Before buying a Web Hosting Package and creating a website in general you must ask yourself "What ELSE Do I Need?". Many people just buy a web hosting package and think "That Was EASY" simply because that it was they have been lead to believe; mainly by the web hosting providers who promote their Control Panel as the "Control Panel that has everything". The truth of the matter is; you normally need more than just a web hosting package and a control panel of tools to create a decent website. You also need extra money for software tools, such as a video converter or ftp client, especially if you are not a programmer. So here is a realistic guide to what extra software tools you may need together with prices, recommendations and general description.

One of the biggest mistakes you can do, moneywise, is to download/install and buy a piece of software based purely on recommendations! If you think 10 thousand recommendations for example are good enough, think again. Just because 10 thousand people recommended some software does not mean it is going to be suitable for you and your particular needs. Those 10 thousand recommendations could of come from people who have tested the recommended software themselves and found it suitable for their needs (with or without hearing/seeing any recommendations beforehand) or from people who have heard/seen the recommendations and downloaded the software regardless of suitability and particular needs. Therefore. ALWAYS download/install the most popular software titles first, for testing purposes, before deciding whether or not to buy.....and use an internet cafe if possible so that you do not overload your computer with **** software! Install it, decide upon it and then uninstall or buy it.

The software I have recommended, and bought, above are recommended with the words "Budget", "Affordable" and "Easy-To-Use" in mind. Words that you should keep in mind when testing them and other software titles from the internet. Below I have highlighted the main, needed, software headings and given them some Pros and Cons so that you have a better idea of what to consider before testing/buying.

FTP Client

A ftp client is the software (the program) that allows you to transfer website content (web pages, image files, video files, folders and so on) to/from a website. You tell it what folders/files you want copying from A to B (i.e. from your computer to your web space) and it does the rest. Sounds simple doesn't it, but the realities are:

CON - If you do not have a clue about FTP you may struggle to get the ftp client connected to your web space (your public_html folder). Although your web hosting provider will give you the ftp connection details, they may not tell you how to set up your particular ftp client software.

CON - Many ftp clients display too much information for the average, non-ftp, user. You have to remember that their audience includes everyone - Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced but not necessarily the Absolute Beginner. This is mainly due to FTP being technical and more of a programmers tool. So the look of a ftp client could scare you off!.....even if it is free.

CON - If you do not get a ftp client you may regret it. For example. Let's assume you, like many other people, hire a website designer to design your initial website only. After creating your website the website designer goes ahead and transfers your website content for you, for free. Deal done. Pay any outstanding balance. All is well. However. What you may not realise, especially if the website designer hired a website programmer, is that any updates/changes you want making to your website content will normally require additional fees. So now let's assume you update or create two web pages a week. Your website designer may charge you £10 - £20 a month just for transferring those 8 new/updated web pages within that month. Why? To pay for their, and/or their website programmer's, time and not the one minute transfer.

PRO - It works out cheaper to buy, and learn about, a good ftp client than it does to pay a website designer each month. And even cheaper if that ftp client is free. Remember what I said about suitability and your particular needs though. Both free and commercial ftp clients can be too advanced looking. So it is not price you should concern yourself with, it is a balance between Affordability and Ease-Of-Use.

Website Builder / Code Editor

A website builder is the software that allows you to Drag & Drop and Insert items onto a blank canvas. Drag and drop pictures, use artwork drawing tools, insert text and website links, add audio/video objects and so on. Create a website page-by-page basically. Sounds easy enough. Just type in some text and add a few pictures for example. Hey presto, a website creation! And to some degree many website building softwares are getting to that level without the need for a website designer/programmer. However. There are still some realities you need to bare in mind:

CON - A decent website builder software is going to cost you money. Do not go for a free one or a cheap 'n' nasty one (i.e. £10 or less) because they just produce standard, bland, templates that every other cheapskate is using. You are not going to be taken seriously with one of their templates.

