(I touched upon this lightly in a different thread, so please forgive if this seems redundant!!)

For those of you designing your own websites, I'm curious to know what software you are utilizng to design your websites?

I use Dreamweaver. I think I've been using it since Macromedia owned it, but have since upgraded to CS4. I started way back using Notepad and Tripod free hosting. Now I have two websites (personal and business) at Welcome to EdCarlson.com (http://www.edcarlson.com/) and ALT-5*∞ Productions | Welcome (http://www.alt5productions.com/)
Knowing Photoshop and raw HTML don't hurt either! I sometimes don't bother with Dreamweaver and just edit the raw code.

Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. That' not a recommendation (and probably kind of overkill) for a DIY website, but much of our business is software development.

My wife does web development for clients & predominantly uses Joomla which is a Content Management System which speeds up development, aids debugging & simplifies maintenance & updating. Joomla is what she is most familiar with but there are other CMS that are of similar quality. Here is a comparison of Joomla, Drupal & Wordpress Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal - Which CMS should you choose? (http://www.goodwebpractices.com/other/wordpress-vs-joomla-vs-drupal.html)

Here is her site with some links to some clients' sites The Number One Ladies Website Agency (http://www.no1ladieswebsiteagency.com/)

Web Expression 3 for < $149.00. Can download 60 day fully functional trial.

Adobe Web Expression 3 for < $149.00. Can download 60 day fully functional trial.
*Microsoft, not Adobe. http://www.microsoft.com/expression/. It's pretty good, certainly worth checking out.

I use wysiwyg. It's a html generating software. It's simple. Very simple. $49 I think.

I'm using Text Wrangler... because it allows for better management of multiple open documents and find/ replace than Text Edit which I used for 15 years.

Although much simpler to use, I hate the code that WYSIWYG editors generate... it's not all necessary, and when I started developing web sites, most of my viewers were on 14,4 modems, so load times were of tantamount importance.

I've continued to be unimpressed with all of the options out there and finally stopped looking for alternatives about 5 years ago... the closest to good was Claris Homepage, nice clean code generated there.

For creating web sites there is a major difference between a CMS like Joomla & Wordpress & design software like Dreamweaver, Rapidweaver, Web Expression etc. mentioned by the others responding in this thread. With the former your content is separate from your design which is done with some form of template whereas the latter are in effect HTML generating word processors. You can achieve stylish & dynamic designs with a CMS just as you can with design software but the management of the whole site rather than merely individual pages is far superior. As an example Philip Bloom's site is done in Wordpress which nowadays is used for far more than the original purpose as software for writing a blog. Philip Bloom - DP, Director, Filmmaker (http://philipbloom.co.uk/)

I switched my website from a self-coded html/css piece to a Wordpress powered one because it's then much easier to update it and have more features, like tags, comments and categories.

The skins are many and it's not hard to modify them, if you want.

For a html wysiwyg editor I suggest Dreamweaver.

If you want to be a web developer there are plenty of options - if you want to have a web presence and get on with the business of video productions - why don't you look at ready made templates? they're around 50-100 bucks and look really slick. All you have to do is modify the text to suit your site and you're off.

It might be a nice hobby or pasttime or waste of time developing your own website but - what business are you in???

There are also a lot of free templates around.
For example: http://templates.arcsin.se , http://www.freelayouts.com/

p.s. I used to be a web designer, but these days due to lack of time because of a day job I too find it easier just to use a template, maybe with slight modifications.

Freeway is very easy if you're on Mac
Softpress: Powerful, easy to use web design software for Mac OS X (http://softpress.com/)

I agree with some other comments posted here. If you're into making videos, you probably don't want to spend hours and hours designing a website. And it does take considerable time, especially if you need to learn HTML and CSS. Try the free template route of something like Word Press or even Blogger.

If you decide to go with some sort of Dreamweaver type program (I still use GoLive CS2), you'll still need to understand basic HTML and CSS code to get most everything to play together nicely.

While Flash based sites (free ones at like Wix) are the rage it seems, I try and steer clear of them because of load times and compatibility issues.

The pros of having your own site and domain could be important to your business if you have a unique name. Additionally, the advantage of having a hosting service host your page means you can upload videos too. Now, I know that you can upload videos to you tube or vimeo, but they are limited in size/length. For instance on my hosting plan, I have unlimited MB storage, so right now, I have 4 or 5 full length wedding videos at about 400 MB average size.

Hope that helps some.

Another idea would be to trade services. Get a strategic alliance going with a good web designer/developer - let them do what they do well and you do likewise. As web and video become more integrated, this could be a very lucrative arrangement.

Web Expression 3 for < $149.00. Can download 60 day fully functional trial.

Did you design your current website with Expression 3?

Either way, very nice site.....clean, simple and easy to navigate. Hope your business is doing well Mark.

Thanks for the Expression 3 tip....I'm looking into it.

I switched my website from a self-coded html/css piece to a Wordpress powered one because it's then much easier to update it and have more features, like tags, comments and categories.

The skins are many and it's not hard to modify them, if you want.

For a html wysiwyg editor I suggest Dreamweaver.

Andris -

Do you utilize the free webhosting service that WP offers, or are you using a separate web host?

If you want to be a web developer there are plenty of options - if you want to have a web presence and get on with the business of video productions - why don't you look at ready made templates? they're around 50-100 bucks and look really slick. All you have to do is modify the text to suit your site and you're off.

It might be a nice hobby or pasttime or waste of time developing your own website but - what business are you in???

Paul -

Really nice and unique website you have!! Did you design it? If so, what program did you use?

I agree with some other comments posted here. If you're into making videos, you probably don't want to spend hours and hours designing a website.

** Agreed. It's not that I don't want to do it....it's just the time vs. money thingy...and doing video, photography, music design is time consuming enough!! (along with reading these forums...but I consider this a fun educational time!!)

If you decide to go with some sort of Dreamweaver type program (I still use GoLive CS2), you'll still need to understand basic HTML and CSS code to get most everything to play together nicely.

** Wow, GoLive CS2?! That product is extinct now isn't it?

While Flash based sites (free ones at like Wix) are the rage it seems, I try and steer clear of them because of load times and compatibility issues.

** Yeah, I saw the WIX offerings; very slick and cool, but I never really liked waiting for the flash based sites to load; sometimes if feels like I'm on a dial-up connection!!

The pros of having your own site and domain could be important to your business if you have a unique name.

** Very much agree with you on this; looks and first impressions are everything.

Hope that helps some.

** Absolutey does; Thank you Kyle for your input ..... and congrats on your 10th year anniversary for your business!! Hope 2010 is keeps getting better for you!!