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For most new entrepreneurs the biggest concern is how to save money. A great way to save money is
to take advantage of free quality products and services.
There are many powerful Open Source and free website design software suites that can help business owners
with little technical knowledge and veteran website designers to create professional websites. I could easily
write an entire book about all the free website design software packages available, but I will focus on a
few of my favorites.
If none of the applications here suit your needs, don’t give up and drop your money on an expensive solution.
Go to Google and search for "free website design software".
Look around, do some research. A great site for free software including web design is www.webattack.com.
The first website I ever designed was done with Microsoft Publisher. This is not exactly a free application,
but many people have Microsoft Office on their computers, and Publisher comes with many versions of
Office, so it may already be available to many users. This is perfect for people who know how to use
Microsoft Word or Excel, but don’t know anything about website design. You don’t have to know HTML,
this program turns your text, graphics, and links into code for you. The menu and interface is very similar
to other Office applications, so users should be able to get the hang of it after a little "nosing around".
Users can simply pick a pre-designed template, and from there just plug in their information. This solution’s
advantage is its ease of use; if a user ever gets stuck, the help menu is just a click away. It has its
trade-offs; the files it produces are very large and will load slowly on the internet. The websites
produced by publisher may lack the “cutting edge” professional appearance that some of the more advanced
tools offer. See an example site designed with Microsoft Publisher at
www.flightsbyhelicopter.com.
If you don’t have MS Publisher you can buy it from amazon.com
here.
Another Microsoft tool that comes with many versions of Office is Front Page. This program is similar to
Publisher in that it is similar in feel to other Office products. If a user knows their way around Word,
they can figure out Front Page with a little work. Front Page has a similar “template” system to Publisher
where a user clicks on the design they want and simply plugs in their information. The average website
produced by Front Page will be faster loading than one made with Publisher, but like Publisher may also
lack that clean, professional feel until the user gets used to using it. An example of a Front Page site
can be seen at
http://prothemes.chainreactionweb.com/america/.
If you do not have MS Front Page, it is also available from Amazon.com
here.
One of my absolute favorites is PHPNuke. This open source
(completely free) software enables even novice users to create truly amazing professional sites.
PHPNuke uses the php server-side scripting language and the free database mySQL to create a powerful, fully
customizable web portal. Using this software will require a little more work and knowledge of web design,
but if a user is willing to invest the time to learn, the outcome can be amazing. There is an extensive
peer community that is very friendly and helpful to newcomers. I highly recommend this solution to anyone
who has the willingness to learn a new approach to web design. I’ll add that there is a program that split
from PHPNuke early on in development called PostNuke.
PostNuke focuses on site security as its primary goal. I have personally never used PostNuke, but from what
I have seen, it seems to offer a very good option. Both www.phpnuke.org and www.postnuke.com use their
respective products, but you can see another PHPNuke site at
www.starprograms.com. I also use this package
on one of my sites, the
Navy Postal Clerks Association.
Another current favorite of mine is osCommerce.
This is another open source and completely free program that focuses on producing dynamic online retail sites.
This solution also uses php and mySQL to drive the site. osCommerce is somewhat less “polished”, so it takes
some more work, but here again, an investment of a few weeks to learn this program can yield a nice site as
seen at www.darkjade.com and
www.moviepaks.com. Here again, osCommerce has a huge
peer support community that produces great addons and scripts that enable users to get their online store to
do virtually whatever they want.
 A great open source program for displaying pictures online is
Coppermine. This program lets you upload,
modify, and share your pictures with family, friends, or clients. Visitors can create accounts so they can
upload their pictures for private or public viewing. Each time I have installed this program I have had a
few initial problems getting it configured correctly for the server, but I know plenty of other people who
got it working without a hitch. I think most people will have a little trial and error getting it to work,
but diligence will reward you with a great site that visitors will love. A demo site can be found at
the coppermine demo site. Because this
site is open source it can be integrated with any other open source product. There are several guidelines
and scripts available for integration with PHPNuke and PostNuke.
This is a fairly short list of some of my favorite open source or free website design software packages.
There are countless more excellent free solutions out there. Most of the time, you just have to "jump in
there", get your hands dirty, and learn as you go. Good luck, and have fun!
Damian is the owner of Divergent Lines
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