CON - If you do buy a website builder software for the purpose of designing and creating a standard website yourself, perhaps because a human web designer would be too expensive for your simple project, you may get away with having it created without any problems. However. What you normally find with a website builder software is that it has complex menus, complex options and/or does routine tasks in a complex way.

CON - If you want to insert extra, built-in, features that require programming code/scripts for example you will need to know a little bit about programming to a certain degree. In other words. You may get away with creating your website and inserting the odd piece of code, but it does help if you know a little programming beforehand.

CON - Website builder software companies who label their software "100% No Programming Required" are not normally telling you 100% of the story or have stripped down their software to a Lite version in order to make those claims. They make those claims even if their software does require programming knowledge in some areas of building a website. Why? Because they know they can argue to the governing bodies that you can create a basic, programmingless, website with their software.....as long as you do not use any of its advanced features. Advanced features that would definitely require programming knowledge. An honest company would display "No Programming Required For Basic Website Creation - Advanced Features Require Programming Knowledge". So check their website to see what is advertised and whether or not they do a Lite version and/or a Professional version.

My preference would be to buy a professional version with advanced features now, regardless if you are a programmer or not and regardless if you can use the advanced features or not, simply because when you buy a lite version or cheap 'n' nasty version you end up buying a professional version in the long term anyway. Buying cheap now and paying expensive later can work out to be double the cost later. There is not much difference between cheap and professional these days. Cheap now (£10) plus Professional 1 year later (£40) equals £50. Professional now (£35). Do your sums!

PRO - Professional website builder softwares, as said above, are becoming ever closer to creating a professional website without the need for programmer knowledge. However. Many websites created with a software package still need final touch ups, code-wise, through request/perfectionism of the web designer and/or of the client. It depends on their specifications. As long as you do not need such tight requirements/specifications you can use something affordable like Web Easy Professional or WebPlus X2 for example. People harp on about DreamWeaver but forget to mention its hefty price tag. Having looked at DreamWeaver it is nothing special. Its only appeal really is that it has a community, which means it has more templates and so on developed for it, but you can create a professional website with much cheaper softwares.

Royalty Free Images/Photos/Clipart CD

A royalty free images/photos/clipart cd is a cd that contains thousands of images, photographs and clipart that you can use on your website without worrying about copyright issues. You can modify them in a paint package to make posters, leaflets and business cards for example or you can simply use them AS IS (raw). They often come in categories such as Business, Health, Travel, Wildlife and so on and in formats such as Clipart (Cartoon like images) and Photograph (B/W and Colour). Here are the realities:

CON - You may need more than one cd simply because of the way they are cd categorized. For example. 15,000 Business Images, 15,000 Educational Images, 500,000 Photos, 30,000 Clip Art Images and so on. At £10 per cd you could easily spend £40 to £70, depending on what you need and for how many websites. If you are only creating one website you may only need one cd, but sometimes you may need to buy another cd just to get the image(s) you want from it. And buying more cds can mean duplicate content. It is like having a music cd with 16 records on it whereby you buy it just because it contains one missing record on it from your music collection.

CON - You may find a lot of images, photos and clipart completely irrelevant and/or useless and difficult to find because of the way the search tags (keywords for each item) are off subject. This can be frustrating when you know the keyword (search tag) to search but the item(s) you want to show up for that keyword do not show up. Or the opposite. When too many items show up for a keyword.

PRO - The images, photos and clipart normally range from useless rubbish ("I can't use that") to fantastic ("Perfect. Just what I was looking for"). In general you should find something of use, but do not expect every single image, photo or clipart to be of use. Not all 500,000 of them! These cds are normally best suited towards a website designer with many websites to create under many different subjects. So if you are only creating one website I would recommend buying one or two cds only. Either way. These cds work out a lot cheaper than buying individual photos from a royalty free photos website for example.

