SYNAPSE CIRCUIT FREE WEB DESIGN SOFTWARE

Above: An example of a music site. But with my help you can do better!

SYNAPSE CIRCUIT

WEBSITE DESIGN WYSIWYG
Goodhour, Synapse Circuit Readers! How goes it? What’s happening in your world? Are you using your tech to the best advantage? I sure hope so! Wink, wink...

Hey, you wouldn’t happen to be a musician would you? Do you, like me, hate iTunes? Wouldn’t you want to sell your very own music from your own website? Are you interested in selling anything at all from your own website? Great! Read on...

WEB DESIGN THE PAINLESS WAY?
GET THE X5 FACTOR!
Let’s have a little discussion about the following:-

Online site builders

Online shop facilities such as eBay, Amazon and so on

The advantages of having your own eCommerce website

Why getting your music on iTunes is a bad idea

ONLINE SITE BUILDERS
Online site builders can either come with a web hosting service such as Go Daddy or via an all-purpose online facility such as WIX. These facilities are quite good on the whole but you may be better off with dedicated software such as Incomedia WebSite X5 that I am introducing to you now!

The advantage of using a web design program is that you do not have to be online while you put together the site. And while you have your own software it gives you more of an opportunity to look at the myriad of hosting services out there! I think that it is important to go through the thought process of choosing a host i.e. Go Daddy! If you haven’t read my articles on ‘Web Design’ before I should tell you that there is one dodgy host you ought to be aware of and that’s 1 & 1 or 1 and 1; the people behind this hosting “company” are happy to take your money but the service offered can be very questionable. Trying to reason with them is like talking to a brick wall! You have been warned! And just in case you weren’t paying attention: AVOID 1 & 1 HOSTING SERVICES!
Choosing a domain name and then registering it with a host is an important part of the whole joy of doing it yourself. Then there’s designing the site... I think you will have more control over the design aspect by being able to look at templates as found in WebSite X5 10 (free) and then backward engineer them so to speak. When I used to teach Photoshop for beginners with a view to producing web graphics I had to get my pupils familiar with graphics beyond the logo such as the “Header” that the logo usually sits on. By looking at the WebSite X5 templates you will be able to work it all out!

So, by using this software you’d be able to understand the graphical components of a website design.

ONLINE STORES
Online store facilities such as Amazon, eBay and others have the advantage of being able to place what you wish to sell in a list of similar products and the chances of selling your product is very high. The disadvantage is that these facilities take way too much of your sale! I am not too sure about the exact percentage but I have been told by a former Amazon account holder that it is too much and when things go wrong Amazon are not the easiest of people to deal with matters such as customer complaints!

A friend of mine used to sell cake accessories on Amazon and she had a few problems with a couple of her customers; they made complaints to Amazon and without so much of a warning my friend’s account was closed! No discussion to get to the heart of the matter just Amazon pulling down the shutters before you can blink! The sad thing was that my friend was starting to make some money! She had put a lot of effort in building her business and Amazon shot it down without warning or discussion. How rotten!

With your own eCommerce enabled website you will be able to stipulate your own customer services and keep your profits.

THE ADVANTAGES OF YOUR OWN eCOMMMERCE SITE
Aside from maintaining your own customer services and not giving any of your sales to the likes of Amazon, eBay, etc is that you can charge what you feel your product is worth. You can change your shop listings at will!

You can also change the way your online shop looks at will!

As a former professional web and graphic designer I came to loathe the uniform ideas of how a website should look. I prefer the old days when people with no formal training would create graphics that matches what they are into. I miss that today! Now websites have this corporate look that quite frankly is boring! Be an individual and stand out with WebSite X5!

iTUNES IS A BAD IDEA
The biggest trick that facilities like iTunes and other music distributors have done is to convince the independent musician that they are the gateway to success! WRONG!!!! When I first started making a career in multimedia many independent artists without a recording contract used to sell their music from their own website; it was an exciting time and it inspired me to do my own thing and sell it in the same way! Foolishly, I gave my power away to so-called digital distributors such as CD Baby who did not do anything for me! Many artists tried to get exposure by using MySpace and the time I was using it I started to get great feedback from prospective fans – for lack of a better word. These days people are using Facebook and G Plus to get exposure. But they also use a digital distributor to get the music in iTunes which is self-defeating. Why spend so much time on promoting your music through Facebook, G+ and so on when you can direct people to purchase your home made CDs and MP3 downloads? You ought to be directing people to your own site! Why would you want let other digital distributors get you into iTunes for a fee? It’s bad enough that iTunes have devalued the cost of music purchases. What if your music is so original that you have to sell it at a price set by iTunes?

