ClickNewz! Internet Marketing Blog
by Lynn Terry
I'm curious what you use to create a website.
I would really love to hear from people of ALL skill levels.
Do you use web design software, did you learn HTML, buy a "create a website" program, use the web page editor your host provides? Share specifics with us in the comment section below.
Thanks!
About Lynn TerryLynn Terry is a full-time Internet Marketer with over 17 years experience in online business. Subscribe to ClickNewz for the latest Internet Marketing trends & strategies, Lynn's unique case studies, creative marketing ideas, and candid reviews...more»
Lynn Terry is a Professional Blogger, Super Affiliate, and full-time Internet Marketer with over 18 years experience in online business. ClickNewz is where she shares creative marketing ideas and... more »
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Back in 1998 I started using Netscape's Composer which was a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tool. I loved it because I didn't have to worry about code and more code. A few years later I "graduated" to Dreamweaver and have been using that ever since. I love it and while it has a WYSIWYG component, it also is a HTML editor which I use when needed. Ia so use Adobe Image Styler, which is a graphics program they made in 1996 and never continued. I have an original copy and I use it to this day alongside Photoshop which I use sparingly. Those two programs combined have allowed me to become my own boss and I am forever in their debt...:)
About nine years ago, I was scrolling around a Veggie Tale site with my (then) little son, and it referred me to a really simple HTML tutorial. When I realized, in my ignorance, how 'easy' it was to create a webpage, I created an HTML Christmas card, impressing all my friends. Then I started a website, and discovered I really didn't know all that much after all.
So, I started using Microsoft Publisher's templates. Publisher, however, turns a lot of text into images, so I needed something else. FrontPage was too complicated, and I kept reading that it 'bloated' the code. Dreamweaver was too expensive.
I finally ended up with CoffeeCup, which gave me more control, was still simple and straightforward, and was cheap.
I've been in web design/development since 1997 and have used just about every tool available, but now mostly code using a text editor (I like Coda for the Mac...though TextWrangler gets the job done too). If I dip into a WYSIWYG then Dreamweaver is my weapon of choice. Most of the sites I do are xhtml/css based, so I prefer doing them in the raw code.
As for design, I use Photoshop...then splice everything up to code into a template, which then becomes pages for the site.
My CMS of choice is WordPress...tried just about everything else and just love WordPress as it provides everything I need.
I learned on my own, but eventually got a degree in Interactive Media Design. Though, I'd just point people to lynda.com rather than forking out tens of thousands of dollars to learn web design/development! Lynda.com is much cheaper and MUCH better instruction.
But...with all of that said....I'd rather outsource now and work "on" my business rather than "in" my business. 😉
I use XSitePro for my main site and WordPress for the blog. It's friendly for beginners and non techies like me ha ha
I usually grab a template and edit it in Dreamweaver or NVU. (I am on a Mac, BTW.)
Mostly, I buy a custom graphics package from a web artist and fill in the site with a letter and such using Dreamweaver. It's easy and fun.
Currently I use and prefer WordPress (installed on my own domains/hosting) for blogs and static sites, with free templates that I customize myself.
For some sites I use Dreamweaver (have been using it for years) as a WYSIWG editor, and by coding in self-taught HTML when needed to get something done more effectively. I purchased templates for some of my sites and others were designed by me and/or a joint venture partner, sometimes with the header graphics outsourced.
I'm trying to teach myself CSS and have learned quite a bit, but still have a long way to go.
I've also used FrontPage and once designed and maintained a site with an older CMS called phpNuke.
I use Photoshop Elements for graphics work.
Many moons ago I tried a couple website builder scripts that came with my hosting, but they ended up being too limiting for me.
Used to use Dreamweaver almost exclusively (could never see the point of hand-coding, DW code is clean as can be).
Nowadays almost everything I do is in WordPress ... other than mini sites for which I still use DW, I use WP exclusively.
I used KompoZer to build my website. I had some understanding of basic HTML. The rest was just simply trial and error and reading KompoZer's user forum.