Graphics Creator/Editor

A graphics editor, as opposed to a pure photo editor, is a software package (program) that allows you to edit photos, create business cards, create website materials and so on. Many printers come with basic photo editing software but these graphics editors are much more than basic. Here are the realities:

CON - Graphics editors require a little time to get familiar with and can be complex, due to the way the programmers have layered everything and in many cases not thought of the user (you). A good programming team will always have the user in mind when developing a feature, but may not be able to accommodate the user's requirements/requests due to pressures within the company. So try and find yourself a graphics editor that is as easy-to-use as possible.

PRO - You can, as said above, create many things with a graphics editor. So they do save you money in the long term because you do not have to pay for a separate Logo Maker, Business Card Maker, Leaflet Maker and so on. One advantage of a graphics editor is that you can save your work as a Layered Project (template) file and therefore modify it when need be. A layered project (template) file allows you to manipulate each element separately - The background, text, imagery and so on can all be modified separately. This is ideal if you want to use the same template for another company.

Colour Picker/Grabber

A colour picker is a program that allows you to pick a colour from a predefined colour palette or grab a colour from the desktop screen and its content. So if you have a web browser open on your desktop screen you could grab a colour you like from the web page that is being displayed. This makes a colour picker ideal for creating a colour scheme for your own website and its content (button colours, background colour, etc). Here are the realities:

CON - Many colour pickers/grabbers do not allow you to save your customized (grabbed/picked) palette, so you have to work with those colours at the time. Saying this. You could save the colour (rgb) values of each colour you pick/grab into Notepad for example and then save that notepad file as Colours_List1.txt or Colours_Website1.txt, doing this for each website you create.

PRO - Grab any colour from the desktop screen or whatever is displayed on the desktop screen.

Screen Grabber

A screen grabber is a program that allows you to take a snapshot (picture) of what is displayed on the desktop screen or what is displayed inside a particular window. So if you have a web browser open on your desktop screen you could snapshot the currently displayed web page. Or if you have a pop-up window appear on your desktop screen (i.e. a Login pop-up window) you could snapshot it, perhaps for tutorial purposes. This makes a screen grabber ideal for collecting (snapshotting) ideas from other websites you like the look of and wording you would like to use in your own website for example. Here are the realities:

CON - Some screen grabbers do not allow you to snapshot individual windows and/or the mouse pointer and its current position. They only have the facility to allow you to snapshot the whole desktop screen for example. This is not all bad because sometimes you do not want to snapshot the mouse pointer or an individual window for example. It depends on your needs at the time.

CON - An easy-to-use, too simple, screen grabber might not be the best simply because it will ask too many questions in the way of pop-up requesters - "Where do you want to save this file?", "What kind of file type do you want?", "Do you want it compressed?" and so on.

PRO - A good screen grabber will allow you to save each snapshot as a picture file, ready for editing later. This is good if you are recording (snapshotting) a sequence of events such as a software installation or other type of tutorial. A good feature to look out for is a screen grabber that allows you to save each snapshot as a Bitmap (.bmp) file, as well other file formats, simply because a bitmap file contains all of the raw data too and therefore produces the best quality of snapshot.

Video Converter

A Video Converter is a program that allows you to convert an audio/video file from one file format (i.e. AVI) to another file format (i.e. WMV). This means you could have an audio/video file that is already in the AVI file format (i.e. movie.avi) for example and convert it into an audio/video file that uses the WMV file format (i.e. movie.wmv) for example. The main reason for needing a video converter is purely to convert between the vast amount of video file formats out there. For example. Someone may send you an audio/video for inclusion on your website in the wrong format, therefore leaving you to convert it. Or you may of made a webcam video, or screen recording, in AVI format but then need to convert it into a WMV format ready for submitting to YouTube for example. And so on. Anyway. Here are the realities:

CON - You may need to download one or more video codec (video file encoder/decoder) packs before using a video converter, which is standard practise anyway and therefore not much of a CON. Popular codec packs include K-Lite Codec Pack,   Vista Codec Package,   Ffdshow-Tryouts and   XVid Codec.

