{"id":200322,"date":"2021-09-09T02:37:36","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T02:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/?p=200322"},"modified":"2021-09-09T02:38:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T02:38:32","slug":"hosting-site-templates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/hosting-site-templates\/","title":{"rendered":"Create and Sell Your Own Site Templates For Free With WPMU DEV Hosting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hosting resellers rejoice! You can now create, package, and sell multiple custom site templates &#8211; at <strong>no extra cost to you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve been in the biz of <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/clone-wordpress-sites\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cloning WordPress sites<\/a> and speeding up your site development workflow for well over a year now.<\/p>\n<p>Members also love our expertly-made, default WPMU DEV site templates, which dropped at the same time as cloning.<\/p>\n<p>But in the words of Fleetwood Mac, it&#8217;s time to <em>&#8220;go your own wayyyyy.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Because with the help of a sneaky backups hack, our hosting now allows you to create and package your own <strong>custom site templates <\/strong>for reselling to your clients.<\/p>\n<p>eCommerce&#8230; personal training&#8230; marketing agency&#8230; flower boutique&#8230; whatever you can think of! You can now create custom templates for all of them &#8211; any market, any niche.<\/p>\n<p>Best part is, you can create up to 25 custom templates <strong>completely free.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Keep reading to learn how to implement this new game-changer and how it fits perfectly into your reseller hosting wheel house.<\/p>\n<h2>Skip ahead:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#how\">How custom templates work<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#create\">Creating your first custom template<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#access\">Two ways to access your new site templates<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#some\">Some PSA\u2019s about custom templates<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#quick\">A quick recap of our reseller hosting capabilities<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><a name=\"how\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>How our custom templates work<\/h2>\n<p>It starts with a great source site you wish to turn into a template.<\/p>\n<p>One you&#8217;ve worked hard on (but not too hard, thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/the-hub-configs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">time-saving features like plugin configs<\/a> ;)) and is ideally sellable as a turn-key solution.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Remember that &#8220;sneaky backups hack&#8221; I mentioned in the intro? Here&#8217;s what I was talking about:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Each custom template you create is actually a full backup of the site you choose to copy, stored on our AWS servers.<\/p>\n<p>When you send a request to create a new template, we create a backup of that site, zip it, and upload it to AWS.<\/p>\n<p>That template\/backup is fetched and restored at your chosen new site URL.<\/p>\n<p>And voila!<\/p>\n<p>This template is now ready to be used and accessed in <strong>&#8220;My Templates&#8221;<\/strong> area of The Hub (more on that below).<\/p>\n<p>Creating templates this way gives you two major benefits:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>It does not affect your hosting storage at all.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>You can create up to 25 custom templates completely free, no extra cost to you (we&#8217;ll also be upping this number in future if the demand is there).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Also, since your template is a full backup of an existing site, it comes readily included with EVERYTHING.<\/p>\n<p>Plugins, themes, users, license keys, settings, site data &#8211; it&#8217;s all fully-preserved for you.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, it goes without saying, <strong>you can ONLY create templates of WPMU DEV hosted sites.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;Now that you know a little more about custom templates and how they work, let&#8217;s see them in action.<\/p>\n<h2><a name=\"create\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>Creating your first custom template<\/h2>\n<p>Did I mention you&#8217;ll need to be a WPMU DEV member and have hosted sites with us to use this feature?<\/p>\n<p>The easiest way for non-members to follow along is to take either our <strong>Freelancer<\/strong> or <strong>Agency<\/strong> plans (they both give you free hosted sites you can use) for a <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/pricing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">free trial<\/a> spin.<\/p>\n<p>Navigate to your WPMU DEV hosted sites in <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/hub-welcome\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hub<\/a> (our built-in site management tool) and find the <strong>Site Templates<\/strong> tab.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-grid cgrid-row\">\n<div class=\"cgrid-col cgrid-col-span-full\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_200892\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-200892 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/select-site-templates.png\" alt=\"a screen showing the site templates tab\" width=\"600\" height=\"313\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Find the Site Templates to create your first template.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>From this tab you can edit the details of your existing templates and create new templates.<\/p>\n<p>Select <strong>Create Template<\/strong> to get started.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-grid cgrid-row\">\n<div class=\"cgrid-col cgrid-col-span-full\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-200903\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/select-create-template.png\" alt=\"A screen showing how you can get started creating templates\" width=\"600\" height=\"437\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A pop-up will appear asking you to select the site you&#8217;d like to make your template, and to give your template a name and description.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_200330\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-200330\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/name-template.png\" alt=\"A screen showing how you name and describe your new template\" width=\"600\" height=\"488\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Give your template a name and description. Get the people excited!