How to Become a Webflow Template Designer

May 28, 2025

min read

Think about using your web design skills to make some side money? Turning into a Webflow template maker might be your next good step. Let’s see what you need to learn:

What does a Webflow template maker do? They make ready-to-use web site plans that firms can pick up and use, saving both time and cash.
Why should you try it? Makers get as much as 80% of sales, with some pulling in $3,500+ each month from only a few templates.
How do you start? Get to know Webflow’s tools, get good at basic web design skills (HTML, CSS, responsive design), and make bits you can use more than once for faster work.
What sells a template? Pay attention to what certain fields need (like real estate, healthcare), make it good for phones, and ensure it loads fast.
How do you stand out? Have a good set of work to show, stick to Webflow Marketplace rules, and market your templates well.

Main point to take: Webflow template making lets you be creative, get steady cash, and helps businesses expand - all while you build a money source that grows on its own.

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Webflow

Starting with Webflow

To start with Webflow, jump into its look and learn the heart of web design. Webflow makes coding easy by making it visual, yet knowing web build basics helps you make better templates. Once you know the ideas, use the tool's look to use them.

How to Use the Webflow Look

Webflow's look has five main parts: the center canvas, top bar, left tools, right tools, and bottom bar. At the middle is the canvas, where you build your site now. The top bar has tabs like Design, CMS, Insights, and View ways. On the left tools, find ways to add bits and handle pages. The right tools are for style and acts, and the bottom bar has ways to move and set breaks.

Learn shortcuts to work fast. Like:

Hit A to open the Add spot for putting in bits like text, pics, and boxes.
Use P to get into the Pages spot to set up your site.
Press Z to see the order of bits.
Tap S to open the Style spot to fix colors, words, and space.

The Quick Find tool (Command + E on Mac or Control + E on Windows) lets you find tools fast. Know that Webflow is best on big screens and works well with a mouse and keys.

Web Build Basics: HTML, CSS, and Easy-to-Use Design

Even though Webflow makes good CSS for you, knowing HTML, CSS, and easy-to-use design helps you make wise design picks. Easy-to-use design now matters more - with over half the web visits from mobiles, a big rise from before. This means you must make sure your templates look good on phones, tabs, and desktops.

Use loose sizes, not fixed pixels. For text, use em or rem, for widths use %, and for heights use view units (vh, vw). As designer Nick Gard says: "Never use fixed units!" Use stuff like Flexbox to build easy-to-use designs and add things like mobile menus for phone use. Make sure text can be read on any tool by setting right word size and line space.

Making Reusable Parts and Symbols

Reusable parts, once called Symbols, are key to making templates easy to keep and change. When you build a part, any changes to the first one change all the copies. Usual ones are nav bars, footers, top parts, and card designs, which keep your look steady and simple to change.

For example, if you change the look of a button in one part, that change will show up everywhere the button is used. To keep things neat, name your parts with clear and clear labels like "Main Menu" or "Article Card" so you know what they are for right away. Parts can also have traits, spots, and style types, giving you choices but keeping the main design safe. By thinking ahead about your part system, you make your designs easier for users to change without messing up the look.

Making Templates for Particular Work Fields

After you get good at the basics of Webflow, the next thing is to make templates for certain work fields. Look at the special problems in areas like real estate, healthcare, or online sales, and make templates that fix these real issues, not just basic ones.

How to Learn About Target Markets

To make good templates, you need to know the work fields you're aiming for. Research is important - companies who use tools to listen to social media talks are 2.5 times more likely to be top in their market. In fact, 45% of successful companies use these tools to see trends and meet specific needs.

Start by looking into reports and news from the industry. Get trade magazines, look at market studies, and keep up with blogs that matter to your target area. For instance, healthcare designers might look at Modern Healthcare or HIMSS Insights, while real estate people could check Inman News or updates from the National Association of Realtors.

Talk with big names in the industry on LinkedIn and Twitter. Leave comments on their posts, ask sharp questions, and make connections. These influencers often talk about new trends and ideas before they get popular. You can also use tools to follow important words and chats.

