Templates from ThemeForest - as a basis for custom websites, does the customer need to know about it?

Question

Freelance

I want to do local offline freelance in my town to create websites for organizations and small businesses.
I think it will bomb, because those competitors that are on the market are doing something terrible and taking terrible money for it.
All my sites are based on templates from themeforest.net/category/wordpress .
Maybe for some this will seem like the lowest degree of evolution of a web developer, but let me:
1) With all the variety of high-quality templates on ThemeForest, I don’t understand why studios with terrible and inefficient self-made sites do not admit their curvature and lack of taste in any way - and finally take advantage of ready-made high-quality templates?
2) Yes, I understand that many have an aversion to patterns, even good ones. As a rule, all sorts of schoolchildren finish them, managing to get a poop at the exit.
But for example, I have been working with WordPress for quite a long time, and I can make an excellent website based on any template. It will be short, efficient, adaptive, and by all standards. There are templates for every taste - you can quickly make a site of almost any complexity and focus - the main thing is direct hands and diligence / diligence.
And now the question is: how do I position myself with such sites in my portfolio? Let them be very well, well made - but still, this is in some way not entirely my work.
Do I need to tell customers that this is not an individual design? And how in such cases is it generally right to act, to position oneself? What can be missed and what can not?
PS, Please help the community to guide me on the right path

Answer 1

I think it’s definitely impossible to hide what was done on the basis of ready-made templates, because offline business, not only your reputation but also your face may suffer, and indeed what a spit in reputation will be if you don’t say right away, then try to explain to the customer why he paid not ~ 50 $, although it looks the same.
If I were you, I would do it as an optional service, like you want a template design for $50 or we will draw it for you for a little more.
As for the templates themselves, of course they are different, and they look great and adaptive, but the problems start when some piece needs to be cut out or added, and naturally during Russification, then the font does not support Cyrillic, then "Eleventh grade" breaks all the beauty.

Answer 2

I don't recommend hiding. Instead, either prescribe in the contract that they say so and so, or somewhere (where no one already reads) to announce.
Then do it wisely - i.e. not like I took a bun for a ruble, painted it, I sell it for 5. Turn it into an advantage. For example, we work with a hundred pounds of proven technology. Using the advantages and experience of [Template-Maker], we build a reliable modern website and bring the final result to boiling water. Well, in general, an experienced sales copywriter will help you write correctly.

Answer 3

I don't think there is anything to hide. Speak honestly, give the same arguments that were given in the message, show examples and dump the krivoruks. If you have not made the first site on a ready-made template, then you can certainly show examples where the result of your work is not so similar to LivePreview. A normal customer will always appreciate both directness and efficiency with this approach, and then he will also apply for technical support.

Answer 4

Yes, there are good templates on the theme forest, but everyone there is too obsessed with unrealistic elements like parallax, huge JS scripts and other little-needed things, so I don’t see much point in taking it from there .

Answer 5

Believe me - in this country they steal not only plates and buttons.

Answer 6

Do customers need such a design? Solid Bootstrap, HTML5/CSS3 goodies, parallax, backgrounds, and more in full screen, etc. And the customer needs a simple business card, he has a small business and he sells, say, shutoff valves, and half of his clients have Windows XP and old machines ... And he doesn’t need all these prettinesses, but he needs a simple laconic design, not a 10-year-old prescription, of course, but just that simple.

Answer 7

There is an opportunity to do only your designs, work, this way is harder, but it will bring reputation, respect and more benefits.
People do not like those who borrow someone else's, people love the creators themselves.

Answer 8

I always write that I work ONLY with premium western templates, in this case the customer is sure that the site that I made will not become morally obsolete in a year, since the bourgeois are ahead of Runet in this regard, the template will be without jambs, proven, adaptive, which in if necessary, he can easily add a portfolio, some reviews, parallax sliders and something else without having to contact the designer and layout designer again, since ThemeForest templates already have various built-in goodies, and the ability to change fonts-colors from admin is also a plus
Yes, I just don’t work with individual design at all, since then I have to either finish or order every Wishlist, so only ThemeForest, only hardcore

Answer 9

It is necessary to write, but also to justify why it is better. I had to work with templates from Temforest for alteration - I have not seen a bigger crap. And I had to redo it, because the customer did not like this or that. Inserting code Wishlist there is very difficult. I think that templates are designed to make a website quickly and inexpensively - insert text, replace it with your own pictures and let's go. All these modifications are a waste of time.

Answer 10

Always the best to tell the truth. In the states and Europe, developers do not hide the fact that they use the template and the price tag of the final site on the purchased template can reach up to $15k (not theory, but practice)! I advise all beginners to familiarize themselves with the themeforest market here .