Website Templates

Are you a professional graphic designer AND HTML/CSS developer? If you are, quit reading! This page isn't for you.

Luckily you don't have to be a web pro OR spend tons of money to have a really nice looking website. Instead, you can simply buy a website template which has the design & html/css code all ready for you. There are a couple of different companies where you can buy these but I prefer Template Monster because they have a huge selection, great designs, and break it down into useful categories. These designs usually run for about $60 and you get everything you need for that price. Compared to hiring a professional web designer, you'll be saving between $1000 and $7500+ (depending on who you go through and the quality that you want).

Do you like this website? It's built using a web template from Template Monster!

When you purchase a web template, you'll want to keep a few things in mind. Since you'll be the one updating the site, you'll need to choose a web template that will be easy to update. So when you search for a template, make sure that you select 'CSS' as your only category. This bring up HTML websites that have been coded using CSS. What is CSS you ask? CSS is a way of separating the style from the content. By choosing a CSS site, you'll be able to find and update the content easier...and search engines will also be find that content easier making your site rank higher. Also, make sure that you don't choose a Flash template. Flash is the animated cool stuff-like the top of this page. Unless you have Adobe Flash though, you won't be able to update it.

What's the drawbacks? The only real drawback is that if you don't like the graphics in the template, you will have to hire someone who can update those graphics for you. Of course by purchasing a template, you'll get a lot further than trying to go at it from scratch but that's completely dependent on how particular you are and what you're trying to do with your site. That's true for extra functionality on your site too. For example, if you want a contact form or some other custom programming, the template won't have that-you'll have to hire a web developer to code it for you. However, you'll still save a lot of money by using a template since you'll already have most of the graphics done and the main design of your website already coded for you.

If you're intersted, I'll be walking through the basics of setting up the template in my DIY Websites section.