Design your own site! It is not difficult!

DOWNLOAD WEBSITE X5 10 FREE!!!
And go through the tutorial below!

Here’s the link to the official Incomedia website: WEBSITE X5 10 FREE


I will start a series of tutorials soon that will show you how to get your eCommerce enabled site up and running!

If you have something specific in mind that you will like to know then mention it in a comment below and I will see what I can do by the way of a tutorial!

THANKS FOR READING...

Please check out the Synapse Circuit site here: Synapse Circuit.com

Yes, I am well aware that the site is due an update soon! It’s coming...

Synapse Circuit for tech news, opinions, articles, reviews and competitions. You will find interactive PDF magazines, videos and links to free legal software! Check it out at Synapse Circuit dot com

SYNAPSE CIRCUIT WEB DESIGN TODAY 4 DISCUSS

SYNAPSE CIRCUIT
WEB DESIGN TODAY
DISCUSSION! PART FOUR.
#WebDesign #eCommerce #SmallBusiness #Design #Graphics #GraphicDesign

Good late evening, Synapse Circuit Readers! How are you tonight? How are you tonight? I hope that all is well in your world! It’s good to see you as always!

Have you started your web design project yet? I am going to give you some more reasons to start your website project... But first...

DO YOU NEED MORE CONVINCING THAT YOU CAN SPARE THE COST OF A PROFESSIONAL WEB DESIGNER?
By now you should be aware that with a little effort you can design your own ecommerce enabled site and get on with the business of selling!

I think that far too many websites have an over-designed look to the point where they lack personality. Many sites look too corporate for my liking; I do think that many business oriented sites can take the initiative and do something different. I think many designers are lazy and will do a standard design.

Many business owners have a tendency to want to emulate sites they like in particular and while I understand the need to be seen as competitive I do think it’s even more important to stand out from crowd of cloned designs! I reckon that’s the way you will get noticed – to stand out!

It’s better to look at many sites that you like – they don’t have to relate to your business – and take the best of them!

What makes a site stand to you? Take a look at these estate agents sites below and make notes of what you like and what you don’t.

http://www.central-estates.co.uk/

http://www.hatched.co.uk/sell.asp?gclid=CJm_lfOI4bwCFRDLtAodpDsAZA

http://www.moretons.co.uk/

http://www.gordongray.com/

TIPS: If you are an absolute beginner I recommend that you draw your site layout on paper before you launch a web design program. Once you have your idea down on paper you can have a go at building it from scratch or look for a suitable template that you can alter.

Keep watching the tutorial videos on YouTube and become familiar with the software interface.


TWO MORE REASONS TO TAKE ON YOUR OWN WEBSITE
This is your lucky night! Here are two more excellent WYSIWYG web design programs! The first one is...

GOOGLE WEB DESIGNER
https://www.google.com/webdesigner/

This software is free! And it caters to the next level in web design authoring, HTML5 and CSS3! You should be able to design for mobile screen also!

That’s another question: Do you need to design a mobile site too? Hmmm... Perhaps if we’re talking about the small screen of the iPhone... However, Android handsets feature a high resolution screen and, very often, screens of over 4.7”! When I browse sites on my Galaxy S4 and Note 2 I request the desktop site! I don’t know why, but I just don’t like mobile websites. Often these designs are sparse and uninteresting.

I will bring you a review of Google Web Designer soon!

HTML5
Oh, HTML5 makes it possible for sites to be viewed on practically any device and across operating systems (Android, Windows, Linux, Mac and iOS) and the support for animation, audio and video means that the once popular Flash media is largely bypassed now.

And the other WYSIWYG web design software is...

