TemplateMonster Customer Case Study – How a Girl from Australia Built Her 1st Site

It's not a problem for web design beginners to build sites with ready-made themes. In our new TemplateMonster customer case study, you will find how a girl from Australia managed to get her first site live in 4 months on her own. Melanie Trigg works in the social media marketing industry less than a year. However, she has found the key to expanding her business reach in South Australia. Now, she keeps on growing her business organically, step-by-step.

TemplateMonster: Tell us a couple of words about your company. Where are you located? How big is your team? For how many years have you been in your industry?

Melanie Trigg: My business is just me at the moment. I am located in Adelaide, South Australia. My team is me only! I have been working in this industry since August 2015 - so not even 1 year!

TemplateMonster: Do you prefer ready-made website templates rather than custom-made ones? Why?

Melanie Trigg: This is my first experience in building a website! So I wanted something that I could easily administer myself, but not have to build from start to finish. I think custom-made sites are expensive due to the amount of time they take rather than the ready-made templates we can just plug our images and text into.

TemplateMonster: How much time did it take you to create a website based on that theme?

Melanie Trigg: I purchased the theme in November, started the build in December and it went live in April! The reason for the time is because I wanted to change and add a few things before it went live!

Here is a WordPress theme that Melanie picked for her first website - Optimist Marketing Agency. The reason of choosing this template is because of the large images on the Home Page, the layout had 4 pictures on the front, and Melanie is offering 4 services as well as the fact it looked modern, clean and simple.

The site built with its help looks like this - thesociablemarket.com.au

TemplateMonster: How much did it cost you to get your site up and running?

Melanie Trigg: About $500 AUD in total - not including my time.

TemplateMonster: How long have you been with TemplateMonster? How can you evaluate the results of our collaboration? What do you enjoy the most? What should be changed enhanced?

Melanie Trigg: I only heard about Template Monster in July last year and made my first purchase in October. I can't really evaluate the results yet as I have launched the site to the market at this stage. The official go-live date isn't until July this year! I enjoyed the final product being finished… very satisfying after a very steep learning curve on my behalf! Maybe what could be changed is the attention to detail from the Template Tuning team who needed to have a few things pointed out to them a few times before the site was completed!

TemplateMonster: What is your audience? What niche do you target? Do you target foreign markets or prefer working with customers from your country only?

Melanie Trigg: My audience is business owners in the travel and tourism market in South Australia. My niche is social media marketing. I target South Australian's only as I create the content for their social media accounts! Also - I want to start small and grow my business slowly and organically - so that is why I'm keeping it local to start with!

TemplateMonster: How do you attract new customers and keep them coming back?

Melanie Trigg: At the moment I am in a growth phase, so I only have a few clients on board. I am the reason they would come back - as well as the services we offer and time we can give them back to work on other areas of their business!

As you can see, you shouldn't necessarily be a web design pro to build a site for your own business. Passion and strong desire to expand your business reach - these are the key two factors that that you need to achieve a success.

P.S. Do you want to share your own story at MonsterPost? Please email [email protected] and we will reach you for an interview.