Web creation options that ANYONE can use to start advertising online!

Option 3: Mac iWeb08

From a total beginner's point of view, Mac's iWeb08 is pretty straightforward until it comes to getting online (unless you're happy to work with the easy but limited inbuilt settings - more about that later). The software won't work on PCs, although anyone with Mac access can use it to create website files which, when complete, should work perfectly well on any computer.

So yes - we hummed and ha-ed about this one, but were finally persuaded by the sheer simplicity of the site-building process - which, if you're looking to create pages with the kind of control found in more complex web design software, is perfectly possible without any real technical know-how.

above: iWeb's clean and simple layout area

As with most things Mac, the working area is clean, uncluttered and intuitive; simply drag and drop content into a choice of beautifully designed templates. If you feel the need to customize, further editing is easy.

Once you've finished, however, things take a pretty major downturn. Getting your iWeb site online in the way we recommend shouldn't prove too much of a battle - though certainly FAR less simple than our top two web-building choices. So spend some time considering your options.

iWeb forms part of iLife, a suite of media programs that comes with all Macs, and anyone are already accustomed to iPhoto, iMovie etc, will find using iWeb especially easy. You'll need the very latest version, however, as anything older won't give you the option to put ads on your site - which is one reason why many of you are here, right? If you need to update, the entire iLife 08 bundle can be purchased for an extremely reasonable price.

Once you've made your site:

Add your own domain name

If you're not sure what this is, all is revealed in our section on domains along with info relating specifically to iWeb. Please read this carefully before you make your final site-building choice - again, the process is far less simple than using our first two options.