Save Time and Increase Your Production With WPMU DEV Templates

Save Time and Increase Your Production With WPMU DEV Templates

Whether you prefer to build sites from scratch, use a theme/page builder, or a combination of the two, WPMU DEV’s site template features can save you considerable time and needlessly repetitive efforts. Learn how in this post.

Minimize efforts and maximize profits when building new client websites by harnessing time-saving templates…even if you’re a die-hard, from-the-ground-up coder!

In this article, we’re showing how easy it is to create and use WPMU DEV site templates for instant availability on your web development jobs.

You’ll learn how to create your own or use our pre-made templates as a starting point – all of which are perfectly suited for eCommerce stores, portfolio sites, professional services, and more.

We’ll also cover how to bring templates from Elementor and other page builders, saving designs you’ve tailor-made to use for future site builds.

Here’s what we’ll be covering:

Skip ahead if a particular section sounds more relevant to you.

What’s Your Web Development Approach?

How you use and get the most out of our site templates will largely depend on what kind of web development approach you take.

When polling our 50,000+ strong web dev members, results showed there are three distinct types when it comes to profiting as a WordPress website builder:

  1. Custom web development
  2. Template web development
  3. Hybrid of both types

You probably already know which of these approaches resonates with you the most, but just in case you’re not sure what the pros and cons of the other approaches are, let’s review these briefly.

Custom Web Development

Custom WordPress development typically involves wireframing, designing, and building a website to the specific needs of a business.

As a web developer, the pros of providing custom WordPress development services include being in complete control of all aspects of the website, and tailoring the site to your client’s unique needs, goals, & preferences.

Because you are building the site to spec, only essential features are included, eliminating the bloat caused by having unnecessary elements added to the site — resulting in a better product overall.

“I build custom websites from scratch. I don’t use themes or page builders. I have found my clients don’t want a raft of features and bloat they neither understand nor are able to update themselves. So I build with Gutenberg blocks and they have features and flexibility for only what they need. This obviously makes each website very specific to each case.” David (WPMU DEV Member)

The cons of this approach are that it takes a lot longer to plan and build a custom website from scratch.

Also, because custom development is time intensive, it can drive up the cost for your clients significantly.

Template-based Website Development

Template-based web development typically involves starting with a ready-made free or premium WordPress theme purchased from a marketplace such as ThemeForest, or using a page builder like Elementor, Divi, WP Bakery, etc, then modifying and customizing the theme and its settings.

The pros of using ready-made themes to build a WordPress site include saving money.

It typically costs less than $100 to buy a pre-built theme, which means that you can mark up your costs and make higher margins), saving time (you are using pre-built pages and elements that may only need some tweaking), and being able to choose from thousands of ready-made WordPress themes. Sites built using existing themes are less costly and faster to build.

“Having a starter theme that I can launch a new website from each time is hugely beneficial. The current option of templates is a great idea and will definitely help…” David (WPMU DEV Member)

The cons of working with pre-built themes include having to learn how the theme and its options work, “bloating” from unnecessary code (themes usually cram loads of features you may not need), performance issues due to poor coding quality (affecting security and page speed), and lack of support if the theme developer doesn’t keep up with new WordPress releases or goes out of business.

Hybrid Website Development

“A good thing for page design (which is what takes me most of my time) will be to have pre-set “modules” that I can use, duplicate, modify, and then insert them into my pages.” Guigro (WPMU DEV Member)

The hybrid approach involves starting with custom-built time-saving presets or pre-built/boilerplate templates to help speed up your custom development work.

These templates then act as springboards for building fully customized and uniquely designed sites for clients.

This approach can involve fine tuning or creating customized templates using a “page builder” framework application (e.g. Divi, Elementor).

You can also use preset wireframes (like Elementor’s Wireframe Kits), wireframe patterns or block plugins like Kadence Blocks or Spectra (formerly Addons For Gutenberg).

Or, depending on the kind of sites you build, integrating ready-made processes like sales funnels or eCommerce workflows into your custom-built structures.

The pros of using the hybrid model are that you can target your services to specific niches and offer your clients unique sites built on proven designs or processes shown to be effective with previous clients, at a lower pricing point and faster delivery timeframe than building full custom websites from scratch.

The cons of the hybrid model are the time you will need to invest into learning to use whatever application you choose to build your customized templates with and building your templating processes.

