If you are a website designer, you probably realize the importance of keeping yourself busy – not only with work from brand new customers, but from your existing ones as well. And unfortunately, this is where many website designers fail and ultimately, the reason why their business is never able to reach its maximum potential. Selling website templates, however, is a great way to make ends meet as a website designer, as well as an easy way to keep your customers satisfied every single time; and it doesn’t even take as much effort as you might think.

What Exactly Are Website Templates?
Website templates are generic layouts that are meant to work with a variety of different online websites. All of the hard coding of the website has already been done by a website designer, and all that’s left to be done by the consumer in order to have a complete website is to add their own content and graphics to suit their own needs. When designed correctly, many customers will be more than happy to purchase and use website templates because of the foolproof customization and low maintenance involved with website templates.

How To Sell Your Own Website Templates Online
Now that you’ve gone through all the trouble of designing several different website templates, you’ll need to start selling them. However, even some of the most experienced website designers have no idea where to even begin when it comes to selling their own website templates online. Thankfully, this article is meant to serve as a step-by-step guide to get you on your way to selling your own website templates in your spare time; all while making a little bit of extra cash in the process.

Showcase Your Designs

Obviously if you’re selling website templates, you’ll need to showcase them on your own website. This can be achieved in a variety of ways:

Display an image of each template. This is usually the easiest way of displaying the current website templates you have to offer, though it can be difficult to manage if your templates consist of several different pages, or even if scrolling is required in order to view the whole page. If this is the case, you may want to consider the next option for showcasing your website templates to potential customers.

Include a fully functional version of each template. Because you have already done all the hard coding on each website template yourself, it’s not very much extra work to go ahead and include a clickable link to each one of your website templates so your potential customers can see everything up close for themselves. But there are several disadvantages to this, including the increased online storage space required to hold a copy of each template, as well as the increased risk that your website templates may be copied or stolen without your permission.

Making Sure Your Designs Stand Out Amongst The Rest

As a current website designer you should already know that there are millions of websites dedicated to each and every subject imaginable – and of course selling website templates is no exception. In order to make sure that your designs stand out amongst your competitors, there are a number of steps you can take.

Make your website (and your website templates) as user-friendly as possible. This means using colors and fonts that are easy to read as well as making sure that all of your clickable links are accurately labeled and that they actually work – which could end up costing you a sale. This holds true for not only your own website, but for your website templates also.

Browse your competitor’s sites and look at their designs. Take notes about any areas that you think need improvement and make sure to implement these changes into your own website and even your own templates.

Create templates for all occasions. Remember that some of your potential customers are going to want a serious look to their site, while others may want a fun and exciting look. Catering to all audiences is a great way to increase your bottom line.

Offer Additional Services

Although website templates are extremely easy to customize, some clients may still want you to do it for them. Since you are already well familiar with the layout of the website (as it is your template), you may even be able to offer this service at a reduced price. Any other services you may be able to provide, such as content development, graphic design, Search Engine Optimization, etc…, can all be offered at an additional charge as well.

Advertise Using Various Methods

Internet advertising and Pay-Per-Click services. Google AdWords and Microsoft AdWords are both great, low-cost options when it comes to spreading the word about your website template services. And because you only pay when someone actually clicks on and visits your site, these kinds of programs really let you get the most for your dollar.

Social networking sites. In addition to your main website, you may want to consider setting up profiles on some of the more popular social networking sites these days. Many businesses are already doing it, and it has been proven as a great way to gain exposure to millions of potential clients – and many times it can be done completely free of cost.

Online classified ads. These kinds of advertisements have become quite popular, and many freelance workers try to sell their services through some kind of online classified ad – and some have a great deal of success doing so.

Newspaper and magazine ads. Even though you are advertising an online service, you don’t need to stick strictly to online advertisements. Placing ads in newspapers and magazines is a great way to advertise – and many are not near as pricey as they once were.

Bulletin boards at local colleges, universities, and even grocery stores. Typically such places will allow you to post your own printed advertisement on their bulletin boards, though it is always good courtesy to ask for permission first.