WYSIWYG WEB BUILDER 9
http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/

Wow! WYSIWYG Web Builder 9 looks the business! It is just packed full of features and costs only $44.95! Gosh! What I like about this software is that it has the option for an HTML5 video player! And if that’s not enough there are many extensions to increase the functionality! I like WYSIWYG Web Builder 9 and I hope to bring you a review very soon!

UGLY?
The following link shows you what NOT to do in the name of web design! You can make your site look unique without it looking like a total disaster!

http://www.globalwebfx.com/10-worst-websites-for-2013/

After the Samsung Galaxy S5 launch and the Mobile World Congress 2014 I will bring you the Serif WebPlus X7 review!

Here’s part one of this series...
http://synapse-circuit.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/synapse-circuit-web-design-today-how-to.html

Here’s part two of this series...
http://synapse-circuit.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/synapse-circuit-web-design-today-2.html

Take a look at these interactive PDF magazines to learn more about web and graphic design:

http://synapsecircuit.com/issues_2012/Synapse_Circuit_02.pdf

http://synapsecircuit.com/issues_2012/Synapse_Circuit_03.pdf

Stay tuned...

What do you reckon?   

Take good care!

Thank you for watching and reading!

Please check out the Synapse Circuit website for video, i-PDF and more! 

Synapse Circuit Dot Com

SYNAPSE CIRCUIT WEB DESIGN THREE DESIGN

SYNAPSE CIRCUIT
WEB DESIGN TODAY
DESIGN! PART THREE.
#WebDesign #eCommerce #SmallBusiness #Design #Graphics #GraphicDesign

Good evening, Synapse Circuit Readers! How are you tonight? I hope that all is well with you and that the weather is being kinder! It was a glorious sunny day! I hope it was a nice day for you too! Thank you for your positive responses to this series of articles on web design.

I have understood that there are many things stopping a lot of non-web design folk from getting involved in the business of designing their own websites:

1. Technical ability. Many folk believe that they must possess some technical ability. While other folk fool themselves into thinking that they will never understand the ins and outs of it.

2. Design ability or lack of it.

Okay... I am going to do my best to ease your mind...

CAN YOU USE A WORD PROCESSOR?
If you can use a word processor such as Microsoft’s Word for Windows then you can definitely use any WYSIWYG web design program. Such software keeps you away from having to enter HTML code (it’s not a programming language) on a blank Notepad (the default note making program with Windows) which is then saved as an HTML file. My argument against writing all that code is, “What if you had to code a simple letter? Do you know how long that could take?” Sure, if you learn the code well enough you’d be able write it blindfolded. But that’s not the point. The point is HTML is a very simple language that, for all intents and purposes, describes the layout of a web page. That’s just HTML! Another code used within HTML is CSS – cascading style sheets. CSS goes deeper into describing the look of the web page in finer detail i.e. how fonts appear, more precise details to a web page background, colours and so on. CSS can be a pain to code!

So, this is why I will always advocate a WYSIWYG web design program.

WHAT IF ALL THE COMPUTERS CRASHED?
Yes, this is an argument that a web design teacher put forward to a class that I took to refresh my skills. He continued, “How would you code your website?” My response was, “If all the computers around the world crashed then it wouldn’t matter if I knew code or not.” It’s true!

This is not to say that you shouldn’t learn some aspects of coding HTML. Again, HTML is NOT difficult but laborious. I would recommend that you take the time to learn the basics because it will allow you to place some elements into a WYSIWYG web design program that is not included as part of the program. Knowing the basics of HTML will allow you to insert your own code in such WYSIWYG programs should you need to! But DO NOT worry about that at this stage!

Now let’s talk “design”!

DESIGN, A DIRTY WORD?
That word... “Design” it conjures all manner of thoughts and feelings. You are probably wondering what “design” means to me. I will tell you... But first...

Can you imagine that I thought the way forward in the business of New Media was CD ROM programming? Yes, I did! Lol! This was before I was exposed to HTML and website design. What I appreciate about the CD ROM is that you have a whole program of a particular agenda encapsulated within a CD ROM program; once you insert the CD ROM in the PC you’re sort of locked into the program until you exit! Whereas with the Internet you may feel the urge to surf other sites – that’s what I do! Anyhoo! I digress...

