My Webshop

About us

Web site review

Web design
   Basic
   Small Business
   Medium Business
   Large Business

Web hosting

Domain registration

Do-It-Yourself

e-Commerce

Web workshop

Free Stuff!

Web Email Cloaker - Freeware Utility Generates Cloaked Email Links to Beat Spam-Spiders!

How to Use Templates for Your Web Site

Templates are pre-designed web pages you can download or purchase (either pre-designed or custom-made) that contain the basic look and feel of the site you want. They can make life a lot easier and provide a more professional site than what you might be able to make yourself, and they are customizable. The downside is that you need to be familiar with the software used to customize it - such as PhotoShop, FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc.

A template is the first thing I create when I create a web site. It may look much like the one here (which is free from www.4Layouts.com (designed by Designers PG) and downloadable from 4Layouts.com. Click the image to see a larger copy.

Flash templates can be expensive (easily $1,000 - $2,000 for exclusive rights) and are also very large downloads (12-24 Mb is common). In my opinion, Flash does not enhance a site well enough to justify the expense and complexity involved, but many web designers push it because it's "the latest greatest thing" and because there is a very large profit margin. Don't say you haven't been warned!

Be aware, though, that many of the free templates on the Internet are only for personal or non-profit websites. If your site is commercial, you will most likely have to pay to use it.