Working with Web Site Templates

A The quickest way to get your own site online is to use a web site template. You will find however that these come in varying qualities.

You basically have a choice of free or premium templates and the difference in quality can be extreme.

Free templates

Carrying out a quick search for 'free web site templates' in Google returns over 129 million results. It is important to realise however, that almost any template you get for free is either going to be very amateurish or there will probably be some annoying conditions of use. These may include having to link back to the designer's web page from your site, adverts that you cannot delete or restrictions such as not being able to use the design commercially.

If you're really set on getting a free template however, a better way of doing it is to use the ones that come free say, from your hosting provider or HTML editing program. Alternatively you could look at the world of blogs. WordPress for instance, has some very good looking, functional templates.

One last point – do not expect to have a unique site if you use free templates. There are likely to be literally hundreds of other sites online that found the same free template that you did.

Premium templates

Things start to look up when you investigate the realm of premium templates. The idea behind these is that a team of professional designers are paid to produce quality templates that are sold many times over thus enabling the supplier to offer them at a low cost. Much like you would buy wallpaper.

This has benefits for both customers and designers alike. Designers can do what they do best – designing good looking web site templates and not have the distraction of dealing directly with customers. Customers on the other hand get a professionally designed site, speedy service, can see the goods straight away and don’t have to pay expensive daily rates for unique designs. In fact most template shops offer instant download following purchase.

The only drawback from the customers point of view is that their particular design will not be unique, although in practice, this isn’t really a problem due to the sheer number of sites on the web.

Exclusive Templates

If you really want exclusivity most resellers will offer you a separate price to purchase the template as a unique design. Once sold to you the template is immediately withdrawn from sale.

The best template shops offer you a bespoke design service. This typically takes the form of buying one of their templates on a regular or exclusive basis following which you can ask their designers to make alterations to the template. This is to tailor it more to your specific needs which also has the desirable effect of achieving exclusivity at the same time. This is a very cost effective method of web site design.

Author of this article is Trevor Sadowski. Trevor has been building websites for a couple of years now and has tried various methods to speed up the process. In order to help others Trevor has created a site that offers help and advice on how to build a web site as well as offering free and premium templates of the best quality, free graphics, buttons and other web site components.

4 Marketing Tips for Resourceful Webmasters!

Here comes yet another informative and interesting article that I have to share with webmasters visiting this site. Although all tips are basic and essential it happens every now and then that they get forgotten.It is a really good reminder.

The internet is a sea of knowledge. Getting your information to 'float' by the right audience can be like finding that one special grain of sand on the seashore. Paying big bucks for marketing can strain your already limited budget. What is a webmaster to do? Let's discuss four valuable and proven ways to market your site without breaking the bank.



1. Join forums. Yes, even if running a forum is something you already do, join forums similar to what you have and become a moderator. No, I do not mean for you to siphon traffic from that site to your site. Rather, show yourself useful to that community and you will naturally draw people to your site. Bonus: Very helpful if you can offer a link to your site in your signature too!



2. Business cards. A good idea and not that pricey. Search the internet and you can design your own cards right online. I'm not talking about cheap cards, but professionally done cards. Check out how many cards you can get for less than $100! Give them away like crazy and watch your traffic soar.



3. Create content. There are some decent sites online where you can get other people's content and put it on your site. It can be especially helpful when you don't have the time or knowledge to get the job done. However, you will have to link back to their site and you may lose traffic. Why not consider writing an article yourself? You may not be the best writer but your ideas may be valuable. You'll value the link back to your site!



4. Business associations. Whatever field that you are in, join that field's association. Do not rely strictly on internet contacts, you need to push away from the keyboard, get in your car and go out and meet people. Attend special meetings and conferences...sell yourself in person instead of online. People still like to meet people in person; you will benefit tremendously by the face to face contact.



You are continuously marketing yourself whether you utilize paid schemes or one of the points mentioned above. Never rest on your laurels and take nothing for granted. Life is not constant while change is. Learn what works for you and build a proven marketing strategy. Who knows, but once you have reached the pinnacle of success you just may be able to afford much more comprehensive - and expensive - marketing strategies.




Author of this article is Matt Keegan. He is the webmaster for The Aviation Employment Board and the Corporate Flight Attendant Community. Both sites are top performers in their respective categories.