Doing your own website would have been unthinkable a few years ago, but the new online applications are so simple that anyone familiar with MS word can create their own professional looking website. But before proceeding please refer to our article on the 5 Things You Should Do Before Hiring A Website Developer.
There are a considerable number of DIY website design applications out there and we have tried most of them and shortlisted the ones below. They all offer multiple packages with varying feature sets, support and services so its near impossible to do a comparison. They all offer a free version or a free to try version, so the best thing to do is to subscribe to all of them and see which one you like best. Here is a quick review to get you started.
Online Website Design & Development Applications
Yola
Features: Free Version | No Email | Templates | Tutorials | Blog | Support
SiteKreator
Features: Free to Try | Emails | Templates | Tutorial | Blog | Support
SnapPages
Features: Free To Try | No Emails | Templates | Tutorials | Blog | Support | Resume Feature
Homestead
Features: Free To try | Emails | Templates | Tutorials | Blog | Support
Weebly
Features: Free Version | No Email | Templates | Tutorials | Blog | Support
SquareSpace
Features: Free To Try | No Email | Templates | Tutorials | Blog | Support
As you'll notice some of them don't host emails, but they have excellent guidance to explain how to manage that, so don't let that bother you at all. Most of them also offer shopping cart features too, incase you intend to set up an e-comm website.
With all these solutions, your website is developed and hosted on their servers, so be sure to ask them if they allow you to export the site incase you want to change the service provider later on. Also ask them if you can export the site yourself.
Mobile Browser compliance
Something that you have to take into consideration is Mobile browsing, which is growing rapidly and is expected to overtake desktop browsing by 2013. None of the above websites of the solutions providers listed above are mobile compliant, but its still well worth asking them about it.
How is mobile browsing different?
Well mobile browsing means adapting the website to fit the screens of handheld to minimise the scrolling, especially horizontal scrolling. This site is mobile compliant, so if you visit it from a mobile device, it'll automatically reformat the content to fit a smaller screen. If you'd like to test it, type the url (www.siteu2.com) into your phone's browser.
Website Templates & Other Graphic Designs
All the web-development applications listed above have hundreds of
customizable templates and they are great if you are on a low budget. If you have some money to splurge, most of these companies will custom build a website template for you. Another option you might want to consider is 99Designs, where you set a price you are willing to pay and a whole bunch of designers submit their designs. The higher your price, the more designers participate. This is better than an agency because you get to engage more designers instead of being limited to the few in the agency.
Images
Flickr is the best resource for free images, but you need to know the how the licenses work, so first refer to the Flickr Creative Commons. Wylio is a great tool for quickly finding free pictures on Flickr.
Much of the free images are not available for commercial use, yes - that means your website too. Besides, you'll probably want better quality photos and there are several sites for this and here is our shortlist:
> Fotolia
> iStockPhotos
> ShutterShock
> ClipArt
> Animation Factory
You have more choice of high quality images with the paid services. The free Flick images are great for things like blogs and if you intend on writing regular blogs we suggest you subscribe to Wylio's paid service, which is infinitely cheaper than using the paid images.
Content Writing
If you are building a personal site then it is advisable to write up the content in your own language, but if you are building a commercial website and you don't have a good copywriter then you are better off outsourcing it, and Elance is an excellent cost-effective resource for that. Elance gives you access to a network of skilled freelancers worldwide for research, copywriting, graphic design and much more. Many website design agencies use Elance, the difference is that over time they know the better ones.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Onsite SEO ensures that your website is search engine friendly, and Offsite SEO is how you drive traffic to your website. Since this article is about website development, here is what you need to know about Onsite Search Engine Optimisation.
Your feedback encourages us to write similar helpful articles, so do let us know what you think.
Online Website Design & Development Applications
Yola
Features: Free Version | No Email | Templates | Tutorials | Blog | Support
SiteKreator
Features: Free to Try | Emails | Templates | Tutorial | Blog | Support
SnapPages
Features: Free To Try | No Emails | Templates | Tutorials | Blog | Support | Resume Feature
Homestead
Features: Free To try | Emails | Templates | Tutorials | Blog | Support
Weebly
Features: Free Version | No Email | Templates | Tutorials | Blog | Support
SquareSpace
Features: Free To Try | No Email | Templates | Tutorials | Blog | Support
As you'll notice some of them don't host emails, but they have excellent guidance to explain how to manage that, so don't let that bother you at all. Most of them also offer shopping cart features too, incase you intend to set up an e-comm website.
With all these solutions, your website is developed and hosted on their servers, so be sure to ask them if they allow you to export the site incase you want to change the service provider later on. Also ask them if you can export the site yourself.
Mobile Browser compliance
Something that you have to take into consideration is Mobile browsing, which is growing rapidly and is expected to overtake desktop browsing by 2013. None of the above websites of the solutions providers listed above are mobile compliant, but its still well worth asking them about it.
How is mobile browsing different?
Well mobile browsing means adapting the website to fit the screens of handheld to minimise the scrolling, especially horizontal scrolling. This site is mobile compliant, so if you visit it from a mobile device, it'll automatically reformat the content to fit a smaller screen. If you'd like to test it, type the url (www.siteu2.com) into your phone's browser.
Website Templates & Other Graphic Designs
All the web-development applications listed above have hundreds of
customizable templates and they are great if you are on a low budget. If you have some money to splurge, most of these companies will custom build a website template for you. Another option you might want to consider is 99Designs, where you set a price you are willing to pay and a whole bunch of designers submit their designs. The higher your price, the more designers participate. This is better than an agency because you get to engage more designers instead of being limited to the few in the agency.
Images
Flickr is the best resource for free images, but you need to know the how the licenses work, so first refer to the Flickr Creative Commons. Wylio is a great tool for quickly finding free pictures on Flickr.
Much of the free images are not available for commercial use, yes - that means your website too. Besides, you'll probably want better quality photos and there are several sites for this and here is our shortlist:
> Fotolia
> iStockPhotos
> ShutterShock
> ClipArt
> Animation Factory
You have more choice of high quality images with the paid services. The free Flick images are great for things like blogs and if you intend on writing regular blogs we suggest you subscribe to Wylio's paid service, which is infinitely cheaper than using the paid images.
Content Writing
If you are building a personal site then it is advisable to write up the content in your own language, but if you are building a commercial website and you don't have a good copywriter then you are better off outsourcing it, and Elance is an excellent cost-effective resource for that. Elance gives you access to a network of skilled freelancers worldwide for research, copywriting, graphic design and much more. Many website design agencies use Elance, the difference is that over time they know the better ones.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Onsite SEO ensures that your website is search engine friendly, and Offsite SEO is how you drive traffic to your website. Since this article is about website development, here is what you need to know about Onsite Search Engine Optimisation.
Your feedback encourages us to write similar helpful articles, so do let us know what you think.
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