Find out why Headway is the best and only theme you'll ever need for your WordPress website.
No matter what type of website you want to build - Headway gives you the ability to put what you want where you want.
Complete freedom and a professional result.
WordPress is the free CMS that big enterprises such as CNN, Sony and Samsung are using to power their websites.
For people who want to create their own site but have no or little experience with code (such as XHTML and PHP) website builders are brilliant.
Best site builders
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Be warned though - some website builders are so basic and limited that you may easily become frustrated trying to put together a web site using one of them.
Never pay for web hosting just because the hosting comes with a free site builder - unless you fully test the software before purchase, and you're completely happy with it.
If there is no fully functioning demo that allows you to fully test the website builder before purchase - run away!
Popular website makers
Here is a list of popular website builders. Each of these can help you build your own professional website.
Swsoft SiteBuilder
Online site builder demo: http://www.swsoft.com/en/products/sitebuilder/demo
This is an extremely easy builder to use. You can very quickly put together a slick, professional-looking website, with a minimum amount of effort. It comes with a variety of templates that are pre-installed. (no need to download them)
Also features a shopping cart, gallery and blog.
You won't be able to customize your website with your own design, or put some page elements (such as images) exactly where you would like to place them. There are limited options with placement of banners and logos.
You will have to buy this site builder to be able to have it on your own hard drive. Some web hosts include it with their packages, and you will need to log in online to edit your site. Web hosts that include Swsoft SiteBuilder in their hosting include Dotster (US) and StudioCoast (Australia)
Soholaunch
Online site builder demo: http://info.soholaunch.com/Demo_Signup.php
Soholaunch is extremely popular with people starting up their online shop. It comes with an extremely easy to use shopping cart, where you simply drop in photos of your items. "....product categories, shipping methods, tax rates, payment options, exchange policies, and much more; all without typing a single line of code."
Items are dragged from a menu into a grid. You can have blogs, event calendars, email newsletters, form builder, and even a talking character.
Blue Voda
Online site builder download:
The Blue Voda site builder has a higher learning curve than some other site builders - it may take you several weeks to get your website how you want it. But this may be because you'll be busy trying out all the features!
If you just want a very basic website, you can actually build it within hours. A one-page website can be built within 30 minutes. It's a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) builder - which means that you build everything right there on the page.
With the Blue Voda builder, you can build a site from the ground up, exactly the way you want it. If you can imagine it, Blue Voda has the features to enable you to build it. This website, make-website.com is made with Blue Voda.
For a total newbie, some things may be confusing, or take a little time to understand - the tutorials cannot cover everything because there are many different paths you can take when building your site.
But with an active and friendly support forum, there is help all along the way - and thousands of people without technical or programming skills have built their site with Blue Voda.
For the degree of customization available, Blue Voda is strides ahead of other site builders. You can download it for free to your hard drive, and design your site. But to put it online, you must also sign up for VodaHost hosting.
You also get a free instance of Soholaunch with the web hosting.
SiteZen Pro
demo: http://sitemagix.com/main/page_user_features_live_demo.html
SiteZen Pro has a shopping cart, very nice templates and lots of features and widgets ("Widgets allow a script to be packaged in a way that can easily be incorporated into a web site by novice users.")
| n | Does the website builder come with an automatic installer to install the software? Or will I have to install it myself? |
| n | If I have problems in uploading or installing your website builder, will you help me to upload or install it? |
| n | What kind of URLs does the site builder create? Are the URLs search-engine friendly? |
| n | Is this site builder being updated on a continuing basis? Will I be able to get a free upgrade to future versions? |
| n | How many instances of the site builder do I get per purchase (or per hosting package) Example: One only, two only, unlimited? |
| n | How many pages can I make? Example: One only, five only, unlimited? |
| n | If the site builder is attached to the hosting - How much disk space and how much bandwidth am I allowed for the website I want to build? |
| n | Are there free templates included? How customizable are the templates - can I add my own banner and logo? |
| n | photo gallery |
| n | online shop or shopping cart |
| n | paypal facilities |
| n | be able to insert ads and HTML scripts |
| n | multimedia capabilities - music, videos |
| n | Password-protected areas |
| n | Membership - the ability to have visitors register at your site |
| n | Integrated forum |
| n | Contact form |
| n | User-defined forms |
| n | RSS capability |
Site builder features
Make a list of the features you want in your website, and then check to see if the website builder comes with those features. The best site builder for you may be very different to the one that suits the next person.
This list might include:
Make a list of the features you want in your website, and then check to see if the website builder comes with those features. The best site builder for you may be very different to the one that suits the next person.
This list might include:
Pre-purchase questions
The questions you might want to ask before buying will depend on your level of experience with site builders, general web page building experience, the features you want, and whether the site builder comes with a web host or is separate.
The questions you might want to ask before buying will depend on your level of experience with site builders, general web page building experience, the features you want, and whether the site builder comes with a web host or is separate.
