Step 3: Webmaster Tools

To help speed up your web building process, you should think about getting a set of webmaster tools. You need at least three types of tools:

1. Web building software
2. Web graphics software
3. FTP software

1. Web building software

   Now is the time you have to sit down and think about how much you’re willing to cough up for a web building software. The software you choose will depend on your skills, budget and the type of site you’d like to create. There are hundreds of web building software out there today. But I’m going to narrow it down to just 3 4. Yup! I’ll also mention a few others to just show you why I think they don’t make good web building softwares. For our purpose at least. Okay, let’s remember that we want to create a content site. Here are some of the common features available with the 3 4 web building software that I’m about to introduce.

   • Ability to create web pages without knowing HTML

     Let’s face it, we want to build a content site not become a web designer. It’s good to know some HTML. It does come in handy more than a few times. But there’s no need to master it. And if you’re in a hurry, like I think you are, learning HTML can wait … for now. So you need a way to create those web pages without having to type in any code. In fact, you want something where you can just click on the design that you want and presto all that’s left to do is add content.

   • Separation of design from content

     A separation of the design from the content means that you can add as much content as you want without worrying about mucking up the design of your page. It also means that you can change the look of your site without disturbing your content. This feature is most useful when you want to hire a professional web designer to create the perfect look and feel for your site. While they’re working on your site design, you can continue adding your content without any hiccups or delays. Making it all a much more efficient way to work.

   • Dynamic navigation

     The great thing about dynamic navigation is that as you add new web pages, the navigation will update itself to reflect this. This beats having to change the navigation manually. Which pages actually appear on the navigation will differ depending on which tool you use.

   • Search engine optimized (SEO) pages

     This feature allows you to easily create web pages that are optimized for search engines. SEO web pages will rank higher in some search engine and will be more easily found in search engine results which ultimately means free traffic to your site.

   • Ease of use

     This is of utmost importance. There’s no point spending thousands of dollars on the ultimate web building machine if it’s going to take forever and a 4 inch thick manual for you to use it.

   • Upgrades to accomodate latest developments

     One thing you’ll learn quickly about the online world is that technology changes at warp speed. Something that might work great today may be obsolete tomorrow. Something that takes 10 steps to do today may take just a click of a button tomorrow. So, you don’t want to be among those who are taking those 10 steps when you could be one of those who’s clicking that one button.

   Now that we know what the three four web building tools have in common, let’s introduce them. Drumroll … and the three four nominees are:

   1. SiteBuildIt!, or SBI for short.

      I started out with a SiteBuildIt! account and highly recommend it to total newbies. SBI is web based, meaning that it is not a software that you download to your computer. It stays on the net which means you can work on your site on any internet-enabled computer anywhere in the world.

      The thing about SBI is, it is not just a web building tool, it is a whole system. When you sign up for an account, you are signing up for a complete system. Not only do you get all the tools that matters in creating a content web site, you also get a complete course on how to go about building your site from scratch, so that you can maximize income earned from your site. And when I say from scratch, I mean from scratch.

      Ken, the course author and owner of SiteSell, takes you step-by-step on how to find a profitable idea, choosing a high ranking domain name, creating high ranking web pages, and how to organize it to maximize your exposure with the search engines.

      An SBI subscription includes everything you need, domain registration, hosting, email, keyword brainstorming software, web building tools, look and feel templates, web traffic stats, mailing list host, tracking links … and that’s just off the top of my head.

      If I think it’s so great, why did I move on to something else?

      Well, once I understood how the system worked, SBI became a bit too step-by-step. And it treats you like a newbie.

      Another thing about it is, you don’t have direct access to the server. So, you can’t extend its capabilities with your own scripts etc.

      Feel free to read more about this online web site design builder.

      On to the next nominee …

   2. XSitePro

      Now, with XSitePro (a web page design software), you must at least know a bit about internet marketing. You should know how to choose a profitable niche, you should know how to organize your site optimally to increase search engine exposure … you should at least know the basics or are willing to learn it. Only then can you make full use of XSitePro’s incredible features. Otherwise, it would be like buying a Porsche for daily trips to the supermarket.

      If you know what you’re doing, XSitePro is a faster way to come up with a content site than SBI. This is a great tool especially if you’re thinking of creating several different themed web sites. XSitePro is essentially a web building tool, you don’t get other perks like keyword brainstorming, link tracking, web stats … you don’t even get a web hosting account with it.

      But if you know what you’re doing or you’ve taken some internet marketing courses, all this wouldn’t matter because you’d be aware of services that specialize in each of these areas that you can always subscribe to anyway. You would also not be tied down to just one service for everything.

