I am coming up on the end of my host contract and am wondering which direction I should pursue. I have Macromedia Dreamweaver, but it is not as easy as they make it sound.
I have checked out Website Builder for Easy Website Design Software and Allen Hills site. Does anyone have any good hosts with good web builders? BTW my previous host was Lunar Pages and it worked well.
I really like the people who built my site. They specialize in fitness sites. I am thinking about doing an online meeting with them so people can get some ideas of how to use their sites to build their businesses.
Personally what I've found easiest to use when building a website is a CMS (Content Management System), such as Symphony (Overture – The Complete Resource Center for Symphony) or Joomla (Joomla!) (both of which are open source). Basically what it is, is you install their web software to your site, and then you install a template* (which will be the same for every page - you don't have to worry about coding 30 different pages).
There is a back end to these sites where you can manage the data that is shown to users. It's fairly simple to get a hang of.
*Templates are easy to find premade and you can also just download some and edit them (in dreamweaver) and have a custom one made.
The cool thing about Symphony is that it's pretty much completely open ended (however it's a little more advanced), where as some of the others are easier to learn, but do have their limits.
Tony (or anyone else),
If you're still looking for web site design help, or need any help with the design you're working on feel free to PM me. I am in the middle of rebuilding my own site as well.
another guy mentioned this joomla to me. Honestly its going much easier now that I understand tables. My site is simple anyways for now, just four pages.
JP Dreamweaver is the Adobe program. Not free by any means, $500+ I think. However there are ways around this.
Thanks for the info Keith, I'm going to look at those.
I've been using Dreamweaver the past 5 years and find it pretty user friendly- and yes JP you'll pay $500 unless Tony is feeling generous.
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Working "hard," or the perception of working hard, doesn't really mean anything. Sweating, vomiting, and breathing hard could be a good workout or a tropical disease kicking in.-Dan John
I've never used website builder before, I'll have to try. Thanks for the tip. I use Dreamweaver and have never had any issues. Kind of like Frontpage but 10x better.
If you are looking for a good website designer check out Finly Design at Finlydesign.com - ask for Arifin, great guy and very affordable. He did my for sale by owner website at AZFSBOSearch.com
Disclaimer: I’m going to suggest you spend money on something. I won’t profit from it, but I do have a personal connection. My intention is to be helpful, so I hope my reputation here will allow me this indulgence.
We know there are a whole lot of bad web designs out there, especially in the fitness industry.
It is obvious to us as personal trainers that sometimes a potential client does not even realize what they don’t know and what a trainer could do for them. We can see why just winging it in the gym isn’t smart, but they can’t comprehend what’s missing until we show them. The same thing is true for other industries, including the web design industry. While it’s possible to create your own website from basic template designs, you’d be missing out. You don’t even know what it is that you don’t know!
Some of us really want to be professional in an industry that's full of con artists. The fitness industry has a reputation like bad car salesmen. Using a template site can make your web design look like a scam or something thrown together in five minutes. The web is essential in today's market, but template sites look cheap. They’re like the celebrity workout videos of the fitness world.
If any of you are even considering using a professional web designer, then take a look at iMarc. Their web designs are exceptional, letting design, content, and purpose drive the creation process. My daughter, Elyse, works for them as a designer. If you're not ready to pay for full service web development, she also does some freelance work on the side. I alerted her to this thread and asked her to stop by.
These days, having a professional website is crucial. You want to draw new clients in, give old or recurring clients a place to find your information, and be a resource. You also want to sell yourself/your service. A template-based website gets your name out there, sure, but more importantly, what does it say about you? You don't have to be a designer to look at an ugly website and think, "hmm, I wouldn't give
them my money..". That's why we buy books from Amazon, and electronics from Best Buy or Dell or Apple, instead of say, http://www.cheapelectronics.com/ - credibility. Maybe Cheap Electronics is 100% legitimate.. but it doesn't look trustworthy to me. Think about the websites you trust, the ones you would give money to. There are so many scams and pyramid schemes on the internet, people are very skeptical of a business that has an unprofessional front-end.
For the fitness industry, not only are you asking someone to pay you, you are asking them to make a huge personal commitment, and you want your website to reflect that you are educated, trustworthy, not going to do some fad workout that doesn't get results, and professional. A template site really doesn't show that.
(Let me be a design nerd for a moment: A template site is also not designed or coded very well. Most of those sites have a ton of javascript, tables, and flash that make it difficult for Google to index it, as well as people with smaller monitors, or with images/etc turned off. Even with all the "stuff" disabled (images, java, CSS) a site should still be nagivable and readable, and templates usually aren't.)
Hiring a professional designer should get you a well-coded and well-designed site, but most importantly, a site tailored to YOU, to your particular business and your particular audience. You can also get a logo done, business cards, etc, if you don't already have one. You want to show a consistent image on all fronts.
A little about me: I'm a graphic design graduate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (rpi.edu) and I work at iMarc (imarc.net). At iMarc I've worked on sites as big as massbio.org to as small as buckleysedan.com. I'm currently working on a branding project for a large association and a website for a museum/preservation group. My personal portfolio includes Reflection's Edge (reflectionsedge.com), a significant portfolio of student work, work for Squeaky Wheel Media in NYC (squeaky.com) and I'm currently working on branding for an interior design company and the Georgetown U. student association, among other things. My portfolio and contact information is here: elyseholladay.com PORTFOLIO version3 but doesn't include my most recent work/iMarc work.
If anyone wants to talk about branding/site projects, I'd be more than happy to. If you need me to take a look at something you're working on, have questions about the programs I use, process, or (best of all!) think you might want to hire me or iMarc, just send me a PM or e-mail
I am coming up on the end of my host contract and am wondering which direction I should pursue. I have Macromedia Dreamweaver, but it is not as easy as they make it sound.
I have checked out Website Builder for Easy Website Design Software and Allen Hills site. Does anyone have any good hosts with good web builders? BTW my previous host was Lunar Pages and it worked well.
If you need Dreamweaver help, I use it all the time and am VERY familiar with it. IT's the best I have found for doing sites as it makes doing dynamic sites easy. just PM me or email wolfwindshadow@gmail.com and ask what ya need to know.
For those who do their own site
Linear Mode
