Nelson is President of BestWebsite, LLC. Some of his history includes; building www.BuySellWebsite.com into the internet's most popular marketplace for buying and selling website businesses. This business was chosen by the #1 internet marketing company in the world, The Internet Marketing Center® as a 2005 Featured Success Story.

Nelson also developed the internet's longest running Website Appraisal system. This gave him the unique opportunity to learn how hundreds of other website owners have made their businesses successful.

He has also had the opportunity to work as a Web Master for Walt Disney World® and learn from some of the best web designers in the world, how to build remarkable websites.

Nelson is a proven Entrepreneur, Web Master, Graphic Designer and Database Designer and is uniquely able to address all aspects of building and running a highly profitable website business.

Find out more at www.BestWebsite.com.

When it comes to web design software and graphics software, a lot of internet marketing books tend to gloss over the details or at best, just list the different software tools you can use. I've got my opinions on this, but it is interesting to note that two of the best selling internet marketing books are written by multi-millionaires who did not do any design themselves, making them unable to provide useful advice to address the issues where most people struggle to build a successful website.

It is important to note that in general most successful website business owners, including myself, do not build the entire websites themselves. They hire out some of the work; whether it is database design, graphics, special applications or Flash.

With that said, we are looking for the web design tool that provides us the most features, is the easiest to use and has the ability for others to easily plug-in components like database coding, Java applets and Flash design, among others.

The vast majority of website owners have chosen one of two tools to build and manage their websites, including myself. Those are either Microsoft Expression Web (Formally Microsoft FrontPage) or Adobe DreamWeaver (Formally Macromedia DreamWeaver). There are many other tools, but these two are the most used by successful website owners and are considered to be the most versatile and professional.

Both tools allow you total control over almost every aspect of the design process, from importing graphics and Flash designs, database creation, creating forms, creating blogs, updating pages and backing up your site.

Some people will cringe when talking about Microsoft Web Design products as those of you who have used earlier versions than Microsoft FrontPage 2003 will remember it was not a great design tool. The good news is that with the latest release, Expression Web, it is now an excellent design tool. Both of these tools are now far more similar than dissimilar.

My preference is for Microsoft Expression Web. One of the reasons is the amazing Database Wizard that is included with the software. You can create complex databases just by answering the questions the Wizard asks you about how you want your database to operate.

Note: See the end of this Chapter for specific database examples.

Both web design tools allow you to have multiple people work on your website, at one time, without the fear of deleting or writing over someone else's code. The goal here is to run a successful website, and not necessarily build it entirely yourself.

To me, you'll probably want to hire out some of the aspects that you either can't do or are not good at and then have those components plugged into your website. This includes things like graphics, database coding and Flash design, among others. The end goal here is for you to become good at managing websites through one of these tools and not necessarily trying to build the websites entirely yourself.

For instance, if you choose to have someone create the graphics for you and then someone else build a template page for you. Learning these tools allows you to then go in and add additional pages with ease and just add the text and pictures you would like. (I show specific examples later in this chapter).

You can use any design software you choose, however by using Expression Web or DreamWeaver gives you the best options for features, ease of use, and ability to have others work with you to grow your site in the future.

For many, building and managing a website is an incredibly difficult task, I have complete empathy for them because it is definitely a difficult thing to do. Most people never make it through the process of building a website that can actually earn money. Often it is either incomplete, looks terrible or is abandoned out of frustration.

Since this is a key element of running a Successful Website, I'd like to give a specific example of how I built the "structure" of BestWebsite.com. I also call this the "template" for the site. By template, I mean designing the graphics and navigation structure that is common to all pages and thus will be seen on each page of the website.

You can see my logo graphic at the top left, (created in Adobe Photoshop) and I've chosen a top and bottom navigation structure so people use the hyperlinks at the top and bottom of the pages to navigate through the site.



*This template is laid out using a Table, I go into more detail about Tables in a later section.

