Net Hosted

Net Hosted is a first class Web Hosting Provider that have all the necessary features to host your website. Their hosting packages are affordable and they have excellent customer service and technical support.

kNet Hosting

kNet Hosting is an ideal Web Hosting Provider for those wanting to host multiple websites on a budget, and at the same time have enough web space and bandwidth for each of those websites.

Website Builder

Web Easy Professional 8 is a commercial Website Design package with an EASY-TO-USE, Drag & Drop, interface that has over 400 Professional-Designed Templates. And too many features to list here.

AWeber

AWeber is a service with e-mail marketing tools such as Mailing List, Auto-Responder (Auto-Reply) and Newsletter Subscriber Sign-Up Form that you incorporate into your website. AWeber do the code.

DropBox Storage

DropBox is application and storage area combined that allows you to store files inside an internet folder. The files can be synchronised between computers and/or be linked to, thereby saving bandwidth.

CREATION

Main web page of Website Creation Help.INDEX - Main WCH Page
Reasons why you should invest in a website.Why Invest In A Website?
Explains the important features you should look for in a web hosting package before buying a website.Research Host Features
How to research and view a Domain Name through the WhoIs lookup service. Advice on choosing a Domain Name.Domain Name Advice
Basic keyword advice/tips and tools/services that can help with your Keyword/Keyphrase research.Keyword Research
Explains some types of software needed for website creation and their costs.Website Software Costs
Some very basic website terminology (jargon) explained.Website Terminology
Explains bandwidth, bandwidth usage and bandwidth distribution.Bandwidth And Usage
How to write a robotstxt.txt text file. Basic robotstxt instructions explained.Robotstxt Text File
An explanation of common Meta Tags.Meta Tags Explained
Some realities of using a cheap web hosting package. Is it all bad news? I have bought one to show you what the truth is.Cheap Website Hosting
How to purchase a web hosting package - The registration and payment processes explained and exampled.How To Buy A Website
How to hide personal .co.uk domain name registration details using Nominet WHOIS Opt-Out.Nominet WHOIS Opt-Out
Some common website hosting and internet terminology (jargon) explained.Web/Host/Net Jargon
Free (Must Have) Downloads - (Free/Commercial Software/PHP Scripts).FREE Software & Scripts

 

CPanel

How to Login to the CPanel Control Panel - A description of CPanel Tools.CPanel Login & Tools
How to create a website email account (email address). Make your website business/project look more professional.Create Email Addresses
How to create an Auto-Response (Automatic Reply) Email. Avoid losing potential customers.Create Auto-Reply Email
How to create an empty MySQL Database with Privileges. Ideal for Personal Databases and for use with PHP Scripts.Create MySQL Database
How to create a table for an empty MySQL Database and then fill that table with records (rows of data). Also demonstrates the VTY Database Manager (PHP Script).Create MySQL Tables
How to create a FTP User Account (File Sharing Folder). People can upload/download files to/from your website (FTP Server).Create FTP, User, Account
How to create a Password Protected Directory (Folder). Ideal for Membership purposes.Create A Password Folder
How to obtain an EPP (Domain Name Transfer) Code. How to create a new website, folder, from an ADD-ON Domain Name.ADD-ON A Domain Name
How to park a domain name and redirect it to an existing domain name. Masking (Cloaking) explained.Park A Domain Name
How to create a subdomain - A shortened URL (website address) that is quicker to type into a web browser.Create Subdomain Name
How to configure a domain name for use on a different web hosting package (on different website servers/computers), so you can have domain names registered elsewhere but host them on your website.Change Name Servers
How to configure namecheap host records for use with google adsense for domains. Use namecheap parked domain names with google adsense for domains.Change Host Records
A comparison of the Installatron softwares found in the CPanel control panel against those found on the author's website. Are the CPanel versions up-to-date and useful?Installatron Softwares
An explanation of the most common AWStats statistics and how they can help you to improve your website and its traffic.Interpreting AWStats
The official CPanel video tutorials.CPanel Video Tutorials

 

FEATURES

How to create a membership account, registration, login website using PHP Login Scripts and a MySQL Database.Create Membership Site
How to create a PayPal PREMIER Account, so you can buy and sell goods online.Create A PayPal Account
How to create a PayPal BUY NOW button. An explanation of common button settings.Create A PayPal Button
How to create a Google Adsense (Advertisement Scheme) Account. Earn money from advertisements shown on your website.Create Adsense Account
How to create Google Adsense Advertisements (Adsense Units and Channels). Earn money from advertisements shown on your website. Monitor their success and failure!Create Adsense Adverts
How to create a sitemap xml file for the search engines, so they can crawl your unknown, newly uploaded, web pages.Create Sitemap XML File
How to manually install wordpress (download wordpress .zip file, set up MySQL Database configuration and upload wordpress files) to create a blog.1) Install Wordpress Blog
How to write and publish an article (post). How to create a Category for that post. General Dashboard (Control Panel) features/settings explained and/or exampled.2) Write An Article (Post)
How to import media into an article (post), create a link, create a page, edit a comment and more.3) Media, Link, Page, Etc
How to download and install a new wordpress blog theme. How to change the default wordpress blog theme (appearance).4) Change Default Theme
How to download and install the Forum (Questions & Answers Board) software called phpBB.1) Install A phpBB Forum
How to set up forum notice boards (questions and answers forums) with permissions.2) Set Up Forum Boards
How to create an Amazon Associates (Affiliate) Product Link and cloak (hide/protect) that link from commission robbing Hackers.1) Amazon Product Links
How to create an Amazon Store (aStore) - Create Tracking IDs, Stores, Categories, Sub-Categories and Products.2) Create Amazon Stores

