Complete Web Design Templates

To get a clear idea on how to create web templates/ you want to have a look at the how world is getting on with the layouts and styles, there are 1000's of web sites which offers you a wide range of web templates for free and for sales as well.

You can select various varieties from them such as Flash based templates, CSS templates, DHTML templates with source code in PSD, JPG formats.

1. TemplateNavigator: The largest catalogue of free website and flash templates, along with quality preview shots.


2. TemplateBox: Over 300 freebie website, logo, banner, and flash templates to complement their collection of paid offerings.


3. Template Monster: A small but very high-quality set of web, flash, and blog templates.


4. Art for the Web: 75 freebie templates. Pretty good place to look if you’re looking for something slightly out of the ordinary.


5. Free CSS Templates: A 206 template strong resource which is frequently updated with new submissions.


6. Effex-Media: Free website templates designed by designers, this massive list is categorized by website type and includes user reviews of many of the templates.


7. DotcomWebDesign: Hundreds of free templates, some of which are really top-notch. However, the categorization is a little arbitrary so be ready to spend some time manually searching.


8. Themebot Design Templates: This site has some design templates, but not very many. There is a good amount of free themes.


9. Groovy Lizard: Personal page templates (commercial use must buy a license)


10. Interspire: Freebie web, Frontpage and Dreamweaver templates


11. Joyful Heart Designs: Personal page templates generally with floral designs.


12. OpenSourceTemplates: Free CSS and xhtml open source website templates and Web 2.0 designs.


13. Ricky’s Web Templates: 50+ freebie templates, graphics, and buttons.


14. Free CSS Templates: A dozen full-featured fully functional CSS based templates.


15. FreekTemplates.com: A collection of business, cars and bikes, and hosting templates.


16. Template Perfection: 200+ freebie templates with quite a few non-english oriented templates.


17. TemplateWorkz: 48 freebie web templates, along with some basic logo and newsletter templates.


18. Zymic: 80 freebie templates (HTML Pages + CSS + Images + PSD Files + Blank Images Files).


19. OpenSourceTemplates: A community-driven CSS and xhtml open source template design showcase.


20. Freelayouts: HTML and Flash templates.


21. FreeCSSTemplates.org: Over 100 freebie CSS templates.


22. Free Layouts: Complete list of hundreds of HTML, flash, and CSS templates.


23. Free Templates Online: Dozens of easily customizable templates categorized by theme.


24. Free Website Templates: A large collection of templates that don’t require a reciprocal link.


25. Six-Shooter Media: Free CSS and xhtml open source templates.


26. Free Flash Template: Web templates and intros with tons of special features.


27. Layouts4Free.com: Free web layouts with search capability.


28. Solucija: Free XHTML / CSS website templates already setup and sorted by commercial use.


29. MasterTemplates: Professionally designed free website layouts along with PowerPoint templates.


30. TemplateWorld: Free, tableless, W3C-compliant web design layouts designed by Template World designers.


31. Painted Pixels: Free web page templates, buttons, and background tiles for non-commercial use.


32. CSSFill: A selection of CSS / XHTML based layouts and templates by Michael Strand.


33. ThemesBase: Templates organized by popular content management, blogging and forum systems.


34. Arcsin Design Templates: 22 Freebie XTML and CSS Templates


35. Snakeye Web Templates: 20 templates with a focus on Dreamweaver and Fireworks.


36. Steve’s Templates: Dozens of templates, free with link back.


37. GordonMac.com: Free CSS templates along with some freebie PHP scripts.


38. Web Design Helper: Full page templates including the graphics and code.


39. Webmaster Resources: 25 free web templates.

CSS Layouts

If you’re looking for the freedom to create something entirely original but just want some of the basic layout taken care of, this section is for you. The templates below are pure CSS, leaving you a clean slate from which you can add the design, graphics, and text as you see fit.

1. Layout Gala: 40 CSS tri-color layouts to help you pick a format.


2. AndreasVilkund.com: Free Templates by designer Andreas Viklund.


3. CSS Template Directory: A collection of CSS formatted page templates, developed and distributed by different designers.


4. BenMeadowcroft.com: Top-notch web design templates by Ben Meadowcroft, mixed in with a few spoof pages and experimentation.


5. Mollio: A set of basic CSS templates that that also have some sample basic content to speed things along.


6. Real World Style: CSS layouts organized by format type.


7. Little Boxes: CSS template arrangements with quickly accessible code.


8. The Layout Reservoir: Simple, straightforward, and manipulable 2 and 3 column layouts.


9. Protagonist Web Resources: A list of 43 tableless layouts to go along with the other protagonist resources.


10. Glish: CSS Layout Techniques by Eric Costello which have been stripped down to the bare essentials.


11. FU2K: CSS layouts designed for Netscape 4 compatibility.


12. Position is Everything: Tableless design resource with CSS bug workarounds.


13. ThreeColumnLayouts: The ultimate 3 column layout resource list.


14. ssi-developer: Two column CSS template samples with recommendations.