“I would need to invest time in building out various templates that could be reused.” Phil M. (WPMU DEV Member)

How All Web Developer Types Can Benefit From WPMU DEV Templates

All these approaches have advantages and disadvantages and no matter what your preference is, we have an option to complement your site builds.

Here’s a look at how different web development approaches can benefit from using our templates:

Doing It Yourself from Scratch with a Boost from WPMU DEV

If you prefer to take the custom approach to web development, you can create, save, and reuse your very own custom templates, essentially acting as your own master to use on any sites going forward.

And when we say save, we mean it in the fully encompassing sense.

It’s not just a snapshot of the surface view. Yes, we save the theme, placement of elements, customizations, etc. But beyond that, our templates create a full backup of your existing site, meaning they include everything.

From plugins, user settings, and configs, to license keys, and data – every detail is preserved at the moment you save it.

Let’s create a new site from a template now. You can follow the video walkthrough, or the written tutorial below it.

Note that you’ll need a hosting account to follow along. You can take WPMU DEV Hosting for a free, no-risk trial right now.

Creating your very own custom template in The Hub.

  1. Navigate to The Hub > Sites > Site Templates.
    (If you’re unfamiliar, The Hub is WPMU DEV’s unified dashboard to monitor, optimize, and update unlimited sites from one location.)
  2. Here you will see two tabbed sections: My Templates, and WPMU DEV Templates. Click on My Templates.
  3. Click Create Template.
  4. Select a hosted site, add a template title, and a description (if desired).

It’s that easy!

In a matter of minutes your template will be created, and ready for use in your My Templates section.

Whenever you want to create a new site from this template, simply click on its Create Site button, then follow steps 5-8 below for Creating A New Site From A Template.

Creating your own site template in WPMU DEV.

Creating your own templates gives you two major benefits:

  1. You can create a library of up to 25 of your own custom templates  – completely free – making new site creation a breeze.
  2. These have zero impact on your hosting storage.

Click here for more FAQs on WPMU DEV Custom Templates.

Starting on Your Own Then Joining WPMU DEV

The My Templates method explained above will easily fit the needs of someone taking a hybrid approach.

When you get to step 4, selecting a WPMU DEV hosted site, simply choose one that you created using any WordPress page/theme builder tool (e.g., Elementor, Divi, Kadence, WP Bakery, etc), and create your template from that.

The site selector allows you to choose any of your WordPress sites, regardless of what method, theme or builder plugin you used to create it.

templates_my templates hybrid (from elementor site)Creating a template from a site made with Elementor.

Voila… you’ve got a quick template for any future site builds, based on a blended creation where you put your own special touches on a page builder or theme builder base.

Creating with WPMU DEV From the Onset

“…Having a starter theme that I can launch a new website from each time is hugely beneficial. The current option of templates is a great idea and will definitely help… The plugin settings and saving a default setting is already in operation so that is nice.” David (WPMU DEV Member)

For those who prefer to work with templates, we have over two dozen site templates with diverse visual and structural appeal for various industries, like Freelancer, Blogger, and eCommerce.

templates_wpmudev templatesWPMU DEV has plenty of options when it comes to ready-made site templates.

Let’s create a new site from a pre-made template now. You can follow the video walkthrough, or the written tutorial below it.

Creating a new site with WPMU DEV’s pre-made templates.

  1. Navigate to The Hub > Sites > Site Templates.
  2. There are two tabbed sections: My Templates, and WPMU DEV Templates.

Click on WPMU DEV Templates. You’ll see the Template collection here.

Note that you can see a full, multi-page preview of any template by clicking its Preview button.

  1. Once you’ve selected the template you want, click the Create Site button.
  2. On the next screen, you’ll select what hosting plan you want for this site. There are details and prices listed for each, visit the WPMU DEV Hosting page if you’d like to learn more. Once you’ve selected a plan, click the Continue button.
  3. Create your temporary website URL by typing a name (appended by .tempurl.host). While you’ll be able to name your site what you want, and you’ll be able to point it to a custom domain, this temp URL will be permanent, so make sure you choose a naming convention you are comfortable keeping.
  4. On the next screen, you’ll create your WordPress administration account. Enter the email address, username, and password you’ll be associating it with.
  5. Finally, you’ll choose the server location for your site. Select the one closest to you geographically

That’s it! In a few minutes, your template-based site will load up, and be ready and waiting in your list of Hub sites.

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