Income School Project 24 New Theme First Impressions: I Was Shocked!

I had a PageSpeed score of 53 on mobile before I installed the new Income School WordPress theme. That number mattered because Google uses page speed as a real ranking signal, and 60% of all searches now happen on phones. After installing the theme and clicking around for about ten minutes, I ran the test again. The score came back at 92. That jump did not happen because I bought some premium plugin or hired a developer. It happened because Jim and Ricky at Income School built something specifically for their Project 24 students and gave it away at no extra cost.

This post walks through exactly what happened when I installed the brand-new, built-from-scratch Income School WordPress theme on my blog. You will see the real before-and-after PageSpeed numbers, what broke during installation (minor things, but worth knowing), why this theme mattered so much to Jim and Ricky beyond the original Project 24 promise, and whether the theme alone is worth joining Project 24 if you have not yet pulled the trigger. Everything in here is pulled from my live installation session. No inflated claims, no hypotheticals.

What You’ll Walk Out With

The exact PageSpeed scores before and after installing the Income School theme on a real site
What Income School Project 24 actually promises when you sign up
Why render blocking resources are the top speed killer for most WordPress blogs
What breaks during a theme switch and what you need to reconfigure afterward
Why Jim and Ricky went beyond the original Project 24 agreement to build this
The honest case for and against joining Project 24 just to get this theme
A straight answer on whether fast page speed translates to real income for bloggers
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What Income School Project 24 Actually Promises

When I signed up for Project 24, the stated promise was clear and specific. Income School guaranteed two things: keyword research training that teaches you how to find topics your blog can actually rank for, and a 60-step process designed to take a brand-new site from zero to passive income over a 24-month window. That was the deal on the table. No theme, no premium plugins, no mystery bonuses.

Project 24 is built around a blogging method that Jim Harmer and Ricky Kesler developed through years of building their own niche sites. Their philosophy centers on writing posts that target low-competition keywords with genuine search demand, publishing consistently, and waiting for Google to reward the site as it ages. The 60-step roadmap breaks that philosophy into a checklist that a total beginner can follow without getting lost in the weeds of SEO theory.

I had been a member for a few months by the time Jim and Ricky started floating the idea of a WordPress theme. They noticed through their student coaching sessions that a major technical barrier kept showing up again and again: slow load times. New bloggers were choosing themes that looked nice but weighed down the page with unnecessary scripts, heavy fonts, and poorly structured CSS. Those choices were costing students real Google rankings before their content even had a chance to compete.

The PageSpeed Problem Most Bloggers Ignore Until It Is Too Late

PageSpeed Insights is a free Google tool that scores your website from 0 to 100 on both mobile and desktop. The score reflects how fast your pages load and how much of that load time comes from avoidable technical issues. A score of 90 or above is considered fast. Below 50 is a red flag.

Google publicly confirmed that page speed is a ranking factor. That means two pages with equally good content can rank differently based on how fast they load. For new bloggers who are already fighting against established sites with thousands of posts and years of domain authority, slow page speed is one more obstacle they do not need. It is also one of the few technical disadvantages that is entirely fixable without writing a single line of code.

The reason mobile scores matter more than desktop scores is math. Over 60% of all searches happen on mobile devices. Google’s algorithm reflects that reality. If your mobile score is dragging while your desktop score looks decent, you are essentially optimizing for the smaller audience while ignoring the majority of how real people actually search the web.

Before I installed the new Income School theme, my test site sat at 53 on mobile and 84 on desktop. The 84 looked acceptable on the surface, but the 53 was the number that would actually affect my rankings. The top issue Google’s tool flagged was render blocking resources, which is technical language for scripts and stylesheets that force the browser to stop and wait before it can display anything on screen. Those blockers were baked into the theme I had been using, and fixing them manually would have required either installing optimization plugins or digging into the theme’s code.

Installing the New Income School Theme: What I Saw Live

I ran the PageSpeed test on my site one more time before starting the install, just to confirm the baseline. The score came back at 46 for mobile and 82 for desktop. Scores fluctuate slightly between runs, so the 53 and 46 readings were both in the same range. The mobile number was the problem either way.

I downloaded the theme file from inside the Project 24 member area, then went to the WordPress backend, navigated to Appearance, clicked Add New, then Upload Theme, and dragged the file over. The install completed without timing out, which does not always happen when switching themes on a shared or VPS environment. I clicked Activate.

