We have put together for you a few key tips that will help you ensure that you get the most bang for your buck out of the templates you purchase and ensure your site stands out from others. This is the second half of our two part series on how to properly use web site templates.
After selecting their template, some people will be tempted to leave the existing images from the templates in place, but it would be to your benefit to find your own images and replace them. If you can provide your own images, as opposed to free images from the net, then you will ensure your site stands out from the crowd. It will also help to brand your business. Once you swap out your logos and/or page titles and colors you are just a few steps away from a site that sells YOUR business.
There is tons of help on the web for editing HTML, images and putting up your own website. Do not neglect all this free information. Do a few searches and pick a few articles to read through, it may make the difference between getting people to the site and making the sale.
In terms of editing there are several free programs out there that you could use to edit your website and templates. As a matter of fact you could get by with out purchasing any software if you wanted to / needed to be cost effective. Here are just a few free open source programs you might be able to use to keep your costs down.
Gimp - Image Manipulation ( ie. Photoshop w/o the price tag )
- The latest release of this program is pretty awesome. While its still not quite as robust as Photoshop its pretty close, and the tool use and location is pretty much the same. Very, very nice for a free application. http://www.gimp.org/
Notepad++ - Source code editor and notepad replacement - This little program has been, quite possibly, one of my absolute favorites. Its proved to be very useful just on code and text editing and supports and reads several different languages with color coding. The ability to add tons of plug ins like spell-checker, and xml-checker makes this program a tool I use on an almost daily basis. http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Filezilla - FTP application - I've tried several of the free FTP applications out there and this is by far the easiest and most reliable FTP out there right now for free. It supports bookmarking and has complete logs. http://filezilla-project.org/
Plugins - Firefox - These days there seem to be a TON of add ons and plug ins available for Firefox for web development. If you click HERE , you will see the current list of really nice add ons that will help you to edit and monitor your site. Plugins like Firebug, in particular, gives you the ability to edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and Java Script live in any web page. There are several of them out there if you do a search.
You need to provide great service, get the word out to your audience/ customer base, and sell your product/service. In the end it doesn't matter how great your product is, or your website looks if its not out there for people to see. Take the initiative and put something out there.
Click HERE to start down the path of putting your business online with quality website templates.
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