I’ve previously used has cost less than Get Noticed (until you need them or coders they know to do something extra for you), each one has had a far, far, far superior “support community.” In fact, the forum is one of the biggest disappointments I’ve had with this particular theme.
With other themes I’ve used, questions (or even ideas) posted on the forum would be answered or addressed within 24 hours. It would be highly unusual for them to be unacknowledged or unaddressed within a day. On Get Noticed, you might just go weeks or months.
I wish I were exaggerating.
Basically, there is no support or help to be found on the forums. For anyone building or even maintaining a blog or website, this is a pretty big headache. You cannot put everything on hold until you hear back from someone. For days.
Just this morning, I had something I wanted more information about. I checked the forum and found someone with the same question. His question was posted in May and he still had no reply.
This is June 20.
Granted, unfortunately, a lot of premium themes are getting away from the forums in favor of “support tickets” or contact forms.
Frankly, I hate everything about that arrangement.
I remember in the early days of premium themes, the support forums were a dream come true. You’d almost always find someone experiencing the issue you had and… EUREKA!… the theme’s developer or a coder who was familiar with the ins and outs of the theme would give you the solution or an excellent piece of advice then and there.
NO creating your own post in the hopes that someone would eventually see it. NO contacting someone, receiving an automated “We have received your ticket and you’ll hear from us soon…” message and NO waiting for their idea of soon to meet up with your idea of soon.
Allow me to say this – the Get Noticed Theme isn’t the only theme with disappointing forums these days. There are others where you’ll run into rude coders who I’m convinced have the words, “I can do this for you for a price” saved so all they have to do is paste it into their replies.
Again, a lot of things you’d have to pay someone to do “for you” are built into the Get Noticed Theme.
You Aren’t Set Up for Success at the Launch Pad
I guess the thing that disappointed me the most was the fact you aren’t given any really helpful tutorials when you order the Get Noticed Theme. Other themes provide documentation and sometimes even videos (love those!) to help the proud new owner succeed.
Not with Get Noticed.
In all fairness, if you have the time to spend looking around on your own and don’t mind doing some trial and error posts and pages, the way they have things set up is pretty simple. However, not everyone works from home like I do. Not everyone has the time that’s afforded to me – time which allows me to poke and prod around and “see what this does“… or “I wonder what happens if I do that…”
Someone recently (not at all associated with Get Noticed) came up with a series of helpful videos to help new Get Noticed Theme owners find their way around – and he sold the series of videos for hundreds of dollars.
I’m ALL for anyone using their time, skill, and know how to earn a living – ALL for it! – especially given the fact that he obviously put a great deal of work into these videos – but, in my opinion, this is something that should have been provided by Get Noticed in the cost of the theme.
It’s kind of like buying a Lexus, then having to pay even more for an owner’s manual.
Mini Posts
Built into the Get Noticed Theme are “mini posts” which I’ve used here on Self Help Daily a few times. These mini posts are short simple ways to share content if you don’t have a lot of time or a lot of content.
These mini posts include Books (intros to favorite books), Videos, Snippets, Shared Tweets from Twitter, Tips, Surveys, Ideas, Questions, Announcements, Links…
Problem is, they are all but invisible to Google. Search engines are convinced that the mini posts I’ve used are wearing cloaks of invisibility.
Do I even have to tell you how deep in the waters of “That’s Not How I Need This to Work!” that sinks? I’ll be going back and republishing my mini posts in “regular” post formats.
Again, in an effort to be fair, let me say this – not all mini posts are interested in Google or any other search engine finding them. If you’re sharing a great tweet, for example, it’s not imperative that it show up in search results.
However, I’d like for anything I publish to be acknowledged by both Google and all search engines. The last thing I want them to do is forget about me!
That would cut into my trips to Target in such a way that’d leave me drowning in disappointment.
Not A Lot of Options for the Overall Appearance
I would love to see “child themes” come out for the Get Noticed Theme which would include “magazine styles.” I use a magazine style on my food blog, “Get Cooking” and absolutely love it. The rotating pics, the thumbnails, the professional-looking front page… they do it for me.
I’d love to see more options for taking the Get Noticed Theme further.
Unusual Approach to Updates & Support
I’m accustomed to purchasing themes and getting updates… period. You make the purchase, you get the updates. In this way, a community is built – a community of people who are loyal and help one another on support forums.
