We actually contacted them a couple months back. Given Magento’s design packages, Template Monster (or any other template provider) will be distributing the design package and not the actual core files (like in Zen Cart). They can screw up less, but the templates can still have issues. There is no perfect solution :(
Roy: I think the best solution is that you use your own designers (which seems to know what they’re doing) and make them create 4-5 professional design-packages for Magento made with a generic touch so that its easy to change basics like colors/heading to fit the company’s profile without re-designing the whole stuff. These templates you can easily sell for USD$100 a piece for example.
Also you could let professional designers create templates which they can sell on your potensially upcoming Magento-shop as Virtual Items. And when you have the Affiliate-system for Magento ready you can also let these designers get for example 80% of the sales-price, which - I would say - will benefit for all three parts (Varien, the designer, the customer).
We have seen enough crappy templates for OsC/ZC made by semi-professional “webdesigners” - so I can guarantee you that quite a lot people will buy your templates way before any MonsterTemplate-thing. And hey, why throw business over to other companies when you have all the girl- and man-power in-house!
aFFi i totally agree with you. There is no need to involve TM. There are many people here on forums interested in making stunning designs. There are also many companies and agencies that can handle the designing for M better than TM. Last but not least , Varien has also very good designers on place (i’m not sure but i think so) so they can be also involved in designing for M.
As Roy said many times, Varien has plan to sign partnerships and business agreements with other companies around the world. Many of them are self-supporting and are employing not only programmers but also webdesigners, usability specialists, graphic artists etc. After little training those persons will be able to secure the quality and compability with every new release of Magento without great effort. Than both sides can benefit from templates.
Your idea to sell templates in M-Shop could be also a good way of making money by Varien .
We must be aware that only a company that is up to date with newest informations about Magento will be able to offer high quality templates. For me selling osC/Zen/Cre templates on TM was the worst idea ever. They simply do not have enough staff members to control every aspect of ecommerce system, every released patch, every security issue.
The only thing I would add to the discussion is that TemplateMonster (and other providers) will design templates if they see an economic incentive and a market. There is not much we can do to control this outside of making sure they understand how things work. That said, we do certainly plan to have templates available on the Magento site.
Personally, I still think it is too soon. When Magento matures, I don’t doubt there will be a market. But it’s probably not worth their time at this point in case things change down the line. For those who have free time it’s fine to delve into design for the benefit of understanding what’s at the heart of Magento. But if time means money, it’s not time yet.
I started an osCommerce site but didnt like the features. I am playing with magento now and if I like it I will use it instead of osc and that means i will need a custom template.
while im not a fan of template monster i think that templates and knowledgeable programmers is a lot better than standard site layouts with ‘color changes’
p.s. sorry for the bump.. didnt realize how old this was :\
Places like template monster are just pure and simply useless idiots to be perfectly honest, if you wish to push out a bunch of crap then by all means, go ahead, but I can tell you right now that you will be looking to fix the problems very shortly, and you won’t get a decent designer / coder touching any of that crap unless it’s at a far highier cost.
Get the right people to do the right job, and that involves designing / developing for THE COMPANY that it’s for, not randomly picking some random crap that has absolutely no relevance what so ever to the business in mind.
We are offering Magento templates at templates-master.com. If you have any special requirements then we will be glad work on custom design for you. Please contact us at PMB for more details.
We are offering Magento templates at templates-master.com. If you have any special requirements then we will be glad work on custom design for you. Please contact us at PMB for more details.
Yeah, use a great system, then throw a crap template onto it, that has absolutely no relavence to the company / business… if you want a “design” done, get it done by a professional, if you want something that looks cheap, taccy and basicly crap then buy from these kind of sites.
Hate those sites, drive me insane, no professional designer / coder will touch it, so if you expect to get it ‘slightly changed’ it will be bodged.
Basicly, if you want to go on the cheap, you get cheap crap and crap results… if you want a proper ecommerce deployment.. GET IT DONE PROPERLY from day one.
These sites are the worse place you could ever goto.
Yeah, use a great system, then throw a crap template onto it, that has absolutely no relavence to the company / business… if you want a “design” done, get it done by a professional, if you want something that looks cheap, taccy and basicly crap then buy from these kind of sites.
Hate those sites, drive me insane, no professional designer / coder will touch it, so if you expect to get it ‘slightly changed’ it will be bodged.
Basicly, if you want to go on the cheap, you get cheap crap and crap results… if you want a proper ecommerce deployment.. GET IT DONE PROPERLY from day one.
These sites are the worse place you could ever goto.
Before writing this crap you should read several books on economics and then you will understand that there is demand on different kind of services. Some people have money to hire Varien to build store for them, some to hire local web development agency, some to hire freelancer and some have small budget that will allow them to buy template customize it and start selling.
Dozens of sites selling joomla, wordpress and oscommerce templates are backed by pros and they do good job. Even much better then some pros that offer custom services.
Creating templates is one side of our business and other one is developing of custom stores. For last 6 years in this business we’ve seen a lot of stores made “right from day one” by “professional”. And we helped their owners to start selling. Also we saw sites that started as template sites and then grow into big stores. So paying professionals to build store isn’t guarantee your success. It mostly depend on store owner.
not sure if you all know but TemplateMonster announced their new product line - Magento Themes so I think its all about time right now till it would be the best ecommerce solution in 2009. TemplateMonster are looking for a feedback about this new product line to promo (at) templatemonster.com
not sure if you all know but TemplateMonster announced their new product line - Magento Themes so I think its all about time right now till it would be the best ecommerce solution in 2009. TemplateMonster are looking for a feedback about this new product line to promo (at) templatemonster.com
Hey Magento-man, i think it would be better for customers see demo of all templates. Just little advice from your competitors
Template-man, by doing so also allows your competitors poke their noses in your backyard
yours,
template-woman
Chinesedream, what is wrong with setting Magento with dozen of store views to show templates to customers? It will not help me or any other template provider to make new or better templates. I think that Templates Monster will transfer popular Oscommerce and Zencart Templates to Magento and will wait for results. Many people can get all this old oscommerce and zencart templates for free from torrents or hackers sites. Will i use them to make new template? Defiantly no. Does Templates Monster use any special modules or widgets that can be downloaded using browser? Hm… i think no.
Template MOnster Already Launched some themes for Magento, I checked them, they seem to be cool. But no live demo of Magento like they have for OsCommerce and other carts.
I hope they make more themes with navigations and some more features.
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