Redesigning? Give Your Old Template to the Masses
Some of us catch the redesign bug more than others, but sooner or later we redesign our sites simply to get something fresh out there. Last night I was thinking about writing an article on how creating themes for blogging software and content management systems is a great way to get linked (and banned from Technorati) and gain a bit more recognition. Problem is you might find that you don’t have enough time (to do some free marketing?!) and avoid creating any themes without realizing you have a theme sitting right in front of you looking to be handed out to the public.
When you decide to do a redesign, why not package up your old design as a theme and make it public for anyone to use with a link back to your site in the footer? Hell, some of us would be able to pump out 4-5 themes a year without even thinking about it simply because we change designs so often. Of course you might think that your hard work is meant only for you for all eternity.
Just something to think about.
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Great idea for anyone. You can also create a switcher easily to allow users to choose their choice of design – nice way if people get attached to any design and for archiving what you have done. Making templates for existing systems is a great way to learn and expand your skills for instance phpbb is one that I know a lot of people along with wordpress use as a training ground to learn about languages. As you pointed out it also gives you great free marketing. Another great way is to do charity sites which builds up your skill base and also portfolio when starting out. It also is something I personally try and do at least one along my paid work even now as it is good to do something positive not just for money.
By karmatosed on May 22, 2006 1:40 pm
That’s exactly what I’m doing. Are you thinking about releasing the old Whitespace design as a template?
By Joshua Lane on May 22, 2006 1:41 pm
Well the old Whitespace was using MovableType and I just don’t plan on doing anything for that system again, but I will make sure to start archiving these WP themes.
By Scrivs on May 22, 2006 1:45 pm
This is whyI recommend NOT doing that
Personally, I think it’s fine for the general blogger to do that, but I think it decreases your classiness as a professional to hand out freebies of your own personal work. Make public templates for the public, but that would be like AT&T letting Small Town Communications use their old logo now that they have a new one.
By Natalie on May 22, 2006 3:59 pm
Interesting idea and worth considering, especially if you don’t intend to reuse a design. One question though – why would offering CMS/Blog templates get you banned from Technorati?
By WD Milner on May 22, 2006 4:08 pm
Because T-Rati doesn’t like to count those as links so instead of finding a way to filter them, they just think it is easier to ban you from the system I believe.
Natalie: Not really. Many designs you see, especially something like Veloso’s and Croft’s, would have to have some retrofitting to make them appropriate themes, but if you feel that design is your identity then by all means keep it to yourself. With the current design you see on this site I would have no problem releasing it, but of course I don’t slave over my designs as those visual artists do so I understand where they are coming from.
Sometimes it’s good to suck at design :)
By Scrivs on May 22, 2006 4:44 pm
Scrivs, I was under the impression that T-rati will ban you from their top 100 list if you collect tons of links from Theme releases but permit your existence in their system (how nice of them)… was I mistaken? BTW: that doesn’t make much sense, IMHO. You can join any number of different linky schemes and be permitted in the top 100, but God-forbid you get there by doing something of value, like releasing a theme thousands of people find useful. I digress …
I’ve released a couple of my hacked up templates for public consumption. Personally, I think it’s a fantastic idea. A definite win-win.
By Shawn on May 22, 2006 5:29 pm
I fully agree with this statement! However, it seems people are awfully lazy. I’ve had plenty of requests from people who wanted to have my old design. I’m willing to give it away but I don’t have the time to properly package it as a theme. Since it’s kinda complex I’d get too many support requests which I can’t handle at the moment as well. When asking for a volunteer to take the raw theme as it is and package it, the silence is … earth staggering… ;)
So yes, people can have my old stuff but I really don’t have the time to support it. That’s why it hasn’t been ‘released’ really ;)
By Marco on May 22, 2006 5:49 pm
Well, since you pointed it out. Why not get a prize for your hard work…
By Sherwin Techico on May 22, 2006 6:13 pm
I attribute a lot to the fact that I released my design as a theme for the masses. I really don’t care about being banned from Technorati because free publicity is free publicity. Releasing it gave me instant links, subscribers and SEO. I couldn’t have paid for that kind of stuff.
By Ben Gray on May 22, 2006 7:14 pm
I gotta agree.
I too released a theme I was using/am using, and it instantly bring me more readers along with a couple hundred hits a day.
What’s not to like about that?
