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Free Website Templates - Flash TemplatesBuilding a basic website is not too hard - throw in some basic HTML code with a HEAD command, BODY, some text and graphics, and you are all set. The tough works come when you are trying to create a really good looking, professionally designed site. Working with tables and style sheets can be more and more complex, as you try to group and arrange elements of your site - HTML was not designed to quickly and easily create complex layouts. This is where templates come into play. Many graphic artists and design pros create good looking web page layouts, with all the proper colors, graphics, text layouts, style sheet code, and more, giving you ready made blank pages for you to fill with your content. Where can you get free website templates? Check out our guide below to finding the best template sites for flash code, website layouts, and more.
Sites for Web Templates and Flash TemplatesOne good site we came across was DotOnDesigns.com. While they do not offer free template downloads, they offer a great variety of reasonably priced templates for websites, flash, php-nuke themes, and logo templates. Most of their templates cost $50-$60. They have templates in categories like agriculture, pets, art, books, fitness, dating, dynamic flash, food and drink, hotels, medical, night clubs, php-nuke, travel templates, sports, web design templates, and much more. You can instantly download any design once you pay for it, and have your website up and looking great in a matter of minutes. A lot of people complain about paying $50 or whatever, but if you figure you would spend a few a hours yourself coming up with a working design that you liked or paying a graphic artist/web programmer for 2 or 3 hours of works, you are easily at the same cost. So consider it an investment rather than an expense, and find a good design for your site and don't worry about paying for it. You can preview all the site design and flash templates live on the site to see what they look like, including sound and animation for the flash templates. Depending upon what format the template is in, you will need the supporting software to edit and make changes to the template - 3dsMax, Adobe Photoshop 7, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive or Microsoft Frontpage, Microsoft Expression Web, and Flash. When you buy a template, you get an instantly downloadble .ZIP file with all the supporting files, graphics, and documents inside that you need to get going.BoxedArt.com is a huge development library including. When you subscribe, you get access to the biggest template membership site on the internet along with thousands of free graphics. The annual membership fee is $99, but you can also buy a 3 month subscription for $49. The one time fee gets you access to everything for that time period - no per download fees, no additional expenses. All template downloads are free after you pay the initial expense. You can use these templates to build client sites, create greeting cards and e-cards, for advertisements and software and presentations - whatever. They offer a huge selection as well - thousands of web templates, flash templates, and flash intros, e-book covers, CSS templates, PHP Nuke templates, PowerPoint templates, logo templates, and more. The valid CSS templates contain no table HTML code - just CSS DIV sections and Flash content. They can also customize templates for you -- just find one you like and provide the specs for the changes you want incorporated. Cost is $175 for customizing an HTML template and $300 for a Flash template. If you need help with templates, check out their tutorial section, with information on downloading and opening and working with Photoshop files, using Slices, replacing images, changing colors, optimizing graphics for web use, working with Flash files, changing text and links in Flash, and much more. Best Template SitesFinally, you can check out TemplateMonster.com for over 5000 web site templates and designs and they aim to add 400+ additional, unique templates each month. Unlike some other sites, TemplateMonster does not go for the all you can download subscription model - each template must be purchased separately. They feel that membership template sites degrade the value of designers work by making too many copies available for free. You'll probably run across them as you search for free templates to download online, since they have more than 30,000 affiliate sites pushing their products as well. They have a nice blog as well that talks about new templates, holiday templates, and much more to keep you up to date with what is going on with them. Most of their templates are also priced in the $50-$60 range, both for Flash template downloads and HTML site designs. They cover all the popular categories - adult templates, education, dating, family templates, games, law, jewelry, software -- you have a website them, they probably have the template for it just waiting for you to discover.Web Site TipsKeep in mind that most of these companies DO NOT offer returns on products once you pay and download them - otherwise you could steal the content you need and then ask for your money back. So take advantage of their thorough preview policies to play around with the template and examine it in detail before buying - -all puchases are final. For most of us, we need a template just for one website, so don't balk at spending $50 to get a first-rate, good looking design template. It's tempting to try to find a free design to copy or download, but if you are serious about your site and your business, $60 is a minor investment for a look and design that might last you 10 years and give your site a professional look and feel.
Do you have a quality site or product that belongs in this guide? We are always happy to evaluate or review new products and websites. Feel free to contact us at the email address below and let us know about you. If you have a demo product you'd like us to look at, please contact us before sending anything. Thank you.
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