KompoZer is an open-source program - http://kompozer.net/ [KompoZer started where Nvu left off. Nvu is no longer being developed.] Similar to Dreamweaver, albiet free! Utilizes both HTML code and CSS.
I did try Dreamweaver in the midst of creating my website but went back to KompoZer. Much easier.
Next, will be creating a website with WordPress.
Lynn,
As a web-developer, I have a sleuth of tools that I use. I wrote a more indepth post in response to yours here over at my site. However, to try and keep the information contained, I figured I would put a quick bulletted list here for your readers.
FYI - I am on a mac:
Blogging: WordPress
Company Sites: Joomla
HTML/CSS Editing: Coda (panic.com/coda)
Blog Writing: ScribeFire (Firefox Plug-in) and Journler (journler.com)
Templates:
Wordpress - Thesis (DIYThemes)
Joomla - RocketTheme, Shape5
In a pinch - Notepad/TextEdit.
I use DreamWeaver & WordPress.
Photoshop for image editing.
John
I use:
(1) WordPress for site building (very SEO friendly engine). Just add a unique header. Rarely my designer does something like "premium design."
(2) Google keyword research tool to find the keywords to fight for.
(3) Build as many one way links from relevant blogs as possible.
I have tried multiple programs starting out. I am not a web designer but I can pick up things quickly so having built in tools is handy.
The first website was designed using WordPress and a template that had a color scheme I liked (I didn't know enough to examine the layout). As I expanded the capabilities of the website, I spent a lot of hours learning how to adapt it to my needs. Eventually I was referred to a great guy to fix some things for a cheap fee that I couldn't figure out and at the same time teach me how to do it.
The next one up was a "free" packaged WordPress blog website which had about 20 pre-written blogs and some ads where you could change the affiliate codes. By this time I knew enough about WordPress that I could tweak the design. I did use some of the provided blogs, but U.S. English was not the author's main language, but it was a good start. I continue to get my domain names from this source but have switched the hosting to HostGator per Lynn's recommendation.
Then I wanted to create a site that wasn't in the blog format so I stumbled upon SohoLaunch. Most website hosts will give you the Lite version for free through the Fantastico link in a cPanel. But eventually the lite version was lacking so I paid for the full version and a couple of plugins. At first it was frustrating because I had gotten used to WordPress and now I had something very different. I'm now working on my second website with it and I really like it.
Next, an organization I belong to was looking for a member to take over the website and in a weak moment I said Yes. I decided to start over with the goal of having something that future volunteers could easily update. I am using Image Cafe which is provided by Network Solutions when they are the host. So far it seems very easy to use and has a lot of built in widgets and tools.
I am still trying to figure out if I can or should create a cookie cutter solution that can be used to get a website up and running quickly with the basic knowledge that I have.
For sales pages I use SemilogicPro and for blogs I use WordPress themes (free ones that I can modify). I do have XsitePro and have used it some but have found that it is easier to get a better looking website with the first two. I am not a website developer.
Jerry
I have used Frontpage since 2001 and finely going to WordPress for all o f my sites. Slowly doing the transition now. Fun Fun!
SnapMonkey.com is totally awesome!. Easy to optimize, you can create many different types of forms and pages, it comes with a shopping cart, and you can easily create the site to your look and feel.
If you can create a word document, you have the skills to create your own site.
I use WordPress for the bulk of my website work. There are all kinds of free themes and plugins available to customize the website. (I also like to donate to the plugin author when a plugin proves to be one I use a lot.)
When I need to do some HTML work, I use Bluefish (on Ubuntu) or Notepad++ (on Windows). For image work, I use The GIMP. For writing, either OpenOffice Write or a text editor. My FTP client of choice is FireFTP, an add-on for FireFox.
Mike
Hey Lynn,
I use Blog i360 ( http://www.i360blog.com ) for all of my sites. It allows me to have a blog and create as many different sales pages, one time offers, and squeeze pages as I would like.
Blog i360 gives you the option of using a WSYWIG editor or html editor. It's been great for getting me incredible search engine rankings.