Going to conferences and trade shows - either in person or online - gives you many first-hand ideas. These places are also good for meeting people who might use your templates.

Make detailed user profiles by doing interviews and surveys. Talking right to workers about what they need on their websites, their daily work, and what troubles them can help you see what things your templates need to have.

"Take advantage of the various tools that exist - heatmaps, for example - and have people not involved in the website design process use it before it goes live. If you find that users are rage-clicking in some areas, or never visiting others, the web development team will gain valuable insight that will drive necessary course corrections before a site is live - significantly improving the user journey and user experience with a given site." – Amanda Foley, Managing Partner, Kiterocket

First, check out your rivals. Look at what's out there in your market to see what works and what does not. Check their prices, what buyers say, and where there might be needs not met yet. This will help you make ideas that really pop.

Getting Your CMS and Making it Easy to Use

Your study should help you set up your CMS and make it easy to use. A good CMS fits well with the way work is done in certain fields. For instance:

Real estate models: Have lists for property details with space for price, size, number of rooms, and where it is.
E-commerce models: Show lists of products with ways to keep track of stock, different price levels, and types.
Healthcare models: Make lists for services, info about staff, patient help, and kinds of visits.
Insurance models: Have pages for kinds of policies, what they cover, and what clients say.
Solar energy models: Put the focus on showing products and talk about being green.

It's also key to make sure everyone can use your designs, especially in health and money jobs. About 15% of people in the world have a disability, but WebAIM says 98% of sites have things that make them hard to use that could be fixed. Use tools like Webflow's color checker to make sure your designs are easy for everyone to use. Also, put clear text on images so screen readers can explain them well.

Set up your stuff with easy-to-follow titles (H1, H2, H3) to keep things clear. This helps both people who use screen readers and search sites. Webflow's Vision tool can show you how people with sight issues might see your models.

"Consumers demand data security in the form of an SSL - that lock symbol on their address bar boosts your credibility and gives users peace of mind as they browse." – John Li, Co-Founder and CTO, Fig Loans

In jobs that deal with private info, safety is a must. Add parts for privacy rules, sticking to laws (like HIPAA in health care), and safety proves to win trust from users.

Making Quick and Phone-Friendly Templates

How fast a website loads can change how users act and shape business results. As an example, sites that load in two seconds have a low leave rate of 9%. But if they take over five seconds, leave rates might jump to 38%. Cutting down load time by just one second could lift sales by 17%.

Here are ways to make sites load faster:

Better images: Shrink images and change them to WebP with Webflow’s tools. Use lazy load so images show up as users scroll, and pick SVGs for sharp images that don’t slow down the site.
Simple fonts: Too many font types can slow things down. If you need unique fonts, add them yourself with the "swap" setting so backup fonts show right away while unique fonts load.
Phone-first design: With more than half of site visits from phones, making websites work well on phones is needed. Gen Z, in special, want fast, tailor-made phone use. Test templates on real devices to make sure they work right.

Cut out useless third-party stuff that can make loading slow. For must-have things like stats or chat tools, set scripts to load one by one or use the delay attribute. Google Tag Manager can help handle these well.

Use Webflow’s clean-up option in the Style Manager to toss out unneeded CSS, keeping your templates neat. Check how well sites work often with tools like PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to catch and fix any problems.

Think about the extra things your work templates might need. Like, car rental templates often need booking setups and fleet shows, while e-store templates need ways to handle payments and keep track of stock. Think these through to keep a good mix of use and speed.

Making Your Template Book

Once you've got good at using Webflow and made some custom templates, it's time to show off what you've made. A strong portfolio is key to show your skill and help people see how you can help them. Your portfolio site is not just where you list your work - it's your chance to show how you see things and what you can make. Like Jason Marder, who leads design at Stripe, often points out:

"[Your portfolio] is the only place on the internet where you have full control over the medium AND the message".

Making a Work Portfolio Website

Your portfolio needs to show your path. Point out your top works and tell the how and why of each one. As Sergie Magdalin, who helped start Webflow, says:

"As someone who looks at designer applicants daily, checking out a portfolio is one of the first things I do. I can get a sense of that person's experience very quickly based on the project mocks they provide and how they present their information".

