Website Building Tools - Here's What I Use, And Why 

As I mentioned on the home page, I'm still on the learning curve as a website developer. I have developed 50 websites and counting. That doesn't make me retired and stretched out on the bow of some yacht. No, I'm still hunched over a computer too many hours a day, like you. But all the sites are offering real value to their readers and generating some level of income, so there's promise. And quite frankly, I couldn't have done it without the following website building tools. So, for what it's worth...   

XSitePro Website Design Software

This thing simply delivered beyond my expectations. That says it all, really. Need more? OK -- I wanted user-friendly, and got something as easy to use as a word processor. I wanted feature-packed, and got features I'd never thought of. Like the ability to insert a Google Adsense ad with 3 clicks of a mouse -- never leaving the webpage I'm working on. Ditto with Amazon; ditto with PayPal -- it's fully integrated into the software.

I can create unlimited websites. I've got hundreds of website templates to pick from. The software can perform an SEO analysis of each page of my site for dramatically improved search engine ranking. And publishing a site takes two clicks.

I'll admit, the $197 price tag gave me some pause. Heck, Homestead would let me make a website for free. Truth be told, I tried Homestead. Ever hear the expression, "you get what you pay for?" I got what I paid for. I also tried GoDaddy's Website Tonight. I think I paid $53.88 or something like that, for one website for one year. And that only bought me five lousy pages. After one week, I was so frustrated with the design software that I just walked away from it, leaving my money on the table and a domain name floating around in cyberspace.

After those two fiascos, I did my research and landed on XSitePro. I thought about it for days. Pulled out some hair. Finally, I swallowed hard and clicked the 'Order Now' button. The sun burst out from the clouds, birds began singing, and terribly lost, attractive women would touch my shoulder, asking me if I could help them find their way. OK, scratch that last sentence. But... with a full, walk-through tutorial, I was up and running with a basic website the same afternoon.

In hindsight, fretting over the cost of this product was a classic case of being penny wise and pound foolish. If you've decided to build a business in which a website is an integral part, or build a business in which websites are everything, then you need to treat your business like a business. XSitePro is a business tool, a business investment that will generate an ROI (return on investment) in the multiples. And quickly. 

Go straight to the XSitePro Features Page and see if this product has what you need.

P.S. Today I'm adding XCommentPro to the mix (it's a powerful comment script and rating software). Expect to see a user-comment section on this website shortly.

Host Gator Web Hosting Services

As I alluded to above, I initially tried GoDaddy's hosting plan for a single website. Expensive, confusing and ultimately abandoned. When I decided I would get serious with internet marketing using multiple websites, I began my research in earnest. It came down to either BlueHost.com or HostGator.com. What swayed me toward HostGator.com was the option of having no contract. I hate contracts. For $10 a month, I could go month-to-month. Beyond the good pricing and freedom from contracts, the company offered everything I could possibly need in what they call the "Baby" web hosting plan. Things like: unlimited domains; unlimited FTP accounts; unlimited POP3 accounts (email); a slew of supported features (i.e. WordPress hosting, CGI, Perl, streaming audio and video, etc.); and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

The control panel they use is cPanel, which is arguably the most user-friendly and accommodating out there. AWStats and Webalizer make analyzing website statistics a breeze. To cap it off, I got a $50 credit towards Google Adwords.

Go straight to the Host Gator Web Hosting Page and see if this web host has what you need.

Private Proxy

Why would any internet marketer need an anonymous proxy server? This company mentions four reasons on their website: suft the web anonymously; bypass restrictive posting limits; publicise your website anonymously; unblock yourself from websites that haved banned you. Do any of those reasons speak to you? They've got reasonable pricing, an easy signup, and the company behind the service (security systems consultant Privacy Partners LLC) has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.

Try if free for 7 days. Visit Private Proxy .

PHP Link Cloaker

If you do any affiliate marketing, go to your website and just place your curser over an active affiliate link. Look down at the address bar in the lower left-hand section of your screen. Do you see a bunch of gobbledegoop?

That's the address you're sending folks when they click your link. Scary, isn't it. Yes, it gets them to the address they need to be. But do we have to frighten children and livestock in the process?

This software cleans up the URLs for your affiliate links, giving them a more branded and customized appearance using your site's own URL. In the process, it tracks your clicks -- all inside a password-protected administration area. That tracking feature (tracks both unique and total clicks) is worth the price alone, as it allows you to double check the click numbers that your vendors provide, ensuring that you're being treated accurately and honestly by your vendors.

