How to make ur own website

It use to be the case, that only computer gurus could hope to sit down and create a website worth visiting. Those days however are long gone. Today anyone can create a great looking website, without any special web development skills. Differentiating your website from the pack comes from your own creativity and knowledge, not from your technical abilities. On this page we will compare the different ways of how to make ur own website.

Traditional website creation VS the CMS

Tradition web pages are like Microsoft Word Documents. You have a doc file and you use Microsoft Word to view it. Just like that, with web pages, you have the html files and you open them with Internet Explorer. The only difference is html files are on a  server, while the doc files are on your hard disk.

It does take some technical knowhow to edit traditional web pages. With a CMS(Content Management System) making ur own website is much easier. The CMS is like a program running on the web server. A good web host will allow you to login to your control panel and install one of the more popular CMSs with a few clicks.

Once you have installed the CMS you can log into the CMS’s admin area. From there you can easily add pages to your website.

Even skilled web developers regularly use CMS’s to make a website, for 2 reasons:
1. It is easy to download a free theme for your CMS, instantly giving it a great look.
2. There are many free and powerful plugins for most CMSs which greatly increase their functionality.

There are 2 types of CMSs and we will look at the most popular ones in each category.

Wordpress
Wordpress is a blog. Blogs are a great way to make ur own website,if you are going to update your blog frequently.. Blogs are setup in such a way as to keep the freshest content on  front page. This keeps your readers coming back to read your most recent posts. Wordpress is well optimized to rank well with Google and Yahoo. Also the search engines loves the frequently uploaded content.

Joomla
If you want to make ur own website with a traditional layout. Joomla is the fastest and easiest way to do it.

Search for  free Joomla extentions, to find plugins that expands Joomla’s functionality and Search for free Joomla templates to get a nice style for your Joomla site.

Make ur own web pages

Of course you don’t have to use a CMS to make your website. If you want, you can create the pages and site with an html editor.

There are 2 good options to help you do it:

Dreamweaver is the alternative for professionals. I use it to create dynamic pages and it’s very good for that.
Publisher comes standard with Microsoft Office, it’s probably already installed on your PC. It’s a great web page creation tool for beginners.Hopefully you now have a better idea of how to make ur own website.

Home Finance Software

When I think about the best home finance software, I think about Quicken and Microsoft Money. They are the market leaders and for good reason.

The problem is that, since 2004, they are targeted at the US market, only. Which means little if any support for their product’s users in the UK. What you need is a top home finance software solution that supports the UK tax system and can work with the UK banks to manage your accounts.

Personal Accountz

(Windows Vista / XP, Linux, Mac OS X Intel, Mac OS X)
Features:

• Able to keep track of your bank accounts, credit card accounts, borrowings, mortgage, savings, investments and all the usual incomings and outgoings.
• Supports automated direct debits and standing orders.
• Personal Accountz generates forecasts that will tell you whether your will be able to stay in the black.
• Personal Accountz has an accessible spreadsheet-style interface.
• None of the UK’s personal finance software solutions will synch automatically with your online banking and credit card accounts. To do this, you will need to download your online statements and integrate them with the software regularly. However, Personal Accountz is the best software for handling the process.
• Unlike Quicken and Microsoft Money’s UK versions, Personal Accountz has been regularly updated in recent years. You will be able to get the latest updates from their web site.
• Personal Accountz uses the double entry system to balance your books automatically.
• If you currently use Microsoft Money or Quicken and are thinking about making a change, you can easily import your accounts to Personal Accountz.
• Personal Accountz unlike most home finance programs runs on Mac and Linux.

Drawbacks:

• It can have a bit of a steep learning curve, but once you have the hang of it you will be fine.
• Takes a while to setup the system, when you start using it.

If you manage Personal Accountz well with all the information it needs, it will help you budget very well, warn you when you are overspending and let you know exactly how much you have available for various expenses.

If you compare it to Quicken and Microsoft Money then Accountz is quicker to use and more customizable to your needs.

All in all I would say Personal Accountz isn’t the perfect home finance software package, but it is the best one available in the UK.

Best DVD Burning Software

There are number of DVD software burning solutions on the market. The problem with many of these solutions are, that when you use them to write movie content, they aren’t very good at maintaining the quality of that content. To help you find the best DVD burning software for your needs, we will review 3 very good products and compare their strengths and weaknesses. These products are Blaze DVD Copy, Roxio Easy Media Creator and DVD Copy 6 Plus from Corel. The main selling point of Roxio Easy Media Creator is that it is more than just a DVD burning program, it also allows you to edit video, music and photos. Blaze DVD Copy is a better DVD burning program than DVD Copy 6, but it only runs on XP not on Vista.

