Mega-Templates
NO FREE LUNCH
Many of your sites are built on the Wordpress Content Management System (CMS). Wordpress has become the go-to platform for most small (and not so small) web sites. And so many sites now also use what I call a Wordpress Mega-Template to provide the actual look and feel (theme) for the site. In fact, these 'Mega-Templates' have become so ubiquitous that I am breaking with tradition to spend the entire issue ranting about some problems I keep seeing when working on these sites. But before I define a 'Wordpress Mega-Template', some background on Wordpress itself.
Why Does Wordpress Rule The World?
The original genius feature of Wordpress was the one-button installation of new Theme Templates and Plug-Ins. You can literally change the look of your web site or add a major new feature with a single click! You may not realise how revolutionary that was when Wordpress first came out. There were many similar platforms before Wordpress, but installing a new Theme or a Plug-In was always a (cough) 'non-trivial task'. Changing anything about the look of a site usually required a professional to do--and it still does in other CMS like Drupal and Joomla. The ability to instantly change Themes or add a Plug-In was one of those truly 'empowering' ideas.
A History Of Templates
Now in the beginning, Theme Templates were simple affairs. They did relatively basic things like offering a new set of colours and fonts. But along the way, clever developers figured out that you could make a Theme Template do a lot more than that! Developers began adding far more complex features such as contact forms and galleries and video players, etc. And why stop there? So next came colour-pickers, gizmos to let you change the number of columns on each page, the margins on each page, the footer, the header. And on and on and on. Now you can get a complete shopping cart system or forum with literally thousands of possible options! I call these Theme Templates 'Mega-Templates' because they really aren't 'themes' anymore. They are basically an entire application running on top of Wordpress. And they are usually sold as turn-key solutions--basically a web-site in a box. That is how almost all 'web site for $399!' adverts work.
So What's The Problem?
Well, to my mind, the situation with Mega-Templates has gotten a bit out of hand. (By the way, from here on, whenever I write 'Mega-Template' I want you to also automatically read 'and complex Plug-Ins' because the same issues dog both Themes -and- Plug-Ins.) As we know, there is no free lunch. But one more tiny digression before I get down to my gripes.
I'm Not Like Those Other Guys
Many first time clients initially engage me because they need some seemingly minor repair. But too often I'll have to tell them that the repair is a lot more involved then they thought, simply because they're using one of these Mega-Templates.(And remember that the client has often hired me because they've had a bad experience with a previous developer.) So here's this new guy telling them that their fantastic, low-cost site now requires a costly repair for something that appears really simple. Ouch. Not the way we want to get started with our relationship, right?
The point is that, despite their obvious appeal (lots of features for a very low cost) Mega-Templates create three problems for you (and me) which most site owners don't fully appreciate going in.
This Is Harder Than It Looks
First off, Mega-Templates often require a professional to get the most out of. And in fact, many of these Mega-Templates (and Plug-Ins--just a reminder) are usually not sold to you, the end user, but rather to a sub-culture of 'designer/developers'-- meaning digital artists who have -some- development experience. If you called me to repair a site with a Mega-Template, the person who sold you the site' was likely one of these people. These people are usually good at design which means you got a pretty nice looking site. And they knew enough to use the Mega-Template and sell you a system that runs. Unfortunately, they don't know enough to handle any unexpected problems that might come along. And that's when I get the call. (NB: If I sound a bit snarky right now, it's only because I'm personally uneasy selling a product I can't properly service.)
So the problem for any web developer servicing a Mega-Template is akin to working on today's advanced cars. Their complexity can make them murder to troubleshoot unless you're the manufacturer (ie. the person who wrote the Mega-Template--not the 'dealer'). Such a site can be several times harder to fix than a hand-coded theme I typically build because there are just layers upon layers of code to dig through. So when there's a problem, the first thing one does is contact the Mega-Template developer. And wait. And often wait some more. Plus, many of these companies charge for technical support (that's how they make their money, after all) which the site owner probably wasn't told. Again, it's disappointing for clients when I have to go back to them and say that I've been waiting two days for help from the Mega-Template company in Hong Kong. Or that they'll need to pay for tech support on top of what they're already paying me. Or that it will take longer to troubleshoot because the Mega-Template is so poorly documented. The client doesn't want to hear any of that junk. Whether that's fair or not, it's not what they were expecting and it stings. I get that.
