Resources for building successful business web sites

GLOSSARY  
Not sure what cgi or ftp means?. Check our glossary page.

TIPS  
Free practical tips that you can use to make your web sites look and run better.

HTML/JAVASCRIPT
There are a lot of material on the internet about web design and programming. These are just a few sites that I like and visit quite regularly.
Web Monkey
Visual Tutorials
Sizzling HTML Jalfrezi
The Javascript Source
GateScript
World Wide Web Consortium
Jacob Nielsen - Web Usability

GRAPHIC SOFTWARES
Every Webmaster would require at least one graphic software to prepare a variety of images for the web. As the minimum the software must be able to adjust photos for exposure and colors, to save them as jpg or gif and to create graphic elements such as buttons and banners. Following is list the useful software, each costs less than $100 - some much less.

Paint Shop Pro
Starting out as a shareware Paint Shop has had quite a large following and has grown into a very sophisticated image editing software. An excellent alternative to Photoshop at about one fifth the price of Photoshop.

Photo Impact
A very economical solution for image editing. The list of features is very long with a lot of web tools. Users interface is somewhat busy and unconventional. 

Xara 3D
Great little program for creating 3D text or objects. You can produce top quality 3D web graphics in minutes: logos, buttons, banners and animated graphics as gif, avi or Flash. Download free trial before buying. You can also try a little demo right here.


Xara Webstyle
Specialized software for creating any type of graphics for web pages: buttons, bullets, background, dividers ... The new version also makes DHTML menus (the type that drops down or pops out) as well as static Navigation Bars complete with rollover effects. Free trial download available.

Xara MenuMaker
A subset of Webstyle, desgined specifically for creating professional looking web menus. Start with a template and customize it to your requirements. You don't need to know javascript or touch your image editing software to make cool drop down menu with great graphics. The price is great too. Free trial download before you buy.

Swish
Starting out as a simple tool to create great text effects in Flash format, Swish has become quite a capable program for creating anything from a simple banner to an entire web site in Flash. Still cheaper and easier to use than the real Flash from Macromedia.

WEB HOSTING
Web hosting has become a commodity and cost has plumeted in recent time. For about $10 a month you can have a business web site hosted by a number of good companies. Below are just a couple of companies that I have selected and used for my own sites. I will provide a more in-depth review of web hosting in the near future.
1and1
Aplus

FREE DOWNLOAD
Download free ebooks that have better contents than those that cost you $50 or more at some internet marketing site. I have been there and wasted quite a few valuable dollars. Avoid that mistake, read these ebooks first.

SITE BUILD IT!
Site Build It! is a product by Sell Site that does not fit any one category. It contains everything neccessary to build a successful business web site: instructions, softwares, domain name and web hosting. It deals with all aspects of web building: idea generation, copy writing, design and marketing. There is no other product like it. Check it out.