Build Website Online - The Easy Way

Building Websites The Online Way

admin — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 15:53:58 +0000

There are many forms of website building, from considerably complicated web authoring tools like Adobe Dreamweaver, and Expression from Microsoft, right down to plain old notepad, creating all your HTML code by hand. The hand written coding may seem archaic, but many swear by this method to generate clean code.

There is another alternative, to web design software, and this is very appealing to the casual web author, or the newbie, your website can be created, without any software, completely online.

The majority of these Internet based site building tools are commercial applications, and are linked to web hosting companies, the hosting providers include these website building tools with the hosting account, but few are worth a mention.

Nowadays there are some outstanding alternatives, these online, CMS apps are free alternatives that do a fantastic job, once you have mastered the way they work.

CMS solutions.

CMS stands for content management systems, and the best known of these apps are WordPress and Joomla.

Both are free to use, and both are available through most hosting companies as an automatic install, through Fantastico, or Installatron. User without these features on your hosting account can download the scripts, and install them yourself, using the install instructions.

WordPress

The most widely used CMS is WordPress, this dynamic, web 2.0 blogging platform has evolved to be the platform of choice for millions of website owners across the globe. WordPress is open source, and as such, it is free to use, and an army of coders are constantly updating the code.

Todays sites are very remote from the early days of blogging, and they can be figured in a multitude of ways, the inclusion of widgets, and plugins make WordPress websites even more powerful, and attractive.

Templates for WordPress are known as themes, and there are thousands to choose from, in every concievable niche under the sun. Specialist web design firms can make your very own unique themes, which always adds that extra sparkle to your websites.

Throughout the WordPress lifespan, they have adhered to the blogging principals, new entries to the site are known as posts, and pages can be added to the site, and navigation bars.

Joomla

Joomla, is also a popular CMS solution, with many features that also belong to WordPress, Joomla is based around a portal framework.

Joomla lends itself toward large sites, secure sites, and is a very solid platform. The websites can be themed, and easily edited, sections can easily be placed around the pages to create the perfect frontpage.

Both systems are extremely robust, and are light years ahead of the old style, site building apps offered by hosting companies. All editing, and updating is performed online, and you never need to install any software on your computer.

The real beauty of CMS is that any site can be updated from anywhere in the world, all you need is an internet connection, and your websites login details.

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Web Design Detail

admin — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:05:08 +0000

Web Design in Detail

When it comes to web design, very close attention should be paid to every aspect of the pages layout, the navigation, and the overall look.

Keep in mind the theme, and what the site will be doing, once published, be it ecommerce, news broadcasting, or blog.

Here are some pointers that you can use as guides, to make sure your website not only looks well, but performs well too.

7 Web Design Tips

1) Only use a splash page as a lead gatherer.

Splash pages are those pages that have almost no content, except for a few lines, maybe a picture, and a subscriber box. These are only for email address collecting purposes, and are a specialized process. Unless your entire website is built around the squeeze page method, then don’t use them.

They can be a web design challenge, due to the fact that their owner may insist on continuous tweaking after installing.

2) Drop those flashing banners

It pains me to see so many of my students ignoring my advice, and plastering their websites with banner ads. There are few things more annoying than a well designed site, with good navigation, covered in banners, like it has some form of Internet disease. Get rid now, and stick to clear web design.

3) Use clear, simple navigation

The navigation system is paramount to the success of your website. This may sound stupid, but robots also need to have the quickest and easiest way to discover all your web pages, for SEO. Keep your navigation simple, and easy to follow

4) Let users know where they are

Do not confuse your visitors by leading them down a series of links, to a page, like leading a child through a maze. Try the silo method of navigation, or use a simple breadcrumb trail to allow your visitors a quick route back to a page they want to check again. Basic web design elements, but often ignored.

5) Never force audio video on your visitors

When you click on a page, and it really wipes its feet when loading, you may sense what is coming next. The web designer has made the video load on entry, and users should be given the choice. The same applies to audio, give surfers a choice! These multimedia players have controls that can easily be displayed on your web pages.

6) Forget flash on page load

Get your designer head into the real world, and think of the practicalities of the millions of web surfers that have not got a broadband connection. Flash is a great tool, but it is still to resource hungry on a page load for any dialup user. We want to please our visitors, not annoy the hell out of them.

Keep your videos separate from your loading times, and keep all those poor people with slow connections on side.

7) Remain compliant

Keep up to date with the latest trends, gizmos and gadgets, but always try to keep your site as compliant as possible with w3, access and policies. Display a privacy policy, have a feedback section and follow the rules of mainstream website etiquette, for user friendly web design.

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How Online Website Builders Work Best.

admin — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:56:13 +0000

Let's set aside the CMS apps today, and look a little deeper into the way that Internet based sitebuilding scripts function, so that you can be ready, if you decide to take this route.

If you have the option to choose your own domain name, then, always choose this method over a sub-domain of somebody else's TLD (top level domain) it may cost you 10 bucks a year, but it's yours, and it has a value that can increase over the years.

