Free Hungry Piranha Website Template
The Hungry Piranha website template is ideal for making informational sites where a CMS is not required. This site was built using it, and it can be used to quickly make sites monetized by Adsense, affiliate marketing, and even for small scale e-commerce where on-site checkout isn't required (for example where a combination of and are used to receive payments). The template includes dynamic elements (header, menu bar, side bar, and footer) created with php includes, so by making a change to only one file the corresponding elements on every page of the site change accordingly. See our section on static sites for more information on the structure and benefits of static sites with dynamic components, and if you've never made a website see our section how to make a website.
Professional Design In 60 Minutes or Less
The template is color coded so you can easily distinguish between standard elements, and changing colors or background images is as simple as changing one line in the style.css file (see image below). As an example, for Hungry Piranha we've removed the full-width header image from the header.php file and substituted a smaller image with the site name and logo only. We also changed the top navigation bar, the background colors, and the style of the left sidebar menus.
Once you've got the hang of it you can literally have a new site design in less than an hour. If you're not good with making logos on your own, you can buy them from sites like and . Check out our section on free tools to download jEdit (code editor shown in the picture above) and graphic design programs to help with creating gradients and custom headers.
Awesome Adsense Integration
Our template comes with php includes references and files for easy Adsense integration into every page of your site. The index.php file (and every page you add since you'll be renaming the index.php to create them) has a reference for a top ad and a bottom ad:
All you have to do is paste the Adsense code Google provides you with in the /includes/top-ad.php and /includes/bottom-ad.php files, along with the header code from Google in the /includes/head-references.php file, and your ads will automatically appear on every page of your site. If you prefer not to have your ads show on any particular page, you can simply remove the two lines of code on line 25 and 41 in the above image for that page. You can also add new php includes references to add even more ad units.
Everything You Need, Nothing You Don't
Most content management systems and pre-designed templates include loads of unnecessary confusing code, and large images that increase your site's loading speed. The HungryPiranha.org website template is designed to get you up and running as quickly as possible, with a website optimized for search engines. The code is streamlined so your site will load with lighting speed.
What's Included
Our website template is simple. The download includes:
- readme.txt: With a link to the instructions.
- index.php: Home page which can be copied to make new pages.
- style.css: Single file that is responsible for the design of the site.
- images folder: Includes the only image used in the template, a place holder for the header.
- includes folder: Includes the standard elements - head-references.php, header.php, navbar.php, sidebar.php, copyright.php, top-ad.php, and bottom-ad.php.
How It Works
To make your website all you need to do is customize the design and add your content. There are two files you may want to modify to create your custom design, the style.css file and the index.php file. The style.css file controls the majority of the site design, but there are a few changes you can make to the index.php file also. In the index file you'll see references to the standard elements (header, menubar/navbar, sidebar, etc.), for example:
In the image above you can see that the code that inserts the navigation or menu bar comes directly after the code that inserts the header. By removing line 18 you'll remove the menu bar from the website. So while you'll use the style.css file for most design changes, if you'd like to remove a major structural element you can remove the reference to it in the index.php file. You can also move the menu bar above the header, simply by moving line 18 above line 17...putting the "navbar" reference above the header reference. If you'd like to have a site with no sidebar, all you have to do is remove the reference to the sidebar from the index.php file, and change the style.css file to make the content area of the site wider to make up for the removed sidebar.
To create additional pages, all you have to do is rename the index.php file. For example, to make your "about" and "contact" pages you simply rename your index.php file to about.php and contact.php, then change the content of those new pages. You can link to your new pages from the navigation bar, sidebar, or from the content area of any of your pages.
SEO, Promotion, and Monetization
See our section on SEO to make sure you're properly optimizing your new pages for search engines. And once you've finished your design and added your content, take a look at our sections on website promotion and monetization to promote and profit from your site.
