An Affiliate Marketer from the Ground Up

I just finished setting up a sales page for a PPC campaign that I'll be launching soon. It wasn't technical, just a sales page with some (I hope) decent copy, several images, and I'll also be adding some articles and links to other informative authority sites.

The reason I mention this is because it was almost nothing to set up using XSitePro 2. This isn't just a post promoting XSitePro however. It's mainly to say that although I know some (basic) HTML and CSS, when there are so many programs available that can let you do the job in a fraction of the time, why not take advantage of them ?

I started with a free WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) program called Nvu (view). I immediately upgraded to KompoZer when I saw Nvu was no longer supported. KompoZer is basically Nvu with some of the bugs fixed.

There hasn't been an upgrade in some time, at least that I'm aware of, so I'm not sure what the future of KompoZer is. In March 2007, KompoZer was featured on Download.com's round up on the best free alternatives to Adobe CS3, where it was favorably compared to Adobe Dreamweaver.

So even if you can't presently afford to buy a fantastic tool like XSitePro, download something like KompoZer or maybe even a better option would be Amaya from w3.org (W3C). That's the World Wide Web Consortium, the entity that comes up with the standards for HTML, CSS, XML...all that kinda stuff that I really don't stay up on.

I actually haven't used Amaya enough to have an opinion on it other than to say it appears to be reliable, thorough, and well written. I'm sure that there's a lot of expectations considering where it originates. I do know that it's updated regularly and in between major upgrades they have what they call 'snapshots', just minor updates.

Amaya will help you to create and edit HTML, CSS, and most recently, XML files. Work started on Amaya in 1996, so I'd say it's got some development hours behind it.

Amaya is an open source software project hosted by W3C. The current version, released on February 29, 2008 is at 10, with a snapshot update that was added on October 17, 2008.

Distributions are available for Linux, Windows and now MacOS X PowerPC and Intel.

So if you're creating Websites, use every tool available to make your job as quick and easy as possible. There's many out there, oftentimes there's an open source program available that will perform the task at hand, sometimes as well as any purchased software.

P.S. Another fantastic open source program for the Web Developer is Gimp. It's a graphics (image manipulation) that rivals PhotoShop, in case there's anyone that isn't familiar with it.

P.S.S. If you do decide to purchase a WYSIWYG HTML editor, I would seriously consider XSitePro 2 moreso than Dreamweaver. Although Dreamweaver is an extremely powerful piece of software, it has a very sharp learning curve, and a very substantial price tag. I've owned and used XStitePro 2 long enough to be highly impressed with the features this software has. Look at the brochure here or the features here and you'll see what I mean.

If you're like me, you don't really have the means to purchase every piece of software that you've like to have. I spend a fair amount on software, but I could probably spend three times what I do in order to get most of what I'd like to have.

Here's a few freebies that I ran across on the XStiePro forum. They're especially useful if you're setting up a Website. I've got more irons in the fire than I can keep going, but these products are helping immensley.

ColorPic by Iconico. This is a great little program for finding color values. It comes in real handy when you're trying to match colors in Adsense ads to what you've used on a Website. They also have several other programs on their site that you may find useful, some paid, some free.

Colorzilla - This is a FireFox pluging that is very similar to ColorPic. It's very useful if you see a color scheme that you'd like to save. You can quickly select the 'eyedropper', click on the colors you're after, and you've got the values to use on your own site...quick and easy.

WordWeb - This is a fantastic program for free. It's a 'one-click' English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows. It gives you definitions, synonyms, proper nouns, related words and has a 150,000 dictionary, with 120,000 synonym sets. It also includes pronunciations and usage examples, and has helpful spelling and sounds-like links.You can also opt to have Windows speech synth. 'say' the word for you. This program is truly a 'Word Web'...for example, if you click on the word 'Tree', and then click 'Types'...it will give you a long list of types of trees. If you click on 'Part of', the program will display things like 'Forest' and 'Wood'. This one is really worth getting. There is also a paid version, WordWeb Pro, but I can't ever imagine the free version not being enough for me.

Jing by TechSmith Corporation. You've probably heard of TechSmith Corporation, or at least their Camtasia Studio screen recording software, or possibly SnagIt, their other well known screen capture software. Jing is a neat little program also. As worded on TechSmith's site, Jing 'is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere.'

I haven't played with it a great deal up to this point, but I will say that I love it, and I can see where it's going to be used here often. You can add text, arrows, etc. to images, but not video. The video (limited to 5 minutes) can, however, have an audio narration track. There could be a few other bells and whistles, but it is FREE remember. I think you'll like it. Also, there's a video tour on the site that will show you exactly what it's all about. Oh, you can also store everything on Screencast.com (2 gigs. free) if you like.

HTTrack - This program is awesome!! It can be used in lots of helpful ways, but remember, with great power, comes great responsibilty. Obviously being able to copy a complete Website to your hard drive can be very useful, but someone that has bad intentions could use this software in a criminal manner. Just because you're able to do something, obviously doesn't mean that it's ok. Please use it responsibly.

