Keypoints you need to know before purchasing a premade template for your wordpress blog

Everett Level X⁴

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October 26, 2017, 12:11 pm

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Keypoints you need to know before purchasing a premade template for your wordpress blog

About a year ago, I had a discussion about website builders and doing a website yourself. Some of the commenters mentioned about the design aspect as well.

Now that the discussion is over a year old now here is what I have gathered about wordpress premade templates from that time:

Uniqueness is the way right?

You are not the only business that has a unique design. There are other websites that have that exact same design. This could lead to potential trust concerns on behalf of the clients. Would you purchase products from a website that had the same design of many other online shops? I do not think I would as I would feel there would be some issues, or even some type of scamming.

Ownership of your theme/template

You do NOT own the design. Surely you have bought the design. Maybe even tweaked it a bit, but you do not own the code. What you do own is a "license" to use it. But remember, the template is NOT yours simply because you have purchased it. So if you try copyrighting, and/or trademarketing your entire website -- do not copyright and/or trademark the design. This could lead towards future legal issues for you, and as a business you do not want that, especially if you are just starting out.

Support and "retired" themes/templates

Some template authors do not always offer good support, and sometimes will depreciate or "retire" the entire template. That template you bought for your wordpress theme is now no longer being updated, and worse no longer being maintained. This could lead to security issues especially if you are selling products on the website.

Now I agree that buying a template/theme/plugin/etc is a quick and easy way. But how much are you really paying for easy access? If you are purchasing, just make sure it's from a really established author.

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Cristian

So what you are saying is that you ever want to get serious in a business you need to have a custom made code&design because no template or theme you buy online gives you full ownership over it. Right?

I personally think buying themes or templates online is a great way to start a business and websites. It's decent enough if you ask me, at least at first. Of course, once the business starts rolling and you start earning and creating some capital, I so no reason why you won't hire a freelancer or a digital agency to create a one of a kind website you will completely own.

1 7 years ago

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cmoneyspinner

My son-in-law had a web designer create everything for him. He had wedding photography business, It went well and was successful for many years. But then he decided to completely change careers. He's still successful with his new endeavors but it doesn't require a website.

0 7 years ago

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TimothyAlex

I think the biggest problem with buying a WordPress theme is the risk of it being abandoned and support going away. It is the same thing with a plugin. It can really cause a lot of problems for a site owner.

1 7 years ago

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cmoneyspinner

I have never purchased a premade template. I have used several premade templates. I see more advantages to using premade templates than disadvantages. Bottom line? I'm lazy!

0 7 years ago

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Everett

Yes, sometimes i am also lazy as well. I hate "coding" HTML/CSS and even javascript so you can bet that I will probably either use a premade, or just use a css framework like bootstrap or foundation. I use to love "coding" html/css however since a lot has changed, i just stick to programming..

Perhaps one day i will get back into, and maybe not. It will probably evolve into something i dont want to mess with.

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JoeMilford

I am not lazy--I just have a limited budget, which seems to be changing now that I've gotten a few things rolling. i try to utilize what resources i have that are cheap first and then build upon those. I also have no coding expertise, so it is good that there are people out there making purchasable and free (or low-cost) templates in order for people LIKE ME to get a bit of a start.

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TommyCarey

I get so annoyed when I purchase a theme and a week later the author doesn't support it anymore :'( It's either just bad timing on my part or the author just didn't want to do the extra work to make more sales from his or her client base lol.

I usually check prior to purchasing if the theme is supported or not. I will avoid purchasing any theme that isn't supported because if something goes wrong, it will cost me a pretty penny to get a programmer to fix it. If I'm buying a theme, I don't want to pay to fix it right off the bat lol.

Another thing you should think about is the most recent comments people are making where you want to purchase the theme. The theme could be a 4.5 out of 5, but the most recent comments could be very negative if the author decided to stop doing any work for his or her clients. I've actually been happy when I decided to go into the comments and I noticed that over the last 2 months there have been a lot of negative comments, but before that everything was amazing. I don't know what happened, but I avoided the theme because I didn't want to pay for extra edits or fixes

0 7 years ago

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Everett

Oh yeah, I can definitely see your point. I firmly believe without a doubt that if you are offering programming services of any kind, whether it be themes, or entire scripts that you should offer support during the entire duration of the buyer's purchase. That you should make it a point to outline throughout the service that you will offer support.

What I see now-a-days is support being monetized. Just another way for the author to make money. I can understand from the programmers point of view and the need to monetize support, however monetizing is getting out of hand. Even though it is the buyer's choice to select these extras, it is just rediculous that you would want buyer's to pay for support of the product that you are offering for sale.

i tried to monetize my own support for scripts, but no one would buy because if they needed help i wouldn't help them. However, the moment I removed it, i saw a definite increase in sales. So I always like to offer support whenever i can. If I am too busy, I'll let me know, just in-case they think i am ignoring them or something .. lol

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overcast

These days I am checking how simple yet the professional theme is. I have made some blogs which require some level of simplicity. And it can be helpful to see how the templates can be good enough for the blogs. Also some of the websites need the proper design. And on that point you can see that it'd be reasonable to have good template. I think envato has some of the good themes out there. I'd say anyone who wants to make professional look themes should check it out.

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Authord

Well, I don't think I will ever purchase any blog theme or already made theme that is price tagged. Yeah even though I'm a designer, but if I was not, I would still not purchase a theme, By just looking at it, you will be able to grab the functionalities and features you need.

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kgord

Seriously, I don't see the reason to re invent the wheel all the time. I think a pre made template makes things easy. I would like to go that way instead of trying to develop everything myself. It just seems more expedient, and easier. Why not?

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Corzhens

I know that the design cannot be owned by the buyer like in what you explained. But if you had tweaked the design to make it appear different from the original, isn’t it right to be called yours? Just like in a plagiarism case, when you change the sentence to another style but you retain the idea then that cannot constitute plagiarism simply because the original is different from the copied version.

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