Website Buying Guide
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009The days when websites were primarily distinguished by their code are long gone. Nowadays, the web is a true publishing medium that favors well thought-out ideas. You can get a professional-looking website online in minutes with many website building services and software. Don’t burden yourself with learning how to do web design. Having fun with your website starts with choosing a website builder software that will make it fun.
Content Editing
Some website authoring software packages only allow you to entire plain, unformatted text. Some of them allow you to entire HTML tags. Others provide a WYSIWYG (”what you see is what you get”) interface with options for font, links, and image insertion much like a word processor’s.
Template Designs
Every website builder ever invented came with at least one or two templates for creating the graphical look of a website, so you don’t have to design the look of the site yourself.
Ecommerce Functions
Many ready-to-go websites created by website builder software feature built-in shopping carts. Some even come with credit card processing. This is of course necessary if you’re going to be selling stuff direct online.
Blogging Functions
Blogs are “web logs,” but blogging software involves more than just a simple online journal. Blogging technology allows you to send your new posts directly to subscribers via RSS, without them having to visit your site or receive an email from you. Still, unless you plan on updating your site regularly (at least once a month), your website’s blog will just gather cobwebs.
Email
Some hosted web authoring systems provide email accounts at no additional charge, while others do charge separately. Some web builder systems even come with modules for creating email newsletters.
Support
Make sure you know in advance of paying whether the company provides only paid support, and if any included support is over email, a web ticketing system, or the telephone.
Photo and Image Management
For many, if not most, people who want personal websites, displaying pictures online is a primary motivation, if not the only motivation. If you want to display pictures on your website, make sure to choose a website builder system that makes it easy to upload and publish images.