About Web Template Membership Sites
Web template membership sites typically offer unlimited downloads of website development templates for a one-time flat rate, for a certain period of time.
Some membership sites offer customization services for additional fees. Customization fees range from about $45 for a simple logo change to a few hundred dollars for changing flash features. But if you cannot customize your own template, it will still cost you less to pay for "template tuning" than to hire a professional web designer.
Keep in mind if you cannot make changes yourself, you will need to hire someone else in the future. Most companies only do one-time "template tuning" and then you are on your own.
How They Make Their Money (Off You)
Membership sites make money in two ways:- The Greed Factor: Customers looking for one template might get excited about all the colorful templates available. With so many options it becomes confusing as to which one to choose.
Why pay $65 for one template when you can pay $149 for 2,000 templates? Entrepreneurial minds start whirring up possibilities for rainy day projects so people join based on "possibilities" - not on what they were actually looking for (one template).
If you really only need one template membership sites are a waste of your money. Most customers end up downloading very few templates and actually end up developing even fewer of those rainy day ideas.
But the idea that you could have so many templates for free gets people excited enough to purchase a membership for unlimited templates when they really only needed one.
- Affiliate Programs: Many of the sites you see on the web are actually affiliate programs. Thousands of template sites do not actually sell the templates you see - they basically serve as a storefront for another company.
Because some template affiliate programs allow storefronts to inflate their prices, but be sure to check out other websites before buying any commercially developed template online. You may find it cheaper somewhere else and in some cases, even for free on other websites as part of a promotion.
There's Always a Hitch
If you are thinking of joining a web template membership site be sure to browse through templates that will actually come with your membership before you sign up. Most template membership sites only allow you access to certain templates. Other templates you see on the site are not free - you will have to pay an additional fee to download them.
A reputable vendor clearly distinguishes free templates from membership templates from pay-per-download templates - but some do not. If you are not careful you could join a site with a particular featured template in mind only to find out you have to pay yet another fee to get the one you want.
You will also want to make sure that if you want Joomla templates, the site has plenty to offer. If you are looking for CSS or flash, check out the available templates in the application you want. Just because a site offers "2,000 downloadable templates" it will not do you any good if there are only ten templates to choose from in the application you use and the rest are in unsable formats.
Read the Fine Print
Be sure to read the fine print before joining a membership site. Membership periods vary considerably (you might think you are getting one year when you actually are getting only one month for free downloads). Also, some disreputable template companies automatically bill your credit card when the membership expires.
Some template sites let you transfer ownership of the template to someone else - but most do not. And, in most cases, unless you substantially alter the look of the template (including replacing all images in the template) you are not allowed to remove or alter the designer credits displayed in the footer of the template.
