How do I create my sites
I remember my first site. It was 1999 and I have no idea of wysiwyg or even html. It was a 2 page site with a lot of bad formated images that (obviously) never saw the light.
Since thoose romantics times, things has change and now we have great tools to create almost any kind of site we like.
And I’ve created a lot of sites, from blogs, to sales letters, portals, estores and more.
And here is how I do it:
I always use Xsite if I want to creat sales letter, squeeze pages or any kind of minsite. I use to create sites on dreamweaver but Xsite tools are kick a$%.
I love the fact that you can control the layout so easy and the hover ads system (I looove hover ads). And you always have that scripts and affiliate links right there.
Plus I can create a full site in less than 30 minutes. How can I not love it?!!
Dreamweaver
I do use dreamweaver but more as a server pages editor, specially for php pages. I also use it to edit things that are not easy to check on xsite (like tables with no border)
This was the first professional web site creator I learned to use, and if you are a code lover then you could go this way.
This is becoming my new favorite really fast. I did use wordpress a long time ago to create a small blog for one of my stores but I did never take the time to look to much into it.
Now it’s a whole different story.
I like the fact that there are free plugins for about anything you can thing of. It’s always having updates so you can have a modern site with no hassle. And you can even bring visitors just for using your site!!
This is the system I always recommend to my customers nowadays
Joomla
I used to have some Joomla instalations but today I only have one. I do think is a great system but it’s far more complicated than wordpress and you need to set a lot of thing to make it secure and search engine friendly.
Plus, two of my first sites were hacked and that was reason enought for me to put the plug out on Joomla.
However I do know that if you put your time and knownledge you can create great sites with this tool.
If I want a forum this is how I do it. It’s very easy to set it up (specially if you have fantastico on your cpanel). And there are a lot of plugins you can use.
I have two or three sites working on this and it always works fine.
I use free scripts whenever I have the chance. Sometimes I create sites just to see a script working (like www.quetansexy.net). I used scripts to create social networks, picture and ratings sites.
Fireworks
Why use Illustrator or Photoshop when you have Fireworks?? It’s easy and fast.
For images or vector graphics, this is my way to go. I can veary easily create a whole set of layouts in no time.
I love the “assets” feature, you can create very cool buttons and designs in just one click. (The only thing missing is a stripes creator)