From Get Noticed Theme’s FAQ Page:
6-12 months of updates are included with your initial purchase, depending on the license level you choose.
If you want continued updates and support after your included period, you will be able to renew on an annual basis at a substantially discounted rate during your renewal window. We have not yet determined the exact pricing or details of renewals as we’re waiting to see what our support costs are before making a promise we can’t keep.
I just… I dunno… there has to be a better way to do this. Again, you set the cost – you set the expectations.
I spoke earlier about the lack of a strong Get Noticed community in the forums. I don’t think things like this do anything to help the matter. A strong community – for any product – is built on trust in the product and in the people who stand behind the product. When these people seem to be thinking of themselves more than they are the rest of us.. well, it’s just a bit of a turn off.
I believe that if you buy a theme, you should be able to expect updates and support. Period. That’s how a loyal community is built.
Not Really a Pro or Con, But…
A lot of people don’t love the fact that there isn’t an affiliate program with the Get Noticed Theme. Seriously, though, that’s just not that big of a deal to me. If I love something, I say so – I want people to have a chance to love it too. I don’t need compensation for this.
Okay, so there’s the bad news. The negatives are out of the way, so we can move on to the positives… and there are plenty.
Get Noticed is a Mobile Responsive Dream
One of the things that made me initially fall head over heels in love with the Get Noticed Theme was the beautiful (and I mean BEAUTIFUL) and effortless way it displays on all devices – desktops, laptops, tablets, iPads, and even iPhones. I have had issues with all other themes I’ve used when it comes to mobile responsiveness. Images, usually header images, would either be cut off or, worse yet, would suddenly look as small as a Smurf’s smile.
On my Kentucky website, Genuine Kentucky, this is a huge problem because I use so many pictures. I want my website to look good and coherent for my visitors no matter how they’re accessing my website. In addition to this particular website (Self Help Daily), I also use the Get Noticed theme on Genuine Kentucky and I’ve never had a single mobile responsiveness issue.
My header looks as pretty on an iPhone as it does on a desktop computer.
I appreciate and downright love the fact that I don’t even have to think or worry about this VERY important aspect of web design anymore… not with the websites that have the Get Noticed Theme, anyway.
Simple, Painless, and Quick to Customize
As someone with multiple websites and blogs (I’d count them, but it’s simply too overwhelming), I love how the Get Noticed Theme is set up. You can simply click a few buttons and change any of the fonts, colors, or other details on your website. No digging through code.. how cool is that?!
This innovative approach is something all themes should use, whether they know it or not. People don’t want to have to pay coders to do it for them, they want to be able to control the changes themselves. Fast. Easy. Painless.
While I know how to dig through code to change a font or color, the way Get Noticed is set up, my time can be spent doing more important things. A lot of coders forget that we aren’t here to “fix” or “change” their idea of what looks nice – we’re actually here to write and provide content (and reviews!).
Any time we spend on “the other” takes away from our bread and butter. Or, to be more accurate in my case… it takes things out of my Target cart.
That’s a NO.
So Many Beautiful Options!
I haven’t “fancied up” Self Help Daily yet, simply because I’ve been busy with the crazy needs of other websites, but the options for making your website look beautiful are endless.
One option that I am totally in love with is the ability to have “rotating” header pictures that change throughout your website. I use this on Genuine Kentucky and I’m having the time of my life with it. I can use summer pictures in summer, autumn pictures in autumn, etc. This creates an overall “mood” for the website and it’s something I’ve wished for since I first began the website.
The header picture at the top of this review is one of the ones featured in my “Summer Rotation” on Genuine Kentucky.
When it’s College Basketball season (or as it’s known in our house, UK Basketball season), if I were obnoxious enough (which I am), I could make all of the pictures blue and white (which I will).
I’ve always wished for the ability to do this and finally a theme has given me the go ahead.
With Get Noticed, you can painlessly make your website look just how you want it to and it’ll take you far less time to do so.
What’s more, it’s even fun.
Comments, SEO, and Social Sharing
Personally, I have not noticed a difference – either way – since switching to the Get Noticed Theme on two of my websites. Traffic, Google performance, social interaction and sharing have all been steady.
While this may not seem like much to some, many will realize that this is a big deal.
I always get nervous when I change themes – especially when the ENTIRE foundation is SO different. I was honestly scared of the outcome. However, my desire to make my websites 100 percent mobile responsive forced me to face my fears.
