How to use Genesis for WordPress & Make Money – Genesis Reviews

A couple of months ago I saw Missy Ward post about using Genesis to create a site for her local PTA with the Genesis framework for WordPress blogs.  Before that I had already started talking to their kick ass Affiliate Manager Jessica Commins who kept telling me how easy it was to use, install and work with Genesis for WordPress, but I still wanted to test it out before I actually recommended it to you all.  After testing 4 urls, two with the Genesis framework and 2 with regular WordPress, I can honestly say that if you are serious about blogging and want to grow your readership, grow your SEO and have an easy to use interface, you should use the Genesis framework for WordPress.

Not only did the two urls begin to rank within a month on the first page for their exact match with the same amount of effort given to the non Genesis supported wordpress sites, but the themes are easier for me to use.  Instead of doing a Genesis SEO post like Sugar Rae did last week, I’m going to focus on how to install Gensis for WordPress, then How to install a Genesis theme and after show you how to get adsense to show extremely easy and without any coding.  Then I’m going to walk you through some of the issues I have with it and things that I don’t like about this framework for wordpress blogs.

How to install Genesis into WordPress Blogs

This is amazingly easy.  I was scared to modify or alter any of my current sites, especially because I don’t know how to code or program, but Jessica assured me that it was extremely easy.  I should have listened to her a while ago because it was not only extremely easy to install Genesis into WordPress, but because of the framework, I save a ton of time when I already have my child theme selected.  Here is how to install Genesis into WordPress blogs and websites easily and without any coding needed.

1.  Click on appearance and then select themes.

2.  Click on the Install Themes tab.
3.  Click on the Upload link to upload your zip folder.
4.  Upload the entire zip folder (you don’t need to unzip it).

5.  Now you activate the theme Genesis and you have now figured out how to install Genesis into WordPress.

To be able to tell if you installed it, hit the refresh button on your browser and if you look above the Appearance tab in the left navigation, you’ll see that a new side navigation tab called Genesis now appears there.

How to install a theme into Genesis (Installing child theme’s into Genesis on WordPress

After I saw how easy it was to install Genesis into wordpress, and after reading all of the Genesis reviews on how easy it was, I was still scared to try installing themes and asked Jessica for help. Instead of walking me through it, she just said you do the same exact thing as installing Genesis and then you just click activate on the theme like you would do with regular WordPress. Sure enough, she was right. Just follow the steps above and you’ll be able to install child themes for Genesis on WordPress in seconds. One thing to remember is to not unzip the child theme’s folder. Leave it zipped and upload the entire thing. Genesis will automatically unzip and install it into WordPress for you. The only difference is that you need to click activate on the child theme for Genesis when you have installed it.

1. Click on appearance and then select themes.
2. Click on the Install Themes tab.
3. Click on the Upload link to upload your zip folder.
4. Upload the entire zip folder (you don’t need to unzip it)
5. Now you activate the theme Genesis and you have figured out how to install themes into Genesis and WordPress.
6. Click on activate and your theme should now be live.

To test and make sure your child theme for Genesis is properly installed, just click on the site name in the top left of your screen or visit the url and you’ll instantly be able to see. Then you just have to modify and edit the settings on the theme and in Genesis to make it look and behave like you’d like. Installing themes into Genesis on WordPress is extremely easy and because you know what the theme looks like, the theme is already optimized for SEO and has everything you’ll need for it, you can save a ton of time when creating sites using pre-made themes for Genesis and when creating new sites.

How to install adsense and make money using Genesis for WordPress

The next thing I wanted to do was to install adsense into Genesis with WordPress and unfortunately I cannot read CSS well enough to pick out where in the code it should go so it will show where I want it to and not more than three times per page so that I am within their guidelines. I found a ton of posts on how to do this, Jessica helped, and tried a bunch of different plugins like ad injector, but then I found one that is extremely easy if you try a couple of things. Here is how to install adsense or banner ads into Genesis and wordpress using the plugin Genesis simple hooks.

1. Click on Plugins.
2. Click on add new.

3.  Search for the term “Genesis Simple Hooks”.

4.  Click on install Genesis Simple Hooks.

5.  Go back to your plug ins page and click activate Genesis Simple Hooks.

6.  Now click on the Genesis Tab in the left hand navigation and then click on Simple Hooks.

7.  Now you’re on a page with a ton of fields.  Some of them can be confusing, but they are broken out by the place on the site the adsense ads will appear and also where in that section you would like them to appear.  The best thing you can do it try different fields and see what happens.  Remember to only install a maximum of three ad blocks so that you can reduce your chances of having more than three ad blocks showing up.

8.  Click Save Changes and you can see where your adsense ads are showing and what they look like.

That’s all you have to do to be able to install adsense into Genesis for WordPress and to get your ads to show where you want them.  What I like about using Genesis Simple Hooks over other adsense plugins is that you can easily change the code and move it to different sections of your blog so that you can test where the most profitable section is.  You can also use heat mapping tools to help determine where the best click space is and then try testing the colors of the ads and sizes to see what works best.  You can also use Genesis Simple Hooks to install Affiliate Banners across your site and other ads which people may buy on your site and remove them without having to know how to read CSS or HTML.

Here’s what I don’t like about Genesis for WordPress.

If you cannot code or read code, you’ll have to hire someone to help install things, change the plugins to make your design work and to add ad spaces in different sections of your site.  (The only difference between doing this with Genesis and non Genesis sites is that you can look for other templates that have the space already included in the design.  If you are using Genesis, you are stuck with the templates and designs, unless you can design and code them yourself to create ad spaces.)

You have to buy the templates.  Although this isn’t horrible and they are reasonably priced, you do have to buy their templates if you don’t like the ones you currently have.  They are easy to edit and they do give you a ton of options, so if you find one you like, you can use it on a ton of different urls and also change the settings to make them all unique from each other.

Overall my Genesis reviews are all positive and it has made everything a lot easier when setting up a new site.  All of the templates I have looked at are SEO friendly and the SEO features in the framework are pretty good.  I highly recommend Genesis for WordPress if you are serious about blogging or if you just want an easy to use framework with everything built into it, then I definitely recommend trying Genesis for WordPress.  Please feel free to leave your reviews about Genesis in the comments section if you have tried it.