Performance
The second issue with many Mega-Templates is that because they are trying to do so many things, they will often have various performance issues. These go unnoticed upon delivery because, hey the thing looks so great! But then as people start using the site, various complaints about slow load times or mysterious glitches start to come in. If the site has a certain amount of traffic, the sales people will start wondering why the site doesn't rank as well on Google as the old site did. At this point, many companies will engage an SEO professional, not realising that the actual problem is with the setup of the Mega-Template!
Too Much Information
Which leads me to the final issue: education. As I said, the most popular Mega-Templates have literally thousands of options. I've lost count of the number of times I've been hired to add a feature to a site only to find that the owner did not realise that there was already a checkbox to enable exactly that feature buried under six layers of tabbed menus! Most site owners don't have days and days to read and digest all the options. And frankly, most site designers who use Mega-Templates don't either. Thus many sites are often not getting the most out of their Mega-Template.
Bonus Issue
This is a pet peeve of mine that is not a Mega-Template problem, but rather a gripe I have with Wordpress. I often get repair calls from intrepid site owners who know enough to get into the Wordpress Admin and change settings. Good! However, if there is one MAJOR flaw in Wordpress it is the Admin. It was -never- designed to properly differentiate between people who enter content and people who need to change settings. Even after all these years, it is still CRAZY easy to accidentally click an obscure box somewhere in the Admin and make an absolute mess somewhere else. I shouldn't complain because I get a lot of work out of it, but when I build a Wordpress site, I try to keep users out of the Admin as much as possible. Unfortunately, Mega-Templates usually encourage lots of adjusting. You purchase these themes for their flexibility and so tweaking settings can be almost irresistible.
So Are Mega-Templates All Bad?
Am I totally against Mega-Templates? Not at all. In the right setting, they're great. If a client looks around the web and sees a Mega-Template that looks fabulous right out the box, it makes sense to give it a serious look. Or if there's a well-respected Plug-In that does some task for $50 that would take me four hours to replicate? It's an easy choice. But if the client looks at a Mega-Template and says, WOW! IT'S ONLY $99! That's when I get uneasy. Because it's not $99. It's $99 for the Mega-Template, then "X" number of hours for me to do all that pesky setup stuff I talked about above, plus make a reasonable profit. And even then there are the exact same post-launch risks and potential performance issues.
For new builds, what I prefer to do is have clients do some research. Scope out a theme, or even just a web site they really like, and show it to me. I can then replicate the look they respond to, but without all the unnecessary stuff. I rarely run into a client who will insist on the Mega-Template because they anticipate needing all its bells and whistles at a later date. In fact, most site owners develop a site for -now-. We rarely know what we'll want our web site to be in even two years, so it usually doesn't make sense to 'pre-build' features.
Sorry For Ranting
Usually I like to give you several short and immediately useful ideas for your marketing. So I thought long and hard about making this one, long rant the focus of this issue. After all, if you already have a web site with one of these Mega-Templates, what good does my ranting do you? My answer is that it's about education. I've spent so many years trying to get clients to value their web sites and now it's actually happening! There are far fewer absolutely terrible web sites than ever. (Wow, is that a sunny outlook or what?) But what I mean is that almost everyone now recognises that a decent web site is a necessity; not a luxury.
So now, the challenge for smaller organisations is more 'under the hood'. Good web sites not only look good, they run good. Er... 'well'.  If you have one of these Mega-Templates, I want you to understand why they can be challenging to obtain and maintain a good level of performance. And if you're in the market for a new site, I want you to understand the bargain you're making when you buy into one of these vs. a hand-built theme such as I usually provide. There's no free lunch. I'm just here to tell you the costs of each item on the menu.
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Like I always say, I know you're busy. Hopefully my occasional nags help you think about ways to improve your marketing. But even if you don't have a thing for me to work on at present (shocking but possible) drop me a line anyway and let me know how things are going; market-wise or otherwise. It's always good to hear from you.
Best,
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