Despite my WordPress experience before arriving here at The ‘Peg, the Divi theme was a brand new platform for me. Learning the basics of this theme was not my greatest feat. The real challenge was that Divi, like most digital entities, is a versatile theme. It is constantly evolving. Every few weeks it seems there is a new feature expansion. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE working with newer products that are forever adapting with the times. But with a million other tasks and distractions, how’s a girl to efficiently stay on top of it all?

I’ve got 3 words for you:

Elegant. Themes. Blog.

That’s right friends, Divi’s parent company has their own blog and I’m going to be 1,000% honest here: this constantly updated feed has been a LIFESAVER on more than one occasion. If a question or new Divi situation arises, it is this search bar I immediately pull up- not my BFF Google. Yes, you read that correctly. You heard it here: the Elegant Themes blog is a better source for Divi questions than Google. How did this come to be???

#Blessed by the Divi Gods

This romance stems back to my first week at Roundpeg, but a series of perfectly timed posts on the Elegant Themes blog when we needed them most was what truly convinced me that we have found “the one.”

December is already a pretty chaotic month on its own, but the challenges of December 2018 put our team to the test. We ran into our fair share of roadblocks, but the folks over at Elegant Themes had our backs. It seemed that each time we encountered a new challenge, such as a client looking for more “pizzaz” in displaying large amounts of content, Divi would push out a post with a nearly perfect solution.

Although these “life saving” posts may have had perfect timing, the coincidences were still most uncanny. I nearly threw a party when we discovered this easy solution for solving our “fun-shaped images without the client needing photoshop” puzzle. All joking aside, it’s really nice to see that the Divi theme has a support system that’s constantly adding to their arsenal.

In addition to “perfect timing,” the team behind the Elegant Themes blog is incredibly organized. They follow many of our favorite best practices for bloggers by utilizing post tags and properly written SEO text. This makes information discoverable with relative ease.

Superb Support & Resources

Also, the resources provided are on point. I mean, who knows Divi’s compatibility with plugins and other add-ons better than the theme’s own developers? Divi devs don’t stop at just showcasing the most compatible tools out there. They explain installation step-by-step and include screenshots every step of the way.

These guys are always up-to-date on the latest trends, too. Remember everyone predicting the rise of web animation in 2019? The Elegant Themes team stayed ahead of the game. They released new hover option features that could get pretty extensive with NO coding required. But, Divi devs didn’t stop at just launching and polishing this long-awaited feature. In the month of January 2019 alone, there were numerous posts featuring this new set of controls. In fact, many of my favorite posts are tutorials that feature in-depth writeups, GIFs and sometimes even videos.

Many tutorials on the Elegant Themes blog use gifs and videos to provide a “live” preview

Tutorials and freebies that go hand-in-hand

Other design-related posts contain premade assets, like backgrounds and pre-customized modules. And before you ask, YES, these layouts and tutorials go hand in hand. In one of their latest tutorials, the Personal Stylist layout pack is used to build out fun rollovers. These templates are more than just playgrounds for tutorials, though.

In fact, each free layout is essentially the shell of an entire website! I’m not one to directly use templates, but I love being able to access several layouts in a single glance. Divi devs have also done a great job with organizing these materials by industry. This makes it even easier to find ideas that best match the feel of the project at hand. Did I mention that a live preview, not a video or gif, but a TRULY LIVE PREVIEW is available with each of these layouts, too??

This blog isn’t just for designers

I know I’ve been gushing over the design side of this blog, but there is plenty of bread and butter for those of you who are looking to better yourself on a more personal level. Their broad array of self-help topics ranges from meditation to SMART goal setting. Whether you are prepping for your first job interview, or are a veteran managing your own team, there is bound to be a post you can relate to. These posts are a bit more spread out than Divi-related tutorials and showcases, but I find them to be a nice change of pace that keeps the blog well rounded.

Plenty of Elegant Theme blog posts relate to improving your site without focusing on design. Many focus on WordPress specifically, too. A few examples include a showcase of new features, understanding the lingo of old ones, or maximizing already existing capabilities. An occasional post with a crash course on interpreting your SEO score makes for a nice refresher as well. If you’re interested in a deeper dive, I suggest taking a look at the Roundpeg marketing tools.

If you take away anything from this little rant…

It’s that Elegant Themes amazingly curated blog is one of the billions of reasons why we continue to love and work exclusively with WordPress and the Divi theme.

And in case you are wondering: I am in no way affiliated with Elegant Themes. I use Divi and read their blog on a daily basis, but that’s it. I have not been approached by anyone to write praise for Elegant Themes or their product. This post was purely written on my own accord because the geniuses behind the posts have saved my butt on far more than one occasion. They deserve some extra love. Thanks for all you do, writers of the Elegant Themes blog, and keep on rocking it. We’re all looking forward to the awesome ideas you’ll be rolling out in the months to come!