Kick off strong by showing your best design right on the front of your site. Group your other work by field - like web shops, health, or homes - so people looking can quickly find what they need.

Go past just images. Make each project into a full story by sharing the problems you met, the fixes you made, and what you got done. Add clear results like quicker page loads, better conversion rates, or smoother mobile use to make your work pop.

Use top-notch pictures and give links to live demos so users can play with your designs. Speed up image load times and show views for both computer and phone screens to highlight your skills in responsive design.

Adding customer reviews can boost trust, so put them in when you can. Keep your contact info easy to spot on all pages, and use strong calls-to-action that push visitors to hire you or buy your designs.

When your showcase looks great, match your design style to what your clients need to make your templates even more attractive.

Putting Clients First in Design

A strong showcase is just the start. To really stand out, focus on what the client needs first, which means easy-to-use and changeable designs. Your templates should shift easily for different uses.

Create parts that work for any field. For example, build main sections with parts that clients can change - like pictures, text, or colors - without messing with the design.

Think about how things can grow. Use grids and parts that can move or change as needed, whether for a simple page or a big site.

Keeping things the same is vital. Build repeatable design systems with consistent space, type, and colors that clients can use all over their sites. Write these choices down clearly to help clients feel sure they can change things.

Also, think of who will use your designs. Whether for small businesses or big companies, making your templates fit their skill level will make them easier to use and more liked.

How to Write and Pack Templates

Clear writing can make your templates special. Each design should have three key parts: a Style Guide, an Instructions page, and a Changelog.

Style Guide: Show every type of text - titles, paragraphs, lists, links, and buttons - so clients know how it will look.
Instructions Page: Give easy steps for editing complex parts like animations. If using GSAP animations, add a part titled "How to Edit GSAP Animations" with easy steps for changes or removal.
Licenses Page: List all sources - pictures, icons, fonts, and drawings - with links to their license info. This makes sure clients know their rights and avoids legal problems.

Think about access too. Write how your designs meet access rules, like color contrast, text for images, and correct titles. Provide tips to help clients keep these rules when adding more content.

When sorting your templates, use fitting tags to help people find them fast. Give each a main tag to show its key use, and add extra tags for more info. For example, a therapy app template might be under "Beauty & Wellness" with a secondary "App" tag.

At the end, make sure your documents are easy to look at. Use titles, lists, and images to help clients get hard ideas. Add version info in your package so clients can follow changes or fixes. This builds trust as time goes on.

Putting Templates Up for Sale on the Webflow Market

When you sell your templates on the Webflow Market, you can get a big 80% cut of each sale. But, just putting up a design won't make it sell well. You need to hit top quality marks and shine among many others. Here are steps for you to follow to make it all work well.

Hitting the Webflow Market's High Bar

Webflow wants only the best in terms of template quality. A person from the Webflow Market team says:

"At Webflow we take a lot of pride in quality. Each template submission we receive is personally evaluated by a Webflow Marketplace team member, according to the criteria below."

To get a "Good" rating on their scale, your template must hit this mark. If it is only "satisfactory", you will get tips and have up to two tries to make it right before it might get tossed. What's the big reason for tossing? Not following the rules for sending in. So, it's key to know the rules for sending in, design scale, and how it works scale well before you put your work in.

Your template also needs to pass core web stuff on both desk and phone screens. Make sure all images, signs, and type can be sold again the right way, and stay away from using marked logos or brand stuff. Custom stuff is mostly a no-go, apart from some cases like type smooth-out, no-index stuff for some pages, and SVGs done the right way.

When you name your template, make it short and clear - one to two words that show what it is for. Don't pack it with too many words, don't use street talk, odd signs, or weird big and small letters.

How to Send In Your Template

The send-in way is full of steps, so making a list from Webflow's rules can help you stay right. If you're new, remember, send just one template at a time till you have a good record.

Your send-in pack should have these:

A Style Guide for even looks
An Instructions page (if your template has complex moves)
A Changelog with the no-index tag on

Also, you must have certain stuff in the footer: add a "Powered by Webflow" link and a Licensing link to your license page. Make sure to put alt tags on just-for-look images and make your CSS code small.

