LESSON #31: Using Templates and Site Builders
Within the past few lessons, I showed you how to build a basic website with HTML and how to use an HTML editor.
Today I’m going to show you a way that is even easier (but not always better)…
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
You need to customize it to make it your own unique site (you can customize it using the HTML methods from the previous lessons).Here are my personal definitions…
Web authoring software - You tell it what to do… you only get out what you put in. (ex. FrontPage, Dreamweaver, KompoZer, etc.)
Site builder - It does most of the work for you (usually template driven). You put in some required variables, and it produces an entire website.
Some “hybrid” programs blur the line. A software that gives the best of both worlds is: XSitePro
What I like about site builders…
-they’re easy
-they’re fast
-some of them build attractive sites
What I don’t like…
-the HTML coding is often sub-par
-Could create footprints that the search engines may not like
-Often tied to hosting/subscription
(watch video above for demo of Hostgator site builder)
UPDATE: Here is another site builder that I reviewed: Site Profit Bot Demo and Review
Action steps:
1) Decide if you would like to use a template or a site builder to build your site.
2) If yes, choose one and start using it.
In the next lesson I’ll be covering membership sites!
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below
Have a great day!
I have used xsite pro for several sites as well as basic html. I definitely think xsite is a great tool for anyone who doesnt have the mindset for technical stuff
Rich
Thanks for the input
Well said Eric,
It is an amazing piece of software that will save time and money
Hi Eric,
Congratulations on the new addition to your family!
What a miracle life is, huh?
I’ve used several webhosting services over the years and Hostgator has out performed 98% of the other hosting providers in: Customer Service, Web Platform Maintenance and Reliability.
And for the price of the service they provide…
I found Hostgator to be “The Best Value for Your Money!”
Eric, do you provide a discount code?
Best Regards
Steve Fisher
Thanks for the comment Steve. Yes I do have a coupon code:
ERICSTIPS.COM
Thanks for the latest lesson. Its great to get all the options.
Looking forward to the wordpress lesson. I picked that option and am struggling through CSS to customise my site at the moment. A lot of fun though (and procrastination)!
Cool. I remember struggling through CSS… it’s worth it
Thanks for the great info. As always well presented and in depth. What do you think of PROFITmatic as a site builder? I believe it is a great income generator as well. Would like to know more before I invest in it.
Thanks,
Matt
I am not familiar with PROFITmatic. As with all site builders, I’d advise to be leery of the things I mentioned, and if it doesn’t have those problems then it’s probably a good tool.
Cool Video. I would like to know if possible use the xsitepro templates to html editor to create website. Thanks
Xsite templates are “xse” files which can’t be opened by an HTML editor. HOWEVER, if you have XSitepro, all you need to do is open the template and then EXPORT it as an HTML site. You can then open and edit it in any HTML editor
Hi Erick
Thanks for this good info and all the info you share. I have followed you update for a while and have been impressed by what you are doing for furthering God’s Kingdom here on earth. I just checked out LOL Ministry http://lolministry.com and I am excited by what you are doing. I went on a mission trip myself to Ecuador last year and was blessed by God. Thanks again for living your Christian life as a light on a hill not under a bushel.
Dave
Cool… bless you in your work, and thanks for checking it out
Thanks Eric.
Open Source templates offers some great work by talented site designers and it follows html standards. If you looking for templates, I recommend you take a look at http://www.oswd.org/
Thanks for the tip!
Hi Eric
I’ve just watched your video lesson which I thought was great at explaining the differences in building a website.
I think that probably, although the web builder is obviously much easier to use (just fill in the gaps) there is no real way that you can personalise the site you are building, and your using the same ’stuff’ as everyone else e.g. headers/ stock photos etc.
I’m still trying to build my own site which I have found very difficult to do. I’ve tried NVu also a Serif UK website programme that is supposed to be easy for ‘newbies’ but I managed to crash the programme in about 10 minutes! I then changed over to using Kompozer having found some video instructions, and I have now got 11 pages done for the new site, and included some of my own pictures.