      Find out more about this web page design software.

   3. WordPress

      WordPress is a bit different. It is actually a script that you have to install on your server. There are WordPress video tutorials at my blog site on how to do this. Don’t get turned off by this installing thing. WordPress is probably the easiest script to install … ever. It’s a teeny weeny bit more complicated than the other two but it’s completely free. If you don’t want to install WordPress yourself then feel free to check out my affordable WordPress blog installation service.

      WordPress is actually a blogging tool and is optimized for just that … a blog site. But one with more extensive web design knowledge can actually customize it to build just about any type of site. But as is, WordPress will help you build a blog type content site such as my WebBriefcase blog site.

      It has some advance features that are not in the other two tools. Which are specifically associated with a blog type web site. Like the ability for readers to leave comments, set categories for your content, archive content according to date, create categorized links pages, trackbacking and pinging … You can even give limited editor access to other people. This would be useful if you’d like to hire different authors to add content to your site.

      Like XSitePro, you only get the web building script with WordPress. No keyword research tools or hosting etc.

   4. Joomla

      As of 25 April 2007, I would also like to add Joomla to the list. Joomla is very much like WordPress, as in it’s a script that you have to install. In April 2007, I decided to switch my site to Joomla. Joomla is a full fledge open source content management script CMS. Open source as in free to use. And full fledge CMS, as opposed to just a blog. I thought hard before deciding whether to include Joomla in this list. Why? Because it has a bit of a learning curve. But if you can learn how to use Joomla, you can create some pretty powerful web sites. Complete with shopping cart and forums and download repositories …

      Joomla still takes a lot of practice but it is one of the easier open CMS to learn. You can learn more about Joomla at the Joomla site.

      So, which tool should you get? Well, it really depends on your individual need and circumstance.

      Generally, here’s what I recommend.

      If you’re after a content site that you can frequently update with new content and would like more interactivity with your visitors and you are brave enough to install a simple script, then go with WordPress.

      If you need more features such as forums, ecommerce, download repositories and you’d like to be able to organize your content in more ways than just chronologically, then get Joomla.

      If you’re in a hurry and you need to get your site up and running with your search engine optimized content and affiliate links all in place in a few clicks of the button and you’re not keen on having constantly updated content that’s organized chronologically, then go for XSitePro. Note that XSitePro can only handle site well if they’re below the 100+ webpages mark. After that, a lot of people have reported weird problems. So, if you’re planning to create mini sites but a lot of them, then this is the way to go.

      If, on the other hand, what I just said made absolutely no sense to you, then stick to Site Build It.

      What about other web building tools?

      So, you’ve been online long enough to hear about Frontpage or Dreamweaver. Why don’t I recommend using them?

      Well, there’s nothing wrong with using them but they’re just inefficient. Why take 10 steps to do one thing when it is virtually automated using the above tools. I’m not saying that you can’t create a content site with them. It will just take 10 times longer. Not just to create the web site but also to maintain it. Personally, I don’t have that much time to waste.

2. Web graphics software

   You may also want to get a web graphics software. Not so much to create a web graphic but more to customize an existing image. Don’t get me wrong. You can create web graphics if you want to. But you’ll need to take a proper course before you can create professional graphics. You’ll find that, more than often, you’ll find an image that you might want to use in your content. It would be great if you could do minor touch ups to the image such as resizing or cropping and optimizing it for the web. A web graphics software is not essential if you’re going to use the existing web site templates available in the above web building tools. A popular software to get is Paint Shop Pro. But lately, I find that it is specializing more towards photo editing. Another one of my favourites is Photoshop Elements
   (a toned down version of Photoshop).

   If you have a budget, check out IrfanView. I’ve not used it extensively but I’ve given it a spin and read some reviews and a lot of people highly recommend it. And did I mention that it was free?

3. FTP Software

   I think an FTP software is more important than a web graphics software. FTP is just a method of moving your files from your computer to your server and vice versa. You’ll be needing this to install your own scripts or to upload the odd file here and there. There are many FTP softwares out there to choose from. If you’ve opted to use SiteBuildIt, then you will not be needing an FTP software. Simply because you will not get direct access to your server. Everything is done through the SBI interface.

   My favourite FTP software is WS FTP Pro. But before I purchased an FTP software, I was quite happy using CoffeeCup FreeFTP. If you want a full blown FTP software without the cost, check out the open source FileZilla.

There you go … webmaster tools you should consider investing in.