Ways of Building Websites

In the early days of the Web there was little choice of methods. You either did it the hard way by hand coding at zero cost (except in time) or paid a small fortune for a special editor such as Dreamweaver.

Today the situation is quite different. There are so many ways of producing websites quickly and easily that it's hard to keep track. I talk about some below with their pros and cons but there are probably other ways. The explanations are just bare bones You can go to other sources to put flesh on the bones.

Really Easy Website Builder

Ok I put my hands up. This is a piece of software that I sell myself. I'm not saying it's the best of it's kind; just the best and easiest to use that I've ever come across. And needs no knowledge of code.

Biased towards building marketing websites it can be used to make any kind of website and be expanded as much as you like.

The software is in two distinct parts; the site creator and the editor. To make a website from scratch you open the site creator, fill in a simple form with about four pieces of information and do a preview. You can play around with colors and basic format until you're happy, then click “Create” and you've made your basic website with 5 pages; index.html, contact.html, links.html, about.html and other.html.

Open the editor and load index.html. This editor is WYSIWYG. Type in your content in plain text using the editor similarly to a word processor and you can see your progress word by word, pic by pic, table by table etc. The only limit is you. From the editor you can see at a click how the page will look in a browser. Or if you wish you can click to see and have access to the HTML code. This is not just useful to those who have the basics of HTML; they can use it – but is also a great aid to learning HTML.

Modifying index.html basics in the editor eg changing a color or changing a header can modify all other pages, thus keeping all pages consistent.

Article Site Power Kit

This is another of my key website building programs. Have you written a number of articles on a subject that are sitting on your PC , but haven't the knowledge or time to turn them all into moneymaking websites? If not there are loads of sites where you can get sets of articles on any subjects.

Now there is a quick and easy way to turn any set of text or HTML articles into a complete, ready to use website, packed with moneymaking ads, search engine optimization solutions and special visitor friendly features like matching videos, language translation and automated search tools.

The Article Site Power Kit is a complete, easy to use collection of software tools and ready to use templates, all designed to help you generate quality article websites in minutes.

Wordpress

Wordpress is usually known as a blogging platform, but it has everything needed to make it look and feel like an ordinary website. And it's free. There are also “plugins” that help with the process; some are free, some cost.

To the novice installing Wordpress isn't easy, despite what people might say. The famous “5 minute installation” isn't as easy as it sounds and there are plenty of traps for the unwary.

On the other hand, if your hosting company runs “Cpanel”, installing Wordpress and many other scripted programs is a doddle. Just go to the utility “Fantastico De Luxe” and you're a minute or so from having you own Wordpress site.

Wordpress is all you ever need from a basic website and more but if you want to use it as a marketing site you'll need plugins. Just check on Google search

Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver is the acknowledged leader in the field of web page editors but there are two major drawbacks for most people:-

It's very, very expensive and it has an horrendous learning curve. Almost essential if you are a highly skilled website designer, but not much good for the rest of us. I sometimes use an ancient version but wouldn't mind trying the latest.

Learn HTML

Hyper Text Markup Language is the basic language of webpages. For some people, including myself, learning HTML is an interesting and rewarding endeavour; and it's free. There are plenty of free tutorials on the internet and books to borrow from the local library.

You already have all you need to start writing web pages in HTML; a computer, a text editor like Windows Notepad and a browser like Windows Explorer or Firefox.

HTML is constantly evolving under the auspices of W3C. The version mostly in current use at the time of writing is XHTML or extensible HTML. HTML5 is the version currently being worked on and being used by all the geeks. It's worth going to the WC3 website to have a look and do a search for HTML5. But don't be overawed. It's like all authority standards sites. If you get hooked on HTML you'll feel at home there.

Learn CSS

Cascading Style Sheets work with HTML and the system is gradually becoming the way to code Web pages.

In the beginning web pages tables were used to lay out web pages and this method is still mainly used today. Text is situated in table cells as are pictures and everything else. When building a website most webmasters endeavour to make all web pages look similar. Headlines in the same font, size and color for example. If there are a lot of pages this becomes a chore and Style sheets can help.

A Style Sheet is written that specifies font family, font size and font color for each class. H1, H2, H3, p etc. and a command directing the browser to check with the Style Sheet is embedded in the HEADER section of each page. The browser then, working from the same sheet in each page give consistent results. This is extremely useful, isn't hard to do and I use it a lot. If I want to change a header in H1 to another color I modify the Style Sheet and the change is made, whether I'm dealing with one page or a hundred.

But still the geeks weren't satisfied and now use CSS to lay out the page as well. Want a photo in the top right-hand corner. Ok let's do it. But it doesn't look good. Suppose we put it in the middle-or on the left hand side – or lower down the page. Just change the command and it's done.

There's no doubt that CSS is the way forward, but at present good plain ol' HTML is doing OK.

To find out more about CSS check the W3C website.

SiteSell

Another method of building a website is by signing up with Sitesell. At first sight their scheme seems pretty pricey but in fact, for what you get, it's more than reasonable.

The Sitesell system is intended for newbies who want a website for commercial purposes. Sitesell takes you by the hand and leads you every step of the way to determine what your site is to sell, helping to choose a domain name and supply a website building system that requires no technical knowledge whatsoever. The price includes hosting one website.

As you build your website the pages are automatically submitted to search engines and there are always support staff on hand to smooth over any problems. It truly is a one-stop solution if it suits your needs.

The more experienced website builder is catered for by being able to upload pages instead of going through the somewhat pedantic building system used for newbies. But there is still a huge gain in using their commercial knowledge and specialised software. Use it wisely and as directed and you're certain to get good page rankings.

Check it out here; I recommend it if you seriously want to get into Marketing

Hosting companies

Many hosting companies offer free or cheap methods of building a website and getting a domain name online. Many work on the principle of selecting a website template and then building webpages by dragging and dropping images and other elements into the page.

I prefer to build my websites on my own hard drive, where I can test them before publishing to the internet but this method may suit you. Companies such as Google and Yahoo also offer free facilities.

In conclusion

I said at the start of this report that there are a multitude of ways of building a website and servicing it. It is an interesting exercise to use Google or other search engines to find out just what is available for building websites both free and paid.

Why am I so interested in promoting the building of websites? I sell (and give away) a comprehensive range of software for webmasters and unless you have a website you don't need to buy it from me. Apart from the two programs on website building that I mention at the start Really Easy Website Builder and Article Site Power Kit there are programs for all purposes and they're being added to all the time.

Each program solves a specific problem connected with website building and maintenance or the commercial aspects of online trading.

Please take a look, even if just to get an idea of the problems that my software can solve. And there are some freebies, free trials and even software for you to sell yourself.