EUROMOTIVE's WEBSITE

Some comments and ideas from Mark on creating websites, maybe of interest if you have a website project in mind.

As part of Mark's plans to take Euromotive Mechanical Services into the future he realized some time ago that a website was vital.  Having decided that came the how to do it part!  Having one done professionally is not currently justifiable financially but maybe further on.  Mark has done some website work in the past with Microsoft Front Page but to his horror it is no longer available nor is it supported by Microsoft.  Then started the hunt for a similar template based, WYSIWYG website program whereby you "fill in the blanks" to make a website rather than build one from scratch.  This maybe should have been simple but Mark didn't find it so as there are many programs out there from high end packages such as Dreamweaver right down to free software of limited features and everything in between.

The high end packages such as Dreamweaver are very good and will do whatever you want but have a very large learning curve and really designed for IT people who make and edit websites for a living.  Mark looked next at the myriad of low end packages that were template based like the old MS Front Page was.  Like anything else, you get what you pay for, free ware is ok for very simple site design or much learning of HTML coding is required.  Some likely contenders were rejected because they wont automatically look after the navigation bars for you which is not a problem for simple websites of limited pages.  However as this site will grow and change in layout this feature is highly desirable.

Mark kept going back to a package called Ewisoft Website Builder that was purchased for about A$60-00 and included a template and a publication on website tips and tricks.  Now that Mark has used the program to build this site he has found it to be fairly easy to use and recommends it to anyone starting off.  However he has found it a bit "clunky" to use mainly when formatting a web page, it's very primitive compared to say MS Word and unexpected results often occur. For sites of limited graphics it's not a problem.   It does the job for now at least and hopefully the folk at Ewisoft will further develop this otherwise great product.

Next came the choice of internet domain provider.  Again there are a wide selection available with many different prices and policies on what is and isn't included making comparison difficult at times.  Mark found that some of the "big boys" don't seem to be that interested in providing website and email services but rather concentrate on provision of internet access.  Talking to them by phone seemed to confirm this or Marks perception anyway.

Several interesting developments emerged from all this.  There is a growing trend to "all in one" providers who provide not only the domain space and support on the internet but also all the tools you need to build your website and some are very sophisticated indeed.  Have a look at BlueVoda for example.  In future I think we wont really have our own software but will have "dumb" terminals at home or where ever and log into our "super provider" and use whatever software and other services on a virtual rental basis.

The other interesting fact was that there are many US based "server farms" offering internet space at very cheap prices.  Which way to go?  If you want better international hits to your site then the US servers are the way to go with the disadvantage being a slightly slower access speed from Australia when editing the site.  If you mainly want Australian hits then an Australian server is better.  Some providers offer a choice of either way.

Mark settled on an Australian provider called DomainDotHost, (since taken over by AussieHQ) and having used them for both this site and his Scuba Diving Club website recommends them highly.  DomainDotHost assisted appropriately in a few technical tasks required when moving the scuba diving website from the previous provider and have answered all queries well.  However you do have to submit a technical query as a "ticket" and wait for a response but Mark usually received the answer the next day.  The tools provided as part of the package are quite incredible and would suit most projects anyone wanted to do requiring a website, email, mailing lists etc.

If you want a photo album accessible to your family and friends then most of the work has already been done for you and you won't need any of the above.  There are some good photo album all in one services such as Picasa and Jalbum.  These save a lot of time as you go from picture file to finished photo album page on the provided server in a very short time indeed and have the option of some editing as well.  Not quite a high end photo editor such as Photoshop but for the average user probably more than good enough.  As a bonus they're largely free!  You can also use this software to publish images to a website of your own if you wish.  Well worth considering rather than laboriously editing images to add to a page of images in a gallery section of your website and more so if your website builder doesn't have album tools.

If you want any more advice from Mark who maybe has the advantage of looking from a non professional IT perspective don't hesitate to contact him.  Getting a website up and running is a lot easier than say 10years ago and getting easier all the time but when starting out there seems to be too much choice.  Often asking IT people can be counter productive with no disrespect intended.  In Marks opinion the whole IT industry is still immature and the standards reflect this, in time this will change and it's interesting to compare it to the automotive industry which is very mature by comparison.  Not that that guarantees anything!

To sum up Mark believes getting a website up and running should be easy and it is, however the advice you get may well be to the contrary and the IT industry is often not used to non IT folk doing it themselves.

Good luck with your website project.

Mark Dyson
March 2009