FireFTP - This is a FireFox addon. If you're setting up Websites, you're likely using FTP a lot. I normally use Filezilla, which I really like, but FireFTP is already there in your browser window. I have it installed, but have yet to use it. I'll give it try the next time I need to use FTP.

MeasureIt - This is another FireFox addon. It's a simple little program, but it can come in very handy. As the name implies, it's a ruler for measuring on screen distances. It displays the height and width in pixels.

If you need a ruler that can display in pixels, as well as inches, picas, and centimeters, then JRuler might be what you need. It's not a FF pluging, but it is very useful. It has an option to immediately find the center of the distance being measured, and with a single click, can 'flip' from horizontal to vertical and vice versa.

TreePad Plus - This post is 'free' software, and this one is tecnically free, but only for a 21-day trial. I thought I'd list it however, as it looks to be extremely useful. I've heard good things about it also. I have it installed now, but can't recommend it from experience yet. I do plan on playing with it later tonight. It should at least be worth the quick download to try it and see if it's something that may help you.

I like the fact that it can be run from pretty much any external device (thumb drive, flash drive, memory stick, USB disk, etc.), without the need of an installation. TreePad is advertised as 'Organizer, Word Processor, Photo Album, Web site Generator, Personal Information Manager, PIM, Database program, and much more!' You store everything related to your project, hyperlinks, notes, emails, word processing documents, images, everything, in an 'article'. The articles are then store in 'nodes'. The nodes are part of the larger 'tree' structure. Having everything related to your project in one location would have to be a good thing. Especially with the many drag 'n drop features.

I should also note that there is a 'lite' version of TreePad that is totally free. TreePad Lite can be found here.

Lastly, although not free, if you're building Websites and want the ease of use that a WYSIWYG program offers, but don't want the learning curve of Dreamweaver (or the price), have a look at XSitePro.

I had seen ads around the Web for some time before I decided to see what all the hype was about. After having a look, I was hooked. When I bought XSitePro 2, I wasn't looking to buy ANY software at the time. I was getting by with a free program (Kompozer), but looking back, it was awful compared to XSitePro.

If you're considering, or will be considering buying Web development software in the future, please have a look at XSP first. You will be glad you did. It's a fantastic piece of software. Click here for an XSitePro demo video.

I've mentioned XSitePro here before, but in case there's anyone that isn't exactly sure what it is, I'll just touch on it before I say anything about XHeaderPro.

XSitePro is simply (in my opinion) the best possible option available if you're wanting to create Websites. It's a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) program. I haven't used Dreamweaver so I won't say that it's better. However, from what I've heard and read, I seriously doubt there's any where near the learning curve for XSitePro as there is for Dreamweaver. Of the people that have used both, XSitePro seems to be the overwhelming choice, so that should speak for itself.

XSP is not a minimum features program either. It has virtually everything you could ask for in this type of software. I used to use a free program called Kompozer, which in it's own right was a pretty good choice for a (free) WYSIWYG program, but it had very limited features.

I do realize that Dreamweaver has a few more features than XSP, but you also pay for those added features. When I bought XSitePro it was $197.00 and I believe it's still one of the best buys that I've ever made on a software package...bar none.

If you're wanting to put up a quality, nice looking site quickly, it's a good choice. If you're ready to do a major site that has to be as good as you can possibly make it, it's also a good choice. Just need a quick sales page ? XSitePro is an excellent choice.

It comes with a fantastic selection of templates with many different themes, that you can use exactly as they are. Of course you can also modify them to your liking, so there's no chance that anyone else will have the exact look that your site does. There's also blank templates that you can customize to your exact design.

With all the page analysis, widgets, and more options than I could hope to cover here, XSitePro is a program that you really need to have a look at before you buy Dreamweaver or any other WYSIWYG Web creation software package. Here's a 6 page brochure that highlights the features very well, xsitepro2productguide.

This was about XHeaderPro though. In case you haven't figured it out by the name, XHeaderPro is by the same Company, Intellimon, Ltd. (Paul Smithson), and is as feature rich as XSitePro. It's extremely easy to use and allows you to make awesome headers. I won't go into details about it though, because it's so easy to use, you can download it and have a beautiful header created in just a few minutes. There's a video to show you how to use it, but you wouldn't even need it to figure the software out.

I just about bought another highly regarded header creation piece of software (for $97.00) before finding out about XHeaderPro. It also does a wonderful job, but it doesn't look to have a thing on XHeaderPro. As I mentioned in the title...the software is completely free also!!

With just XSitePro and XHeaderPro, you would have pretty much everything you could ask for to create top quality, fantastic Websites. Realistically a good graphics program would come in handy also, but a quick download of Gimp, which is everything (and more) most users would ever need, would give you a complete arsenal to designing sites that you can be extremely proud of.

If you're into, or just getting into Affiliate Marketing, XSitePro is geared for for you, having built in options for adding Google AdSense ads, as well as other advertising, and other convenient options for marketing.

Consider XSitePro and XHeaderPro to build your Website(s). I think you'll find that there's no better options available, regardless of how much money you spend.

The XHeaderPro software is a full release version (version 1), it's not a beta release.