15. MIS Web Design: Fancy Paragraphs with CSS.


16. Ruthsarian Layouts: Freebie-CSS layouts ranging from basic to complex arrangements.


17. A List Apart: CSS: Practical CSS Layout Tips, Tricks and Techniques


18. Code-Sucks.com: Creating 1, 2, 3, and 4 column layouts.


19. Particle Tree: Dynamic resolution dependent layouts.


20. Project Seven: Fluid CSS Layouts


21. MyCelly: A collection of 16 basic layout templates.


22. Ideas: 12 free CSS templates.


23. CSS Library: Dynamic drive’s tableless CSS layouts.


24. IntensiveStation: A collection of all new basic CSS templates.


25. IronMyers: A collection of layouts with full Grade-A browser support for IE6, IE7, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and more.


26. The CSS Playground: Cutting edge CSS demos by Stu Nicholls’


27. Wordpress Theme Viewer: Collection of searchable themes organized by columns, colors, rounded corners, and other categories.


28. Fluid 2-Column Template: A fully usable “fluid” template, meaning that the design expands and contracts with the window size.


29. Avinash 2.0: 12 Free CSS Templates

Automated CSS Tools and Generators

This set of resources isn’t for those that want to create something entirely unique. But if you aren’t a strong coder and just want to get the job done, these automated CSS code tools will let you create CSS at the push of a button.

1. CSS Creator: Select the form colors, number of columns, html version, and press a button. Presto, a CSS template for your page.


2. Inknoise: The layout-o-matic: fill out the form and out pops your CSS.


3. Strange Banana: Simply refresh the template generator until you get the style you like, then save the page which has your CSS embedded in the header.


4. Nidahas: A CSS-based form template.


5. Maketemplate: A PHP - HTML - CSS template generator for two column layouts.


6. IBDjohn: CSS template generator for three column layouts.


7. TemplatR: Another easy CSS template generator.


8. PsycHo: Your own psychogenesis, your own web design template.


9. Firdamatic: Tableless 2 or 3 column layout generator.


10. Wordpress Theme Generator: Online generator creates custom unique Wordpress themes.

Blog Themes and Templates

Designing blogs has become so popular as a subset of web design that we thought they deserved their own separate section. In this section, we highlight some of the best open source weblog template sources.

1. SmashingMagazine: 83 Beautiful Wordpress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen


2. Kaushal Sheth: Elegant WordPress themes.


3. ErraticWisdom: Textpattern templates


4. Scribez: 10 Best Wordpress Templates.


5. pinkdesign: Free diary / blog templates


6. Textgarden.org: The official site for themes designed for Textpattern.


7. Blogger Templates: A collection of Blogger templates on a wide variety of themes.


8. Blogfashions: A collection of free Movable Type compatible blog templates.


9. FinalSense: High-quality templates for Blogger.


10. WP Themes: WordPress themes all designed by Sadish Bala.


11. Drupal Theme Garden: Showcase of themes available for Drupal 4.7x and Drupal 5.x.


12. Weblog Design: A small number of high-quality web blog templates.

Please post your comments.

Hope you will find this helpful for urself as well as for some one you care about and do read the one in red.

Keep the Spark Alive ......

Inaugural Speech for the new batch at the Symbiosis program, Pune 23rd June, 2008

By Chetan Bhagat

Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.

Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party - several months in advance - just for the day they will cut their own birthday cake.

I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades . People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter . Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So how to save the spark?

Imagine the spark to be a lamp's flame. The first aspect is nurturing - to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms.

To nurture, always have goals . It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn't any external measure - a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house.

Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement. But it isn't the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr. Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won't be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday? They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good . If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important.

Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born.. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature's design. Are you? Goals will help you do that.

I must add, don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school, where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.


One last thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously . One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said - don't be serious, be sincere . This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.

I've told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness and loneliness of purpose .

Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If things don't go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades - how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you. But it's life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember - if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that's where you want to be.

Disappointments cousin is frustration, the second storm . Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don't know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release. Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved - movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result - at least I was learning how to write scripts, having a side plan - I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life - friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.

Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works . People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it - not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you. In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty damm lucky by Indian standards. Let's be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don't. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don't get literary praise. It's ok. I don't look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It's ok. Don't let unfairness kill your spark.

Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.

There you go. I've told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.

I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, your eyes will shine the same way as they do today.. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something cool about saying - I come from the land of a billion sparks.

Thank You!

Does Bounce Rate affect your Site Statistics ?

