Optimize & Upload

Do you remember the stuff  I told you about using web safe fonts and colors and building your own navigation menu?

To get your website to appear in the World’s Worst Browser - Internet Explorer - you have to do this.

To stop your pages locking up this pathetic excuse for a browser and to get your pages to download faster in any browser, you need to optimize your files before you upload them to your server.

Optimizers basically cut out all the crap from your files.

How do they do this? Who cares - they just do it!

I hope you will take some good advice and not be tempted to use the Apple server - MobileMe.

Do not be mesmerized by the simplicity of one click publishing. Apart from the fact that the “Terms Of Use” are quite clear about commercial use being frowned upon, MobileMe has many other downsides.

Its slow, unreliable, does not allow you to create those essential contact forms and has virtually no tech support.

Having said that, I do have a MobileMe account for quickly testing sites and backing up my contact information so that I can access it from anywhere on any computer.

I use Host Excellence to host my websites and register my domain names. All of these are managed in one account and are set to auto renew annually.

With any hosting service, NEVER use their built in FTP application.

Although both Web Site Maestro and WebCrusher will optimize and upload files, there are occasions when I want to upload something “out-of-the-box” or sort out the files on my server.

My FTP application of choice - Yummy FTP - allows me to do this a lot quicker and more easily than my Host Excellence control panel.

Ton Brand’s products have been around for a long time. They are superlative and continually improved.

The learning curve for the non technical is fairly steep but the instructions are comprehensive and the tech support is world class.

Rage Software have a relatively new product - WebCrusher. Its not so cost effective as Ton Brand’s applications nor, as yet, efficient and fast. It does work by simple drag and drop and should appeal to those with little or no technical ability.

Yummy FTP has a very intuitive interface and a comprehensive set of preferences and features.

If you have more than one website, I would highly recommend it. In conjunction with Host Excellence, I can view all my websites at once and carry out server maintenance fast and easily.

Cyberduck works well with iWeb files and is very popular because it is free!

Web Site Maestro & Others

WebCrusher

Yummy FTP

Cyberduck

iWeb + Applications

Artwork & Design

Audio Editing

Image Manipulation

Optimize and Upload

Search Engine Optimization

Utility