Web Site Design

If you have decided to design your own site you will appreciate this chapter as it provides important information about web authoring software, that is relatively new and extremely effective for first time users.

Web Design Software

There are a number of products on the market today that are very good and do not require an understanding of the Internet programming language HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).  

The reason for this is that they have the capability to automatically convert your instructions as you place them on each page of your web site. For example, Microsoft Publisher ®  versions 97 through the most current version of Publisher  all have the capability to create multiple web pages and convert them into HTML easily. Microsoft Word® since  version 7 have had the capability to convert text into HTML as well. Although there are other tools that can do it as well for a lot less money. 

Adobe’s Dreamweaver has become the standard of web authoring software programs. It is however, intimidating at first, until you understand how it works. It's also very expensive to buy. Website authoring software can be complicated, to say the least, If you want to take advantage of some of the best Internet marketing thinking you can utilize software such as XsitePro V2 or HyperVRE software which makes the process of building websites very easy. You can review our thoughts on Xsite Pro and HyperVRE on the Home Business Research website by clicking here: Reviews I think that you will find that most new web entrepreneurs find both of these products simple and effective. They provide an easy mechanism to get up and running quickly and efficiently.

What you don’t need is a steep learning curve requiring hours and hours of learning time before you can get one product up and running. Eventually though, as you become more experienced with marketing on the web, you will want to have more creativity in developing and designing your site and this is when you will need to use a product like Dreamweaver. 

Web Site Design Issues

My personal choice, is XSiteProfor the primary reason that I am not a programmer or coder and it allows just about any level of experience the ability to visualize a web page and create it quickly and simply. Since I want to create my own designs and graphics, I need the ability to place them into my web pages easily. XSitePro will work seamlessly  with a digital graphics program like Adobe PhotoShop™ . If you are serious about creating your own web sites you should have a good digital imaging package such as Adobe PhotoShop. The biggest issue to overcome with PhotoShop is the price, however you get what you pay for and PhotoShop is just about the best digital imaging software on the market.  

I've included some free alternatives at the end of this section that are pretty good. They have a steep learning curve though so bear that in mind.

As you become more sophisticated in your site development you begin to understand the need to control and balance image quality with size.  Programs like Adobe PhotoShop™ come with Adobe’s Image Ready Software to create web based graphics and animations. There are free image editing software programs available on the Internet as well, although in this case the adage, “you get what you pay for,” applies. New to PhotoShop Creative Suite 2+ is the ability to create animations. This is particularly helpful when creating banners for promotional purposes.

Adobe® has been around for quite a few years and has evolved as the top print and digital imaging software maker in the world. Their products are very popular with graphics and design professionals, which accounts for their higher price tags. In my opinion they are worth the money because they do what they do well.

However, if you are just starting out you may not want to spend the money just yet.

If you do decide to buy into Adobe Photoshop one way of flattening the learning curve is to utilize online training. In recent years several online training sites have cropped up because of the widespread use of broadband. Broadband connections provide the ability to stream video to your desktop. There are some top online training sites. I personally like Total Training because they have some of the best instructors I have seen. They offer both online training and DVD based training, if you prefer to have DVD's at hand. When you consider the quality and depth of the instruction, they compare favorably with any other service, however they deliver what you need most quality instruction from people who know their software. You can learn all of the most current Adobe software programs as well as Apple and Microsoft products.

 Pre-defined Templates:

All of the above website authoring products come with pre-defined web site themes and templates that you can customize to your specific needs. They are very easy to use and they can save a lot of time and energy because you will spend less time on layout and more time on content.  

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