It’s been a long, hard slog - but I’m getting there! I have found the technical side of things somewhat difficult, but its coming along now. The templates that I had did not seem to allow me to change the header, include photos where I wanted them, and was generally too restrictive. My site is personal, original content and photos and is what I want, it remains to be seen whether it becomes a success!
I want to add a blog to it so the site will hopefully make me some money, and the blog will have personal unique content that will drive traffic to the site.
So I look forward to your intended lesson on blogs.
Keep up the good work
Thanks for the really good lessons
Graham in U.K.
Thanks for the update, and yes… you’ll like WordPress
I build my own custom website builders using a combination of frontpage templates I create, Liberty Basic that builds the content pages and a few text files to provide the data.
I dont know of anyone else that does this, and its a very effective technique, and totally flexible.
Sounds like you’ve created a system that works… that’s a good thing!
Eric, what about making the Wordpress optimized, plugins etc. If you are using a Wordpress Blog what do you use to optimize it, and if you are creating HTML what do you use to optimize it.
I’ll cover that in the WordPress lessons… coming soon!
Good lesson Eric, I wish I had seen this before I spent the time building my site. I used a template and dreamweaver to put my site together but had to figure dreamweaver out on my own.
I still haven’t figured out how to put the price with the slash through it like you see so often
You use the html “strike” tag:
$100.00Thanks Eric, I will be changing my site with this information.
Eric;
Another home run my man…!Grrrreat lesson
I’ve been on board with you since lesson one,and well before.And they just keep getting
BETTER!By following your advice i now have a site up and running with an affiliate product
landing page.And i did not forget my Autoresponder…now with this TIMELY lesson
i’m ready to replace that landing page with a
real site.ERIC..YOU-THA-MAN…!
THANKS….THEADMAN…..
Thanks THEADMAN!
Hi,
I stick with my NVU which is very easy to handle, sitebuilders mostly don`t give me the exact results I want. Would you recommand “Frontpage”, because it is said to produce non standard-code.
Thanks for your advice!
It’s a great program. But for the average person, I do not recommend Frontpage. As I mention in lesson #30, it is more expensive and more complicated than what most people need.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for another great lesson as usual…I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. XsitePro,XsitePro,XsitePro! lol
Ps…By the way,what software do you use or like for making videos? Camtashia? I think you mentioned it before but couldn’t locate it. I’m in the market for one.
Get 150 *Top Quality* NICHE Websites With Your Paypal ID On Each!
http://Instant-Paysites.com
Thanks Gary. Yes I use Camtasia from Techsmith. I recently upgraded to their Camtasia 6.0 and it’s great.
I enjoyed your presentation. However, I do have a question regarding the Hostgator site builder. Do you know if the site builder leaves footprints and can you customize the code?
thanks
Mike
You’re asking the right questions
I really do not know if it creates any bad footprints. From what I’ve seen, the templates are all different, so I don’t see any major problems there. But I don’t know how many people are using those templates, or whether there are many other web hosts offering the same templates, etc.
You can customize the code to a small extent just by personalizing the site as much as possible within the site builder (adding new title tags, your own content, etc). But to actually edit the code you would need to publish the site and then download a copy of it to your PC and edit it in an HTML editor. (you can download with Filezilla.. see lesson #29).
Eric, Thank you, again, for your generosity and skill. Richard ps: How’s the new baby?
Thanks, the new baby is great.
Templates, Love’em Hate’em. Glad to hear your views on them Eric. I find that I’m using templates more and more. They help with the initial creativity, but then need a LOT of tweaking. My homepage just got outranked on Google by a filler page in a template that I forgot to take down!
Also I agree about the HTML. Love Xsitepro but have had to learn to go in and edit the html. Oh well, better than sitting around with crossword puzzles to stimulate the brain eh?
Haha, ouch!!
