Create
a Website using Pre-Made Web Templates
SolveYourProblem.com Article Series: Web Site Design
If you don't want to deal with designers but
you don't want to design a website yourself either, there are
plenty of websites that would just love to meet you. They sell
templates, which are an easy way for anyone to buy an already-existing
design and apply it to their website.
Free Templates
A quick search for 'free website templates' turns up a lot
of offers. You have to realize, though, that almost any template
you get for free is either going to be really very amateurish
– looking through the results, in fact, a lot of it is downright
nasty. There will also probably be some annoying conditions
of use, such as having to link back to the designer's web page
from your page, or not being able to use the design commercially.
If you're really determined to get a template for free, a
better way of doing it is to use the ones that come for free
with whatever software you're using. WordPress, for example,
has some very clean, attractive templates.
However you do it, though, you have to realise that free templates
will never be unique: your website will look just like hundreds
of other websites out there that found the same free template
you did.
Cheap Templates
Once you start to get into the territory of paid-for templates,
things start to look up. The idea behind sites that sell templates
(templatemonster.com is the market-leader) is that they can
pay designers a proper rate to do something good once, and
then resell it as many times as they want for a relatively
low price. This lets designers be paid for as many designs
as they want without ever having to deal with customers, and
it lets customers buy and use the designs for a much lower
price than they'd usually pay for something a lot worse – and
that they can't see in advance.
Although the effect isn't quite as bad as with free templates,
you still have to understand that other people out there are
going to have the same design as you. This can be a problem,
especially if you use one of the big template sites and pick
the obvious design for the type of site you're running. Used
carefully, though, it can be one of the best ways to get a
good-looking site up without breaking the bank.
Exclusive Templates
After realizing how much some people dislike other sites being
able to use their design, many template sites started selling
exclusive templates – ones that are only sold once, to one
website, and then taken down. They found themselves with a
runaway hit on their hands.
The reasons for this might not be immediately obvious, as
buying exclusive rights to a template are often more expensive
than just paying a designer to do it to begin with, and you
get less say in what the site looks like.
If you ask me, the popularity of exclusive templates is down
to removing the often-fraught relations between a web designer
and the customer. Customers all too often come into the design
process with all sorts of requirements and preconceptions,
and designers will fail to understand what customers care about
and what they don't.
This way, designers are free to create something great, and
customers can take it if they like it or look at hundreds of
alternatives if they don't. It takes all the uncertainty and
negotiation out at both ends, and leaves both the designer
and the customer much happier than they would have been. Of
course, if there is something small you want changed, most
sites are happy to get the designer to do it for you for a
small extra fee.
Putting Text in Templates
Once you've got a template, the only remaining step is to
take your text and put it into the template. The designer might
be able to help you with this, or you might prefer to add the
template to whatever software you plan to use so that your
content and navigation can be added automatically.
#
# # # #
SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
> Home > Website Design Articles: Main Page
|
