For anyone here thinking about productizing client work into a template: the build is not the hard part.

We shipped a Framer template last week and the expensive work was everything client projects let you skip. On a client project you control the content — if a headline is too long you shorten it, if a collection looks thin you add items. Every edge case you might hit, you quietly avoid.

A template removes that control. A buyer arrives with their own copy length, their own number of CMS items, and none of your context.

Three things that cost us the most time, and would cost any freelancer the same:

Renaming everything. In a template the layer panel is the only documentation a buyer reads while they work. An hour of renaming was the highest-return hour in the build — and it's the cheapest way to fail review, because reviewers open that panel first.

Testing the CMS empty. Sections that look fine at three items fall apart at zero. Then check forty.

Drawing the support line before the first message. We use the same rule as our retainer work: you maintain the decisions you already made, you don't make new ones for free. Two sentences in the listing prevents a small sale turning into unpaid custom work.

Full write-up of the pass we run before listing: https://supadark.com/notes/framer-site-to-sellable-template