I literally looked at Genuine Kentucky one day on my iPad, saw the beautiful header reduced so small it couldn’t even be read, took a big sip of my Chai Tea Latte, and vowed to jump into the Get Noticed waters.
I haven’t regretted it once. I’m happy to say, the end of the world did not materialize and the trips to Target weren’t affected.
Genuine Kentucky and Self Help Daily are two of the most important websites I have – the fact that they’re still on the Get Noticed Theme and the fact that I trust the Get Noticed with these websites says something. However, the fact that I haven’t switched all of my websites to the theme can’t totally be discounted either.
The cost along with the fairly limited layout options mean that I’ll use Get Noticed on some websites and other premium themes on others. It would be easier if I had ONE premium theme I used everywhere, but that just isn’t in the cards.
Not yet anyway.
If you are a blogger interested in a theme with effortless customizing and beautiful mobile responsiveness, I’d urge you to look into the Get Noticed Theme. The theme is fairly new and they very well may turn the negatives into positives.
I always believed Bullwinkle would pull a rabbit out of that hat and I believe they will make magic with this theme. WHEN that happens, I’ll come back here and edit the review.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to e-mail me at joisigers @ aim.com.
~ Joi
*** EDIT 12/12/2015
When I wrote the initial Get Noticed Review, one of the things I was most interested in seeing was how the review would rank in Google. I was aiming for “making the first page of Google” because there were a lot of really big websites (including Michael Hyatt, the Get Noticed Theme’s website, and others) who had already written about the theme. For a Self Help Blog to compete with these business and web publishing websites for high rankings would be a major uphill climb.
And yet…
Given the fact that this is a Self Help Blog, these efforts will not take place. So, yes, over time, the great ranking I have right now for these search terms will plummet.
But not before the point I wanted to make has been made: You don’t have to worry about the search engine optimization with the Get Noticed Theme! If a Self Help Blog can do this well with search terms for a theme review, imagine how well your blog could do for search terms within its niche.
When I first switched to the Get Noticed Theme on Self Help Daily and Genuine Kentucky, I was as nervous as a cat in a roomful of toddlers. Both of these websites had always been wonderful when it came to doing well with Google. Not good… not great… wonderful. I even stalled in the middle of switching themes on Self Help Daily and nearly backed out.
To say I was watching the Google Rankings closely would be like saying the cat would be watching the roomful of toddlers closely.
Understatement!
Get Noticed passed the test when it came to SEO and I’m beyond relieved and thrilled.
So… where do I stand today on the Get Noticed Theme?
- I’m not longer nervous about the search engine optimization. The theme is clean, neat, fast-loading, mobile-friendly, and all the “right” things for seo. As long as you use a great plugin, like All in One SEO, you’re going to be great.
- How about the price? That is one of the things I hear about most from people. My opinion? It’s not really an issue. Should you be presented with a series of tutorial videos and more support for this price? Absolutely. Here’s the thing, though: The price keeps the number of people using the theme down. You don’t want your theme looking like everyone else’s theme – how in the heck are you going to stand out in a crowd of clones?! Also, keep this in mind: Just because another theme is cheaper to buy, initially, doesn’t mean it’ll be cheaper in the long run. If you run into issues such as needing headers mobile friendly or wanting page layouts “tweaked,” you’re going to have to pay a coder or designer to take care of it for you. And when I say pay, I mean PAY. Each time you run into the need.
- Get Noticed is a dream come true on ALL devices. Other themes are still struggling with the concept of a great looking design on iPhones and iPads. They usually look downright hideous on iPhones, for example. The menu stacks down and across the screen looking like a hot mess. The header is almost impossible to make look good on most themes as well. Whether the theme developers are having trouble addressing the mobile responsive issue or they’re looking out for their coder friends who make a living from “fixing” the issues for people who buy their themes is a question I can’t answer. All I know is this – you’re given all the tools you need within Get Noticed to make your blog look professional on all devices. Is this a big deal? It’s a HUGE deal. More people access websites and blogs on iPhones and iPads than they do desktop computers. If your blog looks unprofessional the first time they see it, they might not come back. At the moment I’m writing this, the Get Noticed Theme is the one I recommend to anyone who wants to keep this from happening.
