When it comes to website creation, the options are numerous, if not endless. You can hire a freelance designer, or even a whole army of designers; sign a contract with a web design company; ask your tech-savvy friend to build a website for you; learn to code and put up a website yourself… or you can opt for a website builder. Like any website design option, website builders vary in pricing, feature sets and complexity.
Luckily for all of us, they’ve come a long way since their debut in the web publishing industry and improved their capabilities dramatically over the past few years. One of the page-turning events was the invention of CMS templates by MotoCMS website builder. Let’s see what’s so special about these templates.
The Idea
As opposed to most website builders which are proprietary systems that can run exclusively on the company servers, MotoCMS is a ‘standalone’ website creation solution which is not ‘connected’ to any web host. Therefore, MotoCMS users can host their website wherever they want.
The trick is in that all MotoCMS templates are almost ready websites. These aren’t just ‘themes’ or ‘designs’. CMS templates are complex website building applications that come equipped with a control panel and range of customizable widgets inside. MotoCMS has over 2,000 Flash and HTML templates of this kind.
Build a Website Without Coding
In order to set up a website using a CMS template, you have to take the following steps: choose a theme, upload it to the server, edit it and click the Publish button. Now let’s describe each step in detail.
1. Pick a template. In case you want to create an eye-catching, wow-effect portfolio or any other site with a focus on design and visual effects, opt for one of their Flash templates. For corporate websites choose an HTML-based theme. All MotoCMS templates come at $139/license. The price includes the template itself, built-in admin panel, lifetime support and free CMS updates.
2. Upload it to the server of your choice. You can either use your current web hosting account or sign up to BlueHost.com which partners with MotoCMS and offers a special $3.95 price to all MotoCMS users.
3. Edit your template. Once you’ve installed the template, it’s yours to edit. No coding required. The system is completely WYSIWYG: just select, drag and drop virtual objects anywhere on the canvas. Widgets are added in the same easy way: select the required extension, drag it to the desired area, drop it and set its properties. When your desktop website is ready, switch to the mobile editor in order to configure your site’s mobile version.
4. Preview your website and go live in mere minutes. Share the news with your friends and colleagues :).
All in all, one MotoCMS-based website will cost you $139 (one-time payment) + web hosting fee ($3.95/mo) + domain name ($10/year). The website will be under your total control and you’ll be able to make changes to its design and content yourself, without any third-party assistance.
Malcolm Thomas is an experienced webmaster and blogger. He enjoys building the knowledge of his readers through his posts published on http://mmthomasblog.com/, a website dedicated to site creation.