In the beginning I just used Nvu to create my pages. Then I hired professionals to create my pages for me. But now I no longer hire anyone since Blog i360 has become really easy for me to use.
Scott Tousignant
Dreamweaver for XHTML/CSS and Fireworks for Graphics. They integrate together nicely.
For small CMS sites WordPress and large ones..Joomla.
My first web site (1997) was hand coded, then I tried Front Page (bloated code)then moved to Dreamweaver.
I recommend learning html/xhtml/css so you can easily find errors that prevent your web site from displaying correctly in major browsers, or loading fast and make sure they are optimized for the search engines.
If you don't have time to learn, hire a professional web site designer to get a custom built web site that uniquely reflects your business.
It depends on the project, but probably 90% of the time these days I find myself using wordpress. It just makes everything go so much faster and easier.
If I'm just making one page I'll make it Frontpage .... or I'll go really old school and open a blank Notepad and plunk in some html. I know, scary right?
I'm a Coldfusion programmer coming from a web building (html) & design background so I got really comfortable writing code directly - so much so that a lot of wysiwyg programs irritate me. I generally hand code and get my "template" just how I want it and then use dreamweaver for quick edits etc. Lately tho I have been loving the new wordpress 2.7 for putting up a quick , functional, and nice-looking site in no time flat.
I say "generally" because bottom line - I am not emotionally invested in doing things in one way - I look at languages and programs and web apps (like wordpress) as tools and I decide which tool is best for my current project.
hth ~megan
Lynn-
Like Kim, I use Kompozer (http://www.kompozer.net/). I had a lot of trouble with Dreamweaver even after I had a tutorial. The best part about it is that it is free.
There are very good tutorials, forum and YouTube videos on how to do most of what you would need.
WordPress is still my first choice.
Thanks for the question--a lot of great resources here!
Tina
@bestreflections
Hey Lynn,
Interesting question! I started in 1986 (you were still in grade 4)... Lol... anyway... I started with Delrina's "CyberJack". Anyone remember that one? I used it extensively until the release of "HotMetal 4.0". Hot Metal was quite good and was very much like the current day "Coffee Cup" software.
I changed to FrontPage when it came out... but like many Microsoft products... they fancied themselves as "standard" creators. It wasn't long before FrontPage conventions were on a different path to other html program developers.
I moved to Macromedia's Dreamweaver and and never looked back. Today I use Dreamweaver CS4. I create all my pages with CSS. I think anyone who wants to be a webmaster absolutely must master CSS. For that.. I used books from Sitepoint.com. Kevin Yank put out some videos on it as well. They were great. Lynda.com also has video tutorials on CSS.
Sometimes when I need a site that is ready in minutes... I use Coffee Cup's "Visual Site Designer". It is extremely user friendly ...but you are limited to proprietary functionality. If at a later time you want to expand the site, then you have to start from scratch with Dreamweaver.
Coffee Cup as one called HTML 2008. It is nice and has a ton of java scripts and other cool features. But.. it is not for the faint of heart. It requires some knowledge of html and CSS and basic tag management.
That's my trip down memory lane...
Nick.
In the past, I have always used free software programs: WYSIWYG, Nvu and most recently Blue Voda. For some projects, I have also used templates. However, currently I am predominantly using Word Press. I find it easy to use (there is a slight learning curve), I can create additional pages if I need to, it has SO many useful plug ins, there are lots of themes available and once you get the hang of the admin, you can manipulate them to look however you want. I guess I haven't wanted to do anything so complicated yet that I couldn't achieve it with Word Press.
I learned HTML about 9-10 years ago & still think Elizabeth Castro's Visual Quickstart Guide: HTML for the World Wide Web is the best book for beginners. Soon I started using MS FrontPage, but never used it's proprietary format. As a WYSIWYG page editor, though, it's great. FP's been more-or-less replaced by Expression Web, which looks good, but I haven't used it yet. Lately, I've been doing some XHTML pages using the freeware program Kompozer, which is pretty good, though not as good as FP for page editing. It's style sheet editor is handy for quick formating changes. For editing style sheets and .php code the free ConTEXT text editor can't be beat. It automatically formats code with color coded commands and indenting.
