Creating a website is a breeze, especially when you already have a web template to do the job for you. A web template is a pre-designed webpage that lacks only the content and photos, all of which you will add later. They either reduce, or completely eliminate, the need for a professional web designer. You can find many free web templates online, or pay a small fee for them. I say “small fee” because when compared to the cost of hiring a web designer, purchasing a web template is a lot cheaper. As long as you have the basics of web site building down, working with a web template is quick and easy.
Free Web Templates – A quick Google search brings up thousands of results for free web templates.
You could literally spend hours looking through all of them, but for me, that’s the fun part. Seeing all the cool stuff others have created and how you can customize it to your own liking is the fun part of building a website. Putting in the content and photos is the real chore. If you’re using WordPress, which is by far the most popular blogging software in the world, finding a free web template can be a tough choice as you wade through all the stuff that is out there. There’s some pretty creative folks out there who take the time to build all this free stuff for you, though, so finding something you like shouldn’t be a problem. WordPress Themes Base is a good place to start, as they have hundreds of themes to choose from. You can select one, two, three, or four column designs, many of which are themed for easy reference. Free Web Templates is another good place to start if you’re not using WordPress, as they have a selection of templates in HTML, Flash, and CSS.
Premium Web Templates – Shelling out a little money for a web template may be a good idea if you’re into looking professional, and if you’re running a business, then you should be. For WordPress users, by far the best place to buy premium web templates is Solostream. I’ve used several of their templates and they are so customizable that you can do almost anything with them. A single use web template from Solostream can run you anywhere between $50 and $80, but it is worth it to make your website as professional as it can be. For multiuse licenses (where you can use the same template on multiple websites), you’re looking at spending around $130, but again, it’s more than worth the cost to have something built by the experts. For non-Wordpress users, you can find a wide selection of premium web templates at Perfectory, where they have templates for people using Drupal, Joomla, and Silverlight. They also have HTML, CSS, and Flash templates available.
Installing Web Templates – For WordPress users, this part is easy. Simply extract the web template file to your Themes folder and activate it, and you’re done. It really does take just a few minutes of your time. From there you can start writing posts, adding widgets and photos, and playing around with different color schemes. For HTML users, it’s a little more complicated as you have to install the proper code in all the right places. It takes a little bit longer, but in the end you’ll know exactly where everything is placed, so if you have to change the layout of something in your web template, you can go in and fix it in a matter of minutes. This takes a little more time to learn, which is why most folks use a pre-installed blogging software like WordPress, but knowing HTML and CSS will go a long way toward helping you in learning how to make your own websites.
While you may think that a pre-designed web template doesn’t offer the same, customizable options as building a website from scratch does, think again. Many of the web templates I’ve used are easily changed by modifying a few lines of code, or by dragging and dropping different widgets around. There’s no shame in using a web template, as so many of them today offer the look and feel of a professionally designed website, it’s hard to tell the difference. Whether it’s a free one for your personal blogging site, or a premium one for your business, web templates will save you a lot of time and money in the long run, and still give you that professional looking site you’ve always wanted.
http://www.solostream.com/
http://www.perfectory.com/
http://wordpress.org/
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