e-Business-Formula Internet Marketing Discussion Forum

[Kevin Robb]

As no-one here appears to have had any experience with Andy Williams SEO Website Builder...see earlier post, can anyone provide detail on the following?

I have several subscribers seeking help and recommendations in regards to suitable software to use to build their first website.

Principally they need a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) type program.

Many have Frontpage already installed on their computer but find it a little difficult to manage even though there are many tutorials available.

Ready made templates offer some good layouts and designs but in most cases some skill or prior experience with HTML is needed to modify them for your purpose.

Suggestions please on the simplest program available.

Cheers

Kevin Robb

[Steve MacLellan]

Hi Kevin,

How about [url=http://www.nvu.com/]NVU[/url]?

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[Kevin Robb]

Hi Steve,

I went to http://www.nvu.com and read through their product text.

It looks as though it could be very suitable for the first timer.

Maybe I missed something (It's early in the morning here) but I didn't see a link to any sites that had been built using NVU.

Clearly before I recommend anything to others I prefer to try it myself so I will give the software a go and see what we end up with.

Any additional information you can provide would be appreciated.

Cheers

Kevin Robb

[Steve MacLellan]

Hi Kevin,

I downloaded it a little while ago to see if it would be suitable for beginners, but I only used it for 5 minutes, so I wouldn't go by that...

I don't use WYSIWYG editors. Some of them are harder to figure out then it is to learn how to code

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[Andrew]

Hey guys,

I just thought I would let you know. I agree with Steve.

If you want to use a HTML editor, you need to learn more advanced html coding techniques because the HTML editing programs use a heap of redudant code that they generate which is linked to other areas of code (ie. using style sheets etc...). This ends up in large files sizes AND it is very hard to modify the code.

I suggest the best thing to do first is learn HTML and go from there. Or get a basic website up and running using a HTML editor and try to modify it as you learn...

The only downfall is... NOT everybody can understand the fundamentals behind programming... But with practice, you can get better!

Good luck!

Cheers,

Andrew

[Kevin Robb]

Hi Steve & Andrew,

I agree with you both that learning HTML is really the best way to go but many newcomers are looking for an easy way to gain an online presence.

They lack experience and given the ever changing face of websites and there structure they see building a website as a major challenge.

I suppose another option if they want get up and running quickly is to start a Blog.

There's no cost in many cases, If you use Blogger you can be online in minutes.

This would give them some exposure to the internet world whilst they learn HTML.

Cheers

Kevin Robb

[annamarie]

I haven`t tested out any wysiwyg programs, apart from the one on blogger.com but here are some free HTML help and tutorials that your subscribers/members may find helpful:

Some simple HTML codes to spice up your web site:
[url]http://www.web-source.net/html_tips.htm[/url]

HTML articles and tutorials:
[url]http://www.iboost.com/build/programming/html[/url]

Simple HTML tags:
[url]http://htmlgoodies.earthweb.com/primers/primer_2.html[/url]

Just what it says: How to build HTML:
[url]http://www.howtobuildhtml.com[/url]

This list is taken from my article "Building your first Web Site".

I know it`s not exactly what you asked for, but hopefully you`ll find the links useful anyway.

Anna

[Teena]

Hi Kevin,

Without this looking like a blatant plug, I'm in the business of providing a website builder online.

If your clients have no techie skills and want something really simple, maybe you'd like to look at my BuildAWebsiteTonight service.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Cheers
Teena

[Teena]

Forgot to mention that the Web Builder has *unlimited* pages - and comes with 2,500MB Hosting [40Gb upload + download], + 100 email names. You can add a free forum and many other features are available - view them here [url=http://www.buildawebsitetonight.com/hosting.htm]features[/url]. [color=red][b]Update Dec 18, 2006 :[/b] I now offer two web builders, and for custom designed sites I use a content management system [CMS]. The hosting has increased to 15,000MB and a massive 300GB - and the price has remained the same. [/color]

I use the Web Builder for some of my own websites, and am slowly transferring others. They are so much easier to maintain, and for the complete *newbie* it couldn't be easier.

Feel free to have a look at some of my featured Client sites [url=http://www.buildawebsitetonight.com/spotlight.html]on this page[/url].

I am in the process of setting up an Affiliate Program so if you refer someone you'll get a nice *prezzie* from me!

Sorry - didn't mean to sound like an advert. I also wanted to say that there are some really good online web builder solutions out there who also offer excellent hosting + features, and that for a Newbie this is definitely the way to go, without getting ripped off by an unscrupulous web designer happy to charge by the hour.

It does take a bit of research, and luckily there are free trials with just about all of the web builders I've ever come across, so you could easily point your friend/client to a few different ones to test them.

BUT ... I do LOVE HTML and love to be able to tweak my code [so to speak] and move things where I want, so HTML editors [I use BBEdit] and Dreamweaver [which I don't have] are perfect for the rest of the website creators.

Ciao ciao,
Teena!

[Kevin Robb]

Hi Teena,

I certainly didn't take your post as an advert.

What you offer is a sound option...

It's all about providing information for all, what suits one may not suit another so keep your recommendations coming folks.

Cheers

Kevin Robb

[tizzle]

I think that one of the hard things about getting started out that is that HTML coding isn't that easy to learn. The basic things are simple enough, but really getting it to do what you want in more complex designs takes lost of time and experience.

When many of us are starting out with our first webpages, we aren't ready to do the coding for the cool looking page we want to create. For that reason I think that the use of programs can be very helpful on your first pages. Once you really figure out what you want to make with a program, you can begin to recreate what you want to with html.

--Tizzle

[Teena]

Hi everyone,

I use NVU every now and then when I don't feel like hard-coding a table and I haven't got time to play with css. [If this doesn't make sense, then NVU will probably be great for you!]

You certainly don't need to know html.

I use it as a wysiwyg [what you see is what you get] tool on my computer, not always for a whole web page, sometimes just part of a page.

For the beginner it's not a bad place to start.

In fact - Kevin you'll be interested in this - I could even recommend using NVU with a website template you've either downloaded or purchased online.

Combined together you've got the layout and style, and a way to finally make changes!

What could be better?

You can download NVU at their site [url]http://www.nvu.com[/url].

You can find lots of templates online, from 'free' to 'inexpensive' to 'expensive' ones, depending on what you're trying to do.

You can also find different price-range templates on my website:

[url]http://www.buildawebsitetonight.com/templates/[/url]

I could be convinced to write an instruction on how to do this - is anyone interested? If 'yes' can you please pop over to my site and fill in my Contact Form, with 'NVU' at the 'special code'? That way I'll get around to doing it much faster.

[url]http://www.buildawebsitetonight.com/contactform.html[/url]

Cheers
Teena!

PS - [b][color=red]If you'd like to see sites which have been made with nvu[/color][/b], please go to http://google.com and type: "Made with Nvu"

Make sure you put the speech marks around the text, so it will be kept together as a 'phrase'. You'll be presented with a zillion pages all of which have this little phrase at the bottom of their pages.

[parise]

I used Godaddy.com as my first website host and through them I used Websitetonight. They are a WYSIWYG builder as well. Extremly easy with alot of options to choose from. Templates are nice and you can even start from scratch.

[fred333]

I will have to check that website builder out.