- The search engine optimization for “mini posts” – I tested a “Quotes” mini post titled Dwight L. Moody Quote: Let Your Light Shine (beautiful quote, by the way!). When you search that exact phrase (Dwight L. Moody Quote: Let Your Light Shine!) in Google, the Self Help Daily mini post shows up on the first page. It’s behind four other websites, two of which are enormous, quote-related sites. As incredibly popular as quotes and Dwight L. Moody are, I’m actually thrilled with this result. The results are the same if you search for “Dwight L. Moody Quote about Letting Your Light Shine.”
- How is their support? Honestly, I don’t know! I haven’t contacted them or attempted to post a question on their forum since I wrote the review. While that is absolutely zero help to you if you’re looking for an answer to this question – you might just be able to take that as a good sign…. after all, if I haven’t contacted them, I haven’t needed anything…. which means I haven’t had a single problem or issue.
Finally, I’ll say this as my final word (and if you’re a parent, you know this one is major): The Get Noticed Theme is the one I recommend to my blogging daughters. Two of the three are bloggers and, when they ask for my advice, this is the theme I recommend to them. It’s easy (and even fun) to design, the layout is clean, and – most importantly – it’s the most mobile responsive.
So there you have it. It gets the “mom vote.” Seriously, does it get any better than that?
If you’ve had good, bad, or somewhere in between experiences with the Get Noticed Theme, please tell us in the comments.
Well, as I understand, there are pros, there are cons, but one can purchase something better for the same (or even lower) price:-). Of course, it’s great that the theme doesn’t pop up everywhere, and the website that uses it will look different from all those identical cheap-looking sites the Internet is full of. As for me, if I set up a WordPress website, I would use something highly, really highly customizable, maybe even a stub to develop my own theme almost from scratch.
Hi, Alex! The thing I really like about the Get Noticed Theme is that the options for customizing are just about limitless. There may be a few things I wish were better, but that’s true of all themes. In the end, it’s all about each individual doing what’s best for them, I suppose.
Hi, thank you for your post and review – very helpful.
I have purchased the Get Noticed Theme in July 2015 and I was not very impressed. Starting with the extremely slow and unsatisfactory customer care (I mean people pay +$200 and have to wait days to have an answer?!), the theme is not very flexible and requires to be familiar with some basic HTML/CSS – not as they say int their sales pitch that no coding whatsoever is required. I contacted their sales team to get some info about the costs for renewal and it took them +2 weeks to come back with an answer and they were unable to specify how much the renewal would cost.
There are no video tutorials on how to set up the theme (again for the price tag this is not acceptable) and the layout of the website may look quite dated. I had the same issue that you reported with regards to the mini posts not being SEO optimised (this is a get noticed theme and not a be completely unnoticed!).
After two weeks of slow customer care, +10 plug ins that I had to install as the theme requires a lot of “external help” (and those plug ins slowing down the site significantly) I have decided to ask for a refund. Of course the customer care has not acknowledged my request for a refund (I wonder if it will take 3 weeks just to get an answer?).
I would not suggest purchasing this theme: way overpriced for what it is, poor customer care, very limited flexibility and there are much better WP themes on the market for a fraction of the price. I prefer Optimize press 2.0 by far.
Hi Joi.
Have you any experiences with the landing pages built in to the Get Notised Theme? Are they easy to cusomize? Thank you for the helpful review. Is there any news about the SEO of the mini posts? Does it get any better?
Cheers,
Lene.
I recently purchased the GetNoticeTheme and I stumbled into some of the things you wrote about. Mostly one being I am very new to this online world and I was looking to finally start up my health and fitness blog. I realized that my blog doubles as my webpage. I was hopeful the Theme would make building my personal training website unique compared to some themes I had found. I was hoping to have a video after the download video on how to customize and I was unable to find one. Any thoughts? Since you have really worked this theme, in your opinion, do you feel it could support an online personal training site.? Is there better theme choices, at lower costs, that may suit my needs more efficiently. Thank you for your review.
I’m just starting work on a new site using this theme. (my client wanted to use this particular theme) As a long-time web developer, my feelings about Get Noticed after using it for admittedly only a brief time is that it is waaaaaay overpriced, and I could have easily accomplished the same thing, the same look and features much more easily and much more quickly with my “go to” WordPress theme. I’m not liking it very much, and certainly not for $200+!!
