Creating website templates and earning through them is an enjoyable thing to do. But designing and developing perfect website templates that sell can be challenging and tough. However, if you take the proper steps and stick to them, it gradually becomes an everyday thing.
If you follow the right strategies, you can create website templates that are visually appealing to the customer and functional at the same time. Furthermore, by selling templates can generate more earnings than most Web designers or web development/web design agencies that are busy developing custom websites 24/7.
To successfully create a perfect web template, your primary focus should be
- Research the specific niche
- Small business owners
- The type of templates you are going to build (Like HTML Templates, WordPress themes, Joomla templates, or basic Photoshop templates )
- The marketplace you are going to use to sell the templates
- To sell templates on your own website, make your website attractive, fast-loading, and mobile-friendly
- Marketing strategies
In this article, we will explore some tips and best practices for creating website templates to sell.
Design and create the template
You should follow these steps to design, create and sell website templates
Plan the layout and start with a basic sketch of the form, including the header, footer, and main content area. Next, define a colour palette that completes the template’s overall design and increases its visual looks. You can hire a freelance web designer or a web design agency to achieve better results.
Collecting images, icons, and other elements can elevate your template’s user experience. Now, you can create a visual design of the templates using software such as Adobe photoshop or sketch.
You must bring the sketch to life by converting it to HTML. HTML is just a basic structure.
Then you have to style the template using CSS. For example, you can style fonts, colours, spacing, and effects with CSS.
Finally, add interactivity with JavaScript(JS). With JS, you can add functions such as dropdown menus, slideshows, and popups.
Test Your Own Website templates again and again
After you are done developing your website templates, start testing your templates. Evaluate its functionalities and capabilities across different devices and browsers to ensure a seamless user experience can result in more sales.
You have to test
- Responsiveness
- Browser compatibilities
- The loading time of different devices and browsers
- Functionality such as buttons, dropdowns, links, and forms
- Accessibility options include high-contrast mode, keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, etc.
Focus on the buyer’s experience
An essential part of creating a website template is the buyer’s experience. Therefore, making your perfect website templates should be tailored to your buyer’s needs.
Think for a second, you have just finished building the most beautiful template in the world, but if it fails to meet your buyer’s needs and preferences, they won’t buy it. So make the BUYERS your priority.
This means you have to put more effort into researching the market and finding out what buyers want and what motivates them to buy.
When creating a website template, make sure It’s
- Easy to Use and understand
- Visually appealing and modern design that meets the buyer’s expectations and needs
- Proper Functionalities that serve the buyer’s end goals
- Responsive and works and looks good on different screen sizes
- Built using modern coding practices and standards
Be Picky about your marketplace
Marketplaces can be a great place to sell your digital products, but when you choose the marketplace, be picky, research thoroughly, and be well-informed about the options available. Different marketplaces have different guidelines and requirements, and some will not suit the types of website templates you’re designing or developing.
Look into the different marketplaces and see what they offer to increase the chances of your template’s success and reach the right audiences. Some marketplaces may have a larger audience that goes along with your interests, while others may have a more niche-based audience. Look at the templates already being sold there and see if it goes along with your templates or the template you’re going to develop.
See if you can offer unique features or design elements that set your template apart. By standing out in the marketplace, you can increase the chances of your template being successful and purchased.
Read the coding guidelines of different marketplaces and understand them well before you submit your templates. For example, Creative Market focuses more on design elements, while Theme Forest has specific HTML guidelines that your template must meet to be accepted.
Evaluate the revenue and payment offerings
When you start considering selling website templates, Evaluating each marketplace and the revenue and payment options they offer is essential. This will help you find the best platform to sell your templates and what terms and conditions you should or shouldn’t agree to.
Some marketplaces offer revenue-sharing arrangements, where you receive a percentage of the sale price for each template sold. Others offer flat fees for selling your templates. It is important to carefully consider the revenue and payment options and the overall reputation of the marketplace before deciding on the best platform for your needs.
By carefully evaluating the revenue and payment offerings, you can maximise your potential earnings from selling themes and templates and choose the platform that best suits your needs.
Here are a few of the most popular marketplaces
- Theme Forest sells Photoshop templates, WordPress themes, Joomla templates, and Flash templates
- Mojo Marketplace to sell WordPress Themes, Joomla themes, Magento templates, PrestaShop, OpenCart, Weebly, EmailShopify, and sell HTML Templates
- Creative Market sells HTML Templates, sell Shopify templates, sell Wix templates, and sell WordPress Themes
- Templamatic sells WordPress Themes, sell Drupal Templates and sell Joomla templates
Isn’t the market saturated
If you are asking yourself that, isn’t the Market Too Saturated? The answer is Yes. The market for selling website templates is over-saturated because sellers offer similar products. However, endless opportunities are flying around to be successful at selling website templates. If you have unique ideas and produce high-quality templates using these ideas, and if you choose the right marketplace to sell the templates on, you will succeed.
Publish the website templates
Once you’re done creating your perfect website templates, it’s time to publish them for sale on your chosen marketplace. Before publishing, make sure:
- It has a well-written description of its exact functionalities and features
- It Is well documented, with images and screenshots
- It has a quick process of how the buyers can ask for help
- It Has a live demo for the buyers to preview
Keep improving your templates and keep them updated
Keep your templates updated with the latest features and modern graphical content that help you increase user experience. Make sure your web templates are still relevant and valuable for your customers. Update templates can even improve your visibility and sales on the marketplace, as customers like to buy web templates that update regularly.
Optimise your website template for SEO
It’s not enough to create a perfect website template. It’s also important to ensure your customers find you in the right categories. So you have to optimise your web templates for SEO to increase Their visibility and attract potential Customers.
Here are the steps you can follow to optimise the templates for SEO:
- Use relevant keywords: Choose the most relevant to your templates and add them to your website’s title, heading, and meta descriptions.
- Add internal links: Add internal links to the templates to help users navigate the site and also improve the overall user experience.
- Optimise images: Add images, icons, and graphics, and add appropriate alt tags to help search engines understand the content of the images.
- Create a sitemap: Include a well describe sitemap to help search engines easily crawl and index the website pages.
Optimising the website templates for SEO can increase your website’s visibility and attract potential buyers looking for high-quality templates.
What other legal matters should I be aware of?
When creating website templates, It’s important to know several legal things to avoid potential legal issues. Firstly, it’s important to make sure that all images, icons, graphics, and content used in the templates are legally acquired and don’t infringe on copyright or trademark laws. It’s also crucial to ensure the templates don’t contain any malicious or harmful code, as this can put the user’s information and the information of that website user at risk of being hacked.
Including proper credits or attributions for any third-party materials used in the templates is essential. Lastly, it is recommended to have a clear and comprehensive license agreement that outlines the terms of use and ownership of the templates and any limitations or restrictions. Considering these legal matters, you can ensure that your website templates are legally compliant and avoid potential legal issues.
