LESSON #30: Using Web Authoring Software

By | January 11, 2009

In the past couple of lessons, I showed you how to build a basic website with HTML and upload it to the web.

But what if you don’t want to become an HTML expert and write your website code from scratch?

One solution for you would be to use a web authoring software program…

(Watch this video…)

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Main points:

  • Web authoring software (aka. HTML editor) helps you build a website

    For example…
    -Microsoft FrontPage
    -Adobe Dreamweaver

  • I recommend XSitePro which is a hybrid HTML editor/ site builder/ site management platform.

  • Free option:

    NVU (old version)
    KompoZer (recommended) – http://kompozer.sourceforge.net

    (see demo using KompoZer on video)

  • WYSIWYG HTML editor (such as KompoZer) enables you to build a site without writing any code.

    Action step:

    1) Decide if you would like to use a web authoring program to build your site.

    2) If yes, choose a program and start using it.

    In lesson 27 I covered several different methods of building a website. If you’re not yet sure which method you want to use, I recommend reviewing that lesson.

    We’ve covered the first two methods so far. Next on the list are templates and site builders, and I’ll be covering those in the next lesson.

    As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below 🙂

    Have a great day!

  • 164 thoughts on “LESSON #30: Using Web Authoring Software

    1. Maria

      Dear Eric
      I must say your lessons are absolutely wonderful. I like your ideas, style, the organization of the material, the tips – everything, and I have worked with IT and programming since 1986!
      I actually do not have words to describe how impressed I am.

      Reply
    2. ruth

      I taught for 39 years and had written goals and they were helpful.
      After retiring I failed to continue this plan.
      Now at 88 I realize I need a plan more than ever and deadlines if I want to accomplish my latest goals. Thanks for reminding me of their importance.
      Maybe you ought to go one step further and that is an analysis of our daily activities
      and the time we devote to various activities that is distracting from achieving our goals.
      It could be loafing, TV viewing, travel,
      household chores, shopping, club activites,
      sports activites, reading, yard and garden maintenance are only a partial list that one needs to analyze.

      Reply
    3. Karey

      Hello Eric Nolmlund (The Swede)
      I’m so glad I discovered your wonderfull news letter and teaching me html and site building for free!. Although I’m an old guy
      with leaning problems at 79 I still go back and read your great detailed instructions and learn a little every day and hope to be able to build my own site some day. I have been hard hit by the recession and in need of money fast because of some bad business decissions I made last year.
      It is tough but I’ll keep at it till I succeed.
      All the Best Karey

      Reply
    4. MrTN

      My brother and I is the way educated folks say it. Some just want to sound folksy, but “me and my brother” is just plain ignorant.

      Reply
    5. Sherry

      Eric,
      Love your series of lessons. Very informational. For some reason using KompoZer I could not get the picture I added to show up on my web page. I even tried with Filezilla and uploaded the image to a new folder “Images”. My host is Dream Host and there is not a public_html folder set up for any of my websites.
      Any thoughts on what I need to do?

      Reply
    6. fidel pavot

      Hi, eric thanks for the lessons. if i would know your informations in your lessons before i would not wasted so much time seaching worthless programs.

      Reply
    7. larryj

      Hey Eric, thanks for the info on KompoZer. That’s what I like about your Internet Marketing
      Tips. You give for everyone. The seasoned veteran, who has a nice bank account and the newbie who has none. When newbies can get good effective tools for little or no cost, that helps us to maintain a marketing budget. Thanks for all your help.

      larryj

      Reply
    8. Laurynas

      Hi Eric.
      I have followed every step on this video, but after refreshing the site it still shows the same old page I’ve created with HTML.
      Do I have to delete the old one in public_html folder to make work a new one?
      Thank you so much for these videos 😉

      Reply
    9. Eric Post author

      If the file has the same name, you should be able to overwrite it when you upload it. If that doesn’t work, you could try deleting the old one. Sometimes people end up with an index.html and index.htm or index.php simultaneously, without realizing it. In such cases, the index.html generally trumps the others.

