1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000
If you do a quick Google Search for Joomla

2
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000
templates, you'll turn up a zillion results, and the results will fall into two

3
00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:11,000
classifications: paid templates, or free template. Which is better?

4
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:14,000
Well, you already know the answer to that: it depends.

5
00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:19,000
Free is a great price, and there are some very good free templates that are available.

6
00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:21,000
However, choose your provider carefully.

7
00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:26,000
Since anyone can post a free template, frequently anyone does.

8
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:30,000
That means that some templates don't have many module positions, they may

9
00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:36,000
be limited in their ability to customize them, or they're not tested for all browsers.

10
00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:40,000
If you get a free template from a commercial template provider, most offer some

11
00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:44,000
kind of free templates to generate traffic to their Web sites, so you will wind

12
00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:46,000
up with the best quality.

13
00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:49,000
In my mind, it's very much worth paying for a template.

14
00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:54,000
I want good quality, good support, and a minimum of hair pulling while I try

15
00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:56,000
to get it look the way I want.

16
00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000
I've found that many of the paid templates are excellent, and my particular

17
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,000
favorite providers are Joomla Bamboo,

18
00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:02,000
and Joomla Bamboo

19
00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:07,000
is doing quite a bit with responsive design right now, and they have a

20
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:09,000
very clean kind of look to their templates.

21
00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:13,000
And I've also been a fan of Rocket Theme for many, many years.

22
00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:18,000
These are my two favorites, but there are many other great providers that are out there.

23
00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,000
In the end, you need to judge your template by its basic layout. Think about

24
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:27,000
things like the location of the logo, the primary and secondary navigation

25
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:32,000
locations, or whether dropdowns are required, how many columns your Web site

26
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:36,000
design is going to have, versus how many you think you're going to need.

27
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,000
Think about what you need on the homepage. Just because the module has 20

28
00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:47,000
positions definitely does not mean that you need to fill all 20 positions.

29
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:51,000
Remember that you can also fold the cost of the template, and any extensions

30
00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:56,000
that you might be purchasing, into the cost of doing business, and creating the Web site.

31
00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,000
One of thing that I have found to be helpful through the years is when I

32
00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:05,000
provide a price for a Web site, I like to add about 10% of the cost of that

33
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:10,000
Web site into a little slush fund, as I call it, and I tell my clients that little

34
00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:15,000
fund is available for me to purchase templates, or extensions, and I will

35
00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:22,000
certainly not exceed the cost of that 10%, but I may spend a little bit of money within that pool,

36
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:26,000
in addition to the cost of the Web site as a whole. That gives you a little bit

37
00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:30,000
of flexibility, so that you have the ability to buy an extension, or buy a

38
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:35,000
template as required, but you don't have to take that out of the money that

39
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,000
you're being paid for your time to build the Joomla

40
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,000
Web site that your client hired you to do.

41
00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:44,000
Finally, be sure you watch for responsive designs with Joomla! 3.

42
00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:45,000
Joomla

43
00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,000
ships with the Twitter Bootstrap framework for building responsive Web sites.

44
00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:53,000
Many template manufacturers are incorporating this into their template designs,

45
00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:57,000
meaning that your template will work on phones, tablets, and desktops.

46
00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:02,000
So you might want to look for responsive design, as opposed to a separate mobile

47
00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:08,000
template, and the responsive designs are less work, there's less to configure,

48
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:09,000
and you'll have one set of content.

49
00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:13,000
Sometimes with the mobile templates, you wind up with a second set of content, or

50
00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:17,000
a second set of module positions for displaying that mobile template, and that

51
00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:21,000
might not necessarily work out the best for you.