Why not?  It’s been a while since I rummaged around in the bargain basement.  You are absolutely right!  Free is not always a good thing - but bear with me here while I do the heavy lifting.  In the world of free webpage templates this is the “Magic Elixir’.

What do I mean, you ask?  Just this - Free Temps Online has distilled the good, better, best of the free web template world down to an amazing shortlist.  And that’s just the first part of my tirade, it gets better.  Free Temps Online also updates the avaialble free web templates sources on a regular basis.

Why do I mention it?  Webpage templates are my thing - and these are free - and they are the best.  Get it?? Get it??!!??  Sure you do.  Anyone would be curious.  I was.  So I checked it out.  What a gas!!!  You never saw so much web template elixir in your life at this price.

That is eggs ackley right! Just click on the link and you can go get elixired up for FREE right now.  Bring the whole family!!!  It’s just clean fun.  Web templates from Heaven!

- - - Are you still here?  Still reading? . . . What, you want to be entertained here first before you do your clicking into web template elixir world?  Okay, okay, here’s a joke.  Who said, “Tease me, please me, squeeze me?”  No, it was not Bill Clinton.  It was JB his self, Mr. Dynamite! The hardest working man in show business!!!!  If you guessed James Brown, I will personally sing “Mama Come Here Quick and Bring Me That Licorice Stick” or “Money Won’t Change You, But Time Will Take You Out,” your choice, on the national television network you prefer.

Don’t just sit there like George W. Bush - click!

Freedom’s Just Another Word
For Nothin’ Left to Lose,
Arthur Browning

There are some undeniable benefits to well designed Flash Intros, Flash Webpages and Flash Templates. Heavy emphasis is needed here on the words well designed. Without strong esthetics and excellent code a Flash experience can be very bad, and cost you visitors.

The current wisdom on Flash applications for webpages and templates is that Flash should be used only if it fulfills a real need and purpose - and does so without any extenuating problems. Deciding when and how to use Flash are the big issues here. A Flash designer can often accomplish this goal, but it takes real skill in design and esthetics, as well as dedication to your particular project. This can be very expensive.

Besides esthetic eloquence and consummate coding there are some very practical necessities to be realized in the best Flash webpage:

EASE AND SPEED OF LOADING THROUGHOUT THE WEBPAGE - Few visitors will suffer waiting for your wonderful technology to load, even if it’s marvelous, especially if it’s the second time they have visited and your Flash effects were not that marvelous. It becomes more of a burden than it’s worth.

ALLOWING THE VISITOR SOME CONTROL - You have to provide a “Skip Intro” button or you will lose many visitors, especially if they don’t have broadband, or it’s a slow internet day,etc. Surfers have been conditioned not to “waste” time on faulty websites.

EASE OF NAVIGATION - Do not obscure your webpage’s navigation with problems like “finding the link” or “chasing the link”, or other poorly devised Flash effects.

PROVIDE STATIC HTML LINKS - This will prevent the problems listed above. This allows visitors to see and use the link to leave the Flash sequence. It also allows search engine bots to index your pages.

DISPLAY A LOADING BAR TO SHOW PROGRESS OF THE FLASH LOAD - This prevents visitor discouragement at waiting and let’s the visitor decide when to skip the flash intro. These loading indicators can follow the theme of the page (e.g. A wine glass being filled for a restaurant webpage).

USE THE TECHNOLOGY THAT LEAST REQUIRES ADDITIONAL DOWNLOADS AND PLUGINS FOR THE VISITOR - Most people, especially non-geeks, do not trust or have the patience for extra downloads or time consuming plug-in information boxes.

MUTE BUTTON FOR MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS - Many people prefer their own music or silence to your music or sound effects. And they don’t want the frustration of having to decide when and how to turn it off. A well displayed “Sound OFF” or “MUTE” button solves the problem.”

ADD KEYWORDS TO META TAGS AND AS PLAIN TEXT - Don’t depend on just the keywords in the HTML comments, make sure the spiders see your keywords.

Getting a well designed Flash website can be expensive - so while you are shopping around don’t forget Flash Webpage Templates. These are already designed Flash webpages that only need to be modified to your personalized preferences. Flash Templates already incorporate theme-based graphics, navigation system, motion effects, music and sound effects. If you find a good Flash Template it could save your hundreds to thousands of dollars on your design.

Flash Templates are often used by designers to save time and money on a projects. In fact there are a few Flash Templates offered for FREE. One good example of a free Flash Template that you can demo is found at Template Monster . Buying a Flash Template is also a possibility and the prices are much better than a fully original design. Make sure that whatever Flash Template you use it is fully validated in it’s code and links.

