Hoping to sell web templates

[Tri-state betta]

Hello,

I would like to start a small web-template buisness. I am NOT a professional and have never had training in web design. I do intend to make that clear on my site. I would be giving away linkware templates, selling premade templates and putting myself up for hire. I am also hoping to design a few phpbb templates and sell those as well. My questions are,

1)Do I need any sort of license to sell something I make myself?
2)What do I need to know before starting?
3)Would I need contracts, and if so, what should they look like?

I did see someone post a software for the contracts but I cannot afford to spend any more money...at least until I have sold a few templates.

Thanks for any info.

Caitlin

[the tree]

Well as your just starting out you could use good old paypal.

As for what you need to know, I'd say valid xhtml and css. Alot of template providers sell invalid templates so if you made a point of yours being 100% valid then that would look good on you.

[abdifatah]

hi , i was actually hoping to start my business which is very similar to yours so i have suffered a setback because i have been learning how to make templates. So are you interested in corporating to setup a web template business. I have lots of experience

am in England where are you in?

thank you

[Kendi]

1)Do I need any sort of license to sell something I make myself?
2)What do I need to know before starting?
3)Would I need contracts, and if so, what should they look like?

1) It depends on the state you are in. In my State, because I am not selling a "physical item", all I had to do is get a city license for Internet Web Site Development.
2) I wasn't clear on this but if you are selling templates from an affiliate program like monstertemplates.com, you need to be REAL creative in getting your clients' attention because there are 101 sites out there selling the same templates. If you are designing the templates yourself, then coding is key. There's nothing more frustrating than to get a template and you have to recode the darn thing before you can do something with it (speaking from personal experience)
3) Contracts... hmmmm... for templates, you might want to do some research on that one. In my opinion, unless you are modifying the templates for a client once they purchase it, I wouldn't bother with a contract.

Good Luck!

Kendi

[pottersdt2k]

Not sure about other countries, but this information is for the UK

You must ensure that any income received from selling these templates is declared to HM Revenue and Customs (previously the Inland Revenue) - (http://www.hmce.gov.uk) - via the Self Assessment (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/index.htm) method.

You should also look at the HMCE's "Setting up your Own Business" section - found at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/businesses/iw...business.shtml .
Registering a Limited Company in the UK is done via Companies House (http://www.companieshouse.co.uk/) - see the website for more information.

Supplying such templates online for free (no charge etc) would mean you don't have to register with Companies House or the HMCE...

If you do decide to sell them online, you may wish to have a contract which states that the user is not allowed to reproduce the templates, pass them off as their own design or resell them... You could also have a note at the bottom of the template saying something like "Copyright Tri-state betta 2006" with a link back to your site - if this is the case, you should ensure that any contract states that the user is not allowed to remove this line.

Also, if you are handling a User's personal details, you need to register with the Information Commissioner's Office (previously known as the Data Protection Agency) - more information is available on their website at http://www.ico.gov.uk


If you're non-UK, then this has little or no relevance whatsoever!

[felgall]

If you're non-UK, then this has little or no relevance whatsoever!

Actually there is a lot of good advice there. Just substitute the names of the appropriate Government bodies for the country you are in and most of that would apply in a lot of countries.

[pottersdt2k]

Felgall, You're probably right, but I wasn't sure how the law differed in different countries and even states, hence I aimed it at solely UK users...
I imagine that most of the countries promoting and using the Internet in their Government agencies would have similar sites dotted around - it's just a case of knowing which department/agency you'd need to speak to about the legislation, in order to find their place on the web?