Wanna build a template?
By Joe on Thursday, August 23 2007, 15:35 - Design corner - Permalink
Here it is, the hottly anticipated guide to building design templates for SiteMaker. If you want to build us some templates to be used by hundreds of new people everyday, and get paid for it, then read on.
Attached below is a PDF template guide which outlines what is required to produce a design template. If you're interested in building templates for us and earning £100 ($200 USD) per template we buy, then read on.
Summary of how it works
SiteMaker sites are generated by combining a Design Template and a Site Type to produce the starting point for your personal website. The Design Template itself contributes a number of key elements to the finished site, which include:
- Welcome page (homepage)
- Page Master
- Global design settings (including personalised palettes)
- Site Settings
The Site Type is a list of pages that then get added to the Design Template to form the new site. All of these pages are based on standard layouts (page templates), which means the Design Template requires the content to be carefully laid out so that when the page templates are added, they are not covered up by graphic elements of the Design Template.
We’re now offering users the opportunity to build and contribute Design Templates which we will integrate into the product and allow everyone to use. We’ll also pay you a one-off fee for each template that we use in the product. Below we have included a list of what you’ll need to produce to get your Design Template in the right format for us to accept.
Setting up a Design template is fairly easy. Getting it to look great is a different story and depends on your experience with SiteMaker and on your creative flair.
To begin, build a new site and then follow the guidelines below, setting up the necessary sections of your site to create your template...
Comments
Wohhhhhhhhhh what a brillaint idea there is a lot of talented people out there and this will suit them to a tea as well as for them getting paid for it to ! Sadly for me I am thick when it comes to that sort of thing however if any talented guys out there who want ideas what I really would like to see is more patriotic templates such as England Scotland Uk Great Britain Union Jack that sort of thing will help put us more on than map and make a refreshing change for some of us good luck to all who take part and the drinks are on you lol cheers Andy :-)
Thanks Joe for getting the guidelines out i am already developing a few themed templates such as Football, Music, Clan Sites and various others.
Scott
Thanks so much for giving us the chance to help! I agree that we have some very talented MoonFruit members.
I have noticed that your are very UK - centric, which is terrific. However, you have a growing customer base in other countries.
I'm not near that talented, but would like to see some USA patriotic background sets similar to Robin's Graphics http://www.robinsweb.com/graphics.h... (Go to Theme Sets, Patriotic). The set titled FEDERAL is especially nice.
I hope they don't mind if I speak for them, but your webmasters from France, the US, Canada and elsewhere would certainly appreciate similar background options and flag images.
Hi guys, you want 'em, you build 'em ;-) and we'll put them up for you. Thanks, Joe
Hi Joe,
once we submit our templates will you reply even if you choose not to use them so we may delete them off our accounts and create others
Scott
Hi Scott, I send you an email on this, did you not get it? We will tell people if we choose not to use their templates, but the process of us deciding may take a few weeks as we evaluate different options. We can transfer them to a holding account if you need to free up space on your account, while we decide what to do. I hope that helps,
Joe
Hi Joe,
I haven't had no emails from you or sitemaker i have just checked my spam and it hasn't got filtered.
Scott
This is exciting for sure. What is the timeline we are looking at here. The printing company I do work for wants more mini sites maybe and I'd love to have some new stuff to choose from. Good luck designers.
Jeffro
This is a wonderful idea, I would love to design a few. Is there a deadline Joe? Have you already received loads? Thanks for offering this :)
Cindy
thnx for this updatas
Hi Cindy, there's no deadline and we'd really like to keep getting submissions forever, as its a great way of getting you guys involved and keeping our templates fresh, so keep 'em coming. Thanks, Joe
Hello,
Just wondering when we can expect to see some of the templates that have been designed?
Excellent idea and already working on some. I wonder if it might be worth running this as a competition - not for additional payment but simply just a public 'pat on the back'? Maybe even a feature on the home page to make this more prominent as I am sure more users would like to see this kind of community involvement profiled.
Right, on with the designs....
Rob
does it have to be made in flash( im perfectly fine with it or without )
Oh wow, is this something I can still get involved in? I notice this was posted a few months back, and was wondering if you are still accepting submissions?
I've been on moonfruit, and have been doing my own templates for years, so this is right up my street!
:)
Hi Guys, Just wondering when we can expect to see some of these templates.
Looking 4wood 2 it 2.
Greetings All, i have been making a few templates and my website on moonfruit is my web design business. If you would like a custom Advanced professional businness template. Please contact me and we do this at cheap prices ONLY 9 POUNDS!
So I just design a template on my account and any of my own media from my home P.C that ends up on it, I just place into a zip file and send to you along with URL via email?
Yep, as per our PDF. Just make sure you own the rights to the media you are including (in the zip file) and that you are prepared to have this included in our public library. If your template is not accepted then your media will not be used by us.
Hi, I was going to have a go at designing a series of templates. However, I only have Lite membership and already have a site. Does this mean that to have a go I would have to upgrade my membership? (I live in Yorkshire, it takes a lot to get more money out of me)
Hi Rick,
No, you don't have to stick your hand in your pocket for this one. You can just set up a trial site (under a different User Name) and if it takes you a bit longer just take the 'go free with ads' option. It doesn't matter if it's a trial or a free site; we are after creativity and originality.
So, please feel free to have a shot. And if your templates are good enough, you might just get some money out of us!
I understand that we can't duplicate sites but hows about allowing us to design our own template - I've a number of sites that I need to produce to the same layout (with customised forms ect. and all I'd then need to do is change colours and some pic - how about it...I'd even consider paying a fee (small) to save all the manhours of building every site from scratch