The woof and the warp weblog about web stuff.
Club templates or custom templates, what's the difference?
In Joomla! land there are a couple of ways to built your website and I'm talking about the template specifically.
Now what is a template anyway?
A template in Joomla! land is the layout or public front-end for your site, the visual presentation layer that presents data from the CMS to the user in a certain way.
Joomla!'s template system is unlike stated sometimes by people without the proper knowledge, very powerful, flexible but still simple. The amount of power lies largely in the hands of the developer working on the template.
Option 1, the template club.
In Joomla! land it is a very common practice to use a free template or become a member of a so called template club. A template club is a club of which you become a member after paying a monthly or annual fee. A member is given access to a variety of pre-designed templates that he or she can download and use.
The upside of using a club template.- You can start fast.
- You can pick from many designs.
- You get a template with many features.
- It's relatively cheap.
- You have limited options to get exactly what you have in mind.
- They are build for the masses so they are usually packed with features you don't need.
- They are hard to tune besides changing a color or image.
- Most of them are image, html and css heavy, slow rendering.
- You could end up with the same template your competition is using.
Option 2, the custom build template.
A custom build template is something totally different. A template build especially for you and fitting your brand strategy. Custom templates are mostly unique and there are things possible that are simply to complicated for mass production club templates.
The upside of using a custom template.- There are basically no limits to make it fit your needs.
- They can be build ultra light and fast rendering.
- They are easy to tune or change.
- They can fit your brand appearance exactly.
- They are unique.
- They can grow with your site.
- They can be SEO optimized.
- It takes more time to build them.
- They require a larger investment money wise.
Decision making time.
Once you decide to start a website or update your existing site it is time to think about the needs and requirements (just looking at presentation level here). Questions like:
- Which message should my site send into the world?
- Do I have special needs?
- Does the site need to be build by using the latest web-standards?
- Is accessibility important to me or my visitors?
- Do I really need a template which can display in 30 different color schemes and with 20 collapsible module positions?
- Does it matter whether my site is unique?
- How long do I expect the design to be representing?
- Is SEO important to get the most out of my site?
- What is my budget?
My personal opinion.
If you are shooting for a fast site and branding isn't that important to you, go for a club template but make sure you try to customize it as much as you can to make it look different than your neighbour.
If you are a professional business taking yourself serious and if you want everyone else to see that at first glance you need to go for a professional custom template that represents your brand perfectly and is build to render fast, be accessible, usable and SEO optimized. The investment is a little higher in the beginning but in the longer run you will be more satisfied and more flexible to keep your site up to par with your growing business.
There are 17 comments posted.
Re: chi flat iron
I loved the editorial.It is very interesting.XN Thank you for the information.
Re: ghd
I agree with you
Re: Optional
I loved the editorial.It is very interesting.XN Thank you for the information
Re: Optional
Regarding the Joomla!'s template system "template club", as you mention with the fact the templates are available for more people but I reckon any of them can be easily edited with a small custom changes when they become completely unique so, no one else will have the same.
Re: discout chi hair straighteners
I want to introduce these wonderful website:
cheap chi hair straighteners
discout chi hair straighteners
cheap chi hair straighteners
wholesale coach handbag
nice handbag,scarf, sunglass and others
cheap ugg boots
the best beburry scarf
hot sell ghd, discout ghd hair straightenres
cheap p90x workout
cheap christian louboutin shoes
Re: coach bag
[URL=http://www.chihairsonline.com]cheap chi hair straighteners[/URL]
[URL=http://www.sellinstyler.com]discout chi hair straighteners[/URL]
[URL=http://www.chiflatirononlines.com]cheap chi hair straighteners[/URL]
[URL=http://www.globalwholesaleplaza.com]wholesale coach handbag[/URL]
[URL=http://www.nicecoachstyle.com]nice handbag,scarf, sunglass and others[/URL]
Re: christian louboutin shoes
[URL=http://www.christianlouboutinshoesstores.com]cheap christian louboutin shoes[/URL]
cheap nike shox r4
fendi sandals
women shox shoes
cheap nike shox nz
ghd straighteners are lightweight and easy to handle.
ghd hair straighteners can straighten your hair beautifully. The ghd purple straightener is a ghd iv styler which has a rounder barrel than previous versions. Christian Louboutin understanding of personal aesthetics, it is difficult to understand why he is preparing to design high-heeled shoes for Barbie and a year of the Godfather of fashion. A large number of stars are chasing the Christian Dior, and the cheap Christian Louboutin shoes are very popular among them,
Hhe article's content rich variety which make us move for our mood after reading this article. surprise, here you will find what you want! Recently, I found some wedsites which commodity is colorful of fashion. Such as that worth you to see. Believe me these websites won’t let you down.
Re: coach handbags
Very nice post. I really enjoy the reading.Thanks
I can agree with you any more.I loved the editorial.It is very interesting,thanks.
It is a very nice stuff you are sharing us! Thanks for it
Re: radii
Radii Straight Jacket Black White Patent, Radii Straight Jacket Black White Patent
Radii Straight Jacket Black Eleph Aqua, Radii Straight Jacket Black Eleph Aqua
Radii Straight Jacket Black Leather, Radii Straight Jacket Black Leather
Thank you for sharing such good experience.I also like to write such things in own blog. Our replica datejust watches are very good!
welcome to gamesavor to buy wow gold!
Older posts worth reading
Club templates or custom templates, what's the difference?
In Joomla! land there are a couple of ways to built your website and I'm talking about the template specifically. Now...
Printer friendly Joomla! content with a print css file
One of the most forgotten or ignored "features" of a website is the print page. Many times...
Joomla! 1.5.7 Security Release Now Available
The Joomla Project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Joomla 1.5.7 [Wovusani]. This...
A new function in Joomla! 1.5.7 to help with splitmenu's
As you may know already there is an option in Joomla! 1.5 to create one menu tree but show different...
Re: online unit measure converters
# 1 - Posted by: Convert on 2008-11-21 03:08:49
Regarding the Joomla!'s template system "template club", as you mention with the fact the templates are available for more people but I reckon any of them can be easily edited with a small custom changes when they become completely unique so, no one else will have the same.