Flash Templates can be modified easily to fit your website, so they are a good value if you can find one that suits your market and company image. Flash Templates that enhance your image must follow all the above rules as well as having attractive pictures, movements and music.

The Flash Prince of WebWorld,
Arthur Browning

Webpage Templates have been in demand for sometime. Especially now with CSS as an established design format. I am always on the lookout for good value in these templates as they become available.

First of all, free is hard to beat. And recently I have found a good selection of free webpage tenmplates at Steve’s Templates and Web Zone Templates. You should have a look at these templates because besides being free they look good - and they are very popular. These templates are of basic design and the look - although not unique provides a beginning for use with a basic webpage.

Free Webpage Templates are used countless times, but they will need some work for any added features, plugins, individualized graphics, or sometimes essential alteration. If you have less time, need something more than a most basic design, or need a more exclusive look and more unique graphics then predesigned templates are your answer.

WHY? Because for $45 to $75 you are way ahead in all these departments. Better design, sleeker and validated code, unique appearance, exclusive and more specialized graphics.

Free webpage templates are great for experimentation, but sometimes it’s a much better value - saver of time and money - to buy a better template. For serious bloggers and businesses this use of a premium template is a natural and often necessary step upward. Many designers need a good template to get the jump on a project that keeps services reasonable in cost, but keeps their profit margin high enough to justify their hours of fine tuning.

Free Templates Online is another place to find nearly premium free templates. Web design quality and visual attractiveness as good as any free template selection available. I have heard good reports on Free Templates Online, so I don’t mind making the referral. Thousands if not hundreds of thousands are using many of these templates because designers rely on them. If uniqueness is not necessary then they are the best choice. Template Monster sells their templates several times, but they do not have the redundant exposure of having been downloaded 90,000 times.

Now You Know,
Arthur Browning

I read a press release last week that came from Template Monster and thought it was worth passing along.

“For a limited time only, we’re offering you 1 full year of Web hosting absolutely free through Globat.com®. Get a year of Web hosting free just for buying a new template! Please don’t let this offer pass you by! Visit Template Monster today!”

Freebies are always good to know about. Especially if your new on the web or your webpage is a trial project.

Just Ahead of the Curve,
Arthur Browning

Webpage Templates are increasingly popular in several types of websites. The hottest area of the web, weblogging, gets thousands of new writers, visitors, and designers everyday. Many of these bloggers have joined with one of the dominant forces in weblogging – WordPress. Why WordPress? It’s simple to use, yet has a good range of features, and it’s fully supported not only by wordpress.org but by a large segment of the blogging community as well.

Blogging is concerned with many points-of-view; some bloggers make very personal expressions, other bloggers are commercially motivated, while others have a technical or philosophical viewpoint to share. As blogging has increased, it is natural to see that the demand for more unique blog appearances has grown. And, because most bloggers have little if any experience in website design, the demand for variety in an affordable theme has skyrocketed. Many bloggers are content to add text to a standard skin that is shared by the majority of new bloggers and the less esthetically bent bloggers. But after a time even these bloggers usually look to make their blog a more attractive experience for visitors.

I have studied what has been made available in WordPress Templates – both free and for sale. After a lot of looking I decided to present the highlights of my findings – Free vs Sold WordPress Themes.

In the category of Free WordPress Themes my favorite list has 960 WordPress Templates and is found at Emily Robbins’ Blog. Emily has done a great job here. Her website has been around for a while so all of the 960 available themes are still being downloaded.

While I was searching for Free WordPress themes I found two other websites that offer some variety. WordPress itself offers 444 different blog templates at no charge at themes.wordpress.net. Good designs with an array of colors and features are available. “Green Earth� is my favorite, but they’ve had 352,130 downloads of their 638 various themes to date.

Another excellent website is AlexKing.org. This site published 135 free, new WordPress themes some time ago in a competition and they have proven to be very popular with numerous downloads for the blogging crowd. Prize winners are named in several categories, and all 135 blog templates may be downloaded there. My favorite in the competition is titled “Chocolate Candy”.

As for finding a unique, or more exclusive, WP theme you will have to hire a designer or buy a template for a one time download (or at least for a limited number of downloads). For commercial blogging, or for anyone who wants a distinctive look, an exclusive skin may be the best solution. New designers or experienced designers with budget or schedule constraints can get one of these templates and be operational in a hurry. Three WordPress template sellers that have validated templates at a good price are www.TemplateMonster.com, www.HyperTemplates.com and www.Perfectory.com

Weblogging will continue to grow, and many of today’s bloggers will eventually move up to websites for ecommerce, or marketing of their own local, small business.

