Publish, don't Perish: Create a Website in Minutes

Wix (http://www.wix.com/)

This easy to use website allows you to create Flash websites by simply typing and clicking on areas you want to modify and edit. To help you get started, Wix provides you with many free templates that are easy to customize. Once you select a template, you can alter the photographs, buttons, fonts, colors...just about anything by simply clicking on the area you want to change. The entire process is quite intuitive. You can save your progress as you edit the site, and, when you are done, select “publish”and go live. The url will begin with wix.com, but you can select your own url after that. Remember to think about search engine optimization when creating a site name. Shawn created this site and launched it in about an hour using a template for a coffee shop. Not too bad for someone who hasn’t worked with Flash in about two years. Wix allows you to move the entire page to your own personal website, but you’ll have to pay monthly for that service.

Google Sites (https://sites.google.com)

Create a simple website perfect for communicating with large groups of people using Google Sites. To begin you can select a template or create your own page from scratch. Again, like Wix, Google sites begin with the sites.google.com/site but you can choose your own url after that. One thing we really like about Google Sites is that you can have multiple editors for the same site, which is very handy if you are having a class design a website for a local non-profit. The entire class can edit and share the site with the client, and then the client can easily keep the site updated after the class is over. Using Google Sites is similar to using a document editing software like OpenOffice or Microsoft Word, so the learning curve is almost non-existent. It’s also easy to embed photos from your Picasa, YouTube, or Google Doc account. Not too bad for a free website.