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First appearances are everything, this is especially so on the internet. If your site looks amateurish then it is more than likely that someone will press the back button on their browser before they even read your home page, let alone buy anything from you.

Web site templates get round this problem as they are designed by professionals who are creating web sites every day. This means that graphics will be well designed and load quickly when people visit your site. The basic design of the site will have been tested with several browsers to ensure compatibility and the navigation system will be functional.

Cost

A web site template costs between $20 - $70, compare this to a design cost from scratch of about $500 from a web site designer and you can see that you can make substantial savings by opting for the do it yourself approach.

A template is a great starting point for a good looking, well designed site. All you need are some basic editing skills and appropriate software.

Speed

Quite simply editing a partially completed web site is much quicker than creating a site from scratch. You avoid problems such as creating navigation menus and optimising graphics for fast loading of web pages. It typically takes a web designer 5 - 15 days to produce a high quality site.

Set structure

A lot of time can be wasted in deciding on the layout of a site. Using a template helps overcome design issues and enables you to focus purely on content. That way you can achieve a more polished product.

Universal language

Most web site templates are available either as basic HTML files or as more sophisticated flash sites. The more professional retailers will give you both versions.

This means that if you are working to a budget then you could use a low cost HTML editor to get by or, if you wanted your visitors to have a more involved experience, then you could invest in premium products from Macromedia, Adobe or Microsoft that support most of the features you could ever wish to add to your site.