You can build pages in either Expression Web or DreamWeaver without having a web server set up to host your site. The software program just saves the pages you create on your local hard drive. However, I recommend setting up your web server first and then logging into the site "live" and building the pages right on the server so it is viewable on the internet as soon as you save the page.

You can build pages in either Expression Web or DreamWeaver without having a web server set up to host your site. The software program just saves the pages you create on your local hard drive. However, I recommend setting up your web server first and then logging into the site "live" and building the pages right on the server so it is viewable on the internet as soon as you save the page.

What I did first, after opening the Expression Web application and logging into my server was I clicked the File menu, then New then Blank Page and then Table, Insert and Table again, and then chose to insert a Table with 4 rows and 1 column and set the width of the Table to be 800 pixels. I also set the borders to zero so the outline of the Table would not be visible to people who view the page through a browser; only to me so I can lay the page out during design and position the other elements like graphics.

Then I right clicked the third row down and selected cell properties and changed the background to light blue. I then used the Cell Corners and Shading to automatically create the black beveled look at the top and the shadow at the bottom of the Table.

Then I dragged and dropped the BestWebsite graphic into the top left and added the text hyperlinks "Home | Literary Agents | About Us | Contact Us" to the top and bottom of the page as well as the copyright notice at the bottom and then phone and email at the top right. Then I clicked Save As and chose Dynamic Web Template(more on this in a moment.) After that I right clicked inside the third row which I made a blue background earlier and then select Manage Editable Regions (I explain this below) and I entered "Main Body" then Clicked on Add and then closed the dialog box.

Yes, that sounds a little complicated, but congratulations is in order because you've just been through one of the most difficult things to do when building your website. Which is to build the general design for your website that all other pages can be created from. (I go into more detail about creating a template for your site in a later chapter.)

So what is a Dynamic Web Template? It is an easy way to maintain a consistent look and feel throughout your website and this makes updates and adding pages a breeze. In the figure below, you can see an orange box. When you create a new page from this Dynamic Web Template, the only thing that can be changed on this new page is the contents inside the orange box. This is helpful because you'll never accidentally change the template of the website. Or anyone else you have log in to help you build your website.



If you would like to change the template at any time, e.g. anything outside the orange box; you just open the template page and make your change to it and then it automatically updates every page in your website. It's a fantastic way to easily manage a website.

When you are ready to create a new page for your site after you have created a template, just click File, New Page and then Attach Dynamic Web Template. You'll then be looking at a page just like the one above, but you're now ready to add your content and/or any pictures. Here's what I added to create my home page...



The picture was added from clip art from iStockPhoto.com for less than $20. It is a fantastic place to find excellent quality photos that are royalty free. You'll notice that the background is now green instead of the blue from the template. That is only because the picture's background was green. On the rest of the pages of my site, like the Contact Us, About Us and other pages all have the blue background.

It is incredibly easy to get bogged down in the details of building a website. There are so many different coding options, server architectures, database tools and other options -- it can literally feel mind numbing. I recently watched the 2 minute introduction video for Expression Web and was truly amazed how confused I was about what they were talking about. They have a way of making it complicated sometimes.

By setting up your server with Intermedia.net this gives almost limitless support for any type of server setup, software and database you'd like to use. And you can choose the cheapest web server hosting option and upgrade later if you need any additional add-ons like an SQL database server or support for ColdFusion.

Then by using Expression Web or DreamWeaver you now have the maximum possible options for building your website. Both software programs offer free 30 day downloads and I encourage you to download them to see which one fits you better. Both are now more similar than ever and if you know one of them, you can move to the other and not be totally confused.

They both retail for around $400 so you might want to check eBay for used copies. Also, for most people you can go with a slightly older version of Expression Web which is FrontPage 2003 or Dreamweaver 7 which will make it much cheaper if budgeting is a concern.

Many people get lost focusing on building their site and all these great features it's going to have and then think people will just come to their site and immediately recognize how great it is and buy or join. This is definitely not what happens, you must complete your site to the point of being launched and get to the marketing of the site, it will undoubtedly take longer than you think, require more money than you thought and be harder than expected.

