So, we are a creative company and design is in our blood. What can we possibly say about template websites? Well, there’s definitely pros and cons. A custom designed website is like a filet mignon at an expensive restaurant. Think of a template website as an average steak from Outback Steakhouse. Now, most of us can’t afford a fine steak right away, but we can probably splurge on an Outback steak. There are reasons for choosing template websites over professionally designed sites and vice versa.

Here’s a quick review of pros and cons of template websites. Think of these websites as infant food.

*Disclaimer: the below statements are about an average template website, not ALL fit this description.

PROS
cost effective
easy
achieves an online presence
spend less personal time making decisions
can be easy to develop and maintain

CONS
you are limited in terms of the layout
can’t apply custom images to represent your company brand and DNA
most are not search engine optimized
cost more in the long run because you lose potential business
no insight or guidance from design and web professionals
much harder to accommodate your users because not specifically built for your company
you look like everyone else

At some point a child outgrows the pea purees and needs some solid food. Template websites are a perfect example for this analogy. A small business usually starts off with something more affordable, such as a template website, but after the business grows it is time to graduate to a professionally designed website. Design is essential for building your brand. It is something that sets you a part from other competitors. There are of course ups and downs to both template websites and custom designed websites. It all comes down to your preference and taste.

Any thoughts about template websites?
Have you had any experience with template websites or custom designed sites?
Do you think one is more valuable than the other?

Design tips for all of you who are new to the design world from yours truly Isaac Ashworth.

1. Never fear white space. Always remember to keep things organized and clean.
2. Never give a quote on the spot or even an estimate. Take the time to study the project and understand all it entails.
3. Know your CMYK from your RGB. Know what color protocols to use for your print and web jobs.
4. Believe in your work. Have the confidence to tell the client what you actually think to the work you have presented.
5. There is no such thing as creative block. When ideas don’t come easily then work, work, work until the answer comes along.

What would you recommend to a new designer?

Do your children use social media? Are you a parent interested in an independent school? Are you an independent school considering social media? Social media may just change your world.

Let us briefly examine private schools. Independent school representatives strive to make a name for their school. The goal is for a family or future students to recognize the school as the authority and the best of the best in its sector. Each school has a mission, a unique history and a differentiation factor. Something that sets them apart from thousands of other independent schools.

Social media. Everyone’s doing it. Why not independent and private schools?

Social media is a way for schools to build trust and relationships among current students and families. The conversations will eventually trickle down to alumni, donors and prospective families and students. It’s free, so why not give it a try? Free in monetary terms, but not free in terms of time. Social media is a time investment, because any relationship investment demands time and patience.

By utilizing Facebook and Twitter, schools can learn to listen to communities of interest and then begin conversations with them. Social media will allow the natural flow of conversation among students, parents, alumni, donors and potential families and students. The flow of conversation may not start right away, but listening, responding, reminding and encouraging will help respective communities.

The natural flow of conversation in its essence can lead to a success or a disaster story. Schools will face both positive and negative comments. The negative comments may lead potential families and students to choose a competitor. BUT the negative comments WILL build a school’s character. Negative conversations should drive schools to fix the problem and become even better than before. It is a way to learn from your mistakes so to speak. The more refined character of the school is bound to attract others.

As mentioned before, some of the benefits of social media for private schools include:

Prospective parents are more likely to trust online reviews from peers than school’s marketing efforts

Conversations spread quickly

Social tools make school advocates highly influential

Natural flow of conversation will lead to discussion and raise awareness

Build quality relationships at no monetary cost

Some of the downfalls of social media for private schools:

Time consuming efforts

Proper response and management of negative conversations

Fighting the temptation to spam potential families and students with information

Takes patience and perseverance to see results

Is it a wild idea for schools to get involved in social media? Do you have any success stories? How about disasters? Do you think social media will damage a school’s reputation more than help?

In the process of launching a client’s website on bluehost.com this evening – things got complicated. It was a supposed-to-be-simple website deploy gone bad… SUBDOMAIN OWNERS AND USERS OF CPANEL BEWARE!

If you were granted control of a subdomain and are responsible for your own hosting, you have an extra consideration to make when choosing a hosting company than everyone else does.

Questions you need to ask:

• Does the hosting company I plan to go with use cPanel?
• If yes, does this hosting company already host a website with the same top domain name or a subdomain under the same top domain name as mine?

If you answer yes to both of those questions, as per BlueHost.com, it is time to find a different hosting company. As per BlueHost’s explanation, cPanel creates accounts based on only one level below the tld. For example, even if I only control thissubdomain.ny.us, cPanel will associate my account with ny.us and all subdomains – disabling any other subdomain or even the main domain, ny.us in this case, to use this hosting company / instance of cPanel. When you try to add an add-on domain in this situation, it will return an error:

The domain “thissubdomain.ny.us” is a subdomain of a domain on a different cpanel account and cannot be added to your account.

BlueHost is one of the largest, if not the largest according to the BlueHost’s Domain Manager, users of cPanel. BlueHost has also been our choice hosting company for basic website hosting and continues to be despite this problem.

So for all of those subdomain controllers in charge of your own hosting – good luck. Specifically, ny.us sub domain controllers, if you go to BlueHost.com, you are out of luck!

BlueHost’s Proposed Solutions:

1. Talk to the owner of the ny.us domain account – in this example’s case, the owner of ny.us – Problem: If you share the account, you have access to eachother’s domains and are at risk of their domain admin’s mistakes / vulnerabilities.
2. Register with another hosting company- Problem: I want to use the company I am used to working with! Also, in this case, I was trying to add the domain as an add-on domain, so if I took this route, I would have to pay for an additional hosting account.

As per BlueHost, cPanel believes it is too small an issue to worry about – supposedly, there is only a very small group of unhappy users like myself who can’t go with the hosting company they would like to. I would hope server admins using cPanel would not only demand this for users like me, but don’t you think cPanel should address this given that this can potentially turn away business!?