Building a website from a template can save
you lots of time and
frustration. In fact, building a website
from a template is the
most efficient process for people to get
their website up and
running in a relatively short period of
time.
There are a
variety of appearances and layouts to choose
from
when browsing through the thousands of available
website
templates. It all depends on what you might
have in mind as to
what you would like to do with your site
design. If you need a
website to host games you can find a templates
for that; if you
need a website to advertise your home based
business you can find
that as well. The variety and range of website
templates is very
broad and comprehensive.
Graphics -
A good website template comes with graphics
that you
can tweak to your own desires. You can replace
the existing
photos with your own pictures, that you
may already have on
your computer, to customize the website.
You can also have
your company logo placed directly onto the
website for easier
brand recognition.
Content - The
content that you want to put on your website
will
determine which type of template you will
finally choose to
utilize. There are a wide variety of categories
of website
templates that you can browse though to
find just the right
kind of template for your own website.
WHY USE A WEBSITE TEMPLATE?
Truthfully,
there are dozens of reasons why you would
want to use
a website template to build your professional
website. You will
find a few of these reasons listed below.
CONTINUITY OF APPEARANCE
Using a website
template allows your website and all the
pages
in it to have a good flow and continuity
in appearance. When
building a website you want the visitor
to your site to be able
to have the same links on each web page
so that they can easily
navigate the site. Imagine if you built
the HTML yourself and
had trouble getting the link for “home”
in the same spot on each
page. Using a template allows you to easily
have all of your
sites links in the same spot with the same
design. Additionally,
you company logo will appear in the same
place on every page, as
well as information about contacting you.
INCREASING SALES WITH A SHOPPING CART
A good website
template will also allow you to add a shopping
cart to your site with little to no effort.
As you probably
already know, a shopping cart allows your
customers to pick out
the items that they want as they go. This
way they do not have
to go back and forth from the product page
to the payment page.
A shopping cart simplifies the purchase
process for your site
visitor, which in turn will increase your
sales. It has been
proven in testing that a good quality, easy-to-use
shopping cart
will actually increase your overall sales
and reduce your amount
of lost customers from your purchase pages.
COMMON QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE USE OF WEBSITE
TEMPLATES
People generally
have lots of questions for website template
providers. Some of these questions include
the formats of the
template and what they are allowed, or not
allowed, to do with
the template. Most website template providers
use Photoshop and
HTML formats for the display and distribution
of their templates.
As far as what
you can do with a purchased website template:
you
can use it to create a website, but cannot
resell the template to
others. Nor are you allowed to claim intellectual
property of the
template or make more than one project from
the same template.
For most users,
this is not a significant issue because
you are
allowed to make any modifications to suit
your purposes. This
includes using your own copyright and removing
the copyright of
the seller of the template. If you chose
to have a custom
website designed for you, you are likely
to encounter the same
intellectual property issues. As an example,
most designers will
reuse their own cascading style sheets or
Java Scripts for menus
so that they don’t have to recreate
the work that they have
already done. These scripts are therefore,
their intellectual
property. When in doubt always ask before
you buy the product.
Most distributors of website templates include
an FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions) page on their website for
more detailed
information.
SAVE YOUR VALUABLE TIME
If you do not
have a great deal of experience designing
websites,
it can take weeks to complete your site
and you will still most
likely have to consult people who have hands-on
experience to
walk you through the basic processes. Even
if you do have
experience building websites, a template
can still be a real
time saver.
The cost benefits
are noticeable as well. Simply put, buying
a
website template is a great investment.
Anything that can help
you to get to the business of selling your
product or service
faster is definitely a worthwhile investment.
Add to this the
fact that you know that you will be creating
a quality website
design that your visitors will appreciate.
If you build your own
website and run into difficulties which
take more time, then
you are losing the business of customers
that could have been
visiting your site during that time period.
Buying a template
also keeps you from having to pay a website
designer...and keeps
you from having to wait for them to complete
the project to your
satisfaction.
