Cheap templates may end up costing you more in the long run
I recently received a call from a small business owner who purchased a $50 template for his Drupal web site. He already had an existing Drupal installation but wanted to “upgrade” the look & feel of it. His website had well over 50 pages including blog articles. The template company offered to install the template for an additional fee and requested that he provide them with a backup of his database.
Three days later his website was a mess and he was on the phone with me.
The template was installed but instead of displaying his copy, it was displaying the “ipsum lorem” dummy marketing text and the site was live! Instead of installing the template in a temporary location, they replaced his live site and they didn’t know how to restore his data!
YIKES! A company’s worst nightmare!
After some investigation, we uncovered the location of his data (unfortunately his backup file was a mess too!) and we were able to restore the real content to his website. He was so happy with our work that he asked us to help him “tweak a few minor things” on the design. Normally the changes he requested would have been easy – had the template been designed properly. But this one was a nightmare. The entire Drupal installation was non-standard so none of the components were where you would expect them to be. And to boot, they didn’t give him a username and password with full administrative rights — so some parts of the admin were off-limits!
After pulling in a database expert, a Drupal expert and pulling out some of my hair, we finally got everything into place.
His $50 template ended up costing him roughly $1000 to fix and made me vow never to work on a cheap CMS template again!
As the old saying goes, ”You get what you pay for.”
Hi Liz,
Fantastic story. Glad you took that vow!
Clients get what they pay for. This cheapness movement has already sent millions of jobs overseas, where does it end?
Your web site is an integral part of your brand. When it looks like a clone of everyone else’s or amateurish or unattractive that says a lot about the way you conduct business. It also says you don’t have the guts to find your unique difference.
Spend the money and do it right!
Giulietta, Inspirational Rebel
p.s.
It’s usually a deduction for your biz, why not go first class? You’ll attract clients who want to go first class too.
Hi Giulietta,
You are so right. In today’s business environment, your web site should be viewed as an important investment for your company. It’s a sales tool, marketing tool and educational tool all wrapped up in one. By spending the money upfront and doing it right the first time, you’ll get a bigger return for your investment and make a better first impression on your clients.