I'd love to find a full-blown automated WordPress editor, though. It seems like it wouldn't be too hard to design a WP theme with full layout and site design flexibiliy built in. Meanwhile, I'm cramming on CSS and PHP. Stock WordPress themes never seem to satisfy me.
--Wade
I struggled with several free web design programs, then tried Front Page which was a disaster. My salvation came with Xsite Pro. I had no idea creating web pages could be this easy and include all the seo stuff. I love it.
I haven't tried WordPress yet, but that is next.
Mary
Oh, also...
I recently ran across a nifty site called Open Source Web Design ( http://www.oswd.org/ ) that posts hundreds of nice site/page templates with css tables free for download. These are for static HTML sites, not WordPress.
Here's a site that has a nice selection of basic CSS-based page templates in 2-3 columns: http://pmob.co.uk/ . I like them because the style sheets are simple and contained in the HTML page. I just remove them as a separate style sheet when I'm ready.
--wade
The very first website I attempted to build was with Ken Evoy's Site Build It - that was in 2002 and I remember printing out the 600 page book - and it cost me $100 to print out the book, as well as approx $300 for the 1 year. It was very overwhelming! But now with the Forum and all the online education, I'm sure that it is a very good program.
Then I hired a webmaster for $1500 to build my website, but I soon realized that I needed to learn to get traffic to my website, and he did not know anything about SEO.
Then I found an Easy Website Builder, which I love, and I use that for my diana2 site.
I had 3 other websites built for me in Front Page, but I have now had them transferred to WordPress, which I love.
Diana
Lynn, you're taking me back to the old school! LOL. I started with an angelfire site, then I had one at geocities, then I started using bravenet. I didn't like any of those b/c they had too many popups that I couldn't control. I then started using freewebs.com until I bought my own hosting at godaddy. I've used NVU and the good old fashioned notepad to do my web design. The best tutorial for me hands down is the one at http://www.w3schools.com because you can play around with the code without "breaking" your site.
Lynn,
I continure to use Adobe GoLive even though they no longer sell it. It is an outstanding WYSIWYG web development environment with full browser preview. WEB/DAV and FTP support built in.
If I were recommending a current platform for web site development, I would recommend Adobe Dreamweaver.
The two things I would insist on having are the ones I mentioned above WYSIWYG, browser preview, and built-in FTP. That way you can do everything from one place without having to switch programs.
As far as a graphics program,I don't think anyone could go wrong with Adobe Photoshop Elements. It's probably more than most people will ever need.
Jerry Nielsen - Internet Income Advisors
Hi Lynne,
When I started out I was too broke to afford any fancy software, so I taught myself code using online tutorials and by fiddling.
Buying Dreamweaver is the best move I have ever made! It totally saved my life and really makes web updating a breeze. It takes some fiddling to get used to it in the beginning, but I like to figure things out on my own.
Thanks for askin'!
Ros Null
The Edge Virtual Assistance
The mighty WordPress, of course.
I have used many HTML programs and will use CoffeeCup for quick fixes, but...
I like a program I haven't seen mentioned so far: Microsoft Expression Web. It really is a surprisingly good program and it blows FrontPage out of the water.
😉 Robert
Hey, Wade,
Thanks for the tip on the Open Source Web Designs. I've paid for templates that didn't look as good as some of these.
For example, look at their favorite designs page:
http://www.oswd.org/designs/favorites/
Very cool.
😉 Robert
Glad you liked OSWD, Robert. I found some good ones by browsing their "See Designs in Use" section:
http://www.oswd.org/links/
Here's a great 3-column: http://www.oswd.org/design/information/id/2157
just a note: OSWD has not been updated in a very VERY long time. http://www.openwebdesign.org/ was formed after oswd Then that community had some sort of whatever and while it is occasionally updated with newly added designs, the most current open source design community is now at http://www.opendesigns.org/
hth ~megan
I struggled trying to pull all the details together and even get a single page online until I found a free ebook called "Create Your First Website by 3:45 This Afternoon" ( http://www.chrisfarrell-online.com )
The book is very comprehensive and simple to follow!