Many services have pre designed website templates, often called cookie cutter, because they stamp out the same shape over and over again. The template colors can usually be changed, but the whole site seems to change with the header most times.

Layouts are pretty rigid on these, standard types of website, with either top, or side navigation, a clunky, graphical header, and loud, graphical buttons. The background is either a repeated image, or a solid color, but don't be expecting rich fades with luscious curved corners, because you may well be out of luck.

You may be able to choose your website navigation styles and positions, although this is highly unlikely, and your imagined design may need to fit into the restraints of a template.

Play around, and look through all they have to offer, then choose one that blends nicely into your chosen theme. If you are thinking of adding some of your own photos, make sure they fit with your new color scheme. Please note, many sitebuilder applications will allow you to add your own graphics and photo images to your site, but this is not always the case, so be sure to check first.

Your template is chosen, now you need to create your web pages, the first page to build is usually the homepage, this is where you should have done your homework, your page content.

Website content is the number 1 reason for your website, be it video, audio, graphical, or plain old text, content give your page life, and the search engines need your content to survive.

Have your content ready to publish, this way, you are not faced with trying to fill web pages, while you build your site. Instead you can continue with construction in an organized, and efficient manner.

When the search engines do find your brand new website, they also have some logical indication towards the theme, and category of the site, your content dictates this. Thus the robots will take back your sites info, the big machine will crunch the data, and, if your website is worthy of displaying, the index will show your site for certain keywords.

Pictures can always be added at a later date, as can subscriber boxes, if you have access to HTML.

"Hello world" is something of an everyday occurrence on WordPress sites, it is an accepted practice 1st post, which is either left, or edited out, it's alright to leave for a couple of days, but never, ever display the dreaded "under construction" tag.

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XSitePro 2.5 available

admin — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 04:03:46 +0000

XSitePro 2.5 is now ready for downloading

This latest version of XSitePro, 2.5, has been a few months in the making, since I last reported the beta stage, back in May 2010.

Owners of version 2 can upgrade for free, simply by using the autoupdater whilst running the software. New buyers will be pleased to discover that the $100 discount is still valid form XSitePro.com.

The beta testing was a little lack lustre for me, mainly due to the fact that Paul was busy applying the many graphical elements, and my only input was really at the start, when I made my suggesstions for improvement. Beta testing over, let's take a look inside XSitePro 2.5.

Inside XSitePro 2.5

There is a copy on my machine, and, I must say, it's quite a hefty update, with some really good improvements.

With a slew of graphical improvements, I wanted to to see the improved layout functions, so I opened up one of the templates in html.

The first noticable difference was multiple CSS files, 1 main, 1 right panel, and one header, nav bar. Previous XSP sites had always been a little difficult to style, but with this improvement, XSitePro 2.5 got a whole lot better.

I was a little concerend that with an upgrade, the ease of use factor is usually lessened, but was absolutely blown away to find that it is now even easier for newbies to use, than before.

Easy to use, XSitePro 2.5

How the team have solved the age old problem of new users having to get to grips with, not only a new software, but also the intricasies of finding domains, and managing a hosting account, is very impressive indeed.

To clarify, XSitePro 2.5 users, can now open the program, start a brand new website, then choose a domain, with many alternative options, if the required domain name is not available, them choose a hosting account.

After payment, and the prices are very reasonable too, the software automatically adds the domain, sets the nameservers, and configures the FTP details inside XSitePro 2.5.

The entire process can be done in a couple of minutes, and for a newbie, this is a life saver, and I'm amazed that we have had to wait until 2011 before someone realised this.

Job well done team!

I could describe the new version, and all the many improvements, but you can see for yourself by watching the XSitePro 2.5 video series.

This update certainly improves much of the programs looks, and functionalty, so, if you ever wanted a really easy, and quick website builder, then take a look at XSitePro 2.5 today.

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XSitePro 2.5

admin — Sun, 23 May 2010 13:24:26 +0000

The guys from Intellimon are planning another update of the software.

XSitePro 2 will be updated to version 2.5, and the team are working on the new web design tool right now.

Although, not a major upgrade, the update has been voiced as significant, and there will be no cost for current owners of XSitePro 2.

The entire template system will be scrapped, and replaced by web2.0 styles. There will also be a number of added widgets, as web editing with XSP takes a WordPress approach, and begins to utilize plugins, and modules.

The advantages of using manufacturer coded plugins, over open source, is that the plugins are tried and tested to work with incremental updates, and will not break the site.

If you wish to see the benefits of the software, then hop over to the XSitePro2 website, and for smart buyers, then check out the bonus packages on offer at XSitePro bonuses.

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Customizing And Website Layout

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:50:21 +0000

Call it a theme, a layout, a design, or a flavor, your websites overall look should not only be pretty, but also practical.

Try to keep your website layout within accepted guidelines. There are several sites around that project the very latest in design, and coding skill, but you need a PHD to use the stupid navigation.