With no prior knowledge of Photoshop or even having owned PC I did a 13 week course in Multimedia. Previously, I was the proud owner of an Amiga A4000 computer and through some paint programs that came with the Amiga I was used to the concept of using a mouse to draw / paint (very basically) using the mouse. So, using Photoshop for the first time wasn’t a totally daunting experience that it could have been!

I knew about two weeks in advance that I was going to do the Multimedia course and I started to buy design magazines and made notes. I also started collecting CD ROMs and I paid more attention to any kind of graphical design be it advertising, magazines, TV, film, etc. You probably can tell that I lean towards a Sci-Fi-Tech design. It’s what I am drawn to! Anyway, the point I am getting at is that if you have an eye for any particular design then you can reproduce it! You will probably crawl before you can walk!

As you should know – if you have been reading this series of articles on web design – that after the 13 week course I went to Holland, Amsterdam and found work as a graphic web designer. I was good enough with Photoshop. I guess it helped that I did Art in school and college; I had a pretty good idea what I wanted and how to get there!

I think back to how websites used to look and in some way I miss those days when sites used to look very individual – even if they were bad! When I got myself Dreamweaver and bought web design magazines I became aware of a particular designer giving his opinions on what websites should look like. One of his comments made me laugh, “A lot of websites look like Sunday school flyers...” or words to that effect! Lol! But I think that designer is responsible for the corporate look on just about every site whether it is corporate or not. I hate it! I would rather see someone / organization expressing themselves through their speciality. Blow all that corporate rigidity nonsense!

HERE’S WHAT I SAY ABOUT DESIGN
Yes, there are a set of rules that you need to adhere too when it comes to your website.

1. The text on your site must be easy to read. If the recipient is straining to read the text it’s a failure.

2. It should be easy for users to navigate your site. If users struggle to get from one page to the next and back then it’s a failure.

3. Use of colour needs to be really considered. Garish colours could repulse. There again, it depends on your medium i.e. a music site may be suited to outlandish designs. You have to bear in mind what your intended audience will gravitate to.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with using templates and altering them to suit by changing the colours, graphics, etc. At the same time I would encourage you to have a go at filling in a blank page; you should have an idea of what you want because you have looked at similar sites. And you will do well to get a hold of some graphic, photo editing / manipulation software. I am going to, again, recommend two programs for their ease of use:-

Serif PhotoPlus X6 – It’s, in my opinion, better than Photoshop when you compare costs and what the software can do!

Serif DrawPlus X6 – This is a great illustration program that you can get into more or less straightaway – if you are an absolute beginner! One of the most striking things you can add to your media i.e. website, business card, etc is a logo and you will LOVE the Logo Studio!

You should do well with the aforementioned software. In fact, you can download free versions of the software and see how you get on! They all have great tutorials that you can follow! Be confident! You CAN do it!

By all means try different software! Even if you choose to go by the way of Blogger, Word Press, YouTube, Wix, etc you will need to use your own graphics to stand out!

THAT’S IT!
Design is a very personal thing! You won’t know what you can do unless you have a go! It is EASY! I would say that if you can use a smartphone then you can definitely get to manipulate any software!

To be honest, I was not a very good freelance web / graphic designer because I am not very patient with people. What people think of as “good” design leaves me wondering about their sanity! I just couldn’t do what was required of me because I felt it was bad and not something that I could add to my portfolio! However, I gave up being a freelance web / graphic designer because so many people are opting to do it themselves and so should YOU!!!!

If I get the time I may do an article on design. But after the Samsung Galaxy S5 launch and the Mobile World Congress 2014 I will bring you the Serif WebPlus X7 review!

Here’s part one of this series...
http://synapse-circuit.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/synapse-circuit-web-design-today-how-to.html

Here’s part two of this series...
http://synapse-circuit.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/synapse-circuit-web-design-today-2.html

Take a look at these interactive PDF magazines to learn more about web and graphic design:

http://synapsecircuit.com/issues_2012/Synapse_Circuit_02.pdf

http://synapsecircuit.com/issues_2012/Synapse_Circuit_03.pdf

Stay tuned...

What do you reckon?   

Take good care!

Thank you for watching and reading!

Please check out the Synapse Circuit website for video, i-PDF and more! 

Synapse Circuit Dot Com