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Once done, hit <strong>Create Template <\/strong>and your new template will be ready in a few minutes, it&#8217;s that easy!<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-grid cgrid-row\">\n<div class=\"cgrid-col cgrid-col-span-full\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_200904\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-200904 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/template-progess.png\" alt=\"A screen showing a new site template loading up\" width=\"600\" height=\"419\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sit back, relax, and wait a couple mins for this puppy to load.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>When it&#8217;s finished loading you&#8217;ll be notified via The Hub, and you&#8217;ll also receive an email letting you know the new template has been created (see below).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_200333\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-200333\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/template-ready-email.png\" alt=\"A screen showing the template confirmation email\" width=\"600\" height=\"443\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Your brand-spanking new site template is ready!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Another thing to note is that you&#8217;re free to create multiple templates from a single site. So if you think you&#8217;re onto a winner, use it as your template base as much as you wish (up to our 25 limit of course).<\/p>\n<h3>You can also create templates straight from your source site<\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;s as simple as selecting the site you wish to turn into a template, and clicking the vertical ellipsis icon to the right of it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-grid cgrid-row\">\n<div class=\"cgrid-col cgrid-col-span-full\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_200907\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-200907 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/select-site.png\" alt=\"a screen showing how you can directly select a site to turn into a template\" width=\"600\" height=\"287\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Select the site you wish to create a template from.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Select <strong>create template <\/strong>to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_200329\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-200329\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/select-site-template.png\" alt=\"A screen showing where the create template option is\" width=\"600\" height=\"274\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hit create template and get this ball rolling!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Then rinse and repeat the above!<\/p>\n<h2><a name=\"access\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>Two ways to access your new site templates<\/h2>\n<p>Once you&#8217;ve successfully created a new site template, here&#8217;s how you or your clients can access them.<\/p>\n<h3>1.During the site creation or cloning process<\/h3>\n<p>Your template (and others you create in future) can now be selected from the <strong>Create New<\/strong> or <strong>Clone<\/strong> options when adding a new site to The Hub.<\/p>\n<p>Hit the <strong>&#8220;+&#8221;<\/strong> icon in The Hub to add a new site and get started.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_200338\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-200338\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/add-new-site.png\" alt=\"A screen showing how you add a new site to The Hub\" width=\"600\" height=\"340\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click the &#8220;+&#8221; button to add a new site to The Hub.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For this walkthrough we&#8217;ll select <strong>Create New<\/strong> (the steps for cloning are exactly the same, only instead of creating a site, you&#8217;re cloning one).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_200339\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-200339\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/create-or-clone.png\" alt=\"A screen showing the options to either create or clone a new site\" width=\"600\" height=\"423\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Create or clone a new site to see your templates in action.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Click <strong>Create site<\/strong> and a pop-up will appear with the option to <strong>create a brand new site<\/strong> or <strong>create from template<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Select <strong>create from template<\/strong> and you&#8217;ll see any templates you&#8217;ve created are now visible.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_200341\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-200341\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/select-my-templates.png\" alt=\"A screen showing how you can select to create a site based on one of your custom-made templates\" width=\"600\" height=\"484\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The template we made earlier, all ready for selection!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You can also select <strong>WPMU DEV Templates<\/strong> to see the range of default site templates made by our expert team. Find out more about those in our <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/clone-wordpress-sites\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website cloning article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Our default templates are also a great example of what&#8217;s now possible. Minus a few features we&#8217;re still working on bringing you.<\/p>\n<p>But the idea is still the same, multiple site templates for multiple niches and use-cases, for your clients to choose from.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s pretty much it&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Hit <strong>Use template<\/strong> and you&#8217;ll be taken through the standard process of setting up a new WPMU DEV Hosted website &#8211; creating a temporary URL, choosing from 10 worldwide server locations, and waiting a few minutes while your site loads.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Directly from the &#8220;Site Templates&#8221; tab in The Hub<\/h3>\n<p>As we touched on above, you can also access and manage your custom templates right from the Site Templates overview tab in The Hub.