EZ SiteBuilder in Review

[Menard]

As one of my sites (okay, actually 3) deals with webmaster tools, which are free, I thought it would be a good idea to tryout some freeware website builders which are designed for beginners. Being able to recommend a piece of software by actually having used it is of course valid, but I wanted to be able to show what a website built with it would look like.

My first test was a program called EZ SiteMaker. The title is fairly accurate.

This program is a small download of 1529 kb.

It's main screen gives 4 options for the web builder which is to build a site, upload that site, promote that site, and get more information about web building and HTML tutorials.



One of the first options available is to select or customize a template from a whopping 2 available. You can customize such things as background color, nav bar color, and links color. If you selected the option for a business website as well, you can choose graphical buttons.



Text entry is rather straight forward. EZ SiteMaker gives fill in the blank boxes for a heading, sub-heading, introductory paragraph, body, and a space to add a picture (which it will resize to a tiny picture if you don't). This is just for your index page as it allows you up to three additional pages, plus a links page (maximum of 6 links). Each page can be customized further with options for font style, size, and color, as well for background color.

If you know some HTML, you can add it to the text of the page and it will accept it (as to how I was able to get 18 links on a page and three images on another). It will even accept javascript. If you do add your own image tags for images, you need to add your images to a folder called WebPages in the EZ SiteMaker folder in you program files directory in Windows. This will allow a preview and have them in the right folder when it comes to uploading it.

A downside to this text entry is that they have made no provisions for entering keyword and description meta tags.



The downside to the website creation is that although you can save your pages as a profile and open them later to finish them, it will not save customizations in a profile. If you do not plan to finish your site in one sitting, then I would recommend saving your customizations for last, as you can always go back to any point in the creation process.

After your site is finished and you have web hosting (and gee, I hope you didn't pay for it), EZ SiteMaker has a built-in ftp client which will upload your files. It works well, with one annoyance. As it stores your site in the file called webpages; it also stores all the other images for other templates in there as well and will upload every single file in that folder. As these are very small files, that is not a big deal, just an annoyance.



After having your site up and running on the web, you will then want to promote it. EZ SiteBuilder also has built-in search engine and FFA submitters. How well they work, I don't know, as I have yet to get back an email confirmation for any of the submittals.



EZ SiteMaker offers a good concept in its design; that is to provide all the tools one needs to get their site built, hosted, and promoted within one small package. It however, does have its limitations. If you only want a small site and don't care to learn HTML or have a limited knowledge of HTML, it will provide what you need. If you want total control over your design, you won't find it here.

You can get the program here at Download.com

If you want to see a site built with EZ SiteMaker, check out Zhorkow's Cybiko Files which is the test site I built with EZ SiteMaker.

The site is hosted for free by IP DATA ZONE

If you use the program and want to add meta tags to your pages, you can use the freeware program Metty which will not only allow you to create the tags, but will also insert them for you without having to use an html editor. Just, when starting the program, clear any fields which have information in them, or else you will end up creating double tags.

An even easier and smaller program to use is Web Page Tune Up

Of course, you can find free tools, free hosting, and promote your site for free at my site, Phamboti's Design-a-Site

[Queen Bee]

Nice article! This is good to know. I am always unsure of how to help less experienced users when they want to create their own personal website without purchasing expensive software like Frontpage or Dreamweaver. I find Netscape Composer incredibly displeasing, and I'm glad to know that there is free software like this available. Thanks for the review.

P.S. I had to edit your post because the link to your example page, Zhorkow's Cybiko Files, was broken. I removed the 'index.htm' part of the URL. It's a nice, clean page, by the way! I wish I could see more beginner pages that looked like this. It would be much easier on my eyes.

[Menard]

Within the next several weeks, I will be testing at least 2 or 3 more website creators and providing test sites for an example. The reason I decided to do test sites was that one of the programs I had linked on my page turned out not to work as indicated (frankly, it only turned out a blank page). As I have added a freeware picks page to my site, I thought it would be a good idea to have online samples of what these programs can do (I hope it was a good idea).

[Andy]

Great work, Menard!

May I suggest you include HTML-Kit in your list of tools on your site. It's free from http://www.chami.com

This is what I use. It's aimed at coding with a preview rather than WYSIWYG and has a large number of community produced plugins available.

I used to use 1st Page 2000 which I see on your list, but now I prefer HTML-Kit.

[Menard]

HTML-Kit has been added.

I am going to have to update my page soon, as it is getting ugly with all the content I am adding. I am going to be moving some stuff, such as the site submitters, to another page. I hope to add more stuff when I get the page cleaned up.

[Menard]

Well, I'll be danged.

I uploaded that site on Sunday afternoon, my time, and here it is less than 48 hours later and Google already has it listed.

[Andy]

You probably got enough good quality links pointing to your sites to get the trust of Google for a quick update 

[Menard]

What struck me as odd though is that is the first time I have used that host. None of my other sites are hosted with them. Of course, I did use the search engine submittals and links posted on my Design-a-Site page.