Arachnophobic,
Arthur Browning

WordPress probably has the most popular platform at present for bloggers. But is WordPress a good idea for Business? For most businesses, probably yes. How will you decide on whether to add a blog to your business? Here’s a rundown of the considerations:

Do you actually need a blog? - - Writing and updating a blog takes work and time, as well as some ability and interest in writing. If you don’t like to write, it may not be your cup of tea. You have to weigh this one out against spending money for advertising or links.

Who do you need to reach with your blog? - - This is all about telling visitors/customers about your products/services. Do your products need or benefit from explanation? Do your potential customers want to read? If you sell an impulse-buy item from a local storefront then there is probably no need to blog, a sign should do. If you sell complex, unique, or intangibles rich merchandise, then you have to get the word out somehow, and a blog is very effective once the URL is in front of their eyes - either by ads or by SERP.

Is your buyer an internet user? This is an easy one. (Duu-uuuh!?)(Couldn’t resist) Is your buyer a blog reader type?

If you need SEO, a blog is an excellent way to boost your search engine rankings and get listed for a lot of your target keywords. If you know that your audience uses search engines to find information, a blog will increase your chances of getting their attention.

What else can a blog do? - Increase your visibility, brand your products, build a like-minded community, expand your presence to new locales, establish your credibility as an expert in your field, put a human face on your business.

You must try to be objective about what you want to achieve with your blog so that you can remain focused and spend your effort on activities that help. Some business bloggers not only spend time writing their own blogs, they read up on other blogs in their field. If you have no time to blog you can hire someone to do the work - but then you should rethink a decision to start a blog.

Decide on your platform because it can be very difficult to move an established blog to a new platform once it is started. A move can result in losing your data, search engine listings and readers, so don’t take this decision lightly. WordPress is my favorite, easy to use and free.

To determine how successful your blog is in boosting your profile or profits you will have to measure your blog traffic and track sales. And to get your blog address out there for local business you can put your blog URL right on your business card and stationery so that your contacts can easily be updated on your business developments at work or at home. I’ve seen shops with their site address right on the sign. I’ve seen flea marketers and people selling right out of their cars with a blog address on their car or truck. You can buy these from auto signmakers.

If you have a blog that’s doing you some good, drop us a line, we’d like to hear about it.

Ever the Raconteur,

Arthur Browning

Web Templates Blog welcomes Kimberly Barreda to our weblog. She has allowed me to interview her, making it the latest in our series of interviews with web designers. Kimberly is the Editor of Active Living Magazine. I especially enjoy the healthy, recreational slant of this magazine and the caring voice of the articles, something this society needs more of. My favorite article from the current issue is “The Social Graces - Fielding Personal Questions In Public Places”.

Kimberly came to my attention when I found out she was involved with charitable projects that involve websites and webpage templates. Kimberly explained that she had made a request of Template Monster to donate a template for John’s Golf Course - The Non Profit, No Greens Fees Course for the Handicapped. This project is about making sport and recreation available to the handicapped. The website has a lot of great promotional photos, my favorite is the photo of John with Terry Bradshaw.

Kimberley Barreda requested Template Monster template #6807
to use for the website. John Espinoza - a Special Olympics Golfer, did not have a lot of resources and Kimberley wanted to upgrade John’s website to something considerably more effective so they could further the work they had started together.

So, Kimberly, how did you get into website design? “I paid someone three hundred dollars to design a page for Cripworld.com in 1994 and he stole my money. While he was working on it, I asked him if he’d teach me html and he said no.”

Do you remember the very first site you designed? “Yes - it was HIDEOUS - I thought I could make this great ‘map’ of my site and it would be so cool, with drop shadows and clipart.. then I thought I was REALLY advanced and started using FRAMES - hahahhahhahhhahaaa - lots and lots of frames. . .”

Are you specializing in any way? “I work for a publishing company that operates a network of (currently 14) sites - all with different content but all disability related - and being in the community - it’s where I do my best work.”

Where do you get your ideas for webpages? “It depends on the site - sometimes I have ideas in my mind on what I’d like to see if I went to the site. . .other times, other people have a concept that would be really cool - for the art, we go to Templatemonster.com usually - I browse the new art with the sites we’re developing in mind and something usually jumps out at us.”

Have you ever worked with website templates? “Extensively - we have 14 sites in the network and I believe 10 are template based. I used to use Moira’s web jewels, then I paid a known cartoonist to design some, then I found Template Monster. Moira’s was fun, they were free. . .Template Monster has worked out really well for us.”

