Golden Country

Archive for August, 2011

Effective web page design can sometimes be the key factor to a company’s success on the internet. While their goods and services may be the best on the market, if they are not properly showcased, they are useless.

Professionals in the industry engage in rigorous web design training to master the effective techniques of proper web page design. There are several major components to creating a page that will attract consumers and increase relevant traffic. Some of the major techniques taught in quality web developer schools include:

• Simplicity – While it may be more fun to create extravagant and complicated web pages with flash elements, sounds and colors, in most cases, web developers live by the philosophy that simple really is better. Consumers can get distracted by a page that has too much going on, and it can slow things down to the point where they switch to a different site.

• Usability – Simplicity is something that directly relates to usability. Web design classes teach that a simple page is going to generate more consumer traffic because visitors don’t have to guess at anything. Consumers don’t want to have to work at things, if your web page is obvious and self-explanatory it will make visitors more comfortable.

• Focus attention – Correlating with usability, giving a visitor a plan of action will focus their attention on what is important. To get consumers to click a certain link, make it easy for their eyes to focus on it. By offering fewer distractions, visitors will see what is most important on a given web page.

• Effective writing – It is crucial for web design professionals to integrate effective advertising copy into their web page design. Making short, bold and targeted statements will attract the reader. Lengthy paragraphs with complicated statements or industry jargon will be too difficult for a consumer to digest.

• Make white space work – Another thing web developers learn in web design courses is that white space is never a bad thing. It allows a visitor’s eye to rest and not become overwhelmed by images and colors. While you don’t want to have too much white space, it is actually an effective web design technique.

• Testing – Probably the most important way to understand the effectiveness of a web page is to test it early on and frequently. By testing things like how many visitors come to the web page daily, how long they stay on the page, and how many click on important links, it is easier to understand changes that need to be implemented.

While web design is something that may seem fairly simple, enrolling in a web developer school is the best way to master successful techniques and skills involved in creating effective web designs.

If you still think you need to pay some wizard programmer a couple grand to build you a professional looking website – I’ve got something else you might want to consider before signing that check. During this past decade technology took a giant leap in this area. You could build cleaner websites during your lunch break – than the overpriced web designers take a month to do.

Building your own website doesn’t have to be a hassle

Some people may have you believe that in order to make a website you need to be a geek with ultra high IQ, have some expensive software and spend years learning some alien looking codes. Trust me, there are other options.

Here are a few top website builders to consider:

o Site Rubix Website Creator
o Xsite Pro Webdesigner Software
o Bluevoda Website Builder

A brief overview of some of the key features of each one:

Bluevoda Website Builder – If you’re on a tight budget, this builder is definitely for you. It’s free, so if you need something to hold you over before you’re ready to invest some money into something better, this one is the way to go. It comes with an array of pre-designed templates and very easy to use. Drag and drop function is nice, no knowledge of any code required.

The downside is that you’re tied up to their host and eventually could be a problem if you’re trying to run a website which requires higher bandwidth. Hosts like that tend to run slow because of their popularity – there are currently about 3 million people who use Bluevoda.

Another big con is the fact that it can only run on Windows based platforms. So if you’re on a Mac you’re out of luck.

Xsite Pro Webdesigner Software – Regarded as one of the top builders out there for the price. This builder will set you back about $200. One of the biggest advantages of Xsite pro is that it’s the first builder built with Internet marketer’s needs in mind.

o The most regarded feature is instant SEO (Search Engine Optimization) checker. It automatically analyzes your website and suggests the best possible way for you to get listed in the search engines painlessly. This feature is what makes it unique.

o It also comes with hundreds of templates to choose from

o Automatic sitemap creation feature built-in. Another handy feature for Internet marketers

o Affiliate link wizard. A marketer’s dream. You can store all your affiliate links and just pop them in into any page at a click of a button

o Full tech support 24 hours 7 days a week, plus a user forum is nice

Again the downside is it’s only compatible with Windows systems and for the same price you could get a professional edition of Adobe Dreamweaver if you’re planning on learning more advanced techniques in the future.

Site Rubix Website Creator – This builder is by far the most versatile and user friendly I’ve ever come across. Some of its key benefits:

o Extremely user-friendly and intuitive interface. It’s also known as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). No HTML code knowledge on your part is required. You just drag and drop every component of your website into place.

o Multitude of pre-built templates to chose from

o Dynamic drag enabled menus

o Built in FTP program (most other ones don’t have this)

o Instant screenshot tool

o Template and banner swapping

o Media Management Support (Video, Images, Screenshots)

o Flexible Operating System Support

Overall I’d say Site Rubix is the best of both worlds. You can run it on either Mac or Windows based systems. And it has every feature that all the other programs offer. What makes it stand out is the fact that it’s tied into it’s own forum where not only you can learn how to build websites – you could also become a top level Internet marketing professional with the 1-on-1 coaching program that’s offered.

A web page design program is a very effective tool that allows you to build and manage a professional web page with ease, control and efficiency. So what should you look for in a web page design program and what type web page design programs are out there?

First you need to figure out how much you want to spend, how experienced you are in web page design and how much time you wish to spend building your web page. Once we answer these questions then we can start looking at different web page design programs.

There are number of different web page design program out there for you to look at:

A web page design program that comes with your internet service provider, MSN, Yahoo, AOL or of the other profile type sites are available at no cost. These web page design programs are pretty easy to use but the come with some drawbacks as well. If you use one of these to build your web page you will run into limitations on how you can modify your page and you’ll have advertisements on your page that you have no control over.

Another type of web page design program is your full fledge HTML Editor. These types of web page design programs include programs like Coffee Cup HTML Editor, Front Page and Dreamweaver. Now these programs will allow you to do just about anything you are capable of but they require experience building web pages and even though they include visual editors you can still have problems building your web page if you don’t know what you’re doing.

There is another kind of web page design program, this type of program is a cross between the very basic type of editor provided by your internet service provider and the full fledge HTML editor. It’s a step-by-step, point and click web page design program turns creating web sites, landing pages, affiliate pre-sell pages, mini-sites, sales pages and blog headers into child’s play.

This type of web page design program is designed to help the novice web page developer build professional web pages in a short period of time. What really makes this web page design program flexible is the fact that it’s advanced enough that even professional web designers will find it valuable in building their web pages, with plenty of tools to build professional sites.

If you’re building your web page to show your friends and family a little about you the any of these web page design program will work for you, but if you’re building a web page to sell a product or service or use as an Google AdSense site then you will need one of the later two.

I’ve used all the different types of web page design programs over the years and still use 3 different programs for various purposes but more and more I’m using the point and click type web page design program, it saves me time and still allows me to create professional web pages.