Hi Eric,
Templates are great but as you said personalizing and customizing it takes a new skill. I’m learning but it’s slow. I do like Wordpress but that to can be customized. Is PHP very different than HTML? I know that HTML can be viewed in your browser before uploading it to the server. My experience with PHP templates is that you have to upload them first to see your final product. Is that right or am I missing something/
Thanks,
Luca
PHP is a little more “scripty” than HTML. And yes, in general you do need to upload them to a web server in order to view them (unless you’re running PHP on your own computer, which is unlikely unless you’re a real programmer).
But it’s really not too hard once you get the hang of it. I use two monitors… so I have my FTP client (filezilla) open on one of them, so I can edit the PHP on one screen and quickly upload it to test on the other.
BTW, when it comes to customizing Wordpress templates (themes), you don’t need to know PHP. The parts of the PHP files that you are customizing are mainly HTML elements, and also the CSS style sheet.
Hello Eric,
I have built my own website using Kompozer. Now my problem that has been stomping me for more than a cou[ple of days now is how to connect my autoresponder to my graphical opt-in. The responding is now working okay, but the opt-in boxes it provides is so basic.
I got a graphical opt-in to spice up the page. Problem is how I can connect the two? Guess I don’t know where to insert the line of the autoresponder to replace the line on the graphical opt-in. Every time I do, the graphics simply fall apart!
Can you or anybody there help me please? Please?
I just looked at your site and it seems you got it fixed!
On the surface it looks okay, but it’s not working.
I will understand if you’re too busy to look into this, but I”ll still try. Besides the Hostgator staff, you’re the only most responsive blogger/marketer I’ve experienced on the internet since the beginning of your lessons.
So this is the short HTML of my autoresponder:
Your Name:
Your E-Mail:
And here is the html of the graphical opt-in (seems only a minor replacement of a couple of lines is needed, but I couldn’t do it no matter how I tried. Pls. look at the 2 ALL CAPS note inside):
Copyright 2009 Cesar Dalagan All Rights Reserved Disclaimer
Privacy
Can you or anybody hekp me? Please?
Best regards,
Haha the funny thing is I was accidentally looking at the website of the commenter ABOVE you!
Check out the aweber opt-in form at the top of his page: http://www.reachsuccessonline.com/bloggingproductreviews/index.php
Take a look at his source code, or ask him how he does it
Eric, loved your lesson, I built one page on KompoZer, I’m wondering if there is a way to do several pages for the same website using that software.
Thanks
I have not used it to build an entire site, so I can’t speak from experience, but it looks like their site manager feature can help with that. But that’s one area where a program like XSitePro really excels. With Xsite it’s easy to add multiple pages, and it will build your navigation menu for you too. That’s a reason I like WordPress too.
Hello again Eric,
Great to see Lesson #31, I really missed your stream of great information. One question I have related to website building is your opinion of options like SBI (Site Build It). You pay a yearly fee to use all their tools and expertise to help find a niche, create a website, get traffic, and basically run your own online business. Any thoughts?
My thoughts regarding “all in one” programs would apply to SBI. It can be great for newbies, but I wouldn’t want my entire business to be reliant on their system. Additionally, such systems often don’t allow the level of freedom you will want once you really know what you’re doing.
Eric,
I see my posting have been removed. I am sorry if you did not like my posting. But which is true I found the LIMITATION with Xsitpro I just said that. Also I said I love Xsitepro and VERY GOOD one to build Static sites NOT for PHP base Dynamic sites. All the bets Eric.
I didn’t remove any posts…
Hi Eric,
Thanks for YOUR reply. I do not know what happened. I did post and after awhile did not find it. Anyway !! Any suggestion if it is possible to build PHP base Dynamic site with Xsitepro2.All the best.
B.Regards
The posts disappear until they are approved
I do not think XSite can build a PHP site.
Hi! Do a refresh, the system can take it from Cashe.
Michaela
Thank you so much for YOUR honest opinion.
Hi! Thanks for the new lesson.
I am using templates because is easy, free a lot of time for me, but I get with xSitePro to such skill, I can customize 95% if I want. Usually the customization is around 40-60% and this is other reason I like xSitePro. It is doing a lot for me, but a can work in source code as much as I want. It really is a handy package for newbie and advanced users alike.
