Website builder guides plus web design tricks

Website design recommendations: It’s not the visual design of a Web site that determines its success or its failure. Rather, it’s the usability. Remember, you’re not the person who’s clicking the mouse. It’s the visitor on your page. So if they can’t find something on your website and might as well not even exist. So when you’re designing a website, a really helpful tip is to ask friends and family members to test your site’s navigation so that they can give you feedback on usability. This will help you ensure that the user experience is as seamless as possible. There’s a three-click rule that should apply to all websites, and that is the user should be able to find what they’re looking for within three clicks. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s absolutely true. Don’t make navigating a web site hard work for your audience. Otherwise, they’re not sticking around.

One of the veterans of this list, LiveJournal (like Blogger) started life in 1999. Perhaps because of its age, it rather blurs the lines (the site says “wilfully”) between blogging and social networking. The result is more of a community that affords you your own space, but that also very much encourages communal interaction. It is possible to fashion something more private, but to get the most out of LiveJournal, you need to be prepared to delve into discussion as much as writing.

eCommerce solution: Having been founded in 1997, 3dcart is the oldest of our featured providers here. It was set up with a view to incorporating as many of the most requested e-commerce features into one platform as possible. The company says it has six core values by which it operates: ongoing innovation, good service, simple solutions, fostering trust, keeping employees and customers happy, and stimulating prosperity amongst employees and customers. Some of the platform’s innovative features include a module that users can install to offer gift-wrapping, a purchase order system, the option of running a loyalty program and the ability to offer recurring orders. Many of these features are very specific, meaning that stores can be highly tailored to the needs of each business.

One of the simplest yet effective ways to reduce your website development costs is to use pre-designed or readymade themes. There are several benefits of using a readymade template to build your website. Most of the templates or themes are available for less than $100. When you use any theme from a reputed web developer, you don’t have worry about mobile responsiveness, browser compatibility and loading speed. Majority of the web developers who provide readymade themes provide great support when you need it. You can quickly build your website by choosing a readymade theme or template. Find more details on How to make websites easily.

Events Manager has recently been updated to version five and now has even more useful features to help you add an events calendar to your WordPress website. Not only does this plugin make it easy to start creating events and adding them to the calendar, but you can also enable registration for your events. Creating recurring events is easy too, with support for a range of recurrence options. If you want to add an element of social interaction to your website and its calendar events, the Events Manager has been built to work seamlessly with the BuddyPress plugin, giving you the option of enabling user activity feeds, discussion areas, and more. You can also combine Events Manager with other plugins to improve the visual appearance of your calendar.

Like Weebly, Wix is an intuitive site builder that lets you integrate a blog at the click of a button. Put simply, Wix is one of the best blog website builders around. It’s not hard to see why the Israel-based company boasts over 100 million users. You can launch a blog with your Wix site on any plan, from the Free plan upwards. However, to connect your domain name you’ll need to sign up to the $5/month Connect Domain plan. And, to get rid of Wix ads, you need to be on at least Wix Combo, at $11/month. As with Weebly, we’d recommend upgrading to a more advanced Wix account to get your own domain and get rid of adverts. It’s a small price to pay to make your blog look professional. The more professional your blog, the more readers will trust you. Think about it. When you go into a book shop, would you pick up a book that had adverts stuck all over the front cover and different authors’ names on it?

Drupal is free, and that free entry point gives you access to a sophisticated framework. It is, though, mostly a framework, with its out-of-the-box components a bit sparse. You will need several add-ons, such as most of the themes and templates, to get your site as functional as you want, meaning a good bit of extra cash. You will also need to pay externally to host your website. What WordPress CMS offers: At first glance, WordPress is technically free, meaning you pay nothing to download, install, and use it. However, like Drupal, you will need to host externally, which costs you. Also, individual additional costs, including maintenance, plug-ins, etc. can add up. Still, though, for a base free price, WordPress has a lot to offer. Discover a few more details on this blog.