One of the
biggest down sides of using a website designer
to
build your website for you is that you are
having to lay out lots
of cash on an idea unseen! Sure, you can
discuss at length with
the designer that you will hire as to what
you would like your
site to look like and accomplish, but it
is nearly impossible
for a designer to have the same vision of
a site that you have
in your own head. Whose to say that at the
end of the lengthy,
expensive process of designing your website,
that you will not be
disappointed with the final outcome, but
agree to use it so that
you can get down to business? This is one
of the best arguments
for using a website template instead of
hiring a professional
website designer. Having the ability to
see the actual design
before laying down your hard earned money,
you are assured that
you will not be disappointed with the final
outcome.
CUSTOMIZING YOUR SITE
The website
template that you purchase can be set up
just as it
is, or you can customize it to your own
specifications. This is
totally up to you and how much individuality
you want or need in
your particular website. If this is a website
for your friends
and family, then perhaps going with the
basic template is what
you want, if you are a business who is competing
with similar
sites, then perhaps you want to individualize
it to a larger
extent.
It is easy
for most people to customize their website
using
their purchased template. The templates
come with easy to
follow instructions and offer a wide range
of answers to common
questions. All templates are provided with
source files, and you
only need to tweak the source code with
your custom changes.
Using HTML editors in conjunction with Adobe
Photoshop makes
customizing your website a breeze.
Some people
wonder if they have the necessary skills
to use a
website template. The skill set that is
required depends on what
you want to do with the website and the
level of customization
that you want to implement. If a simple
website is all that you
want with little customization, then only
beginner level skills
are needed. Obviously, the more you wish
to customize the
website, the more skills you need. Overall
though, if you have
patience and read the instructions and help
manuals, most
Internet users can build their website from
a template.
In order to
download the available website templates,
you will
need to have unzipping software. If you
do not have unzipping
software it can easily be found through
a search on the Internet
or you may download a minimal, but free
and useful, tool, at
http://www.Maxmillian.com
GOOD PLANNING WILL PREVENT OF HOST OF
PROBLEMS
Choosing the
right template for your particular website
does take
a little bit of thought. The easiest way
to choose the template
is by browsing sites such as Maxmillian.com
and their many
categories of websites. This allows you
to find the type and
style of template that best suits your needs.
As a website
builder, you should only buy the templates
that you actually
need. Depending upon your planned use for
the site, you can
decide how in depth the template really
needs to be. If you only
need a company logo template, then buy that;
if you need a flash
intro template buy that. If you need it
all, that is available
too.
WHEN UNIQUENESS IS IMPORTANT
Some sites
that sell website templates offer a membership
whereby
you can have access to multiple website
templates as long as you
remain a member. This sounds like a good
idea at first, until you
start to consider that the templates that
you are downloading
have also been downloaded by potentially
thousands of other
users. This means that your site will look
the same as many
other sites...potentially thousands of other
people’s sites.
Maxmillian.com does not offer a membership;
instead they offer a
single point of sale template. What this
means is that you are
able to purchase a template and then that
template will never be
sold again. This insures that your site
will have a high level
of individuality to it. Do keep in mind
however, that others who
bought the template before you, and did
not choose the single
point of sale option, will be using the
same template. Before
buying your template, you can see exactly
how many people have
actually bought the rights to that template
before you, giving
you the option of knowing how unique your
template design will
actually be. You should also visit your
competitor’s sites to
assure yourself that you will not be duplicating
their website.
From a practical point of view, except for
affiliate storefront
sites, you probably won’t encounter
the same template being used
over and over. Google states that they track
over 8 billion
websites from their search engine, so if
you do some quick math
the odds are definitely in favor of using
a template to build
your website.
IN CONCLUSION
There are so
many reasons to use a website template.
Whether you
want to save money, time, or simply want
to be in control of
your site without having to rely on web
designers, a template is
for you. The templates allow for individuality,
customization,
and are much easier to use than you may
think. Check out
Maxmillian.com today and get started on
building your own
high quality, professional and personally
customized website.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
All articles in the Maxmillian*s Gold Series
are written by:
Ronald. J. Saunders, owner of http://www.Maxmillian.com
~~~ Maxmillian.com Provides Turnkey Website
Services ~~~
Our company provides a comprehensive service
of website
development, domain name selection and registration,
affordable hosting, and first class, high
quality web site
templates. We are your resource for website
authoring and
the home of MaxmillianSoft software. http://www.Maxmillian.com