Pick a main tag that shows your template's own style and type. Plus, your home page's SEO setup should fit your template name.

When the Webflow team gives you notes, go over each one deep. Keep your changelog fresh and let the team know about any big design changes. This makes sure only top, high-quality templates reach buyers. Once your template gets the OK, the next move is to market it well.

Pushing Your Templates for More Sales

Making a top-notch template is just the start. To push sales, you need a strong sell plan to show your product to likely buyers.

Content marketing is a strong move. For instance, a Webflow template and UI kit place like Flowzai, writes blog posts to drop wise hints and pull buyers. By mixing smart word research with SEO, they change web visits to sales.

Social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are top spots to show your designs and chat straight with likely buyers. Joining design groups can also give useful tips and views on what people like.

Be sure to tell why your templates are special. Fast loading, cool moves, or stuff made for certain work areas, tell clear the worth your templates give.

To up sales, think about using email pushes and pointed ads. Special offers, price cuts, or teams with top design folks and help plans can grow your reach even more.

Last, don't look past the value of help for buyers. Give easy guides, have many help ways, and quick replies to user thoughts can make a strong group of buyers. Happy buyers often come back and tell others about your templates.

Earning Cash from Your Webflow Templates

Once your templates are up for sale on the Webflow Marketplace, you can make them bring in steady money with smart prices, good support, and extra services. Let’s dive into how you can up your gains.

How to Set Prices for Your Templates

Setting smart prices for your templates is key. Aim for prices that show the time and cash savings your templates bring. Varied prices can draw in different buyers. Some might like to pay once to own the design fully, while others might find value in ongoing help and updates. It's worth noting, 52% of firms with a subscription base opt for a flat rate, which could be a good idea for ongoing money. Shoot for a profit range of 10–20% after all costs.

Yet, pricing isn’t the only route to steady cash - help and updates are big too.

Updating Templates and Helping Customers

Regular updates and good customer help can turn a one-time buyer into a loyal one. Keep your templates fresh with new Webflow features and design trends to stay on top. Updates also give you a chance to check back in with old buyers, keeping their loyalty.

Set a simple, effective help system, like email or a form on your site, and offer clear guides or video help for common issues. Keep a good system and change log for updates, showing buyers your commitment to quality.

Thinking of making even more? Think about offering tailor-fit services.

Offering Tailor-Fit Services and Extras

Templates are just the start. Many buyers want extra tweaks to fit their brand or to add unique features. Offering these services can raise your income a lot. For instance, Rebecca Lowe from Marion & Co doubled her business income after getting into Webflow, and later tripled it by mixing template sales with brand visibility and new projects.

You could also offer extras like ongoing upkeep, advanced tweaks, or even learning sessions. These extras don’t just up your income but also make your templates the gateway to more services. Some designers make between $1,500 and $2,000 a month from a small set of templates. By giving value at every step, you can grow a successful template business.

Final Words: Your Step to Win as a Webflow Template Maker

Getting good at making Webflow templates takes work, but the pay-off can be big. Many makers get great money by making and selling top templates. The trick is to get better at your craft and know how to show and sell your work well.

As we've talked about, start by knowing web design well and learning all you can about Webflow. Then, look into the market to find areas you are good at and that need your skills.

Before you jump into selling, make a set of work that shows many good designs. Your designs must look clean, work well and meet the needs of real people. It's key to hit Webflow’s marks to make sure your designs sell and are liked.

The chance to make money grows as more people want Webflow designs. Many winning makers mix smart design plans with more offers.

Marketing is key too. Show off your templates on social media, in design groups, and places where people look for ideas. Adding things like style pages, rules, steps, and update notes can make your work worth more and draw in buyers.

Staying on top over the long run means giving great support, keeping your designs up to date with new Webflow stuff, and focusing on good over a lot. A good name for help and fresh work will bring you back buyers and steady move up.

The path is clear: know your tools, make top designs, build a strong set of work, and find clever ways to sell your work. Start now, and you can turn your design skill into a growing job.