Thanks
Eric
Eric i have been following you for over a year now and have learned a lot.
I need help fast, I have busted my butt building a website on Hydrogen on Demand and have made it to first page of google but don’t know how to make money with it Can You Help ??
Thank You Larry
The fastest way to monetize a totally unmonetized site is probably AdSense or other contextual ads. you can sign up for Adsense and put the ads on your site the same day.
The next fastest way would be to find some related products from an affiliate program provider (like clickbank) or CPA network (like Commission Junction) and make your own ads to put on your site.
The slightly longer route (and is many cases the most rewarding) is to create your own product.
In ANY case, you could start building a list from the traffic. I use aweber. If you’re collecting the names and email addresses of your visitors onto your opt-in list, you’ll be building an asset that you can monetize repetitively.
How to apply for an Adsense? Can we as newbies afford to pay for Adsense in the beginning? Is it necessary?
You can sign up for an AdSense account at the following link:
http://adsense.google.com
You may set your spending budget at any amount that is affordable to you.
Eric,
With this lesson, you justified my approach to building a Landing Page. I have FrontPage and XSitepro but neither seemed to do what I wanted. As a consequence, I found a Landing Page that I liked that would be easily modified and saved the source, loaded it into FrontPage and modified to suit my needs. Works great. Thanks for your great Tips.
Ray
Eric,
Looking forward to next Tip
Ray
Eric,
Great information and I have been following from the beginning. Sometimes I have a problem seeing a video because it stops, not from buffering. Empty temporary internet files, etc. etc. Do you have a way to download these videos.
Thanks,
Stacy
Eric,
thanks for another great lesson.
I know you are following Arbitrage Conspiracy. They recommend LPGen to build landing pages.
I heard people like Jeremy Palmer recommending to build authority sites than thin landing pages.
I get a feeling that: use LPGen to make landing pages and then if the campaign is profitable, build bigger site with XsitePro.
Did I get this right, your suggestions.
Thanks.
That is basically correct. You don’t have to use XsitePro, you can use any tools you want to use, but yes Xsite would be a good one to use.
I think the theory there is twofold…
-Putting a full-fledged site behind your landing pages and making it an authority site will further improve your quality score and help with PPC.
-You can then also get more traffic to the site via SEO, which will further boost your profits on a campaign that is proven to be profitable.
Of course it may not be realistic for you to build an authority site for every profitable campaign (I don’t think Aymen does), but it’s something to consider.
sorry Eric, extension of the question,
can we build authority sites with LPGen?
Thanks.
I do not think LPgen is designed for that (it’s designed solely for landing pages).
Thanks Eric. Waiting for your wordpress video.
thanxs Eric. waiting for you wordpress video Nazret
Hi Eric:
Just want to thank you for the site builder video. It helped me launch my website. It certainly isn’t done, but I am glad I came to your site. I follow you on Twitter.
Hi Eric,
I have question about downloading the
7 Zip .org program There are 2 download links shown there , one says exe and one says msi how do we know which one to download? I have Windows Vista.
Thanks,
Tom
Go with the exe
Eric I use homestead from intuit.Have you ever played with their program?
Paul
I haven’t tried it.
Hi Eric,
How would you rate Joomla as a site builder?
I have not used it, so I can’t rate it. I know a lot of people use it, so it must be decent. From what I’ve heard, it’s a little more complex than WP.
Eric,
This is really cool site. I started my affiliate career few weeks back and I hardly see any productive work. But looking at the information here, I am confident to make it faster instead stuck with some non productive stuff.
Thanks Eric.
Hi Eric, great site… im a newbie I just got XsitePro for that reason, im also on the AC course which is fantastic.. im trying to work out how i build a LP with XP, i no its simple but i cant work it out..This is what i wat to do.. Get an offer from CPA, Click bank, and have a landing page before i send them to the offer, i can use aweber through XP to grab names, etc.. My problem is how do i put it all together, i just need the very basic of the procedure and i will be fine…
THanks , im so glad i found your site, its full of great tips..!!!