Hi Joi,
Loved your review of Michael Hyatt’s theme. I have found it really simple to use, as I’m using it to build a self-hosted website.
My questions…. I agree that their customer support sucks…. so, that being said, How do i change the splash image on different pages? I, for the life of me cannot figure it out.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, and really nice looking site you have.
Jason
Hi, Jason!
I have not attempted many customizations with the Get Noticed Theme beyond the header, so I’m afraid I’m zero help… maybe even less than zero, if that’s possible! Life has been throwing me crazy curveballs lately, but after the first of the year I really want to delve in further and see what I can do with this theme. I’d love to have it on more of my websites but I’m hesitant for them to all look the same. The further I can go with customizations, the more I can use it. Best of luck and thanks so much for the kind words! – Joi (“Joy”)
May May, I do see a lot of people complaining about the price. Personally, as I said in the review, if a higher price keeps the internet from being populated with a lot of blogs that all look the same, I think it’s worth it. I used a really popular theme years ago (Thesis) that I loved. It was very reasonably priced, easy to use, clean, and very neat. However, before you knew it, every single blog began to look the same. You can’t stand out from a crowd when you’re all kind of identical.
I wonder if they offered something “extra” for the price if it’d set better with people? Like a series of tutorial videos, maybe. Something to add to the perceived value, maybe. Thanks for commenting! – Joi
Isabella, WOW – two weeks! I agree with you, that’s simply unacceptable service. The shocking thing is, the people behind this theme are quality people, in every sense of the word. Honestly, first rate humans with uncommon amounts of knowledge and resources. I simply cannot put my finger on why the service “as is” doesn’t match up with what it “should be.” It’s my hope that (like all of us) they’ll learn from their shortcomings and improve.
The theme simply has too many great things going for it. It’s a brilliantly designed theme and I can see other theme developers incorporating many of the innovative functions into their own themes. Whether it’s a case of Get Noticed needing to hire more people or simply providing more coffee to the ones they have, something needs to happen before a beautiful theme and opportunity go belly up. I’d HATE to see that happen.
– Joi
Christiann, Hi!In my web publishing business, I currently use two “parent” themes (Get Noticed on four websites and Genesis, from Studiopress, on the others). As someone who eats, breaths, and sleeps blogs 24/7 (sometimes it feels like more!), I can tell you that the biggest problem right now is this: Making blogs look as good on an iPhone or iPad as they do on a desktop. I follow the stats and an alarming number of people access blogs today from iPhones.
I don’t want it to be true (after all, a blog almost always looks better on a desktop or laptop) but it is. Most blogs look AWFUL when viewed on an iPhone. Get Noticed does not. It looks fantastic. I tell everyone who is concerned about their blog looking its best on iPhones the same thing, at the moment, Get Noticed is the best and I don’t even see anyone with a strong second.
I think Get Noticed would be awesome for an online personal training site. The functionalities, social integration, and clean design would be ideal. I wish you all the best and when you’re site is ready to go, let me know and I’ll tell my readers all about it! – Joi
Lene, Hi! I’m afraid I have zero experience with the landing pages… so far. When I familiarize myself with them, I’ll come back here and edit the review. I’m afraid (to the best of my knowledge) the mini posts aren’t exactly SEO dreams come true, BUT the rest of the theme is excellent from an SEO standpoint. – Joi
Great take aways, Alex! I love that Get Noticed is insanely customizable and appreciate it not being replicated everywhere I turn on the internet’s highway! – Joi
I recently took over a site for a client using this theme. Having a million options, but none of them being exceptionally great, is not a plus in a theme framework for me. It makes for a bloated mess, while things that need to be more customizable in the theme are hard to customize.
Another issue related to price is the price you pay is good for the service term your purchase. “Any theme updates during your support period are included, free!”. So if you buy the individual license for $197, you have 6 months of support and updates. That is ridiculous. I saw my clients invoice to renew support and updates on that license and it was $123. So the theme is not really $200. It’s $200 for 6 months of updates and support. This makes this theme WAY more than other frameworks which are as good or better.
Also of note, I have yet to buy a top 5 themework from somewhere like Themeforest where the mobile version doesn’t look anything less than great. So I am not sure which frameworks you are comparing to.
The marketing for this theme is very good at convincing people that they are offering something that you couldn’t really achieve using other frameworks. But you can and for less money and less bloat.
