When searching and gathering information on the best web site creator software for my needs I developed a list to guide me. With today's advanced technology and advances in web site design authoring tools basically anyone now can create a professional looking website in an hour or two with many website building services and software. But what should you look for? What are the features that best fit your needs and which do not? If you are a beginner then this article should be helpful in making your decision.
Some website authoring software packages only allow you to entire plain, unformatted text. Some of them allow you to edit entire HTML tags; and others provide what is commonly referred to as "WYSIWYG" ("what you see is what you get") interface with options for font, links, and image insertion much like a word processor's; and abilty to change font and background colors and sizes. Some will allow you to use more than one, or even all of these options so you have a choice on how you want to format your text.
Every website solution comes with at least one or two templates for creating the graphical look of a website so you don't have to design the look of the site yourself. But many packages now have very large libraries of over a hundred of complete web site templates. Some will let you mix and match elements of the design templates, while others will lock you in to one setup.
Many ready-to-go websites created by website builder software feature built-in shopping carts or the ability to add on an ecommerce solution and merchant account. Many even come with credit card processing. This is of course necessary if you're going to be selling products and/or services directly online. But if you're not going to be selling anything and building an information site (like a brochure) then, ecommerce functionalities may just complicate the administration of the site and pad the price for the software or service.
Blogs are "web logs," but blogging software involves more than just a simple online journal. Blogging technology allows you to send your new posts directly to subscribers via RSS, without them having to visit your site or receive an email from you. Still, unless you plan on updating your site regularly (at least once a month), your website's blog will just gather cobwebs. If used wisely a blog can increase traffic to your site dramatically.
Some hosted web authoring systems provide email accounts at no additional charge, while others do charge separately. Some web builder systems even come with modules for creating email newsletters. Many web site systems now come with email marketing features for sending out newsletters to your email lists. This is a huge marketing tool which accounts for retaining and growing repeat business.
It is very likely that you will encounter a technical difficulty at some point while owning your website. Make sure you know in advance of paying whether the company provides only paid support, and if any included support is over email, a web ticketing system, or the telephone. Most times questions can be answered by just using the "Help" feature included with your web site system or provider.
For many, if not most, people who want personal websites, displaying pictures online is a primary motivation, if not the only motivation. If you want to display pictures on your website, make sure to choose a website builder system that makes it easy to upload and publish images and offer an "album" solution that automatically resizes your images to be compatible with the internet. Some photo management solutions will actually alow you to retouch and colorize photos for red eye and special effects.
You can buy website authoring software upfront for a flat fee, or you can "rent;" i.e., pay a company every month to use a hosted service. Do the math and add up cost for owning versus renting and pick the best solution for your needs and budget. The choice is yours.
At the end of the day you don't need to know how a website is coded or programmed to make one, any more than a book author needs to know about printing presses and ink. Don't burden yourself with learning how to do web programming and html. Having fun with your website starts with choosing a website builder software that will make it fun.
Read more about easy web site creation software by Avanquest, Microsoft, Yahoo, Website X5 and Homstead. |
