Buying a Template

[dharris0211]

Hello. I have 2 online stores; The first one I customized myself using the basic template. It was very frustrating and my husband says it looks like a MySpace page, so I think I want to purchase a ready made site/template for my other store. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to get (and where to avoid) legitimate templates?

[stevesh]

Don't. All commercial templates originate with Template Monster, and they're junk, regardless of how pretty the demo is.

You might provide a link to the site - we may have suggestions.

Also, search the Free Software Add Ons for picaflor for some pretty nice free templates.

[schoolboy]

There are a LOT of organisations offering commercial templates, and the general rule is... AVOID...

Steer clear of Template Monster, Algozone, and a whole host of re-sellers of these templates. They are heavily customised to FORCE a FIXED LOOK, and they achieve this by modifying code and REMOVING core functions.

In the hands of zc code experts, they can be manipulated, but for novices, they are hugely problematic.

Don't be "tempted" by s e x y graphics on the template-for-sale sites. Graphics are your least concern. It's FUNCTIONALITY that is important.

There are many templates in the FREE ADD-ONS that work brilliantly, and can be re-styled graphically (and through their CSS) quite easily. Those by picaflor-azul and 12leaves are pretty reliable.

What you may care to do is find a template that you like, then post it's name/author/seller site here, and then we can advise you on whether it's worth risking a purchase.

[schoolboy]

Ahh... Steve beat me to it - but interesting to see we offer pretty much the same advice.

[dharris0211]

Wow, thanks all! I will definitely look deeper into the add-ons and get back to this post.

[afo]

You can see the free templates "in action" at http://(sorry, site offline)/.

[dgent]

There is nothing wrong with the Template Monster templates if you are happy with how they look from the start and don't want to modify them.

They are slick and professional looking, which inspires confidence from your customers. You don't get any prizes for making one yourself.

[frank18]

There is nothing wrong with the Template Monster templates if you are happy with how they look from the start and don't want to modify them.

They are slick and professional looking, which inspires confidence from your customers. You don't get any prizes for making one yourself.

would not touch them with leather gloves on!

Just do a search on the forums for Template Monster and you get the drift.

[stevesh]

There is nothing wrong with the Template Monster templates if you are happy with how they look from the start and don't want to modify them.

They are slick and professional looking, which inspires confidence from your customers. You don't get any prizes for making one yourself.

I suspect that dgent is right about most TM templates, but we've seen many here that didn't work out-of-the-box.

One problem is, if you don't/can't modify the look of your store, your 'professional' site will look exactly like those of the thousands of other stores whose owners paid $160 for that same template. This is especially problematic when you buy a template that supposedly is designed specifically for the type of products you sell.

You may not get any prizes for creating your own template, but you can get a lot of satisfaction and learn a lot about useful stuff like CSS in the process.

[dgent]

Yeah true, but Joe public doesnt scour the net comparing website designs to see if there is an identical one out there, and there are lots of people using the free templates suggested on here, and all looking similar.

Functionality is a must, but the look of your site is very very important. If all your competitors have better looking, better to use websites than you, then its hard to compete.