What do you think about Flash technology? “I’m on diallup - lots of us still are and it makes me wait. . . Great presentation and the ability to offer something fun - we’ll be using flash extensively on a new site that features sports videos - but if you’re on dialup - I usually skip the intros if they provide a link.”

I asked Kimberly to tell me more about John’s golf Course. “The story is wonderful, a disabled veteran and volunteers from around the country build a golf course for people with disabilities that is completely free. It was built after John’s brother Michael passed away in a car accident. John started swinging Michael’s golf clubs to be closer to him and that got Steve (John’s father) thinking - so they all went to a local golf course and - well - were treated less than courteously. The family heard every word the gentlemen said about John. So did John.”

“Now the course is 9 years old and the tournament last month was a lot of fun. I won ‘worst golfer’ of the event. They still work on no budget at all and they sell tamales to raise money to cover the expenses as well. They are such nice people. Maybe you would want to golf with John if you’re ever in the area? . . .they LOVE the site - absolutely LOVE it. . . it was considerably different before the design - just white with lots of text.” Thankyou, Kimberly.

The Real Deal,

Arthur Browning

Good News! Free CSS Templates! What is a CSS Template good for, you may ask? Well then , here I go.

CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets, a relatively new feature, added to HTML, that gives developers and users more control as to how webpages can be displayed. With CSS the designer and user can create style sheets that define how different elements, like headers and links, will appear. These Style Sheets can then be applied to any Web page.

CSS provides a standard for specifying the appearance of text and other elements. CSS was developed for use with HTML Webpages but it can also be used in other situations, notably in applications built using XPFE. CSS is typically used to provide a “library” of styles that can be used over and over for many related documents, like a website.

CSS enables designers/users to separate the styles and layout of the web page from data or information. Styles such as fonts, font sizes and margins can be specified in one place so that Webpages are directed from this one master list, with the styles cascading throughout the page or the entire site. With CSS users can define how certain HTML, DHTML and XML structural elements, such as paragraphs and headings, should be displayed using style rules instead of additional markup.

Cascading Style Sheets are a breakthrough in Web design because they enable developers to control the style and layout of multiple Webpages all at one time. With CSS, when you want to make a change, you simply change the style, and that element is updated automatically wherever it appears within the site. Since it’s likely that different browsers will implement CSS a bit differently, the designer must test the page with different browsers, although CSS has been implemented already for IE and Netscape browsers. CSS is W3C standard language and now CSS2 (Version 2.0) adds support for XML, oral presentations for the visually impaired, downloadable fonts and other enhancements.

Well, is CSS available in templates? Yes. And, CSS Templates are advertised free of charge, for any of you experimenters out there. Look at Free CSS Templates. This friendly website is owned by David Herreman and displays several CSS Templates. If you try one out, let us know how it feels.

Hookin’ You Up,
Arthur Browning

I believe Free Templates Online wants our business. They are giving away a very nice business template, one of the new and frequently added templates that they provide.

“Premium Quality. Professional looking. Ready-to-use. Easily customized. Absolutely free of charge. Our aim is to become the best and the most popular free templates resource ever to be
found online. And we are very close to achieving that.� Free Templates Online goes on to say that they add one or two free templates each week.

Another comment here: “25% discount for Template Monster products - action prolonged until midnight 6/29/2006. Yesterday we announced a joint promo action for our newsletter subscribers. Show us the web page created with our free template and receive a 25% discount for a premium quality professional web template from Template Monster - a world-renowned template provider.â€? Then TM explains “we were pleased to receive 53 responses - our templates seem to be really popular. Everyone who showed us the web page designed from our template received a coupon for 25% discount on any of Template Monster’s products.â€?

However: “ . . .we received several messages today from the people saying that their e-mails were bounced back when they tried to apply for the discount. We’ve investigated that and made a decision to prolong the discount till midnight 6/29/2006 to make the chances equal to everybody who wanted to participate.â€? So, today’s your last day for the 25% discount.

More information is available on FreeTemplatesOnline.

I believe they deserve some credit for offering real value in Webpage Templates.

Arthur Browning

Happily, there are more sources for freebies on the web. As I was searching along for Webpage Templates I found three in particular that seemed to offer the most choice.

Free Templates Online offers 60 different Webpage Templates. They are attractive and easily downloaded. By the way, they offer about 8 WordPress themes too.

Open Web Design offers 1645 different Webpage Templates. Some are attractive, many by amateurs or new designers, but they downloaded easily.

OSWD offers 1688 different Webpage Templates. Most are by new designers, some amateurs. These downloaded easily as well.

Many of the amateur and new designs would make it for small personal websites but would probably be a questionable choice in the eyes of a for-profit organization, and might not project a “professional” image for the viewer.

Arthur Browning