Website Templates are Not Templates
Get Over It!

So many people think that using a website template is a bad thing, it makes their website cheap and nothing but a cookie cutout or every other website. But that is not true at all, every "Professional" website uses templates.

Templates have a stigma caused by webmasters with no experience buying templates and filling in the name, address and phone number of the business and calling it a website and selling it for $1000.00 or more. But that is not a "Real" website, it is just a static html page or pages with nothing to offer.

Real websites are detailed, have ecommerce, offer information and are interactive and database driven. To have dynamic content it is necessary to build a template for the website design. A theme that will carry from page to page and allow the programming to insert the dynamic content.

Templates will contain the main elements of the page such as the title space, the navigation menu, background and overall layout. It is important to keep the pages uniform so people know they are still on your website as they move from one page to another.

The difference between the low end webmaster built websites and dynamic sites such as those hosted on pageBuzz.com is that the dynamic sites are generated in realtime by the programming.

So the "cookie cutter sites" are built manually and do not change, while the "professional sites" change based on user input such as adding items to a shopping cart and calculating the costs, shipping and collecting credit cards.

If you do not have a design for the programs to use, then the pages would be blank except for the information generated by the programming. This format is used by all major sites from facebook.com to ebay.com to amazon.com. You could not have websites like those without templates.

So get over it people! A template is not a dirty word, it does not make your website cheap or a copy of anything else. Your template can be completely unique and not be a copy of any other website.

Templates allow programs to update pages rather than a webmaster. So rather than calling or emailing your webmaster to change the price of your items, you can do it yourself from a simple CMS or content management system. You update the data using a GUI (graphic user interface or webpage) in real time. This lets anyone update pages, products, blogs, calendars and other programs without having any web experience or paying a webmaster.

Webmaster built HTML sites are slow, expensive and inefficient. A static HTML site will not allow for quick changes or dynamic programming, so without a template you are stuck back in 1995.

Don't worry about those webmasters, we still need the good ones because building templates is even more complicated than building static websites. While the process is the same and can be done with a WYSIWYG Editor the number of considerations are greater and the HTML and CSS level requirements to get it right are elevated. But any good webmaster should be able to build a template for any CMS especially pagebuzz.com.

If a webmaster tells you they cannot build a template for the hosting system you want to use then move on to another webmaster. That webmaster does not know enough to guarantee that your website will function properly. Any good webmaster can build on any website host or CMS. If they only build on one host, they don't have much experience which will become a big problem as you rely on them for their experience and knowledge.

Of course there are limits to template design based on the programming you use. Here at pageBuzz.com the programming is quite flexible and even allows sub templates for content inserted into the main template which is normally reserved for experienced webmasters and designers.

Since most people will not be writing their own software they are limited to the output of the programs they use. Many programs are opesource and can be modified if you have an understanding of the programming language or deep pockets to pay someone that does. Building a shopping cart from scratch is not advised. The cost could be upwards of $50,000.00 and would likely not work very well. Most commercial carts have been developed over many years and have thousands of people using them and reporting bugs.

If you try to build your own, you wont have the insight that the larger applications have been built on and you will likely have headaches for years to come.

In some cases such as walmart, amazon, ebay and alike, custom carts or programming is required. But, keep in mind the average e-commerce site built with custom programming is costing more than $2,000,000.00. Yes, that is 2 million dollars.

So for the average Joe, a system like pageBuzz at $20 a month is a great deal. There is no need to hire a programmer and spend your life savings to run an online store. You are not walmart.com and don't need to build a website like they do.

But one thing you should have in common is that you both use templates.

So when you hear the word template, don't get excited, don't switch channels. It is not a dirty word and it will not make your website any less professional than walmart.com or ebay.com.