      Reply
    10. Deborah Van Dusen

      Hey Eric,
      Glad I came back to your GREAT lessons for free!!! Unfortunately I have spent money on other programs that either whizz through clicking here and there or leave out steps to get you up and running in IM. I do have XSite Pro 2 and have been through the on-line step by step tutorial, but when I try it on my own, I don’t know what to do first, or where to find what I need and spend all day looking up the answers in their voluminous manual online. I need something that gives faster results! Or is more intuitive. One option I see is to get more training for it (the videos) but it requires spending even more money which I don’t have now! I find kompozer to be the same, I don’t know what to do first with these things. I paid $12.00 for tutorial videos for kompozer but kept messing up my login attempts and could not get an answer, or access to it from the kompozer teacher. I have a college degree but unless its super simple on the pc, I get stuck! What do you suggest?

      Reply
    11. Micah

      Hi Deborah,

      There’s no better way to learn how to effectively use your web authoring software, than to spend time with it, hands on!

      It’s no different than book knowledge versus experiential knowledge. Book knowledge doesn’t get much done, but the application of that knowledge will!

      I recommend that you set aside some time to play with the software, and experiment with it to see what happens when you use the features and commands.

      Don’t be afraid to mess up, or that you might learn things out of order. Every website project is different anyway!

      Reply
    12. Nicolas Tan

      Hi Eric,

      This is about your reply to LeRoy’s comment above.

      I just can’t get what you meant by “I added my aff link to the link in your comment”

      Reply
    13. Nicolas Tan

      Hi Micah,

      Eric added his affiliate link to 90secondwebsitebuilder? Is that what he meant? because that is the only link in the comment of LeRoy. Can that be done?

      Reply
    14. Micah

      Hi Nicolas,

      Yes! If you hover your mouse over the link, you’ll see that the last part of it says, “?id=toplevel.” That is Eric’s ClickBank ID that was added.

      Reply
    15. seo

      p.s. Eric I am very very grateful for your unconditional lessons/tips they are equivalent to their weight in gold; I can’t repay you moneywise but just wait when my income begins.Moreover, i have templates from Killer presell templates as well as from Niche review templates..but cant seem to get started and going. Your golden advice is most appreciated.
      Thank you very much,
      badge maker software

      Reply
    16. Jeremy Ballance

      Greetings Eric, I want to thank you for all that you have given; I am learning much. Now I have two online mentors….you and Chris Farrell.

      Reply
    17. jaco

      hi eric.

      as always thank you for the great lessons. i purchased XsitePro 2 yesterday, and after installing, you have to download the resources pack. i have problems downloading the resources pack, the download is extremely slow, like 6 KB/S, with a est time of 74 hours for download.

      i tried to download Accelerator Plus to help for a faster download, but have the same problem with the download,
      . when i loose connection, the download dialog freezes and then i have to start over.

      do you have eny advise for me please

      regards
      jaco

      Reply
    18. Eric Post author

      I would say that’s not typical. There are many factors that can affect download speed, but if you’re sure it’s not on your end, I’d recommend getting in touch with XSitePro to make sure it’s not a connectivity issue on their end. Maybe they can put it on a different server for you to download from.

      Reply
    19. Stu

      Hi Eric, Problem with lesson 30 which stops after 1min 17secs. No problems with previous lessons.

      Reply
    20. William Brant

      Hey Eric,

      I remember a few years back and XSitePro seemed to be the absolute go to tool. Since then it seems the move has been to WordPress for most people.

      Just curious if there any any advantages of building out sites with XSitePro over using a WordPress base.

      Reply
    21. cordrick callaway

      Eric thanks for the great tips,I am new at this just trying to find honest people.I have been trick with so much push button software that I don’t want to see anymore.I rather do it the old fashion way.

      Reply
    22. Micah

      Hello William,

      The XSitePro staff have continually worked hard to keep the product current. Looks like they’re up to version 2.5 now.

      XSitePro is great for building any normal website. WordPress is great if you want your site to be a blog.

      Reply
    23. marijke

      hello eric, thanks for all you gave so far, i find it extraordinary! I would like to know how you judge fusionHQ for website (and business) building? And how do you judge Profits theme (with wp)? thanks for an anwser,
      Marijke

      Reply
    24. Micah

      Hello Marijke,

      Thanks for pointing out the products. We are unfamiliar with fusionHQ and Profits theme (with wp).

      If Eric feels that it would benefit his readers at this stage, he’ll be sure to do a review.

