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I was recently honored to have this site included in the list of Artisteer’s Articles and Tutorials. You can find the link to my subcategory of Artisteer Tips, by clicking on the very first link title Artisteer Tips (WordPress) under Tutorials within the Articles section of their site. They will be adding a link to my Blogger Tips as well, and I’m thrilled at being included as a reference from their site!

I’m especially thrilled because Artisteer has been one of the best things for my design business. For a relatively low investment, I’ve been able to more than make back the money I spent purchasing Artisteer software. I’ve used Artisteer almost exclusively as a template generator for several different reasons. Let me name just a few of them.

• Seeing the End Results: As a visual learner, it allows me to “see” an idea of what my blog or site will look like to help speed up the entire design process. Does Dreamweaver do this as well? Yes, of course, and I also use Dreamweaver regularly for editing code, but you don’t have to insert code manually before seeing what the end result will look like when using Artisteer. That cuts down time production about ten fold!
• To Code or Not to Code: Artisteer spits out all of the necessary php, html, java script, and css for you! For people who don’t know code, there’s no better tool. For people who do know code, again, you’ve saved yourself an incredible amount of time. You can go back into the already generated code and make some little tweaks here and there as desired without having to re-create the wheel each time. This helps so that you are not limited to just one basic template that you use as a base to tweak as it’s so easy to miss little bits of code when manually editing a theme.
• Constantly Improving: I’ve been thrilled with the newest release that Artisteer put out, and they are continually adding more features to make Artisteer more user friendly and robust. Some of the recent features I’m most pleased with are the improved code for footer widgets and the ability to easily changing the styling to all widget areas, the new layout formats giving page and sheet width options for the header, menu, sheet, and footer, the ability to insert additional CSS styling before export, the improved html web page editing area just to name a few. You are allowed free upgrades within one year of purchase, and updates after are still a reasonable fee. I’ve been through several free and one paid upgrades now, and can say they are well worth it.
• Options, Options, Options! Artisteer allows users of Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Blogger, and DotNetNuke to create beautiful web templates (with a TON of layout and styling options) easily and effectively. I’ve found my niche in WordPress and Blogger, and I frankly don’t have the time to explore the other options, but knowing that those options are being widely used gives me the comfort that Artisteer is here to stay and that by investing time in learning my niche through Artisteer thoroughly, I’ll always have a place in the web design world.

After reading this, you might have the following questions for me:

• Did you create your website template through Artisteer, and can I produce something similar “out-of-the-box” if I purchase Artisteer?

Yes, this template was created in Artisteer. While you can create beautiful templates directly from Artisteer with no additional coding or graphics (they have a TON of built in graphics, filters, and textures to choose from), I customized my graphics as well as some minor code tweaking to get the look I wanted. You can find all of the tips necessary to create the same effects on your own by simply following my simple tip instructions. Some of my additions are the additional horizontal menu, and a few minor stylistic effects to the footer and header areas.

• Does Artisteer offer any type of support?

Yes, I’ve always had very good luck when I send in a support ticket for any bugs I run across or simply a question I can’t answer. Your biggest help, however, will be to read the Forums provided by Artisteer. There are a lot of great people who are willing to answer questions (just don’t abuse the privilege, however, and make sure to take the time to learn on your own as well). Both of these options are totally free, as well.

• Are you an Artisteer employee?

No, I am not. I’m just a very satisfied customer.

• Are you part of the Artisteer affiliate’s program?

You bet I am!

So, if you are interested in checking out what Artisteer might have to offer you, click on the link below. You can also always feel free to ask me any questions regarding my experience with Artisteer.  Just simply fill out the general contact form on my Contact Page. And, if you are one of those people who doesn’t want to click on links just because they are affiliate links, you can always just type in Artisteer into your address bar.

© 2011, Sarah. All rights reserved.

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