Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : To template or not to template...that is the question

[g9hosting]

I was wondering what you guys thought of using a template for a website until I can sink my teeth into designing one of my own. I want to get things going, but cant really getr the design going right now. I need to get the site up and running so I can get some customers and a template might just be what I need to get me started until I can design.

Anyone else ever do this? Templatemonsters.com has some awesome templates for hosting.

Any thoughts?

[majorglory]

A lot of new companies use templates and buy unique custom ones later. << removed >>

Personally, when I see a hosting site with a custom design rather than a template, they look more promising and more professional. If you can't invest a couple more dollars in a unique design, don't expect to have a success story after a month.

[g9hosting]

I actually have a design that was done totally in PS. Im just terrible at slicing it up and coding it in. PM me and let's see if we can work out something with that if you can do it.

[PixelManual]

g9hosting, check out the offers forum -- there are plenty of people there who can slice and code it for fairly cheap.

Personally, I prefer a custom design instead of some $30 templatemonster flashy/trendy site.

[Website Rob]

g9hosting, as new Member to the Forum you may not be aware that Members are not allowed to advertise their Services (paid for) unless in certain Forums -- of which this is not one. If the offer by InceptionGS is to do the work for Free then no problem. If there is a charge involve then InceptionGS has violated Forum Rules.

The idea is keep offers for (paid) work within the Advertising Forums where one can get a multitude of pricing offers.

With that said, the information provided by InceptionGS is good advice. Better to get a fairly decent site up (template or otherwise) to get business happening. Take care in the work done though, as it may happen that you will end up using that 'site look' for months or even a year or more.

[majorglory]

Turns out that I can't code for you till I post an ad in the ads section. =/

[MYPHPBB]

A custom designed site looks good to your customers, but not to your bank manager.

[pshepperd]

My feelings would be this, it depends on how you will get customers.

I got most of my customers from word of mouth, and all i had on my website was a page with my email and phone number. Then I went to a template, and the people that do design work for me criticized it. So then I designed my own, without their help, in case they were after the money, and it looks quite nice.

But if you are just starting out, I operated without a true website for 5 years, and built a successful business.

Today, my website still isn't done.

However if your primary source of gaining clients is the internet , you probably shouldn't use a template.

If your primary source of gaining clients is the internet, but you are doing heavy marketing to get people to your website, then a template might be alright.

[demowolf]

With a standard template, you always run the risk of one of your customers stumbling across another website using your same template. To them that would look very unprofessional.

If you really need to get something up and running now, then go ahead and use a standard template.... but I would start the ball rolling on getting a custom design done as soon as possibe.

Hope that helps

[fastnoc]

99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 of people woulnd't know, or care.

the only place you'll hear complaints is right here in this forum

[cccwebmedia]

If you had the ability to take a template and make some minor changes to it the that could be a way to go so that it wont appear identical to an other site.

[demowolf]

Originally Posted by e-places

99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 of people woulnd't know, or care.

the only place you'll hear complaints is right here in this forum

... and many people looking for hosting do end up stumbling across this website, and in their research for a new hosting company may well find another host that uses the same template.

True the numbers suggest not to worry about it, but personally, I would. It would only take one customer to make the connection, and mention it in these forums to get some bad press. Not that it's a really bad thing to have a website look like someone else's, but IMO it would be better professionally to have a unique custom website.

Making slight modifications as cccwebmedia suggested is also a good idea.

[QiSoftware]

I used a free template for Hosting-Q and I am now in the process of changing it-- preview. Because web hosting was new to me I wanted to work out the details of "how to" rather than the site. I now have the "how to"-- so I am now putting a little bit more into the site--

Q...

[fastnoc]

Originally Posted by demowolf

... and many people looking for hosting do end up stumbling across this website, and in their research for a new hosting company may well find another host that uses the same template.

True the numbers suggest not to worry about it, but personally, I would. It would only take one customer to make the connection, and mention it in these forums to get some bad press. Not that it's a really bad thing to have a website look like someone else's, but IMO it would be better professionally to have a unique custom website.

Making slight modifications as cccwebmedia suggested is also a good idea.

I suppose. if you're client base is so low that a couple people might see your website as a template, because they post at WHT, and would actually be so ignorant as to base the opinion of a company on whether they paid hundreds, or thousands of dollars on a website, and this is a negative impact on your entire business, well, a template is the least of your problems

[SeriousServers]

Well you could use eather one...

however if you want to get singups you are more likely to do that with a non genaric custom one.