First you would design the LP in Xsite. It’s pretty user friendly, and they have plenty of tutorials. If you want to squeeze all traffic before sending them to the offer, you would make it a squeeze page, with your Aweber opt-in form. Look at examples from AC. The LP should be short. You take your opt-in form code from Aweber, and paste it into your source code in Xsite.
In the opt-in form option in Aweber, you can send them to any URL after they enter their name and email. You could either…
-send them directly to the affiliate link (the downside is that fewer of your opt-ins will complete the double opt-in process)
-send them to a thank-you page with instructions to verify their opt in. After the instructions you could put the affiliate link. You can also send them the affiliate link in their first autoresponse that they will receive once they complete the opt in.
AC also has example of a hybrid LP, which has an aff link directly on the LP AND an opt in form. The downside of this is that you’re splitting the focus of the page, but it has proven to be effective for some offers.
Thank you Eric will give that ago…
Mal
XsitePro is great,and I strongly recommend it. But, understanding content and customers comes first. Further, you’re not “running a website”, you’re “running a business”, so other tools need to be “integrated” into the business model.
One tool often overlooked is the human brain. All the tools used need to be “mashed up”, and, currently, that requires a lot of brain power. So, guiding the brain will provide a lot more results than adding another tool to the collection
Hi Eric,
Fantastic lessons. They really give us newbies all the ‘meat’ we really need to get things up and running.
However, Worpress or XSitePro or both? They both seem to have their advantages and disadvantages but is one better than the other?
I always intended building a membership site (or three) but, from what you’re saying about WP and blogs, WP is probably the better way to go.
What can XsitePro give me that WP doesn’t or vice-versa?
Regards,
Michael V
For a membership site, I would prefer to use WP.
The advantage of using XSite is that it’s a “site builder” so you can really customize your own website and build it from scratch… even if you have no web skills.
With WP, you either need to use a prebuilt theme, or you will have to customize the PHP/CSS yourself. I do cover this in lesson #36.
Dear Eric,
I have followed all you reports and I am still not anywhere…could you give me the WORD version of your reports…I just can’t follow fast enough…or I’m really Dumb..I started late in life with the NET and now I need it urgently..and when I did… for about 25 hours non-stop and it did look pretty sexy and precise …about 5 pages ( 5 Hrs per page ) i did something strange and lost everything…I had made saves all …every 10 minutes because it was “I thought” it was so right on!!!
Thanks
Pierre
At this time I am not making the transcripts available, because I’m planning on selling them as a part of a home study course when I’m done creating the lessons. Sorry about that
Remember you can pause the video and rewind as much as you need to.
I heard of Justhost.com ranked as one of the so-called top 10 best webhosting companies. May I hear from you what are the differences between Hostgator.com and Justhost.com in terms of cost-effectiveness and efficiency or whatever? Should I get the free domain name of Justhost.com or shouldn’t I? Your honest reply is my valuable advice. I’d follow you, Eric!
I am not familiar with them, but I just checked out their website and they look decent.
There are a lot of good web hosts out there. I just prefer to stick with the one I know and trust.
As far as getting a free domain… of course it’s only free if you buy hosting from them.
And as I mentioned in lesson #23, I prefer to keep my domain registered seperately from my web host. The reason is because that makes it easier to move to another host if need be. And from what I’ve heard, the hosts who offer “free” domains are often the most difficult to deal with if you want to retrieve your domain and move it elsewhere. I’m not saying that’s necessarily the case with the host you’re looking at, but I’d be wary for that reason.
Also Hostgator has won several awards too.
What kind of web design should we build if we newbies don’t know what online business to start with?
You should start with a niche in mind, which is why I covered niche selection before this point (lesson #19-20). But if you want to launch a site anyway, I would recommend with a personal type of blog, focused on something that you are knowledgable about, and begin to build a following.
If you already have chosen a niche, and you’re referring more to the business model…
Again, I’d say it’s safe to start with a blog, because you can transfer that blog to virtually any business model, whether it be selling info-products, affiliate marketing, e-commerce, etc.