 

TRAFFIC

Methods of investigating your competition's website, traffic, history.View A Website's History
Gives ideas for generating, more, traffic and reasons why existing traffic might be Curious Visitors only as opposed to being Interested, Buying, Visitors.Ways To Get More Traffic
How to submit a Website's URL (website address) to search engines, so that they can start indexing its content.Submit To Search Engines
Reasons why you should add Prices, Maps, References and Photos to a website.Why Add Prices & Media
Part One - Explains some of the realities of writing and submitting articles. The dis/advantages of submitting articles manually or via software submitter. Submitted article results. And much more.1) Articles - Basic Realities
Part Two - Explains about the Title, Content, Time Frames, Money and Feedback associated with article writing/submission.2) Articles - Basic Rules
Part Three - Shows my submitted articles results for September 2009 and October 2009, and then shows the overall results from July 2009 to March 2010.3) Articles - The Results
Highlights some of the common scams/techniques used by a bad Internet Marketer (Guru) to hook you into buying their Blueprint (Website Traffic/SEO/Search Engine/Etc Plan) and/or Tools.Avoid Scammer GURUs
Things to consider when deciding upon a screen resolution (screen size) to use for your website design/format/layout. The wrong screen size can lose you traffic.Website And Screen Size
Some DOs and DON'Ts advice with regards to forum traffic and the forum community.Forum Traffic Advice
Results and observations from splitting up a website into separate domains. Is one website better than three websites?Splitting Up A Website
Guidelines for purchasing a web hosting package abroad. How to get international website traffic using a foreign web hosting server.Int. Websites Traffic
Things to check before purchasing an international domain name - Always check a country's registry for its whois requirements and domain name registration requirements before purchasing.Int. Domain Registration
Is Facebook A Good, Worthwhile, Website Marketing Tool?Facebook Marketing
This firefox add-on allows you to see your search results within other countries. A great traffic insight tool.Global Search Results
An excellent audio seminar telling it how it is traffic-wise.Traffic REALITY (Gold)

 

TOOLS

How to grab a colour from the screen, and edit a colour, using the colour picker/grabber called Color Cop. RGB, Hex and Decimal colour formats explained.Colour Grabber & Picker
How to take multiple snapshots (screen captures/photos) of the computer screen and save them automatically, as .bmp or .jpg files, with the screen grabber/snapshot program called Grabby.Take Snapshot Of Screen
How to set up and use the desktop screen recorder called Easy Screen Recorder. Records the desktop screen and microphone input as an .avi audio/video file. Easy to set up and use.Desktop Screen Recorder
How to set up and use Leawo Video Converter, so that you can convert video recordings into various video file formats. Video Codecs explained.Video File Converter
How to install the FTP Client (website file transfer program) called FileZilla.Install FileZilla FTP Client
How to set up a secure, ftpes, ftp connection (ftp account/website profile) for the FileZilla FTP Client.Set Up FTPES Connection
How to connect to your website (public_html) folder and upload folders/files to it, so they are live on the internet.Upload Files To Website
How to create a Google Analytics (Website Statistics) Account, so you can see visitor data and better cater for them.Create Analytics Account
General audio/video advice based on my own experiences as a website owner and audio/video user.Audio/Video Advice/Tips
Web Easy Professional 8 - How to build a website using the template wizard (website assistant).WEP8 - Build A Website

 

CODING

How to embed a .flv flash video file inside a web page using JW Player or Flow Player.Embed A FLV Video File
One method of fixing the Internet Explorer 6 .png transparent image file problem.Fix IE6 PNG Transparency
Install Xampp - Emulate your public_html (website) folder on Windows 7, so that you can then create/run MySQL Database, HTML and PHP Script commands (i.e. Blog, Forum, Password and File Operation scripts) on your computer. Ideal for programming and software (script) installations.Install Apache Server
What is a QR Code - How to create a QR Code for your small business website.Create Web QR Code
An example of inserting ShareThis Button code in order to help promote your website or blog via social networking media.Create ShareThis Button
Should you learn HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScipt and other programming langauges in order to save time and money in the long run?Should You Learn HTML?

