It
is easy. You don’t have to pull hair while trying to build a
professional looking website. Thanks to something known as a WYSIWYG
editor or website builder.
WYSIWYG (pronounced “wizzy wig”) stands for
What You See Is What You Get. As the name suggests, this is a tool
that allows you to see your site as it would look like in a browser
while you are building it.
For
people who are busy, don’t have the time and/or inkling to learn
HTML, and don’t have several thousand dollars to pay a web designer,
this is the best option.
But,
WYSIWYG editors are not created equal. Some require that you have a
masochistic streak. They can be that frustrating to work
with.
My
experiences with website builders/editors have been an encounter
with the good, the bad and the downright ugly. Let’s take a look at
some of the better ones, including their downsides and
limitations.
script
Side
note: This article assumes that you are willing to part with some
money for a quality website builder that will most likely give the
results you seek. If you’re looking for something good and for free
please move on and good luck.
Website
Complete:
One of the easiest and cheapest. Great for
someone starting out.
Comes with 400+ templates, plus a large (and good) variety
of images. Spell checker, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and preview
included plus is an interactive user guide that is easy to follow.
Custom buttons and pages are easy to insert and edit.
Downside/Limitations: You can only publish your
website as a package with in-built FTP client. Java not well
supported. Works best with the publisher’s hosting.
Go
to:http://mercantilecentral.com/godaddy.htm,
point on “Website Builders”, then click on “Website
Complete”.
Actual
Drawing:
Actual Drawing is a more full-featured low-cost
website builder. The learning curve is a little longer due to these
extra features, but once you get the hang of it you’re on the
roll.
This
WYSIWYG comes with in-built FTP, spell-checker and preview. Tables
and forms are easy to insert and/or edit. Custom scripts and Java
also easy to work with. Very good software, this one is.
Downside/Limitations: I found none, except the
user guide which can be a little hard to understand.
Check out Actual Drawing
at: http://mercantilecentral.com/actualdrawing.htm
Web Easy
Pro:
This one will give you
some pretty neat results if building a small (two to three pages),
simple website.
But,
start plugging in custom scripts (Java especially) and it begins to…
well, suck. Your page might not even be seen and you could find
yourself spending too much time to publish just one page.
Web Easy Pro comes with a good variety of templates and images,
as well as FTP, forms and tables. Easy-to-understand user guide
included, with examples.
Downside/Limitations: Not very flexible. Not
easy to customize either. I particularly didn’t like the page-naming
(example, yourdomain_yoursite/002.htm) though this can be avoided by
creating your own templates.
Check out Web Easy Pro
at: http://mercantilecentral.com/webeasy.htm
123
WYSIWYG:
I have saved the
best for the last. 123 WYSIWYG was created by a couple of leading
internet marketers who know from experience exactly what one looks
for in a website builder.
The
creators of 123 WYSIWYG had two main things in mind:
1) Ease of use
2) Great
results.
This
WYSIWYG is really easy to learn. Simply follow the 20-minute
video guide (included in package) while building your first
site and you’ll have a nice-looking website in a pretty short
time.
Another thing that makes it a winner is
flexibility. On this, it might well beat some of the much more
expensive templates out there.
Java
and custom HTML codes can be plugged in easily and quickly by
cutting/copying and pasting, typing or drag-and-drop. Images easily
inserted.
You have choice of
creating your own site from scratch, or selecting from the 100+
pre-made templates.
Preview included as well as an FTP
client.
If
there is one WYSIWYG that I whole-heartedly recommend, this is
it.
Downside/Limitations: I didn’t encounter
any.
Check out 123 WYSIWYG at:
http://mercantilecentral.com/123wysiwyg.htm
SiteBuildIt!
The
track record of this WYSIWYG is yet to be paralleled.
SiteBuildIt! (SBI!) has
helped many newbie web-business persons get high search engine
rankings than any other site builder. 62% of SBI! Sites scored in
the top 3% according to Alexa. No other WYSIWYG editor has made even
a remotely similar claim.
They provide verifiable
proof of their almost unbelievable claims. Just go to their site and
see for yourself:
http://mercantilecentral.com/sbi.htm
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About the author:
David Kamau, owner of http://www.mercantilecentral.com, has built
several websites using WYSIWYG HTML editors.
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