Liberace, David Bowie, Kiss just to name a few entertainers that made the “Larger than Life” stage presence part of the reason behind their success. Was Liberace remembered for his Piano Playing or his outfits? When David Bowie first appeared as Ziggy Stardust with all the glitter, glamour and makeup it was hard to tune into was he a good singer as the noise from the outfits was deafening. Kiss? Wow they made us want to rock and roll all night and see if we could get our tongues to touch our chin like Gene Simmonds, and who could forget the showmanship, the fireworks, the 10 inch high boots, the makeup but were they really great musician’s? Who cares as Liberace once said when asked whether he minded being criticized…
“I cried all the way to the bank,” and he cried a lot as back in the day because from 1950 to 1970 Liberace was the highest paid entertainer in the world in 1970 he was earning 300,000 a week to perform in Las Vegas that’s the equivalent to f 2.8 Million a week in 2016.
So these few entertainers, and all of them made zillions by the way, and I could mention many more – are really remembered a little for talent but mainly for the awesome shows they put on, the glitz the glamour the excitement. No templates here, no run of the mill get on stage play the piano, guitar and sing. These super famous entertainers were truly custom designs.
So what does all this mean to you? Well the headline of the blog mentions a question we get asked every week and that is Template design or custom, and you most likely are asking the same question, so how does all this glitz and glamour back in the day music history help you with that choice?
It comes back to our favourite quote, “There is no second chance on a first impression” and the problem with designers that use a lot of templates is your first impression may also be somebody else’s!
You see some designers use templates that’s Liberace without the candelabra and sequins as its quicker and easier to make your website, and in this day and age in all honesty it also doesn’t take a lot of skill, a template here, a drag and drop there and zippity doo dah you have a website and its saving effective for them and hopefully they pass that saving on to you, but each website they build usually all look pretty similar.
A custom design, one that will make your business as the Kiss song went , “Shout it, Shout it out Loud” well that is a little trickier, it needs coding skill, design skill, Photoshop all sorts of skills to make that “One Off” that will without question make an awesome first impression rather than, “Haven’t I seen that Before” comment.
But, a custom design costs a little more, takes a little more time but makes a sensational first impression. So what’s the answer to the question, ‘Custom or Template” well for me in business these days you need every advantage you can get so a little Pizazz, some glitz, a great opening number is the key and as the famous number from the musical “Gypsy” states a custom site will sing…