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-grid cgrid-row\">\n<div class=\"cgrid-col cgrid-col-span-full\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_200892\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-200892 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/select-site-templates.png\" alt=\"a screen showing the site templates tab\" width=\"600\" height=\"313\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Select Site Templates to access and manage all your custom templates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>From here you can edit your existing templates, and also easily create new ones as outlined in the steps above.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_200893\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-200893\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/site-templates-tab.png\" alt=\"a screen showing where you can edit and manage your custom site templates\" width=\"600\" height=\"446\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edit and create new templates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When you hit the vertical ellipsis icon next to any template, you&#8217;ll see you have the option to edit its name and description, or delete it.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_200342\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-200342\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/edit-details.png\" alt=\"a screen showing how you can edit the details of your new template\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Change the details, or delete your new template.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><a name=\"some\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>Some PSA&#8217;s about custom templates&#8230;<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Preview thumbnail coming soon<\/strong> &#8211; Because of their backup nature, your templates do not currently come with a &#8220;preview option&#8221; like you&#8217;ll see with our default WPMU DEV templates. But don&#8217;t worry, we&#8217;re working on a solution that allows you to upload multiple thumbnails to show off your templates to clients.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Delete at your own risk<\/strong> &#8211; if you&#8217;re thinking about deleting a custom template, please think carefully! Since custom templates are technically backups, once you delete one, there&#8217;s no getting it back.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No editing or updating<\/strong> &#8211; you cannot edit or update any aspect of templates once they\u2019re created. If you do need to edit or update your template, simply create a new one from your updated source site and delete the outdated template.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/docs\/hub-2-0\/my-websites-overview\/#site-templates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">site template docs<\/a> for more info and helpful FAQs.<\/p>\n<h2><a name=\"quick\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>A recap of our reseller hosting capabilities:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s been possible to resell WPMU DEV Hosting for a while now and a lot of our members have been perfectly happily doing it manually.<\/li>\n<li>We also recently made some behind the scenes to our hosting to ensure it&#8217;s 99.9% <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/white-label-hosting-wpmu-dev\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">white labeled from top to bottom.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Using <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/project\/the-hub-client\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hub Client<\/a>, you can setup your own complete client portal, where they can manage sites, access hosting tools, and more.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, with our built-in <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/client-billing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">client billing system<\/a> you can streamline your client invoicing, create subscription plans, manage clients, and more. It comes included with The Hub and The Hub Client.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And now with custom templates, we&#8217;re one step closer to a fully-automated hosting reseller system.<\/p>\n<h2>Still to come:<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Domains<\/strong> \u2013 Offer your clients the opportunity to search for and purchase a domain, which will be automatically mapped to their new hosting and templates set up\u2026 yep, be your own GoDaddy!<\/p>\n<p>Check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/roadmap\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">product roadmap<\/a> to keep up with what\u2019s in store for The Hub, The Hub Client, and the rest of our WP plugins.<\/p>\n<h2>Get started with templates and reseller hosting for free<\/h2>\n<p>Existing members&#8230; what are you waiting for?? Jump into your Hub and try turning one of your hosted sites into a resellable site template.<\/p>\n<p>Not a member? Check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/hosting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hosting plans and pricing here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Want to try our hosting for free? The best way to do so is to take either our Freelancer or Agency plans for a <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/pricing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">free trial<\/a>. Both allow you to host 1-3 sites with us every year, for free.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hosting resellers rejoice! You can now create, package, and sell multiple custom site templates &#8211; at no extra cost to you. We&#8217;ve been in the biz of cloning WordPress sites and speeding up your site development workflow for well over a year now. Members also love our expertly-made, default WPMU DEV site templates, which dropped [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":775041,"featured_media":200532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"blog_reading_time":"7","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_tutorials_categories":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,11260,11259],"tags":[],"tutorials_categories":[11233],"class_list":["post-200322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials","category-wpmu-dev-products","category-wpmudev-tutorials","tutorials_categories-hosting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/775041"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200322"}],"version-history":[{"count":132,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204005,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200322\/revisions\/204005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200322"},{"taxonomy":"tutorials_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorials_categories?post=200322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}