When embarking on building a successful website, most people plan for a 100 mile journey, when in reality it is more like a 1,000 mile journey. This is why so many people never complete their site - they run out of time, money and patience.

The point here is to, as quickly as possible, create a professional website that looks good in any browser and on any display monitor and create it so it's easy to manage in the future both by yourself and/or with anyone you hire to help.

There are so many different things you must be good at to run a successful, profitable website, you can't get bogged down building your website. Just get the job done in excellent fashion and move on to the marketing and other duties as fast as possible. Given the complexities of web design, this is not an easy task. I will go into more detail later about building your website.

Note: The reason I didn't mention Adobe Flash as a design tool is because the majority of websites don't need to be built using Flash. Plus websites are easier to manage in either Expression Web or Dreamweaver. I would only use Flash if you are building a visually intensive website such that they do for movies and celebrities.

There is also the issue with Search Engine Optimization which is definitely harder with a Flash designed site. It's ok to put Flash movies, banners or other elements into your website designed in one of the two tools I previously recommended, just don't use Flash to build your entire site.

To start, I need to give a brief explanation of how BuySellWebsite.com operates. The website accepts classified listings and then displays them on its website for users to search. The pages are set up similar to eBay's where there are a number of listings on each page where you can click the hyperlink to read more about each business for sale.

The database I built for BuySellWebsite.com was built in this manner. Just to give you an idea of how powerful this can be, I'll walk you through the steps of creating this database from scratch, with no programming knowledge.

The database for BuySellWebsite.com ran most of this site. This is fantastic because it's like having an additional employee that's free. After successful payment the database took the listings, inserted them into the database, rotated the ads properly, deleted old listings, processed renewals, retrieved lost passwords and allowed users to update their listings.

Since the database basically ran the website, this is why having one is so valuable. I used Microsoft Expression Web to build this database structure almost entirely by answering questions about how I needed the database to operate. Then Expression Web will write the database code in Active Server Pages (ASP) and insert it into your pages automatically. It is a brilliant tool if you know how to use it correctly. (I'll go more in depth about database creation in a Chapter 8.)

I want to give an example of how I use Microsoft Expression Web to manage my website and have others import work into it.

I needed a specific part of the database built that Microsoft Expression Web could not do through the Database Wizard. Specifically, I was trying to set up a tracking feature, where it tracked the number of times each classified ad was clicked on.

I contacted a database designer, and told him the specifics of what was needed as well as the username and password for logging into my web server. He then created the code on his computer and logged in to my server through File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and uploaded the code into the proper area and modified a few of the pages on the server that dealt with how the database operates.

This cost me about $200 and was well worth it because of the complicated nature of the coding as well as the value it added to my website. Many database designers will use software that you have never heard of to create their code, and most of them prefer to log in via FTP to add it to your website. Both Expression Web and DreamWeaver allow database designers to connect to your web server in the manner they choose and add their code seamlessly into your website.

Once again, I am describing how successful website owners build and run their websites so the discussion about Graphics is based on this view point. Most successful website owners can both maintain their website through one of the web design software tools previously mentioned as well as at least be able to modify their own graphics, if not create them themselves using one of the two software tools listed below.

The reason why so many successful website owners can both maintain their own website and modify their graphics is because this puts them in the drivers seat as far as being able to build the website they see in their minds eye and create the marketing campaign around it.

I can't stress enough how important it is to know how to at least maintain your own website and modify your own graphics. Understanding these two things will automatically put you ahead of most of your competition and if you can bring yourself to the point of being able to also build your own pages and design your own graphics you can almost guarantee your site will have at least some success.

If you were to remove the graphics from almost any website, there almost isn't a website. Great quality, professional graphics will definitely create credibility and make you stand out from the rest. There are really two options with graphics; create your own or hire out the creation.

If you are creating your own, the two main choices of software that website owners choose are Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Fireworks. These two can do great things for creating excellent graphics for your website and are especially designed to create website graphics.