He suggests Komposer for editing, which is my new favorite resource.
I am not an affiliate, but I do highly recommend this ebook to anyone who is just starting out.
Susie
Although I currently have someone building my main site, which is an ecommerce store, I am playing around with wordpress for my blogs and a few new sites I am noodling with.
I keep looking for a reason to buy Dreamweaver, but it really seems that wordpress can do almost anything I need. Anyone else have a thought on that?
Annemarie,
You will do well with wordpress as long as you don't need to start developing landing pages. If you get into Internet Marketing in a big way... you may need to develop landing pages. For that you will need to use css templates (free to download). To handle them, you should use Dreamweaver. You don't need CS4 version. Even Macromedia Dreamweaver will do it just fine. That is circa 2004 and can be purchased cheaply.
🙂
Like some of my friends I lately started to use Open Source cms called Zimplit. It has a online editor, so it´s very easy for me to make changes on my website. As I don´t have any special skills of programming or designing, it´s very appropriate for me.
Looks like my other post on this didn't work. Here's another try.
If you want really easy... try Weebly.com
If you click on my name above, you will see a site that I created in 8 minutes! Complete with adsense and affiliate links. It doesn't get much easier than this.
Nick.
I had heard of weebly but this is the first I actually went and checked it out - also checked out zimplet - they both look very cool - wonderful solutions for people who need something up quick with an easy learning curve. Most of my clients really want to deal with as little "Tech" as possible and the biggest part of my web developer job was to make there site maintenance and content editing as easy as possible for them. These two solutions look like that have made it VERY easy.
later, Megan
Howdy
When I first started out I used FrontPage, but now I use XSitePro for my websites and WordPress. I also have KompoZer/NVU which I dig out for certain projects.
I usually will modify graphics which I have gotten elsewhere for my templates.
Kevin
I started out hand coding way back in the '90s, then moved to DreamWeaver, which I've used pretty much exclusively ever since. Lately I've been experimenting with SiteBuildIt! and I plan to build my first WordPress site sometime this year.
We use mostly dreamweaver right now, but we build out sites in DotNetNuke as well. Along with DW we create our graphics in Photoshop/Fireworks.
I use Notepad, the program for editing text in Windows. I taught myself HTML and CSS by looking at other site's source code and fiddling with it. This is the only effective way of learning HTML or CSS. Once you have taught yourself the basics you can ask others for help or suggestions.
You need to look at source and manipulate it, this shows you what you can and can't do.
For developing ASP.NET sites I use Microsoft's Visual Studio as it is the easiest and most comprehensive way I can see how to do it. If you are good enough you can use Notepad for this too, I'm not so I don't.
Regards!
I started out 10 years ago using WYSIWYG editors and building sites on places like AOL, Geocities and Bravenet.
I taught myself some basic HTML and CSS and I now use that to customize WordPress templates.
I've tried it all, but I have to say I am now an absolute WordPress fan. I love the functionality and versatility of it as well as it being so easy to set up and manipulate.
-Stefani
I am not a developer, so I often outsource web development on elance.com. I find that an easy way to edit test sites is through Adobe Contribute...very easy! I am also liking WordPress for blogs.
Cheers,
Chris
I use Top Style and write all my own code, because I see too many programs that add too much extraneous code.
My first site was built in Site Build it. It is by far my most successful site. I then started building pages in Google's page creator. This is part of googlepages.
Recently I have started using WordPress.
Rick
I started with a purchased template years ago, then like many, I taught myself css and html design through the many tutorials available. I like http://www.htmlgoodies.com and http://www.w3schools.com for instruction. http://www.devlisting.com has a large tutorial base as well that is much more in depth.
I then just google 'free css templates' and you get millions of results, so no lack of material to start with. I believe css designs help somewhat with seo as well, as the code/text ratio of the page improves. I use wordpress for my blog, but build everything else.
I sometimes wish I didn't know the things I do so I could let someone else do it, but I really enjoy building sites an it makes me a few dollars on the side as well.