Templates

[stage]

Being completely design challenged I am on the hunt for some decent looking ZC templates. I've worked with some other open source applications that were companies did nothing but templates exclusive for that particular open source application. Are there any such web sites out there for Zen Cart?

I did the normal Google search and its amazing how many template sites out there have the EXACT same templates for ZC as well as some other apps I'm sure. What a racket lol

I realize it may be against forum rules for people to post web sites here in the forum, and if so, if anyone has any good suggestions could you please PM me?

Thanks,
stage

[DrByte]

You could peek at the signature lines of various folks who do a lot of helpful posting in the Contributed Templates and maybe Page Layout sections for a few hints.

Naturally, be sure to do your own independent evaluation of each vendor before purchasing.

[stage]

Good idea, thank you!

[Brent]

You could also have a look at Kuroi's excellent site that displays all the free contributed templates.

If you're looking for commercial templates do yourself a favour and do a search for Template Monster on these forums before jumping in the deep end!

[stage]

You could also have a look at Kuroi's excellent site that displays all the free contributed templates.

If you're looking for commercial templates do yourself a favour and do a search for Template Monster on these forums before jumping in the deep end!

Thanks for that heads up. Doing a google search, I came across at least half a dozen, perhaps more, different domain names offering the EXACT same templates at the same prices, are all of these the same company? Some sort of affiliate program?

stage

[kuroi]

Doing a google search, I came across at least half a dozen, perhaps more, different domain names offering the EXACT same templates at the same prices, are all of these the same company? Some sort of affiliate program?

For anybody else wondering about this, stage has now identified via this thread that these are affiliates of Template Monster, and what that means .

[ddaffydoc]

Anyone familiar with POWEREDBYZENCART.COM They seem to offer a free trial.

[kuroi]

Anyone familiar with POWEREDBYZENCART.COM They seem to offer a free trial.

It's yet another Template Monster affiliate. It makes the usual wild claims about the templates being fully customizable. That they're not is well-covered in this thread. Although this does now seem to be TM's aim, they've still got some work to do.

It also gives the usual TM guarantee of 100% satisfaction, which is no doubt what they would like to offer, but as the same thread again shows, is far from the reality.

I see no evidence on that site of a free trial.

[ddaffydoc]

It wasn't really a free trial, but they let you download a sample system. I am looking for something of professional quality like this

"http://www.algozone.com/shop/zencart-templates-zc03c00075-p-252.html"

I don't know if this is a good or bad company but I do know I can't offord screw ups. I am ok with the prices I am seeing I just need to know its what I want, it looks professional and it works easily.

I went to this site (Kuroi's ) but saw nothing really professional looking there. I think I may have missed something. Can anyong give me any recommendations. Its for a site that sell MP3s.

Thanks

bob

[stage]

For a lot of years I developed web sites without ever bothering with templates. I've done a lot of work with osC which I'm sure a lot of people here know can be the ultimate nightmare when attempting to change the look and feel.

About a year ago I started working with Joomla! and built several sites with it. That is where I really got introduced to the idea of site templates. In that community there are 5 or 6 companies that all they do is Joomla! templates, a couple of them are template clubs where for a membership fee, you can download any of their available templates. Usually the license is such that you can only use them on one site at a time, but the nice thing is you can try them out, see how a particular template looks with your particular content.

When I made the post to start this thread I was really looking for some similar sites in the ZC community. I still would very much like to know if there are any such ZC based sites out there.

It appears the current situation is that there are two companies one with a very extensive affiliate network, both appear to do ZC templates as more or less a side line, and charge about three times as much for a single ZC template as I would expect to pay for a years subscription to a Joomla! template club. I agree with the previous poster that if a template looks nice and you know its going to work, $150 might be worth it after all. But not the type of thing you want to find out after the fact that its a dud.

In addition to those two sites above, there are a handful of sites run by active participants here, and who I would tend to be more willing to support because they are active in the community, but while I saw some nice work from those individuals, the selection is a little limited.

I guess it boils down to this question, is it more of less the course of action that most sites using ZC will start out with a template that might be in the ball park with a desired design and then most spend the time and effort to get it all looking the way they want for the final product?

I'm willing to spend the time and effort as well as the leg work if there are more good templates out there. Is it worth it to keep looking? Might I find some hidden jewels? Again if anyone does have any suggestions, please do PM me.

Thanks,
stage