Price is $19.95. Set up within 5 minutes on any PHP/MySQL Linux host (like Host Gator, mentioned above). And you can use the script on all of your websites. You do need a few things to make this work on your site, among them: your own web host, PHP 4 or PHP 5, FTP software to upload the files, et al. Get all the details by going straight to the PHP Link Cloaker and see if this software can work for you.

Bookmarking Demon

Still manually posting links back to your web pages from the occasional social bookmarking site? I was, too. I'm hoping that will change in the next few weeks.

I'm buying Bookmarking Demon, a software product that supposedly automates much of the process of posting to social bookmarking sites. I'm pulling the trigger on that purchase when I finish writing this.

Will let you know how it goes in the next few weeks.

Update: After a week of reading the pdf manuals, watching the company training videos and experimenting a bit by bookmarking a couple of web pages, I realized I wasn't going to be able to utilize this software to its full potential. Why? Because sadly, the training manual wasn't up to the task of teaching which settings were optimal; how to find ping servers; SEO technique, etc. So, I ended up purchasing Bookmarking Coach, which bills itself as a Bookmarking Demon Tutorial.

I believe this Coach thing will help. Demon is a powerful tool and something I'd really like to master. Will keep you posted on how the training goes.

Wimpy MP3 Player

I needed to embed an MP3 audio player on one of my websites. For three days I beat my head against the wall trying to find a free player worth a diddle. Yes, it's possible to do -- if you know code like the back of your hand and you're satisfied with the skin that the freebie comes with.

Do yourself a favor and check out Wimpy. I had to fight my reluctant hand - it just didn't want to guide the curser to the buy button on any product called "wimpy." I got over it. You will, too. Turns out, the Wimpy MP3 Player is the standard by which other players are judged. It's clean, intuitive and easy to deploy. It does audio and video. Choose from 33 different skins, or customize one to suit your fancy. And for e-commerce, you can link directly to a shopping cart from the player.

$29.95 buys it and it's yours. Best of all, with one of these players embedded on a page, your site goes from Average Joe to Musical Pro in the blink of an eye.

Go straight to the Wimpy MP3 Player and see if this isn't the solution to your website's audio needs.

Search Engine Optimization For Dummies 

There was a time I swore I'd never buy one of these "Dummies" books. Something about the name just irritated me something fierce. In the early stages of developing my first websites, and wondering why I was being ignored by Google and the other search engines, I went looking on Amazon for some help. I tried to ignore the glowing reviews this book had piled up. I finally gave in and made the purchase.

Today, this book has been read thoroughly -- twice. Pages are dog-eared and little markers are sticking out all over the place. If you're just beginning, this will be your go-to reference for months. If you're a seasoned pro and think you understand SEO, this book will open your eyes further. One thing you learn in this business: you can't know everything, and a fresh set of eyes can often illuminate.

Google Adwords for Dummies 

Well, when you buy one Dummies book and you're sufficiently impressed, can the second one be far behind? I was two days into a brand spanking new account with Google Adwords when I realized I was in way over my head. This book (actually its predecessor, this is an updated edition by the same author) kept me from pulling all my hair out, making sense of the complexities of Adwords in a very user-friendly manner. Full of tips you can implement immediately.

Has paid for itself many times over. If fact, with a $25 Good Adwords Gift Card in the back of the book, applicable to new Adwords accounts, it will pay for itself immediately.

And under the category "Tools I Will Be Using."  As soon as I get that #!%@! e-book finished!

Clickbank Digital Marketplace for Vendors 

If you've got a digital product (i.e., an e-book), or if you're thinking about writing one, you need to be seriously looking at Clickbank, one of the leading marketplaces pairing digital product vendors (like you) with active affiliate marketers. Clickbank processes the retail transactions and handles all affiliate relations, so you can concentrate on what you do best -- writing more e-books and growing a profitable website. In fact, Clickbank makes a sale somewhere in the world every three seconds, processing more than 26,000 transactions every day.

The one-time product activation fee for vendors is $49.95. Extensive vendor guides and vendor tools are available to help you every step of the way. Go straight to the Clickbank Vendor Page and see if these folks have what you need to take your
e-book to the next level.

I hope this information helps. Additional online resources coming soon.

--D. Alan Carter

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