PRO - Video Converters are relatively easy to use and normally support many different audio/video file formats, depending on whether or not they have built-in video codecs or rely purely on downloadable/installable video codecs. A good video converter normally has the standard video codecs built-in and then supports any common video codecs you download and install.

Screen Recorder

A Screen Recorder is a program that allows you to record, into a video file, your Desktop Screen and Microphone Audio activities which is great for creating Video Tutorials. So if you are creating a Lessons website or Presentations website for example a screen recorder is ideal. Make sure you use the Best Quality Microphone you can afford in order to achieve your best audio results.....a good computer in general helps as well. Here are the realities:

CON - A screen recorder normally saves your recording as a AVI formatted video file or as a SWF (Flash) formatted video file. Either way, you then normally have to convert the video file into a different file format (i.e. as a WMV or FLV video file) for use with YouTube, the Windows user and so on. If you do not convert the video file and just send it out raw, in its original AVI or SWF file format for example, the recipient may not be able to view it until they download and install the latest video codecs and/or flash video plugins (add-ons) on their computer.

PRO - A screen recorder is a fantastic way to show people how to navigate around your website or to give out tutorials/lessons. They are normally very straight forward to operate (i.e. just click on a RECORD or PAUSE/STOP button) and can give your website a professional look, depending on the quality of your computer and microphone of course.

E-Book Creator

An E-Book Creator is a piece of software (a program) that you normally use to compile your website content into one .exe (executable/launchable) file. For example. If I wanted to compile the web pages on this website, including its images, into an e-book called wchbook.exe I could do. The idea is that your website is like a book (full of content/web pages) which you then want to sell as an e-book. The customer simply downloads your e-book file (i.e. wchbook.exe), double clicks on it to open it and then views its pages as a book. Those e-book pages contain your website content, therefore they are looking at your web pages from within an e-book. Here are the realities.

PRO - If your e-book pages do not contain any external website links it puts the selling value up. Why? Because you can promote it as an e-book that can be viewed purely offline. This goes down well with those who are in countries/areas where there is no internet connection or limited internet connection. And even if your e-book does contain website links you can still promote it as an offline e-book that only needs an internet connection if those website links are clicked on.

PRO - A good e-book creator, such as EBook Maestro Pro, will allow you to add a Password and Time Limit to your ebook creation which is very good for Membership Scheme and Trial Version scenarios.

Hopefully the above has opened your eyes, both in terms of what a website programmer and a website designer would need and what you would need if you are not a website programmer and/or website designer. And more importantly how expensive, inexpensive, affordable or value-for-money a website programmer and/or a website designer would be or already is.

One thing to keep in mind here is that a website programmer and a website designer are two different things. A website programmer can install a blog for you but may lack design skills. Hence why it is important for you to also have some kind of design in mind, ready for the website programmer to work on. And the reverse is true of a website designer. They could show you a nice design on paper but may not have the website programming skills to turn that design into a website. So always ask your website person if they can programme and design. Otherwise, you may end up paying two different people. The real cost will be on your time, family time and so on.

Another thing to keep in mind or consider is an online service. AWeber for example is a service that specializes in online tools to help your E-Mail Marketing campaign - Auto-Reply e-mailing, Newsletter creation, Website Sign-Up Forms and so on. And if you affiliate a product (sell someone elses product for a commission) some affiliation companies set you up with a complete readymade website, but this does depend on each affiliation company and/or affiliation product. Click Bank is a good place to start.

So it is a clear choice. If you have the time and money buy the needed softwares, when need be, and learn all about them. If you do not have the time but do have the money hire a website person (or company) who know about website programming and website design. And if you have no time and no money then go down the free route all the way - Free website hosting, free templates, free affiliation, google adsense and so on. Regardless of which way you go ALWAYS make sure your website content is of value. For further help see the free must have downloads for website creation section.

All HTM, CSS, PHP and MySQL files in the websitecreationhelp.com folder and its sub-folders are (c) John White, 2010. All Rights Reserved.