subject: Using Website Template - Not As Easy As It Seems [print this page] Novice webmasters who are building their websites first time often think it is a cost-effective and time saving to use a website template, think again.
Most of the ready-made website template stores promise to offer web designers a quick solution with pre-designed templates, without having to pay the high cost that is usually associate with that level of design.
Here's the catch. Editing a web template you purchased or download free from the Internet is not as easy as many people thought it would be. Customizing a web template has many complications and often turns out to be a time consuming and frustrating task, and would cost you much more than you originally expected.
For customizing these templates to suit your particular needs, you would need to replace the text and images, add new menu items, tweak headers and footers so that the templates can match your business nature, and enable you to convey your message to to your targeted audiences accurately.
Therefore, while using website templates can sometimes save you time for a quick start, you can make the most of these templates only when you have some coding knowledge about CS3, HTML, Flash and CSS - just to name a few. You also need to have graphic design skills so that you can make appropriate image sizes to replace those default images used in templates.
If you do not have these skills, you would have to spend additional money to hire someone who have these skills to customize the template for you, plus you must buy software license for website maintenance and updating --- which again increases the cost of your website development.
In addition, many web template sites claim their web templates are designed by professional web template designers. However, these professional web template designers are usually a group of individual programmers or designers whom you can't contact. And every one of them might have different style of coding and design style.
Therefore even the programmer you hire may face problems while trying to decipher how to add and edit information using the particular template you have acquired. You might end up paying more for someone to modify your template file, than asking them to build it for you from scratch. It usually take one programmer more time to study how the previous programmer coded the scripts and style sheets in the template file.
Another drawback of website template is that they are often designed in a fancy manner to attract template buyers for impulse buying. They are not optimized for real world online business and e-commerce.
For example, a web template with fancy 3D graphics, sound effects and animation might be able to impress potential template buyers quickly. However when using these type of templates on your actual website, its slow loading time and confusing interface might actually turn your visitors away.
If you are looking for a cost-saving solution that can help you to put up a website online, and allows you to easily plug in your own content quickly without any programming skills, you should consider an all-in-1 website builder software.
Website builder software usually come with its own template gallery and editing tools. You can select a template from its gallery, using its editor to type in your content, insert images, create forms, add music, and create stunning flash effects --- all on your own PC within a matter of few minutes, and no additional software is required.
Website templates usually provide a preview version only, and you can only see its code after you pay for it. With site builder software, you can always download a free trial version first, build a website for testing before purchase, and the cost already includes the web templates and editing software.
In conclusion, use website templates if you already have the programming skills and know-how with web page editing -- however the cost might be more than you thought. If you are looking for a low cost, quick and easy solution to build your website, a website builder software would be a better option with easier to understand editing tools.
