Web Templates an Automated Systems

I spend a lot of the time on Web design forms and there is not a day that goes by that some old timer is not bragging about how he hand codes everything. These guys believe that if you are not hand coding then you are not a real designer.

I can understand where they are coming from, these guys spent years in college learning how to code everything by hand and here comes programs that do it all for you.

I agree that a Web designer needs to know how to code by hand but I disagree that a website coded by a program is less efficient than a website coded by a person.

But the big factor is the price and time spent coding by hand. You will spend a lot more time coding by hand than using a program. Because you are spending more time on the site you have to charge the customer more. And because you are spending more time fooling with the code than with the Web design, it is not going to look as good as the guys that use the program and spend more time on the look of the site and less time on the coding of the site.

That said, the thing that really gets me is all these template sites that are popping up all over the Internet. You can purchase a Web template for 100 bucks that is already set up with flash and a good-looking design. There are thousands to choose from so getting the perfect design isn’t hard. You can then take that design and modify it a little to fit perfectly into your niche.

When web design templates first came out I was totally against them.

However, the other day my guys were tied up designing websites for customers and I wanted to change the design on one of my sites. So I bought a template.

I actually like the template site better than http://www.geeksonsteroids.com and I’ve spent years trying to get the look and feel of Geeks on Steroids like I wanted and only a couple minutes on the other site.

Could template sites be the way to the future?

Sticky Websites Don’t Work

How much time is needed for your website to deliver its message to a potential client?

When someone lands on your website you’ve got less than 3 seconds to convince them to stay.

Let’s assume for a moment that the visitor that just landed on your website is interested in what you have to say, how much of your site will they remember and how much do they need to remember in order to become a client?

The amount of time your website needs in order to become effective is one of the most overlooked areas in web design and development while at the same time one of the most important.

And I am not talking about making a site sticky, just because a site can keep someone on it for hours does not mean that, that someone is going to ever purchase anything.

Sticky Isn’t So Good

Most sticky sites were developed with the idea of selling advertising space but the problem is that the people on the site become banner blind. In most cases the users on sites like YouTube or FaceBook want click on banners, they are there for a purpose and have no desire to leave the site.

Unless someone comes up with another way of doing it, it’s nothing more than a failed business model.

The idea is to make your website attractive enough to get their attention, engaging enough to get them to stick around, informative so it explains what it is your product or service can do for them and entertaining so they don’t forget you.

You have to be able to turn your advertising into content and your website into an experience.

Your Website Has To Be Like Six Flags

At Six Flags, people will spend hours standing in line waiting for their turn on a ride that last a couple minutes at best, then they will run back around and stand in the same line to do it all over again.

Your website has to show enough to make your site visitor want to wait for the rest of the site to load and be entertaining enough to make the site visitor stick around to read what it is you have to say.

But you only want to entertain for a couple minutes because the end goal is the checkout line.

Your website has to provide quality, and a memorable experience, in a matter of minutes.

How Much Time Do You Have?

You’ve got just enough time to let your site visitor know what’s in it for them.