You are a blogger and you analyze your statistics from time to time. One point this software tracks is the ‘bounce rate‘. The bounce rate will tell you how many visitors click through to another page. The lower your bounce rate, the higher your pages views and the more people will come back for quality content.

If you have a high bounce rate, it might be a good idea to improve your website or blog. This question might rise to you: What can you do improve the bounce rate of your blog?

In this post, I will give you some pointers you should look at to keep visitors on your website and lower your bounce rate.

1. Structured navigation – Usually, people looking for a tutorial, search Google and they want to find the needed information as fast as possible. If they can’t find it right away, they leave and look for another site. If you have a structured navigation, you might seduce those people to click through to your homepage, about page or another article interested to them.

2. Uncluttering your sidebar – You should make sure your blog homepage contains the most useful information. Stop using those funny and useless widgets; instead you should use a ‘popular article’ widget or a ‘tag cloud’. People will more likely click on an article if they can find it right away, without looking through all kind of mess first.

3. Related articles – Your blog has a niche, meaning you have more tutorials and articles on the same subject. Why not make it easier for your visitors to click through a ‘related article’, at the end of your post? A nice plugin is available to do this called ‘Yet another Related Posts Plugin’ and will add a bunch of related posts at the end of your post.

4. About page – Some weblogs noticed new visitors navigated to the about page after they’ve read an article. It is important to make that information easy to find. People are lazy and if they can’t find it right away, they will leave. Help them and help yourself. People might stick around faster if they see there is a real guy or girl behind the weblog.

5. Surveys and polls – Interacting with your visitors is always a good idea. Eventually you could add a poll or survey to your blog and see what results they bring in. When people see an interesting question, they might reply or vote and stick around.

Yet, several points were also there to discuss further on the bounce rate and site statistics, let me know your thoughts and views on this so that we can have more discussions going forward.

The Importance of analyzing your Statistics at regular Intervals

It is a fact that bloggers who just starting out like statistics. They tend to check their numbers every five minutes of a day. Is that productive? Is that the right thing to do?

A starting blogger and stats

In the beginning of a blog, the blogger likes every visitor that took the time to visit the blog. Therefore every time you visit your stats you will have a great feeling and that is awesome, but, but you should not forget: checking your statistics will not get you any more visitors!

We will do a little math. Let’s say you check you statistics 5 times a day for 5 minutes. That is 25 minutes a day, 125 minutes a week and 500 minutes a month. 500 minutes is 8 1/3 hour a month! You can write yourself many quality articles in that time, and that will increase your visitor base!

Why a title Plays an important Role in Stats?

It is simple. As soon as you are receiving some traffic it is from great importance to analyze your statistics. That’s something else then just looking to some numbers. For example, with a great statistics program like Google Analytics you will be able to learn almost anything about your visitors, with the result you can optimize your blog with your findings!

The importance lies in the knowledge you gain from the stats about what visitors do on your blog. You will know where they are coming from, what the keywords were they’ve entered and found your blog through and you’ll know how they are navigating through your site. I guess you are interested in that.

What is important in statistics analyzing?

In this example I will use Google Analytics, because that is the program I use myself to analyze Object-web blog site statistics. Of course, if you look for the same pointers in other stats program, it will work via the same principle.

Important Pointers

In your program, look for the following points. These can help you to improve your blog:

1. Referrer logs - People who visit your blog usually come from websites that link to your site or link to some articles you have written. If you know where these people come from, you know which sources work for your blog. You can use that to promote articles in the future.In Google Analytics: Traffic Sources > Referring Sites
2. Search engine traffic - Get to know on which keywords your visitors get on your site. Try to optimize those pages some more and try to get higher in the listings, because it might become your most important traffic source.In Google Analytics: Traffic Sources > Search Engines
3. New vs Returning - Very important in the long run. Do you have many people just coming for one time, or will many of those visitors return some day to check for news? This point is important if you want to build a community around your blog (which I think is the most important thing in blogging). In Google Analytics: Visitors > New vs Returning
4. Bounce rate - Bounce rate is important as it tells you the percentage of people who view only 1 page of your blog. If your bounce rate is very high, you need to optimize your layout, you need to give visitors more reasons to stay on your blog (to let them navigate easy, related articles, popular articles. Learn more).In Google Analytics: Visitors > Visitor trending > Bounce Rate
5. Browsers - If you check this part of the stats program once in a while you get to know what your visitor base is browsing with. If you see some new browsers pop on that list, you have to try your website in that browser and see if it displays properly.In Google Analytics: Visitors >Browser Capabilities > Browsers

So what about you? Are you analyzing?

Do you analyze your statistics? What are you looking for when you analyze? Or do you think it doesn’t really matter where your visitors come from? Please comment to tell me what you think on the Stats. I am very interested in your opinion regarding this subject!