I recommend these two not only because of their ability to build amazing graphics, but you now have them in an original file format that can be modified by most other graphic designers if you need help and or the ability to sell them along with your website to make additional money. (More on this in a later chapter.)

Photoshop is the more expensive, about $600 and fireworks $299. If you're upgrading from a previous version they are about half that cost.

If you will be hiring out the creation of your graphics, a great way to get it done cost effectively is by going to eLance.com and posting a free ad for what you need and you will quickly have 20-30 people bidding on creating your graphics for you and then just chose the one you are most comfortable with.

It pays to have some layout design already sketched out on paper as to what you want done as far as graphics are concerned. I'll give a couple of examples because sometimes people don't know where to start out.

Probably the most important graphic on your site will be your main header graphic that contains your business name and slogan. As an example the BestWebsite header graphic is simple text with a dividing line between the name and slogan.



This graphic is only 250 pixels by 50 pixels and is then placed on the top of the page in a table with rounded borders to frame the graphic. This is the simplest of graphics created in Photoshop that uses a few effects like Bevel/Emboss, and Drop Shadow.

If you hired someone to create this graphic for you on eLance.com, it would probably cost $50-$100. Another more complicated graphic is the one I did for BuySellWebsite.com that runs the entire length of the top of the website. It is 800 pixels wide by 70 pixels high.



(shown here smaller than actual size)

This graphic has the business name, slogan, background, and silhouette of people shaking hands. This graphic would probably cost between $150-$200 on eLance.com. How big your graphic is depends on how you intend to lay your website out.

I want to describe the difference between creating your own graphics, and being able to modify graphics. If you are able to modify graphics, this means that you are able to open an existing graphic in a graphic design tool and be able to do some general modifications to it. As an example, I got this billboard sign from clipart, opened it in Photoshop and added the words "Advertise Here." in red and 1.800.CALL.NOW in black.



Being able to modify graphics would also entail resizing images and cropping them. If you try to resize a graphic in either Dreamweaver or Expression Web then the graphic loses resolution and looks pixilated. This is why it's good to be able to know how to modify graphics, because you can open the graphic in your graphic design tool, and properly resize the image without losing any image quality.

Conversely, if you have to rely on a graphic designer to make minor changes, you will quickly deplete your budget and add significant time to the design process.

Being able to create graphics is just as it sounds, it is the ability to start with a blank screen and create images from nothing.

Most successful website owners don't know how to create graphics from scratch. However, they do know how to modify existing graphics.

I'd like to describe one of the key differences between those who make money online, and those who lose money online. Those who make money online, know about the 100% rule, which is that they don't need things to be 100% correct before they move on. I'll give an example

When a friend was designing a website in the past, he needed a login function where it checked for a user ID and password to be able to view a membership section of the website. There wasn't any sensitive information located in the membership section, so security was not high priority. Instead of hiring out the database design that needed to occur to be able to validate logins, he just used a submission form where people entered their username and password, and it takes them directly to the members section without checking to see if it's correct.

Since he knew that the vast majority of people, probably 99% or more, would fill out the new user form first and then attempt to login, he knew it was fine not to have it 100% correct.

There are several reasons to do this. The most important is that he still has control over his website because he can easily create a login function himself using the tools provided by the Web design software. He also saved the money that he would have needed to spend on the designer.

Having as much control over your own website is essential. Also saving time and money is critically important. Most of the time this advice is met with aversion, and I can understand the criticism. However, I am merely stating one of the differences between people who make money online and people who don't is that those who do know how to quickly build the function they need without, if possible, involving any outside designer or spending money.

I have seen many websites never get off the ground, mostly because they were trying too hard to make things 100% right at the beginning. Think about the aspects of your website that can be solved the easy way first. Then, once your website is up and running and you understand how people use your website, you can come back to that aspect and correct it or possibly realize that nothing more needs to be done.

My intention with this book is not to describe the Utopian way to build a website, it is to describe how successful business owners build and run their websites to earn significant money online.

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