Beginners Guide for Designers Using Templates

A great way to quickly create a website is using a pre-designed website template. You can easily find free or paid templates on many websites through the web.

Free Templates.

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 or Joomla, 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 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.

Exclusive Templates.

After realising 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.

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.

The choice is up to you on which path to take with designing your website. We hope this article has helped, good luck and happy designing.

Author of this article is Phil M.