A agree with some things in your review, I just wanted to balance out a few of the points though.
Ian, as you can tell from the change of theme AND my comment at the top, I’ve had a change of heart regarding the Get Noticed Theme and my review. I honestly hate it, too, because when it comes to potential, the Get Noticed Theme was packed with it! However, a couple of bad – to the tune of very bad – decisions were made on their part and all I can say is it’s a real shame because they were thisclose to revolutionizing blog themes. Thanks for leaving feedback, Ian. I greatly appreciate it and it’ll be of use to others who read it. – Joi
Joi, I know very little about website development. I am starting a podcast for a very specific targeted group and was thinking of using Get noticed to develop my site. Mainly for all the good reasons you sighted. Are there any other good theme based programs that you can recommend. My main business will be the podcast with a blog and supporting products.
Hi Joi,
I, too purchased the Get Noticed theme two years ago, then upgraded (at a hefty price) to the three site Business Builders license. I have found their support to be almost non-existent – slow, rude, etc. THEN – I got the e-mail about renewing my license (I own many other premium themes and don’t have to pay an annual fee for nothing!), but the theme had not been updated for a long time and they were promising an upcoming update … after I renewed. So, to make a long story short, I did not renew at that time – waiting to see if the update would make it worth the expense.
Well, when they did FINALLY publish an update, I could not get it without renewing, so I decided to give it another try. TO MY HORROR, they want me to pay the FULL PRICE AGAIN because I did not renew during my 30 day window. This is ridiculous! I am VERY DISAPPOINTED in the theme, and in Michael Hyatt’s endorsement. I have purchased other products from him, such as the “Get Published” course and the “Platform University” I will think twice before purchasing anything else.
Just my 2 cents worth 🙂
Chuck
Chuck, I feel the same way. This entire endeavor has not enhanced Mr. Horton’s reputation, I’m afraid – which is a HUGE shame because, as my grandmother would have said, he’s “good people.” Good people don’t come around that often – however, they also don’t put their name on something that has gone this wrong. A lot of people who trusted him bought Get Noticed on his name’s value, alone. It has been a total train wreck and I feel it’s at the point where they need to return to the station with the wreckage and start over…. while doing right by those of us who gave them our trust in the first place. Will it happen? Highly doubtful because they currently give the vibe of having the “It’s not us.. it’s all of them” mindset. I’d love nothing more than to see them straighten out and fly right! (another phrase from the Grandma’s Handbook!).
Thanks so much for sharing your experience – it’ll help others avoid the headaches. – Joi
Since the Get Noticed theme is not the recommended theme, what is?
Grey, I totally recommend the themes from Studiopress or Thesis. The Studiopress “child themes” are ready to use, as is, or can be customized to reflect your personal brand and niche. I’m not quite as familiar with the Thesis themes yet, though I do use one on my Mental Fitness blog (Out of Bounds). I love the looks of Thesis themes as well as the Studiopress themes and both have outstanding support and very active communities. They’re both also very affordable. – Joi
Yes, I agree customer service is pretty bad haven’t heard back from them in a little over a month not sure what to do at this point. I am still waiting for a refund and I have not a clue from them and when they will respond.
That is the type of thing I keep hearing. I don’t know, I guess they got into this and realized that there’s a lot more to it than they thought. It’s a real shame because they were innovative in so many areas – they simply didn’t have the personnel to make it happen.
I have found David Kryzaniak from Get Noticed! theme to be very helpful and consistently answers my emails for customer support. He is constrained by the basic look of the template so he couldn’t help me do a multi-tiered menu but he did offer me a free plugin to change the text in the search box. He also answered my question about child templates (the answer was, “They don’t work with this theme.” But at least I got an answer.
Having said all that, I do get so angry when I work with this theme. I think of the cost $250 and feel like a sucker. It is so plain Jane looking and I really wanted something easier to customize. But now I’ve spent at least $300 on plugins to change the menu, add a photo slider, put links to like articles and on and on.
Your post really helped me see the good things about this theme. And let’s face it, I have too much invested in it to change now. You pointed out that it works great on all devices and is easy to use on the back end made me feel much, much better. So thank you for that.
I did get a lot of promotional email from Michael Hyatt telling me how great he was. I just don’t see it. I unsubscribed to ALL of those emails. And now am at peace with the guy because he just leaves me alone.
Thank you for this post. Thank you very much.