It seems like now just about everybody has a web site on the internet. If you haven’t set up your own site as yet, you may think it could be beyond your experience or expertise to create your own web presence. Years ago you needed to be technically skilled and proficient in HTML code in order to design a web site, but today there are literally dozens of online sites where you can find website templates for free. All you need to do is download the template to your local PC, make some simple modifications to the design (or even use it exactly as it is), then upload it to the server where your web site is hosted.

Most of the places where you can find website templates for free provide those templates in exchange for a link back to their site. Usually these links are small, unobtrusive text links at the bottom of the page, and therefore there is no reason not to keep those links intact. Removing the link back to their site (also known as a “backlink”) would likely violate the terms for using the template, so make sure you give the original site the proper credit for the design you’re using. After all, if you get website templates for free, a simple backlink doesn’t cost you a penny and it ensures that the designer will continue to offer more interesting and unique designs to the web community at no charge. Make sure you fully read and understand the terms of use before you publish your content using a free website template.

Most sites offering website templates for free organize their designs by various attributes… and that’s a good thing because some sites have hundreds or even thousands available for download. Many offer a “most popular” category where you can find all of the most frequently downloaded templates. Others will allow you to sort the layouts by the number of columns on the page, some allow you to search for designs by type (such as “business” or “blog” or “news site”), others even allow you to find designs by color.

Many of the website templates for free you’ll find on the internet use CSS (cascading style sheets) for their formatting. That means if you’d like to change the fonts, font sizes, colors, column widths and so forth, you’ll have to edit the style sheet in order for the changes to appear on your site. One of the great things about style sheets is that you only need make the change in one place and the modifications you made will show up on all pages within your site. That makes editing easy! And don’t worry, if you don’t understand CSS you don’t have to edit the style sheet at all — just use the template exactly as it is.

If you’re looking for website templates for free you’ll find lots of them on the internet. These free designs can save you lots of time developing your own layouts, and they won’t cost you a dime!

Are you struggling to build you an e-commerce web storefront on the web? Perhaps these few tips will help you as you embark on this exciting venture; of joining the other ecommerce site builders.

First things first, you should plan your website carefully. Determine your goals and lay out which marketing strategies and what outcome you expect from each. Is it your goal to generate leads? Do you want to have an online catalog? Would you like to compile a database of possible clients? List your objectives in quantifiable form (i.e. increase sales by 20%). This will help you to determine the success of your e-commerce site as time goes on.

Your next task will be to determine the things your possible clients will want and need to know prior to making a purchase. These things may be:
• A detailed product/service description complete with pricing guides, key features, product specs, et cetera.
• Customer reviews and testimonials, reports and studies, customer success stories and positive remarks made by prior customers.
• A section that covers frequently asked questions (FAQ) to answer questions and cut down on the need for one-on-one assistance.

When planning the construction of your site, you should focus primarily on customer use. Potential clients will want a site that’s easy to use, easy to navigate, and answers the many questions most consumers have prior to spending money on a product. You should strive to create a site map that will outline each page of your site, starting with the home page. You should also plan to implement the use of tools that will track and measure your site activity (i.e. where do customers click most often, and whether or not those clicks lead to a purchase). This way, as you build your e-commerce web site, you will be able to compare your goals against your results.

As you build, you will want to make certain you’re using the right tools. Your solidly laid out plan is just the beginning. Next comes the actual construction of your e-commerce web site. Many business will turn to professionals (a very powerful tool in web building). The professional web site builders design and create outstanding web sites. There are unlimited sources of contact for professional web builders. Use the phone book, or better yet, look online and you will quickly find a firm in your area.

On the other hand, maybe you’re not budgeted to have professional help building your web site. Many successful e-commerce sites are constructed using tools that are designed to help the layperson create a professional and polished site on their own, without the aid of HTML experts. Again, resources for such sites can be found all over the Internet and you can even find great web building programs to download for free.

Let’s review. In order to build a successful e-commerce web site, your primary goal is to keep your customer in mind. Determine what you’d like to see if you were investigating a product and do your best to build a web page that meets those specs.