I would like to create a website with a similar theme to clarity.fm. What is the best theme - especially for the Q&A and the Category?

The primary distinction is: 1. A theme implies a ready-to-launch WordPress theme with design, back-end functionality, and anything else you might need (according to the theme author's discretion). "Theme" can be roughly equated to "plug-and-play" in the WordPress world. 2. A framework is a set of tools to assist in building custom themes rapidly by handling common challenges ahead of time. "Framework" can be roughly equated with "toolkit". HOWEVER. WordPress is an enormously popular, extremely accessible platform, which means that not everyone who builds for WordPress actually A) knows the difference between a theme and a framework, or B) actually did a good job of implementing anything that's promised. That means that for every high-quality, no-hassle theme or framework you'll find, there are dozens more that are fragile (e.g. can't stand up to even light customization) or just plain terrible (e.g. full of security holes, silenced warnings, bad practices, etc.). Popular frameworks like Genesis have large contributor networks, which cut down on poor quality and security risks. But for a non-coder, the learning curve may be a little steep. The best solution may be to evaluate the cost of getting your current theme audited for quality by a professional coder with a good reputation in the WordPress community. I'm not familiar with the theme you're using, but it's possible that it's a great theme that's well-built. If that's the case, you can keep using it even if the theme creators were to suddenly disappear (though not for long, as there's always a need to modernize themes as WordPress matures and PHP marches forward). If the theme is NOT well-built, consider having a pro build something quality that's specifically suited to your needs. This costs money, but you have to weigh that against your revenue (and the potential loss of it if your DIY site collapses in on itself unexpectedly). Otherwise, do your homework and read reviews from the users of the various themes and frameworks you're considering. Contact the positive reviewers directly to determine how closely your level of skill and comfort with WordPress resembles theirs. That's important, because what I can do comfortably with WordPress (after a decade of building custom themes from scratch) will be very different from someone who's only comfortable using the theme customizer. Sorry if this is a little overwhelming; this is a big topic with a lot of pitfalls and challenges down every path. It ultimately comes down to whether you'd rather spend time or money to solve problems, and which will ultimately end up costing you more. If you'd like to go into the specifics of any of this, or if you want to discuss your theme in particular, hit me up for a call. Good luck!

If you are going to use Social Media Marketing. I would recommend you create a Pinterest wall of your work and back link them to your site. Try that.

It sounds like you just have a simple sales issue, and thankfully a high quality product :) The solution is simple, and you seem to have realized it already: you need to reduce the friction in your location for getting customers into your "front door" and providing them with (what I'm assuming) is a proposal. Also, feel free to use the word "agency" to describe your combined services. It's what we do :) So, my suggestion is to try reaching out to sales professionals in your area (Paris), and more importantly, with experience in your industry. You'll need to figure out how commission or payment will work, and then let them work their networked magic. Achieving sales leads is really just about your network. So if a sales person simply isn't within your budgetary reach, the next best thing you can do is just have every employee of your agency be their own salesperson. This means reaching out to colleagues from completely different industries, friends, successful people in business that you may have known from grade school, etc.... While sales seems like a crappy process at the start (yes, you are just asking for work from people), what you're building is long term, quality relationships with these people, especially if your final deliverables really wow the end client. From there, you'll find that your happiest clients will do most of the traditional 'sales' work for you :) Hope this helps! Feel free to give me a ring any time.

There are advantages to both approaches. Using a theme such as Avada or X (my recommendation) will make the process faster and guarantee consistency, however the downsides are bloated code and potentially slow page load times. If you don't have a large or media-heavy site, this may not be an issue. Choose a theme that has a solid reputation for customer support and theme updates. Look at all the demos and be sure that you can mix and match the different elements that you like. And keep in mind that they all come with their own page builders and shortcodes, so you will need to choose a theme you want to stick with until you are ready to completely re-design. The pros of developing a custom theme are having more streamlined code and total control over the updates. The downsides would be an increased time/cost factor, a need to have someone monitor software changes and make necessary updates, and further development for future functional needs. Additional attention will need to be placed on required plugin compatibility. If you use ecommerce solutions, payment processors or email marketing opt ins, you'll need to be sure the custom code plays nice with them. Both approaches should allow you to create a totally customized design and user experience. Additional note regarding using a pre-coded theme: Be sure to check the compatibility with your required plugins as well. Most of them take the major ones into consideration, but if you aren't sure, reach out to the developers and ask ahead of time. Good luck! Feel free to contact me if I can help further. ~ Nicky

Checkout is a high-quality WordPress theme by Array built for marketplaces of any kind. https://arraythemes.com/themes/checkout-wordpress-theme/ Let me know if you have any questions about implementation, and I'd be happy to setup a call.