I was sell templates on bitify.com first, and after I was made my own site, I have put a backlink to my site. When I got my regular customers, I stopped with salles on bitify.com.Your idea sounds interesting. You basically took a free template and re-designed it?
Do you provide your templates on a separate website? If so, how long did it take for your first sales and was it with or without ads?
Also, I promote the site on forums related to hyip business, social networks, bestemoneys.com, etc.
I work with this for almost two years, and newer pay for ads. I think that I was made my first sale after 3-4 days, can`t be sure...