      Reply
    25. Candy Kawachi

      My husband and i have been so fortunate that Peter could carry out his inquiry using the precious recommendations he got from your own web site. It’s not at all simplistic just to choose to be handing out tactics which usually people have been selling. We acknowledge we’ve got the website owner to give thanks to for that. The entire illustrations you have made, the easy website menu, the relationships your site give support to create – it’s got most unbelievable, and it’s assisting our son and the family reason why this idea is pleasurable, and that is really vital. Thank you for the whole lot!

      Reply
    26. Mark Lewis

      Micah, can you resend tip #31, i accidentally delete it. Also, if you did not get my reply in lesson #28, building a html site, i believe i save the document. I was able to see the html on the firefox web page, but once i put then nothing showed.

      Please direct.

      Mark.

      Thanks.

      Reply
    27. Micah

      Hello Mark,

      The next lesson will be sent to you soon. You can also visit the following link to see the latest lesson updates and revisit earlier lessons:
      http://www.ericstips.com/tips/category/lessons/

      Here is the direct link to lesson 31:

      LESSON #31: Using Templates and Site Builders

      You may also simply change the number at the end of the link, to go to a different lesson number (example: /lesson1, /lesson2, /lesson3, etc…).

      If your email happens to block some of the lessons, we recommend that you view this tip on whitelisting an email address:

      How To Add a Sender to Your Whitelist (Safelist)

      We did receive your message, but it did not automatically appear. We have to manually approve all comments, due to spam.

      Here was our reply:

      “At what point did you save, and refresh the page in Firefox?

      The first few things (Tags) Eric added would be invisible on your webpage. The first actual text that he inserted, was the Title, at the 7:32 mark in the video.”

      Reply
    28. Mark Lewis

      Thank, Micah, i don’t believe that i hit refresh. I just simple save the document and then went straight to the web page. I will watch the video again and see at what point the page was refreshed.

      Also, thanks for sending the link for lesson 31.

      Mark

      Thanks.

      Reply
    29. Earlene

      Hmm it appears like your website ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I
      guess I’ll just sum it up what I wrote and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog.

      I as well am an aspiring blog blogger but
      I’m still new to everything. Do you have any helpful hints for novice blog writers? I’d definitely appreciate it.

      Reply
    30. Ben Upaka

      Hello,
      I have heard much about Dreamweaver.I plan on using Coffecup.Any downside with CoffeCup HTML Editor please?I have not heard it mentioned anywhere in these discussions.

      Reply
    31. Lenore

      How do you make a responsive website with that software? I want have mobile friendly website that is will also resize to tablets.

      Reply
    32. Michael Gorman

      Hi Eric,
      I like Kompozer, but i have been using WordPress a lot recently, as this is a content management system you can produce websites very easily-way more than blogging software!

      Reply
    33. Sue

      Thank you for providing in detail an incredible amount of detailed information in these step-by-step lessons. The beauty of each is that if I need to refer back to them, I have each of them saved like you suggested in a separate folder. It’s amazing how many options are available to inevitably create and set up a working website that actually a person can be proud to own and operate.

      Reply
    34. Gilberto

      Thank you Eric. You are awesome and a genius to boot. How can you possibly have so much in your head with room to spare is my guess. So many applications, so little time. I have dream weaver an other Adobe programs but have not learned a single one. A little intimidating. Thanks for all your lessons. They are simply great for a newbie like me.

      Reply
    35. Jorge

      Eric this is such and incredible lesson Iam very excited and motivated thanks friend God bless you

      Reply
    36. Sam

      Hi Eric

      first off i’d like to say WOW you truly are a awesome coach and teacher and your site has given so much to people wanting to learn internet marketing…

      Question? Is it better to do all the lessons before registering a website and finding a host…I have a idea about a App i’d like to market, however i still have to learn how to build a App and since i’m still learning what your teaching. Would i be registering a website to early without having my App ready and i’m not too sure what else i could market in the mean time…

      But love what youve been teaching…

      Reply
      1. Micah

        Hello Sam,

        It’s easier if you follow the steps as you study them, because they may be forgotten later on. But, if you would rather view more lessons first, that is fine. You may always revisit any lessons again, when you are ready.

        Reply

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