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A Book Review: “The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements"
You can never find a graphic art professional who doesn’t know about Adobe Photoshop. This well-known professional digital imaging tool has been widely used in the world of web and graphic design. Adobe Photoshop Elements, on the other hand, is the...
Design Principles and Elements
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A truly shocking number of web designers are unfamiliar with the
basic principles and elements of design. Having never been
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Drupal Modules
There are plenty of Drupal Modules that you can install for your site as add-ons. What we liked best about Drupal modules is that it already comes pre-shipped with several modules. So a standard distribution contains several useful modules that you...
How to customize web templates on your own to create unique websites
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Web templates are raw materials that need to be refurnished/edited to be published online. Editing web-templates could include content insertion, graphic...
Key Facts you should know about Web Site design and Search Engine Optimization
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Knights Going Mobile by QArea
Kharkiv, Ukraine — October 4, 2005 — QArea, the leading developer of applications for PDA’s and smart phones also being the originator of the pioneering BugHuntress Test Suite for automated PDA applications testing , announces ending of its...
Mobile Wallpaper - Totally You
One of the really awesome things about modern cell phones is the capacity they have for being personalized to suit you. With personalized ringtones, with colored or designed or sparkly or light-up faceplates and holders, with all the great gadgets...
Starting Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are being used more and more by web designers to layout and format web pages. Although they have been around for several years now many designers have avoided them due to browser incompatibility. Although...
Web Page Optimization
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increasing the overall page size which causes the page...
XML Promises and challenges
XML Born XML (Extensible Markup Language) 1.0 standard was published February 10, 1998. XML was born from the shortcomings of SGML [Structured Generalized Markup Language] which was hugely complex, massively flexible and just plain hard to work...
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Web Page Templates - 5 Reasons Why You Should Use Them
If you're just starting out in your career as a web designer,
you likely have a lot of work left to do before you have an
established portfolio. After all, it's hard to convince
potential new customers that you have the talent and skills to
create a website if you have no portfolio to show them. You're
caught between a rock and a hard place - you need clients to
build a portfolio, and you need a portfolio to gain new clients.
On the other end of the business is the solo web designer who
has been successful for many years but finds that they can't
keep up with the demand. There's only so many hours in a day and
the unique challenges of designing web sites for other people
can be very overwhelming.
What to do?
Web page templates offer a number of solutions which can help
both new and experienced web designers alike. For those who
don't know, a web page template is a fully designed web page
which contains blank elements that you fill in - such as title,
content, etc. There was a time when web page templates were
virtually non-existent, but once marketers began to see their
potential, so did the demand from the public grow for them.
These days you can find them everywhere, ranging from mere
pennies to hundreds of dollars each.
The Originality Quandary.....
Now you might be thinking "But they're not MY designs. There's
just something not right about it.....". Well, yes, that's a
valid thought. The artist within you is protesting the use of
something which was crafted by another designer. You might even
feel like you're violating your own creativity. Pride and ego
are powerful forces indeed. But, you also have to remember that
you are in business, and sometimes that means making decisions
you don't necessarily like to better the company.
There is another element to this as well - you must never let
your own creativity become more important than fulfilling the
needs of the customer. This is a huge mistake too many people
make. For example, if you think the background should be red,
and the customer wants it to be purple, it is something you must
respect. While subtle persuasion sometimes works (and that's
another topic altogether), the point is that by focusing on the
client's wants and needs is more important than your ego. They
don't care if you used a template, and most won't even know what
it is anyway - but if they actually like it and want to use it,
then why not?
So, just what can web page templates do for you?
1. Save Time
With web page templates, the actual design process is already
done. All you need to do is customize it, add content and
basically "fill in the blanks". This is especially useful if you
are very busy and want to speed up production when you have a
large number of clients to juggle at one time. You may want to
make this an option to all new potential clients.
2. Enhance & Build Your Portfolio
Whether you have no portfolio at all or have one bulging with
samples of your work, adding templates is a great way to show
people that you have the talent to give them what they want.
This is particularly important to new web designers who usually
have few samples to show clients. By using web page templates,
you are building credibility and interest.
3. Providing More Options and Weeding Out Clients
Filling up your website with web page template designs gives
potential customers a reason to stay and thus increases their
interest in your services. Some people create entire directories
of web page templates which clients may browse through to pick
and choose which design they would like for their website. This
way, they not only see samples of your completed work, they are
presented with ideas and choices. This removes all the guesswork
in trying to figure out what kind of design your client wants.
And we all know how frustrating it can be building a site from
scratch, then modifying this or that,
tweaking here and there
until the client is satisfied. Some clients seem to never be
happy. To be blunt - offering templates is a good way to weed
out the fussy ones.
4. So What If You're No Picasso
Maybe you don't have fancy graphic design skills or courses.
Maybe your artistic ability extends no further than drawing a
circle which looks more like a depressed square. No problem.
With web page templates, most of the work is done for you and
the majority of your customers are going to have basic web site
needs anyway. If you do get stuck on something, there are 1000's
of tutorials & forums where you can get help. I remember
tutoring one young fellow starting out who didn't even know what
meta tags were. But, he was full of ambition and drive and now
runs a quite successful web design business of his own using
templates as the base of his work. He has happy customers and
that's really what is most important.
5. An Extra Source of Income
You don't have to use just other people's templates. You can
create your own and may want to consider selling copies to other
web designers as a source of extra income. This can be quite
profitable if you're any good at it.
Most web designers I've known tend to use both their own web
page template designs and ones they purchased from other
sources, along with designing some web sites from scratch.
Suprisingly, I've often been asked BY web designers how to make
a web page template. It's very simple I say.... "Design the
graphics and layout of the page and then stop. Don't add text,
don't add content, don't customize the logo. There you go -
you've got a template!"
Things To Consider:
- Not all web page templates are equal. Some use CSS, some
don't. Some are in .psd format, others are in .html format.
Before purchasing templates, make sure you know what you're
getting.
- Watch out for stolen templates! Some sites steal web page
templates or purchase large collections of templates which
supposedly have "resell rights". It can be hard to spot these
stolen copies and most people don't realize it until it's too
late and they can't get a refund. Don't put money in the pockets
of these thieves if you can help it. I recently had someone
contact me stating that she found my email address in one such
collection (I put my contact data in the meta tags of every
template) and she had some questions about using the templates,
but the person she bought them from was ignoring her. It didn't
take me long to figure things out. I've been fighting template
thieves for years. Yet again, some moron had hijacked my
templates and was trying to sell them as their own. And yet
again, my lawyer had his hands full.
- Always read copyright information and terms of use documents
before purchasing. Every web page template source has their own
set of rules for how their templates can and cannot be used. If
in doubt, ask questions.
- Royalty free? Maybe not. While some web page template
developers offer you the ability to re-use the same template
over and over again without having to pay extra fees, some
aren't so generous. The ideal web page template is one which can
be purchased for a one-time fee and used as often as needed.
Again, if in doubt, ask questions.
While there is much more I would have loved to include in this
article, I'm afraid there just isn't enough room :)
On a final note..... Have fun with your web design business, and
it will never feel like work.
About the author:
Carole Nickerson has been designing web page templates since
1998, with over 10,000 developed graphics and templates to her
name. Now retired from the template development biz, she focuses
her time on sharing her e-business experiences with others. For
more information on web page
templates and web page design, visit: TheNetter.com
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