Templating websites is nothing new. In the earlier days of web design, you had to know multiple programming languages just to understand what things meant. Knowledge of HTML was a requirement for many, and each page had to be individually updated for the look and any small tweaks were a pain to find and correct.
Today, there’s a whole new set of open source tools you can use to very quickly and cheaply be online without any knowledge of.php, or HTML. No more individual pages to update and no more time wasted working with an unworkable website, and more time for sales and revenue growth.
The easiest of all options for those do-it-yourselfers out there is something called a CMS, or content managed system. These CMS’s go by different names, such as Joomla, WordPress, Concrete 5, Blogger, & Drupal. Each type of CMS serves a specific purpose, so for instance, WordPress and Blogger serve the blogging community, while Concrete 5 and Joomla support professional, multi-functional portals and corporate websites. Each on it’s own merit can create a robust community of users and visitors, and each can be supported by the use of templates.
The template is a small folder containing the style sheet and any accompanying code needed to ‘skin’ your site. Upon installation of the CMS, you’ll have options of which templates to upload. There are many free templates online, and as the community grows, so do your options of having a customized, unique and robust looking website, quickly. Using the CMS platform saves you time and money and using templates means on-the-fly website creation. It couldn’t be easier!
So, the next thing you’ll need to do is find some website templates. Many cost upwards of $100 or more, but these templates often come fully decked out, and are generally for advanced users or users needing a specific type of look. The free ones have come a long way and are available everywhere. You can download free templates at my website listed in the resource box.
So, go on and get a few templates and start adding a unique look to your website so you can stand out from the crowd and keep people coming back to your site.