GREAT INFO. I PANICKED WHEN I WAY OTHER LESSONS AHEAD OF THIS ONE. THEN AL OF A SUDDEN IT APPEARED ON MY EMAIL SITE. THANKS. I WANT TO GET THROUGH THESE. I HAVE A HARD TIME IDENTIFYING 3,4 WORDS ABOUT A FILE - AND AM STILL STUCK ON HARD COPY. HAVE FILLED A 3 INCH NOTEBOOK OF THESE STUDIES. EDITED THE COMMENTS. AND KNOW WHERE THEY ALL ARE FOR REFERENCE. ALSOMINTERESTING STUDENT’S SITES CAN BE CHECKED OUT - ON MY MASTER FILE LIST. SINCE I’M JUST LEARNING, FIVURING A STRATEGY AND WRITING COPY, PLUS RESEARCH, ACTIVATING THE DOMAINS MUST CONFORM TO MY COMPLETED RESEARCH/COPY - OR I’M WORKING ON ‘A-R-T-I-F-I-C-I-A-L DEADLINES. TO ME THAT’S A NO-NO! i’VE DONE THAT MANY TIMES, AND FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE WITH A SEMI-ORGANIZED PLAN OF ACTION. THIS IS NO REFLECTION ON YOUR MOTIVATION TO GET US OFF YOU KNOW WHAT.!
FOR ME THIS IS A MISSION - NOT JUST A MPONEY MAKING PROJECT. I’M ACTUALLY WRITING MY OWN BOOKS, PLUS EDITING 600 BIBLE PAPERS WRITTEN BY MY FRIEND, BUDD BENTLEY BEFORE HE DIED IN ‘97. PERHAPS I’LL SHARE WITH YOU THE CONCEPT OF ‘GIVE TO GAIN! THAT’S ONE OF MY DOMAINS.
THANKS AGAIN - HOPE 32 WILL BE HERE SOON. AL WHALEY
Hi Eric, Great lesson on websites. I have a friend who wants to get your lessons. Is there anyway that you can email them to her? Should she start with lesson one? or should I send the earlier ones to her or what? Please Advise. Thanks, EH
The best thing would be for her to sign up at:
http://www.ericstips.com/join/
She should start at lesson #1, as they are intended to be viewed sequentially. Thanks for the referral
Hi Eric,
I received your Lesson 31, but as yet no lesson 32 for today. I checked out my sub and found it deletted I have change it back so that I can still get your lessons I can pick up lesson 32 ok just as long I can continue to still get the rest of the lessons.
Best regards,
Anne.
Eric you just made my day! Thanks!
Hi Eric,
I do not understand what site builder means and how i can use it to design a website, but for template i know it works.
Hello Emenike,
Site Builders do most of the work for you when building websites. Typically all you need to do, is fill in a few required variables, and it produces an entire website. You don’t often use site builders for designing websites per se, but rather to use them to build websites from a template.
i went to kompozer to try out html found out i knew more about it then i originally thought.i took their test and quizzes and passed pretty quick.i now know enough to get get myself behind the eightball,haha,also went to gutenberg.org thanks for that one i’m proof reading a page for them.i feel if i use their site i might as well make a contribution to their effort which i think is a good one.i,m still looking for my niche.still trying to figure out clickbanks associate program.i started a blog with word press this will be a first for me i’ve never done anything like this before its a little mind boogling
Hi Eric,
What happened! The video cut off helf way through. Got to attractive sites and stopped.
Please try these steps:
http://www.ericstips.com/trouble-viewing-flash-videos/
Hi Eric!
I would like to thank you for these videos. Your extensive knowledge coupled with your talent for explaining things clearly is just a godsend for newbies such as myself.
Could you clarify; you mention the possible pitfalls of using website builders in terms of bad code and footprints. I am wondering if you think these problems apply to the Hostgator template/sitebuilder method you demonstrated?
Thanks in advance.
