Selecting a website template is a decision that should not be taken lightly. The template you decide on will set the tone for your entire website. So…before you dive into just any old template, you need to have a good idea of the type of visitor that will be coming to your website.

Using templates is by far the best and fastest way to get started and is the reason that many companies are opting for website templates rather than going for full fledged custom web design.

The reason a lot of companies go with templates is because of: cost, quality and functionality.



Today there are so many professionally designed website templates and so many web designers who have the ability to customize them, that it is slowly bringing an end to the low budget websites and high-end custom built websites. The belief that a low budget website equals poor quality is no longer the truth.

A website template is a pre-designed website page layout and includes images, sample navigation layout, sample pages and sometimes even some flash animation. They are ready to use and all you have to do is add your content. The advantage of the website template is that you are actually getting a professionally designed website for a really affordable cost. And let’s not forget that these templates can be customized.

I’ve decided this week to become an affiliate for template monster and try and sell their templates on my site. I asked around their forum a little to get an idea of what their affiliates where making and found out that it is not something they like to talk about.

I decided I’d break the ice and told one of their members I’d like to do about $4,000.00 per month.

His response

You’re kidding me right? 4K a month? Hell I don’t even make that. You’ve got a startup in a market that is totally saturated and you plan on making 4K a month????

Jesus. Earth to Janeth….

And that is what I needed to know, as well as a little inspiration added in just for fun.

The idea is to do $4,000.00 in not only one month but the first month.

So…I guess it’s time to get started.

My biggest problem with affiliate marketing is that there is no Back-End.

The back-end is the most important part of any business. I know companies that will give affiliates 100% on the front-end because they know they will make it back on the back-end.

The back-end is vital to any business yet the affiliate marketer gets cut out of the back-end.

The back-end is the repeat customer and learning how to use the backend is the key to the success of any business. If you can get a customer to buy another product from you in 45 days then you double the value of that customer.

You have to motivate your customers to come back and buy a similar product or service.

Finding a customer is the hard part making a repeat customer out of them should be the easy part.

I wrote a post yesterday about osCommerce templates and ranked on the second page, today that ranking is gone.

Depending on the search engines for traffic can be one of the hardest things to work with. It’s one of the reasons that I’ve started looking more and more into social media marketing. And it’s funny that I can sale more websites for $2,400.00 that are custom designed then I can sale of the osCommerce templates.

Not sure if people don’t want to do it themselves or if they believe all the crap that other web designers say about osCommerce templates.
Guess I should have someone start asking them when they call and see what I can find out.

osCommerce is an Open Source Online Shop as well as the very best E-Commerce Solution

I get 20 calls a day were people ask me if I am building custom website designs or if it is a template website. I build custom website designs and I also sell template websites but the sad truth is that every website is a template.

And the difference between a custom website template and a website template bought from a template site is nothing more than a couple tweaks here and there.
Web designers that are unable to compete on the price of web templates are even the look of web templates have started the whole that’s a template website thing.

But the truth is that with a couple tweaks you end up with a custom designed template site either way you go. A template is just that, a template. If someone builds you a website and then places that same look and feel throughout the site then you now have a template website.

If they don’t, then you know have a confused website visitor.

The correct way to build a website is to carry the same look and feel throughout the site. Of course that could change in the future but at the time of writing this article that is the correct way to build a website.

The reason is that you don’t want your website visitor to feel that they have left the site with each click of the mouse. Once you’ve designed the site with the same look and feel you know have a template. We could call it a website template as it is a website and a template.