By Jesse on May 22, 2006 9:39 pm
I’m gonna have to agree with Veloso on this one. It’s tricky. On one hand it does have all those thing. On the other hand, some people know that you are going to give freebies out and then think that it’s okay to steal or rip off a design.
If you don’t care about your work being ripped off, sure. But some people do. I personally would share my current design/theme with anyone that asked. But that’s me. I suck. I guess the better you are, the easier it is to say, I’ve put so much hard work into this, why should I let people rip me off.
By Daniel Nicolas on May 22, 2006 10:10 pm
Scrivs, I said something like this in the comments here months ago, that you should auction your old designs/templates for charity and got no response from you.
Now you’ve just gone and twisted my idea around and made it sort of better.
And you want me to take you drinking if you ever come to Australia. Meh.
By Anthony on May 24, 2006 9:53 am
Anthony, there was definitely no intention to steal your idea and I wish I could remember everything that everyone tells me. My apologies my man.
By Scrivs on May 24, 2006 11:49 am
Mate I was joking with being angry at you.
Ideas are everywhere and I posted that originally to be shared and twisted into what works best for who ever saw it.
Also I don’t think anyone expects you to remember every comment you get when mosts posts average 20 plus. Hell I can’t even remember half the domains I own.
It’s all sweet.
By Anthony on May 24, 2006 1:35 pm
Oh yeah, I knew that. Really I did. Seriously it was obvious. I mean who couldn’t read that sarcasm. Right people?
…
*backs away slowly
By Scrivs on May 24, 2006 1:41 pm
It is a great idea. Help someone else that maybe dosn’t know how to make a blog theme. However, a quick tip – don’t realease the theme while you’re still using it. Your blog no longer stands out from the crowd once you do that. Trust me, I know. ;)
By Andre on May 26, 2006 1:20 am
I made my point regarding Natalie’s opinions at her own blog. Very sad seing a kind of mentality from some designers. Very, very sad. I should remember this more often.
Best.
By Lopo on May 26, 2006 8:12 pm
[...] “Redesigning? Give Your Old Template To The Masses“. Een interressant artikel op Wisdump. Zou u als webdesigner, die gebruik maakt van een Blog- of CMS-pakket, overwegen om na een redesign van uw website uw oude template beschikbaar te stellen voor het publiek? Uiteraard zonder (of met gelimiteerde) support. In de comments bij het artikel zijn zowel uitgesproken pro’s als fanatieke contra’s terug te vinden. Maar wat is uw mening? Bookmark:Deze icoontjes linken naar social bookmarking sites waar lezers links kunnen delen en nieuwe sites kunnen ontdekken. [...]
By To ’share’ or not to ’share’ | Nono on May 27, 2006 3:28 am
Hi,
You cannot find the comment no more since she removed it, alegely due to my language. Well! Expected, even if the language didn’t include any “bad words” nor low level insult but…
As I said there I’m sad that she doesn’t use the same criteria that she uses for her designs with what developers did, freely and graciously, to her producing a great product named TextPattern.
No one need to release its work but if someone uses the Free Software we expect that, at least, that person shouldn’t insult programming developers and that s/he may even be so kind and graceful to us that s/he will make a nice tutorial to help us others with a glimpse of his/her skills instead of bashing us.
Too many people that do not undeerstand that Free Software doesn’t mean Gratis Software (altough some times it means also that).
Posted this here just because she removed a much longer text there and you cannot see anything writen by me if click in the link.
At last, I must say I agree 100% with what the author of this post said. Giving is good, specially if we don’t care at all in receiving from others too like many designers do.
Best,
Lopo
By Lopo on May 27, 2006 12:02 pm
Hey all — was hoping that someone could clue me in on a total n00b CSS issue:
I’m trying to customize the Random Image Theme for WordPress, and I’m running into a small — but *incredibly annoying* — problem.
I’m trying to make the background of the content area white. The background of navigation column that runs down the right side is not plain white (FFFFFF). Rather Photoshop’s color picker claims that it’s F9F9F9 — but this isn’t anywhere in the style.css file. There is a .alt that has a background set at F8F8F8, but when I change that to FFFFFF, it doesn’t help.
Where is that shading coming from?
many thanks…
By dj on August 1, 2006 2:41 pm
Bloggers shouldn’t rely on others to get their theme. Your blog is nothing if its just the same as everyone else. Unique content is everything and a unique theme needs to go with that.
By ZZPrices on January 8, 2007 4:48 pm