These tweedy designers think they are so clever for thinking up these concepts, but to put them on a live site with no instruction, is just dumb.

Nowadays, in this trendy world, people get very uptight when they do not look entirely presentable. This also applies to web designing.

Every individual should definitely want their website to look good, at least, the best they can be. Here are a few things you could look out for when wanting to create a professional looking webpage.

Color Schemes and Themes.

When designing, always choose matching colors. An example of a matching color would be to have a dark background, with visible words and designs. With the dark theme, try not to mix too many bright colors into the design. What we should NEVER do, is to mix two very different colors, such as purple and yellow. Now, of course, it would depend on the purpose of the website, but those two colors are too striking for one who wants it to look more professional. Remeber, red and green, should not be seen.

Themes must always suit the company or rather, the organization / etc. If the website was made to cater for a food company, it would be wise to stick to that particular category, rather than to revert to a different theme, such as machinery.

Fonts should be used in regard to the formality of the website. A simple sans-serif font would suffice in most cases. Exceptional cases such as design and art groups might want to use fanciful designs and fonts. Of course, that’s only if you know what you’re doing. Salespages can also divert from this rule.

Finally, we must always try to think of our visitors, see the way they see. The resolutions and file sizes of the pictures must not be too large in terms of size. This is to allow maximum compatibility and cater our visitor’s needs.

So, planning is something we should always do, before attempting something.

One of the primary functions of a well-organized, good website, is to keep your visitors on the website. A website is definitely created for a purpose, unless intended for personal use, which is uncommon. For example, a portfolio website would want to be visited and it’s content viewed. For companies and internet businesses, your website aims to provide product information, to make sales, or gather leads. However, most individuals undoubtly prefer visually captivating designs, so on and so forth. It is undeniable that this causes no harm, but one must put himself/herself in other people’s shoes, as to understand how a visitor to the website might think, do and react.

1 ) Navigation

As I said, a web designer has to learn how to think the way your visitors think.

Situation A : Website with good navigation ( 2-3 hyperlinks to target page ), well planned in terms of placement, and design.

Situation B : Website with poor navigation ( takes forever for the visitor to reach his/her target page ), hard-to-read navigation fonts and poor placement of the navigation buttons/bar.

In Situation A, a visitor will always want to be able to access his/her target page. For example, the individual comes across your website, and is interested in the product sold, but wants to find more information. He/she finds the navigation with no trouble, and enters the particular product information page.

As for Situation B, a visitor stumbles into the website, and would also like to find out more information about the product. Unfortunately, due to bad placement and fanciful font-types, the visitor takes forever, or even fails to find the navigation bar. Even when he/she does so, links to the product information are nowhere to be found, (example : home > about > products > product image > etc…[a few more clicks] > product information ).

Analysis : In both situations, wouldn’t a website with characteristics similar to the Situation A be more rewarding, ergo better?

Keep you navigation simple, and easy to find, your visitors will reward you with reduced bounce rates and higher page counts.

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From hand coding to full WYSIWYG with Concrete5

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:46:41 +0000

The web started out developed by the British engineer, and computer scientist Sir Tim Berners Lee.

Brought about from a task he needed to complete for the Central European Nuclear research group, a website was a simple string of text, with hyperlinks embedded into it.

Shift forward in time to the emergence of the first web design software tools, frontpage, firstpage, and navigator, the intelligent, yet untrained could enter the internet arena.

The next wave of technology saw the emergence of Dreamweaver, heralded as every webmasters dream, although it was a personal nightmare for me. WYSIWYG driven web design suites became easier, and easier to use, until XSitePro launched, and re-wrote the book of easy to use web design software.

As XSitePro gained popularity, CMS started emerging from the underground, and as Mambo became Joomla, WordPress entered the stage.

Although WordPress gained massive popularity quickly, it was certainly not for its ease of use, the SEO abilities became obvious, but my transition from software to CMS was not instant.

Modern, open source content management systems, like WordPress, have made entry to the web world even easier, but could entry become even easier than this?

Well, yes, and no. Concrete5 is another open source CMS that logically directs the user to edit any webpage by clicking on it, what could be easier. Every element can be individually moved, edited, added and deleted, on the fly, in true WYSIWYG style, more likened to desktop publishing than webdesign. It is, what I expected my first copy of Dreamweaver to be, when I bought it all those years ago, when I was massively dissapointed.

So, where does the no come from? C5 is a little difficult to set up, for the untrained, there are many templates around, yet these are difficult to edit, in the eyes of a newbie.

As I glance back in time, to the early CMS projects, each with their own quirky solutions, I see a very bright future for Concrete5, as the setup, and templating becomes easier to use for the general public, we could well be on the forefront of another wave of CMS transitions.

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A Typical Online Website Builder

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:29:31 +0000

Most of the online sitebuilding tools work in the same way, to understand the process, I have included a video.

The video explains the procedures that you will need to become familiar with the app. This example is from webstarts.com.

A Typical Online Website Builder is a post from: Build Website Online - The Easy Way