Deborah
Good question. I think the HG sitebuilder is OK, but I would prefer to use WordPress on Hostgator in most cases. Wordpress is also free with Hostgator and you will see it in lesson #33. If you’re not going to have a blog and you prefer to use a site builder, then I would prefer to use XSitePro, which I am confident creates good code.
Good job eric. So far the lesson has being very educative and interesting but the video/sound is not good. it is cracking and seizing making corrolation difficult.
Eric, you know this can be very discouraging.
Your various lessons on how to build a website would have being very useful to me but because the recording is very bad that i can bearly hear a word it makes the topic uninteresting.
Eric please do something about the recording to enable me follow and enjoy the lessons.
God bless you and your family for your effort
Hmm… this is actually the first complaint I’ve had about the audio. It should not be crackling. Maybe it is your internet connection or your speakers?
Hello Eric… I like Dreamwaever, because it is generating a clean code, it is a wysiwyg editor, and you can work on the quellcode.
All the best,
Arne
Hey Eric:
Being your fan since I bought your PLR product and your webinar with PPC Classroom.
Why would google penalized publisher that use templates due to footprint? Isn’t most of the WP Themse are templates also and therefore have lots of footprint too? Quite frankly I am a bit confuse about footprint. I thought everysite have some form of footprint. In my mind footprint means having “similarity” am I correct Eric? If that is true, then all website have some form of similarity or am I wrong? For exmaple, like all html websites, it start with the followig codes - HTML, then HEAD, then BODY, then DIV codes and so on. Is this flow consider “footprint” then? I would appreciate very much if you can help me to understand.
Lastly, what is consider a good code or clean code in Web designing and a bad code in webdesigning? What does a bad coding do to a website?
Thanking you in advance Eric and I will look forward to your response and advise.
Ed.
Good question. Yes most websites have similar elements, such as the HTML tags you mentioned.
And some systems such as wordpress to create similar elements also.
My understanding of what google might look for in regard to “footprints” are specific elements found in common among what it considers to be “spammy” or low-quality websites.
I would not worry about common HTML tags. What I would be concerned about is using templates or site builders that are often used in spammy methods. In that regard, using Wordpress COULD be a concern. I also think that Google is smart enough that they wouldn’t penalize Wordpress sites across the board. But I think that they can and do penalize sites built by some site-builder/page-generator methods.
As far as what’s considered to be clean code, you can check the actual standard here:
http://validator.w3.org/
Bad coding can affect the way a site is displayed, it can affect how quickly it loads, and it might even affect SEO.
Hello Eric:
I really apprecaite your prompt response and unlike many blogs I have been to, you are truly true to your words in responding to the comments posted on you sites. I am really impressed. Unfortunately not too many so call “gurus” do it. They want us to leave comments/questions on their blog but they wont response to it individually like the way you do.
One last thing Eric, what is consider spammy and low quality websites by google then? What kind of specific “elements” do google consider to be unacceptable footprint then?
Thank you,
Ed.
You can see google’s quality guidelines here:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769#3
For example, one of their guidelines is regarding doorway pages:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66355
So if they find a bunch of sites with doorway pages, they might notice that all those pages have similar elements because they were made by the same page generator.
It’s not so much specific elements that would be considered an unacceptable footprint. It’s the page itself that is unacceptable, and they are merely looking at the footprint as a way of identifying similarly unacceptable pages.
Hostgator Site Builder or Site Profit Bot which do you prefer and why.
Depends on what kind of site you’re building. If you’re simply monetizing unused domains, I would prefer SBP because it’s so fast and it has monetization built-in.
If you’re creating a sales letter type of site, then the HG site builder would be better, because SBP is not designed for it. But I would definitely recommend XSitePro over the HG Site builder (but still host the site at HG). And if you would prefer a blog type of site, then I definitely recommend Wordpress, which will be covered in the upcoming lessons.
Stay away from Site Profit Bot as I purchased it but never received a download link/passwords. He did not respond to email and his supprt ticket system is broken. So I have no way to communicate with him and no way to get a refund on top of that Paypal has denied my request for a refund via their resolution process eventhough there is a 60 day “no questions asked” guaranteed refund.
