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Template Driven Development

There’s one technique I use to speed up all my site and product development which I find is dramatically underused by other marketers.

That is Template Driven Development.

So, what do I mean by a template?

It’s just a standard format into which you can slot the body of your item or the content that you need. You only need to set the template up once, then it’s ready for all items of that type which you develop in the future.

So, if I’m writing an e-book, I have an Open Office document which has all the standard page headers I use set up and has a unique format which identifies the product to me.

If I need an e-cover, I have a template which most of the parts already filled in. I can change the images, colours and text and very quickly I have something which looks new but identifies this as one of my products.

This technique even works on web sites. If I’m developing a wordpress site, I have a standard layout and set of plugins which I can clone from the template and then edit that to match the new area I’m moving into.

All these small aspects of time saving add up and save a lot of pointless messing around to make sure everything is just how I like it.

Do you use templates in your day-to-day life? What kind of things do you use them for and are there any tricks with them that you’d like to share?

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