"Do Yourself A Favor..."
By Ken Leonard Jr.
©2002 KLJ Online
"...Pick Up A Full-Featured Website Design Program"
Developing websites for selling products online can be much
different from designing the glitzy, effects-driven sites
of today. A website designer may not realize the
requirements of online marketing related, or product
selling/reselling sites. They may sell you a design that
looks great, but makes no sales for you. A website, like
any other method of online promotion, has to be exper-
imented with, fine-tuned, and then "tweaked" some more. It
is a work forever under construction. Paying a webmaster
to edit your site frequently can get very expensive,
especially for those of you that are building your online
business "on a shoestring".
Designing a website may seem to be quite a task for a non-
techie. Well, it doesn't have to be, even if you know
nothing about web design or HTML coding (the language of
web pages).
Website design software known as "WYSIWYG" (What You See
Is What You Get) is available to let the beginner design
a great site, without having to pay a webmaster. The GUI
(Graphical User Interface) allows the user to see exactly
what changes in coding look like, on the fly.
Instead of writing HTML code to form pages,(etc.), simple
tools are used to easily create (after you've spent the time
to learn how a very complex piece of software works) website
pages, place images and text where you want them, work with
color "palates", and create "header tags" that will allow you
to get ranked highly (with a lot of work) in the major search
engines.
These programs have many features that you may think don't
apply to a productive sales-oriented website, but you
may find them useful to create other sites that may not be
sales sites, but are more image and effects-driven by design.
Purchasing a good website creation program will set you
back from $100 US to over $500 US, depending on the
functionality. This wise investment, though, will pay for
itself many times, giving you an edge over the competition.
Paying a designer for just one website (plus a few edits)
can cost you as much or more as buying and learning to use
a great website design tool.
These programs involve quite a learning process to become a
proficient user, but if you weren't willing to learn for the
good of building a successful online business, you wouldn't
be reading this article right now, would you?
Damn right!
As far as product recommendations go, there are many,
depending on your needs and budget. Try to read up on diff-
erent programs, from reliable third-party tech sites (like
C|NET or ZDNet), to get unbiased opinions and user ratings.
Stay away from any programs that are producers of "bloated
code", which is extra, unneeded code, that makes pages load
and operate more slowly. After reading, you will see that
one of the most notable examples of this is Microsoft"s
"FrontPage". I know a lot of you have a version of Front
Page already, from your install of Windows or MS Office,
but I really recommend to go with a non-Microsoft product.
The reviews and user comments back me up on this. Read for
yourself.
Check out these three website design apps. They rank highly
with users and reviewers, and after learning them, are easy
to use. Use the links below to visit their respective home
pages.
At the low end of our price range is HotDog Professional,
from Sausage Software. This has a very loyal following,
has nice features, and will cost you under $150 US.
http://sausagetools.com/professional/overview.html
The mid-priced pick has got to be GoLive, from the
great software minds at Adobe. This full-featured, highly
functional creation tool can do some great things. It comes
in around $300 US, and integrates nicely with other Adobe
apps, like Photoshop. The online tutorials on the Adobe site
are video based, with the actions happening on the screen
captures, along with audio narration.
http://www.adobe.com/products/golive/main.html
At the top of our price range is the very popular
"Dreamweaver", from Macromedia. This app is used by many
of the top online marketers, and it integrates with other
Macromedia graphics products, like "Flash" (produces most
of the "cool" animated graphics that you see on the web
today). This is a plus if you plan on designing other non-
sales oriented sites that make use of Flash animation, or
wish to design websites for profit. You can also get the
Studio version, that comes with Macromedia's graphic editing/
creation app Fireworks. Highly recommended. Highly priced.
(Around $400 US by itself, $799 US with Flash, Fireworks,
ColdFusion and more.)
http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/
Whichever software you choose, you will probably find a
free demo download available, so take it on a test run.
There are also tons of free resources and tutorials online
to help you learn and to use your favorite one like a pro!
About the Author
Direct marketing veteran Ken Leonard Jr. publishes
"New Marketer Ezine" weekly, helping to take the
headaches out of starting and growing your online
or home-based business. Get yours now by going to
http://www.kenleonardjr.com and get two useful
resources free.