The first thing I noticed after activation was that my logo had disappeared. The menu had also shifted and was not displaying the way I had configured it under the old theme. These are both completely normal side effects of switching WordPress themes. Every theme handles header layout, navigation menus, and logo placement differently, and none of that carries over automatically when you switch. The fixes took a few minutes. If you are planning to switch themes on a live site, back up the site first. I did that before starting, and I would recommend it even if your site is small and relatively new.

What the theme got right out of the box, before any configuration at all, was the speed. I opened PageSpeed Insights immediately after activation and ran the mobile test. The number came back at 92. I ran it again because I did not believe it. It came back at 92 again. The desktop test showed 97. Going from 53 to 92 on mobile without touching a plugin or changing a single setting was not something I had seen before with a theme switch alone.

The Before and After Numbers in Plain Terms

Here is what changed in one theme installation on a small site with roughly eight blog posts, hosted on a VPS that was also running close to eight other websites simultaneously. That shared hosting context matters because it means the server itself was not ideal, and the speed gains were coming entirely from the theme, not from moving to better infrastructure.

Before (previous theme): Mobile score in the range of 46 to 53. Desktop score around 82 to 84. Primary issue: render blocking resources from scripts and stylesheets the old theme loaded on every page.

After (Income School theme, zero configuration): Mobile score of 92. Desktop score of 97. Render blocking resources still flagged as the main remaining issue, meaning there was still room to improve further with caching plugins or other optimization steps.

The jump from 53 to 92 on mobile is meaningful in practice. It is the difference between a site Google treats as slow and one Google treats as fast. It does not guarantee rankings on its own, but it removes a real penalty that was making it harder to compete in any niche, especially competitive ones where bigger sites have every other advantage.

PageSpeed Insights also links to specific plugins and techniques for addressing the remaining issues. Fixing render blocking resources can go further with caching tools like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache, though some of those tools have their own learning curve and potential for breaking things if configured incorrectly. The theme handled the structural weight, which is the part that requires actual theme-level changes and cannot be fixed from a plugin alone.

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Why Jim and Ricky Built This When They Did Not Have To

The Income School WordPress theme was never part of the Project 24 agreement. Students who joined two years before this theme was released never heard it mentioned. There was no promise of a theme, no hint of one in the sales materials. Jim and Ricky built it because their student data told them it was holding people back.

Through their coaching interactions and community feedback, they kept seeing the same pattern. Students followed the 60 steps, published good content, did the keyword research correctly, and then stalled out because their technical foundation was weak. Slow themes, bloated page builders, and heavy design choices were undermining content that otherwise would have had a fighting chance in the search results.

Building a WordPress theme from scratch is not a small project. Themes on ThemeForest, the largest marketplace for WordPress themes, typically sell for around $69 as a one-time purchase, and that price reflects development work done at scale with thousands of expected buyers. Jim and Ricky built their theme for a much smaller audience of Project 24 students, which means the per-student investment of their time and money was considerably higher than what a commercial theme developer would typically absorb.

They then gave it away for free to existing members. No upsell, no discounted add-on, no premium tier required. Students who had been paying for Project 24 since day one got the same access as everyone else. That decision reflects what I have seen consistently from Income School: they tend to add value to the course without raising the price to match.

The business logic is also straightforward. If Project 24 students rank faster and earn income sooner, they are more likely to stay subscribed, refer friends, and share their results publicly. The theme is both a genuine gift and a strategic product decision, and there is nothing wrong with that. Good business and genuine generosity are not mutually exclusive.

Honest Drawbacks Worth Knowing Before You Switch

The theme was in beta when I installed it. Beta software can have bugs, and the Income School theme was no exception. The logo displacement and menu reset I experienced were minor, but someone switching a more heavily customized site would face more reconfiguration work. If your existing theme has a lot of custom widget areas, specialized header layouts, or page builder blocks, switching to any new theme carries a real cleanup cost in time.

The theme is also built around Income School’s approach to blogging. It prioritizes clean typography, fast load times, and minimal visual clutter. If your brand relies on a highly designed aesthetic with complex layouts, this theme may feel restrictive. It is built to rank, not to look like a design portfolio.

Access to the theme requires a Project 24 membership. As of when this video was filmed, the theme was not sold separately. That means if you want the theme, you are also buying into the course, the community, and the full 60-step system. For most bloggers who are serious about building passive income through content, that bundle is worthwhile. For someone who just wants a fast WordPress theme and nothing else, there are other fast themes available without a course attached.