I intend to call Paypal on the phone to see if it can be resolved.
Hello Bill,
Their support system is currently up and running.
JP would be happy to answer any of your questions at the following link:
http://support.ethiccash.com/
thanks a lot Mr eric…been following your videos and all…i checked out the lolministry and loved the look of the site…it is simply beautiful.what template did you use and where did you get it…i mean other availaible ones.that is..thank you
Thanks
It’s a variation of a theme called silverlight, which I modified myself.
Hi! Eric,
Great lesson as usual but I have to read some lessons several times to understand especially the high tech ones. In time, with your kind of training I will surely be good to apply those lessons on my own.
Hey Eric
Awesome info, I am learning so much and enjoying the way you deliver it in such a clear and factual way. How current is site profit bot? and do you think it has any limitations, eg any type of business it would not be suitable for, such as direct sales, affiliate or mlm ?
Cheers David
Good lesson Eric… Agree with you about certain template driven programmes… Happy with XsitePro myself. Looking forward to your membership lesson!
Thanks Eric for this great info. I think I am gonna make a better web designer following your tips. I am going to go back and take all the other lessons because most paid stuffs don’t give half what I’ve got in this lesson.
Thanks a lot
God bless you even more Eric…people like you make me believe in human beings again …sharing all this crucial information to start a business on line…I haven’t started yet but I already know I will start on the right track because of you…
Hi Eric,
I have been using a sitebuilder and have dedicated quite a bit of time to it. As you mention, being reliant on a particular host is a big disadvantage. As an experiment I went to my site’s homepage and viewed and copied the source. Then I saved it as an .html document using notepad++ (as you taught in a previous lesson). When I opened it, I was delighted and surprised to see that it saved every page, picture, and file of the site! Then I thought about it. Would it possibly be a copywright infringement if I saved the code and uploaded it to another host since I used thier templates? Of course I need to keep everything legal.
You would most likely be OK, since there are probably numerous people using that same template.
The only way to know for sure would be to find out the specific license terms of the template.
Hi Eric,
What can you say about the offer of this link? http://adsensemiracles.com/facebookformula/
He just got my email address and also I’m curious about the payment scheme?
Hello Nicolas,
Thanks for pointing out the product. We are unfamiliar with My Facebook Formula.
If Eric feels that it would benefit his readers at this stage, he’ll be sure to do a review.
You might want to check out Eric’s Facebook lesson here:
http://www.ericstips.com/tips/facebook-like-buttons/
Thanks for the info ive got a site im working on your lessions are great help to me thx..
You are certainly a blessing. You have all the tools and resources to help. God has truly gifted you. What better way to show your gratitude than giving knowledge to others.
All the questions I have are being answered.
Thank you so much.
Hey Erir;
Do you consider Host Gators site build it a good way to go? Is there a ‘footprint’ that google doesn’t like? What about SEO? All in one seo pack, xml sitemaps etc.? Because, if these type sites do not include the basic’s, what good are they?
I think it’s fine, and don’t see any footprint problems. But it’s not ideal for SEO, and I do not think it’s an ideal solution for the type of business we are building. A much better solution for most people is to install WordPress on their site (can be done with a few clicks in your Hostgator control panel). I explain this in lesson #33-36.
I have a few sites with godaddy website tonight and I like it a lot more than RVsitebuilder.. most recently I have been editing templates to make them my own with html, css, etc. Whole new world of skill needed but much cheaper.
Thanks for your lessons - new member here
How do I get the lessons that I have not got on my list I try to saved them in my email and some how lesson 32 is not there. some where I seen how to go down all the videos and now I can;t get back to them somebody please help me
Hello Harry,
You can visit EricsTips.com to see the latest lesson updates and revisit earlier lessons:
http://www.ericstips.com/tips/category/lessons/
Here is the direct link to lesson 32:
http://www.ericstips.com/tips/lesson32/
If your email happens to block some of the lessons, we recommend that you view this tip on whitelisting an email address:
http://www.ericstips.com/whitelist/