EXAMPLE & DEMOS
DEMO of PHP Captcha code.PHP Recaptcha Form
Fully Working Version Of An Example Questionnaire Form (PHP Script) with Recaptcha. A stripped down, bare minimum source code, version is available for download on the questionnaire page.Questionnaire Form
DEMO of Slideshow code.Playable Slideshow
An example of reading a MySQL Database and displaying it info.MySQL Database Sample
An example of Saving HTML FORM Data inside a SQL Database.FORM DATA To SQL DB

 

DESIGN

An introduction to website design layout, style, format and usability basics and technicals.Web Design Basics Intro
What type of questions to ask a website designer before hiring them. Questions about them and their services. General advice on what to be aware of.Web Designer Questions
Considerations before choosing a font for your web page design. Web Safe fonts, Custom fonts and Google Font Server technology explained.Considerations For Fonts
This (ABSOLUTE GOLD) section covers website Usability and the 10+ Years Of Usability Studies carried out by Dr Jakob Neilsen (Thee Usability GURU and KING).Website Usability Tips
This section covers some of the basics of Colour Meanings And Colour Symbolism - Colour in relation to Emotions, Religions and Superstitions based on Colour Research (I have included links to Authoritative, Colour, websites).Colour In Your Website
Which web browser(s) should you test your web pages with? Reasons why you should use.....Which Web Browser?
How to create a different website for windows, apple mac and linux visitors using jquery javascript code to detect system attributes.Which Operating System?

What Is An Average Cost For Building A Website?

Website Tools That You Might Need And Their Costs

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.


Software   What Can It Do?   Popular/Common   Price    Recommended   Price   
FTP Client Transfer Files To/From
Your Website
Filezilla FREE AceFTP £20 - £25 
Website Builder/
Code Editor
Create/Edit Web Pages 
And Their Code
DreamWeaver CS5 £250 Web Easy Professional £40.84
Royalty Free
Images/Photos
Let You FREEly Use
Professional Images
Avanquest Clipart £10 - £30 CD  Focus Photos £10 CD
Graphics Creator/ 
Photo Editor
Create/Edit Photos
And Artwork
PhotoShop CS5 £440 PhotoImpact X3 £20 - £30
Colour Picker/
Colour Grabber
Grab A Colour's Code
From The Screen
Absolute Color Picker FREE Color Cop FREE
Screen Grabber Take A Picture Of
The Desktop Screen
SnagIt £38.95 Grabby Screen Grabber £8
Video Converter Convert Video Files
Into Different Formats
Leawo Video Converter  £18 - £20 LVC Platinum  £22 - £26
Screen Recorder Record The Desktop
Screen And Mic
Flash Demo Studio £65 - £80 Easy Screen Recorder £20 - £25
E-Book Maker Turn Web Pages Into
One .exe File
EBook Maestro £16 - £20 EBook Maestro £16 - £20

One of the biggest mistakes you can make money-wise is to 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 doesn't mean it's going to be suitable for you and your particular needs.

Do  Not  Buy  On  Recommendation

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 and/or seeing any recommendations beforehand). From people who have heard/seen the recommendations and installed the software regardless of suitability and particular needs. From Fake Recommenders. And from people who just follow what everyone else is doing.

So my advice is; Install and test common/recommended software titles first, preferably in an internet cafe so you don't bloat your own computer, before testing out unknown software titles. It may be the case that an unknown software title turns out to meet all of your requirements. So install it, decide upon it and then uninstall or buy it.

The software I have recommended above, some of which I have bought and still use today, 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 don't 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 don't 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.

What you may not realise though, 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 to £20 a month just for transferring those 8 new/updated web pages within that month. Why? To pay for their time, and/or their website programmer's time, but not for the actual one minute transfer.....because they know it would be a guilty sin to charge for one minute of work.

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's not price you should concern yourself with, it's the 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. Don't 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're 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 it can be argued 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 don't need such tight requirements/specifications you can use something affordable like Web Easy Professional 8 or WebPlus X5 for example. People harp on about DreamWeaver but forget to mention its hefty price tag, complexities and programming orientations. Having looked at DreamWeaver it's 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/photographs/clipart disc is a cd/dvd that contains thousands of images, photos 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 disc simply because of the way they are 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 disc 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 disc, but sometimes you may need to buy another disc just to get the image(s) you want from it. And buying more discs can mean duplicate content. It's 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 photographs and clipart completely irrelevant, useless, and/or 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 use but the item you want to show up for that keyword doesn't 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 discs are normally best suited towards a website designer with many websites to create under many different subjects. So if you're only creating one website I would recommend buying one or two discs only. Either way, these discs 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 run because you don't 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 don't 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 don't 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 don't want to snapshot the mouse pointer or an individual window. 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. Someone may send you an audio/video file for inclusion on your website in the wrong format for example, therefore leaving you to convert it. Or you may of made a webcam video, or screen recording, in the AVI format and later 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 an audio/video file, whatever is displayed on your Desktop Screen together with your Microphone speech - 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 don't convert the video file and just send it out raw, in its original AVI or SWF file format for example, the recipient might 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. If I wanted to compile the web pages on this website for example, including its images, into an e-book called wchbook.exe I could do so.

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 e-book creation which is very good for Membership Scheme and Trial Version scenarios.

Conclusions

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's a clear choice. If you have the time and money buy the needed softwares, when need be, and learn all about them. If you don't 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.




Keyword Research
Web Terminology
INDEX