Render blocking resources were still flagged after installation. The theme addressed the structural weight, but page speed optimization is not a single checkbox. You will still want to look at image compression, caching plugins, and hosting quality as separate steps once the theme is installed. The 92 mobile score I saw is a strong baseline, but it leaves room for further improvement with additional tooling.

A Simple Framework for Deciding Whether Project 24 Is Right for You

Here is the question worth asking before you join: are you willing to publish content consistently for at least 12 to 24 months before expecting meaningful passive income? If yes, Project 24 gives you a tested roadmap for exactly that. If no, the theme speed gains will not change the outcome. A fast site with thin or infrequent content will not rank any better than a slow one.

Use this order of priorities:

Pick a niche you can write about for two years without burning out
Commit to the 60-step Project 24 process before worrying about any technical setup
Install the Income School theme immediately to get your technical foundation right from the start
Add a caching plugin to address remaining render blocking resource issues
Check PageSpeed Insights after each optimization step so you know what is actually moving the needle
Focus energy on publishing for the first 12 months rather than constantly tweaking the site’s design

Find Your X

Income School Project 24 is the right fit for people who want to build niche content sites and are willing to commit to the long game. But blogging is not the only path to your first $3,000 online. The best starting point depends on the skills you already have, the time you can put in each week, and how quickly you need results. If you want a clear answer on which online income model actually fits your situation, take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com. Eight questions, no email required, a direct recommendation you can act on today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Income School Project 24?

Project 24 is a blogging and content site course created by Jim Harmer and Ricky Kesler at Income School. It teaches a step-by-step method for building niche websites that generate passive income through display ads and affiliate marketing. The name refers to the 24-month timeline they outline for getting a site to a meaningful income level. The course includes keyword research training, a 60-step startup process, and access to their private student community.

What does the Income School WordPress theme actually do differently?

The theme is built from scratch to minimize the code that loads on each page. Most commercial WordPress themes include fonts, scripts, and stylesheets for features their users never activate, and all of that extra code slows down the page. The Income School theme strips out that overhead and loads only what is necessary, which is why it produces fast PageSpeed scores without requiring additional speed plugins out of the box.

How much does Project 24 cost?

Project 24 is a subscription-based program. The price has varied over the years as Income School has added features. The best place to get the current pricing is directly from the Income School website, where they also offer a free webinar that explains the full methodology before you buy. As of the time this video was filmed, the membership included the new WordPress theme at no additional charge.

How significant is a PageSpeed jump from 53 to 92 on mobile?

It is meaningful. Google’s PageSpeed scale treats scores below 50 as slow, 50 to 89 as needing improvement, and 90 and above as fast. Moving from 53 to 92 takes a site from the “needing improvement” category into the fast range. That does not guarantee better rankings, but it removes a technical disadvantage that was holding the site back in Google’s assessment of its quality.

Do I still need speed optimization plugins if I use the Income School theme?

The theme handles the structural weight, but render blocking resources may still appear as a flagged issue in PageSpeed Insights even after installation. Caching plugins like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache can address that remaining gap. The theme gets you most of the way there, and plugins handle the last mile. You do not need both to see a big improvement, but combining them will push scores closer to 97 or above on both mobile and desktop.

What are render blocking resources and why do they matter?

Render blocking resources are files, usually JavaScript and CSS, that the browser must fully load before it can display anything visible on screen. When a theme or plugin loads many of these files, the user sees a blank or partially loaded page while waiting for those files to finish downloading. Google measures this wait time and factors it into your PageSpeed score. Themes that load leaner code have fewer render blocking issues by default.

Is the Income School WordPress theme still available to new Project 24 members?

When this video was filmed, the theme was in beta and included with Project 24 membership at no extra cost. Income School has continued updating it since then. The current availability and any changes to how it is distributed would be listed inside the Project 24 member area. If you are considering joining specifically to get the theme, check the current membership details on the Income School site before signing up.

Does a faster PageSpeed score directly increase affiliate income?

Not directly. PageSpeed is one input into Google’s ranking algorithm, and higher rankings bring more organic traffic, which is what actually drives affiliate income on content sites. A faster site that ranks well for its target keywords will earn more than a faster site that ranks poorly. Speed is a foundation that makes everything else more competitive, not a revenue driver on its own. Content quality, keyword selection, and publishing volume matter more over the long term.

Sources

Google PageSpeed Insights tool: developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights
Income School Project 24 membership program: incomeschool.com
WordPress theme upload documentation: wordpress.org/support/article/using-themes
Google mobile-first indexing overview: developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/mobile-first-indexing