# Template or Disign your own website?



## mannycotora (Apr 23, 2007)

Hello!

I need to get some pros and cons on using a template instead of building your own website? will I loose business if I use a template? or is it a good Idea? Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!!! 

Thanks!


----------



## rubywenzday (Nov 18, 2008)

man.....i wish someone would answer this cause i have the same question :0/


----------



## OperationSackTap (Nov 13, 2008)

It really depends on your genre of products. Some items look good on a regular peachy keen layout. I personally like going with free form most due to the fact that I can fill my page with banners and artwork. 

I wouldn't say it's bad to go with template set ups, but you lose a lot of the creativity aspect of the web site  

like I said, it really depends on your product and if your merchandise matches the mood of your site.


----------



## rubywenzday (Nov 18, 2008)

Hey Loki,
Did you consult with a designer or did you just learn how to build your own website?


----------



## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

mannycotora said:


> Hello!
> 
> I need to get some pros and cons on using a template instead of building your own website? will I loose business if I use a template? or is it a good Idea? Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!!!
> 
> Thanks!


As mentioned already, it really depends on what you want to use the website for and are you going to maintain it yourself?

In all probabilities, you may end up using some type of ready made scripts/templates etc....too. 


I guess one important factor about having a website is that the entire world can see it, and getting it on the first page of a google search would expose it to a large web user base. The problem is that there are a gazzillion webpages our days and its not an easy task to be a top contender on the web.

But it is possible, 

personally, i find rich content web pages interesting and off the shelf webpages dull. But thats just me.

Whatever you decide to do, be sure to learn a little about the Web and why it was created in the first place. 

to DIY, start here: HTML Tutorial

to use templates, any good host will have them for you.






:


----------



## OperationSackTap (Nov 13, 2008)

rubywenzday said:


> Hey Loki,
> Did you consult with a designer or did you just learn how to build your own website?


I just spent the time to learn about it, because like its been said before "you get back what you put in".

It all comes down to "If I came to my own websites, would I be interested in the product by the mood the website portrays?"

"Would I trust the website by its appearance to spend my well earned money at it?"



Every Website has a mood it gives, hence funny websites having different colors then offensive websites which have a COMPLETELY different feel from a govenrment or religious site.


----------



## mannycotora (Apr 23, 2007)

Thank you all for your responses! I think I am going to stick with my own web design instead of using a template its just that after getting frustrated trying to make my oscommerce shopping cart script to fit the "feel" of my page I just started to think of other alternatives.


----------



## jkruse (Oct 10, 2008)

Some templates aren't bad but most of them are. 

You can't expect a generic template to cater to everything you want and to set you apart from everyone else. They're generic they make money by selling a bunch of them...

I design sites for bigcartel that are very affordable.


----------



## mannycotora (Apr 23, 2007)

jkruse said:


> Some templates aren't bad but most of them are.
> 
> You can't expect a generic template to cater to everything you want and to set you apart from everyone else. They're generic they make money by selling a bunch of them...
> 
> I design sites for bigcartel that are very affordable.


I think that is so true...this was my biggest concern when I was deciding whether to design my own or use a template.


----------



## dmfelder (Oct 25, 2008)

Customizing a website to add your own flair will bring people back. In a competitive market, such as funny tee shirts, you must also be creative. Tshirthell.com does a good job engaging customers with cool effects. Bustedtees.com always puts a cute girl on the front page. Also, all of these websites make it easy to customize your shirts (change the image when you select styles and color, for example). This is not typically out-of-the-box functionality, so there lies the rub. It's SO competitive, you need any advantage you can get. The downside, of course, is the expense.

Our custom shirt side (screen printing and direct to garment printing) is much less competitive, so we have a much more organized, professional, tame presentation. This latter type of website can be created pretty easily with little to no expense. 

Bottom line, consider your market AND the expense. What will you _really_ get out of it?


----------



## jkruse (Oct 10, 2008)

Customize a template. It's win win.


----------



## m26gil (Jul 21, 2006)

I think that if you're using your website just to display your artwork/portfolio you can easily do it yourself. 

If you need an e-commerce website and don't have any html knowledge you should use a template as it will be more easier to manage. I know I will.


----------



## BEn75 (Feb 15, 2009)

Hi,

how about making your own website at hPage.com - Create your free website! ? This website provider has over 250 professional design templates and is totally free. Moreover you have unlimited possibilities and extras to extend your website.Examples are an own forum, a guestbook, a gallery and many more. Furthermore you have 300 MB storage space for free. Thats enough space to upload some photos and so on.


----------



## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

It really depends on WHAT type of shopping cart system you are using.. 

Read here 
I jsut wrote and ENTIRE post dedicated to why a template can possibly be bad, and what things you should expect or ask of your template provider.. I think its an interesting article, and it answers a LOT of the common questions you see in the oscommerce support forums, but it actually holds true for almost all types of templates


----------



## Jamey (Dec 22, 2008)

Templates can be tweaked. There ups and downs to using them. Mostly ups though. The biggest being a time/money saver.


----------



## ausieprinter (Jan 8, 2008)

Have you had a look at www.deconetwork.com?


This service has a range of templates for our industry and then you can access the ccs and even the html code


----------



## Jamey (Dec 22, 2008)

Problem with Deconetwork is it's still in beta and still has many bugs. There is a whole thread on it and clearly a lot of people are unhappy.


----------



## ConstableD (Jan 12, 2009)

This thread has given me a lot to think about, until now I just presumed that when the time comes I would just build a site from scratch (even though I'm really not looking forward to it! Haha!) but since looking to this thread -yesterday- I have been looking around more for templates and some of them seem pretty adaptable to my needs. The thing is though, if I have to alter them myself, might I just build a site from the start, the both seem like they'll be a big pain...


----------



## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

Constable.. this is why there are web designers in the world.. They are there to help you build your site quickly, and customize it entirely. The issue with a lot of people who want to build sites themselves is that they want it done TOMORROW.. but they dont realize that there is a HUGE learning curve with ANY shopping cart software because its NOT HTML.. its a MUCH more complicated language.. SO if you want to start yourself, then START NOW because it will be atleast 6 months before you get it done.. AT LEAST


----------

