I decided to start up another Internet business earlier this year and couldn t wait to get my own site up and running again. That was when my frustrations started. OK the sites that I designed before weren t exactly professional; they were sort of like the Grandma Moses of the Internet. But, they were attractive, easy to navigate, well visited and different!
Using my old html editor FrontPage I expected to have a site up and running quickly but found that I had forgotten most of what I d known about using FrontPage for building sites. What I did remember was that initially I struggled to build a site even after learning html because I don t understand easy to understand instructions . This time round I was having the same old problem.
I persevered and was getting somewhere but then I decided to buy the latest Macromedia package and have a bash with Dreamweaver. Doh! it might be wonderful but I didn t have a clue where to start even after reading the instructions. I turned back to FrontPage with a mental note to myself to try again when I had more time.
A friend told me about XSitePro and I was curious enough to take a look at their site. It wasn t long before I regretted splashing out on the Macromedia package, but I couldn t justify another spend so I regretfully left the site armed with a free affiliate link.
During the next week I kept going back and drooling over what might have been. The $197 asking price grew smaller with every visit until click I finally reasoned that I had earned as much as that in overtime the previous week and if I could design sites more quickly and easily it would pay for itself.
After downloading XSitePro I couldn t wait to get started. I worked my through the tutorial which has you building an opticians site and was totally pleased and relieved to find that I understood the tutorial and that my practice optician site was as it should be.
Next I decided to design my own site and took a look at the website and sales letter templates provided. I must admit to thinking that they were a bit boring, but have found since that there are several sites offering XSitePro templates for sale at quite reasonable prices.
I made up my own design for my first XSitePro effort and managed to express my old cheerful style quite easily and much quicker than I would have done with FrontPage or Dreamweaver. As with both of those site builders XSitePro is a What You See Is What You Get editor and as with both of them I find that you do need basic html knowledge to build effective sites. Courses are freely available on the Internet.
Time Saving Differences
I couldn t believe how quickly I was able to add Google AdSense ads to my pages. All I had to do was initially add my AdSense id to the software and then after that right click wherever I wanted the ads placing. I was given a choice of ad sizes and colours to enable the ads to integrate with my site and there they were. Much better than going to the AdSense site every time I wanted to place ads.
Another timesaver is the Affiliate Wizard, you add your affiliate links and thereafter a couple of clicks and your links are on your web pages.
Optimisation for the search engines is excellent for an impatient bod like me. Every time I add an image I m reminded to include an image alt keyword. When a page is finished I click on the SEO page and I m told what I still need to do to improve optimisation. I might have missed an image alt keyword, or I might not have included the main key word enough in the text, or not enough words in the body. A few minutes and the page is fully optimised and a chore that I didn t completely understand before is done.
If I want to change the look of my site it s easily and quickly done on every page at once and I don t have to figure out style sheets. I can create pop ups, pop unders and pop ins with a few clicks, add redirect pages, add scripts and lots more useful things.
The Verdict
I love working with XsitePro and am really glad that I gave into temptation and bought it. I find it easier and quicker to work with than any other html editor that I ve used and I m always pleased with the results. I m sure that it will have it s limitations but I haven t found any yet.
The only downside is the boring templates, but everything else makes up for that in spades.
Patricia Jones owns her own article directory at www.bb-articles.com Two sites that were designed as a beginner with XSitePro are: www.ebook-world.co.uk & www.creativewriter.me.uk
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