Before we compare the programs we need to explain some concepts.

DVD-5/DVD-9 discs: DVD-5 discs are normal DVDs, DVD-9 discs are double sided, they have about double the capacity of normal DVDs. In order to use them you need a special DVD-9 writing drive, without that hardware you cannot use them.

ISO image file: If you copy a whole DVD to your hard drive, that creates a ISO file that is a single file that contains everything on the DVD. You can then write that ISO file to a new DVD. All 3 these programs can read from and write to ISO files.

CSS-encrypted and region-protected movie discs: Sometimes creators of DVDs don’t want their DVDs to be copied and they add this encryption to stop it from being copied. None of the three software options reviewed here will decrypt those DVDs. Unfortunately third party decryption tools can be easily downloaded, from the internet and used with DVD burning software to copy protected DVDs. Fortunately DVD Copy 6 Plus has measures implemented to stop users from doing that. Hopefully future versions of Blaze DVD Copy will have the same features.

Blaze DVD Copy

(XP, 2000, NT, Me, 98)

Score Features 7.8 Video Quality Stability Ease of Use

Formats supported and what they are used for

• AVI - XviD Video File for watching movies on your PC
• ASF - Windows Media File for watching movies on your PC
• MP4 - Format for watching movies on your Apple ipod
• 3GP - Format for watching movies on a smart phone
• MP4 - Format for watching movies on a Sony PSP

This means that you can use the software to convert movies and view them on other devices.

Blaze can split a whole DVD-9 movie into 2 DVD-5 blanks while keeping the original video quality.

DVD Copy 6

(Vista, XP)

Score Features 7.2 Video Quality Stability Ease of Use



DVD Copy 6 is fast and easy to use whether you are writing data,video or music. This however isn’t ideal for more advanced users, as you don’t have access to some of the options that you might want.

DVD Copy 6 is made by Corel which is a well established company, this means that it will have long term and good support.

I consider Corel DVD Copy a good option for those looking to get their home videos on disc especially if you have an HD camcorder.

Roxio Easy Media Creator 2009

(Vista, XP, 2000)

Score Features 8.6 Video Quality Stability Ease of Use



Roxio delivers the industry’s best and easiest burning and copying tools for protecting your life stories, digital media and files.

With Roxio you can take videos shot with your standard, HD or AVCHD camcorder. Then, transform your footage into a splashy movie using Creator 2009’s flexible video editing tools, great for all levels of ability and interest.

Music Editing

Make the most of your digital music with playlists. Creator’s 2009 beat matching feature can automatically synchronize the rhythm from song to song.

Photo Editing

Creator’s touch-up tools and effects work wonders on your pictures. You can use the photo editor to creat cards, calendars and other digital stories.

Sharing

Roxio’s Online service is integrated into Creator 2009, so you can create and share material. Using YouTube and similar services.

Sound Editing Software

In the world of multimedia PC applications, being able to effectively manipulate and convert music is very important. Fortunately there are some very good free software editors out there, as well as some truly great professional editing and production software.

Free sound editing software:

Audacity (Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux)

This is the number one free audio editing and recording program. It supports Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV and AIFF sound files. It does all the basics, including cutting, coping, splicing and mixing audio files.

Traverso Daw (Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux)

If Audacity doesn’t have all the features that you need. Give Traverso Daw a try. It is a multitrack audio recording and editing suite, with an easy to use interface.

Software that you can buy:

The proprietary software is dominated by Sony. They have 2 products out, one for home use and one for professional use.

Sony Sound Forge 9 CD 5.2NOISE (PC) (Vista, XP) (2008) The premium product for professionals. Sound Forge has all the possible bells and whistles you could want for getting audio from it’s raw to finished state. This suite can create and edit stereo and multichannel audio files with speed and precision.

Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio 9 (PC) (Vista, XP) (2008) This is the home version of sound forge, it is cheaper and easier to use. It can be used to balance sound levels, trim unwanted sections and synchronize audio with video. You will be burning CDs with Sound Forge in no time flat. Please note it comes on a DVD not CD.

Magix Music Maker 14 (PC) (Windows 2000, Vista, XP) (2007) Magix Music Maker has successfully built a community around it’s software. You can log into their server and chat with other users about how they are using Magix Music Maker. They have a 2,000 unit sound library that comes with the software. This product is more of a music making suite than strictly a music editor.

If you can think of a software package that belongs here, why not leave a comment and share it with us.