pre-made layouts vs own design?

[ninikins]

which do you use?

[OneofaKind]

I use a pre-made layout for my website.

Being that I'm not a designer and I'm constantly making changes to my site this works best for me at this point in time.

[Melos]

I use both.  I use pre-made templates for some of my sites, but I usually tweak them with my own graphics, etc.  The most recent site I'm making... I'm trying to make it ultra professional, so I'll be using a template with professionally designed graphics.

[OneofaKind]

I must say I love template software, but its limitations comes to play when you really want to start marketing your website and monitoring the traffic.

[ninikins]

I'm stuck choosing between designing and using a template. My designing skill sare ok but can be a bit unreliable but then I want my sire to be personal, not just an unbranded template. hmm. decisions.

[Slashmire]

I think that even though a template cuts the work, it does not define originality..yet still not something bad.

[ninikins]

Does anyone know somewhere with templates which you can modify easily yourself? add your own graphics and such should you want to but just with the coding done for you? Something like that would be really helpful.

[Melos]

There are TONS of free template sites out there.  I like looking through this:

www.comteche.com

It really not too hard to edit the graphics if you have a decent graphics program.

[OneofaKind]

I think that even though a template cuts the work, it does not define originality..yet still not something bad.

You might be surprised.

If I showed you several websites, I suspect you would find it difficult to pick up those made with good template software

[Slashmire]

Yes, quite true, but it probably means that they have updated and changed many things within the first template; I think the lack of originality applies if you keep the basic layout.

[OneofaKind]

Well to make the website effective for your organisation, I think you actually have to make a few changes.

Not to do so would be like taking a template business plan and just changing the company name and nothing else.

[Melos]

I always hear people saying that using a template is 'not original' and it is true that someone else somewhere probably has the same template.  But, with all the thousands and thousands of free templates out there - and even more non-free ones - I can't imagine someone would ever get the comment "Oh, I just saw that same website template on another site last week."  I've been on the internet for 10-11 years now and have only come across the same templates being used a couple of times.

[Slashmire]

Heh, yes you do bring a good points, there are so many templates out there

Well maybe it boils down to the point that I simply like being creative, or have my own branded ideas

[Business Brian]

I've used a few templates bought from Template Monster, but recently I've had a small selection of CSS only templates bult, which I can then customise as required.

[solar]

I've used both. I think that sometimes a predesigned template can offer you a neat and clean package that you may not have been able to come up with...or just simplifies things..

on the other hand, adding personal touches I love.