Introduction

With more and more consumers turning to computers and search engines to find products and services, most companies have seen the need for websites. However, not all businesses want to spend the money to pay individuals or Internet companies to create and build their sites.
Fortunately, there are other options for the budget-challenged company or individual in need of Internet exposure. The demand for websites has led to the rise of companies providing software and direction for individuals and companies to build their own sites. One of these companies is Microsoft and the software is WIX.

Released by Microsoft under an open-source license (Common Public License), WIX website builder stands out from the crowd of numerous other website builders largely because of its use of Flash templates that allow users to easily add animation to a website.

Features:

There are many appealing enhancements on WIX, some you would expect and others that go beyond the usual. The following are some of the features available with the software:

• Clip Art, Animations
• Comment functionalities
• Contact forms
• Flash templates and static templates
• Google maps
• Icon libraries
• Media players
• PayPal integration
• Photo albums
• Photo slideshows
• RSS feeds
• Shopping carts
• Video Integration

Templates: Building a website from scratch can be a challenging endeavor, even for the professional who has learned the craft. For the novice, the process runs the risk of becoming a frustrating struggle. Fortunately, WIX has templates that provide an outline for your website. There are many templates from which to choose. This variety offers a greater chance of building that unique website that matches your style and business needs. You, as the builder, have the freedom to add and subtract from the template and devise your own creation, without having extensive knowledge of coding.

Also, the templates have been rated in terms of difficulty of usage. In other words, a novice at website design could look at the ratings and see which templates would be more in line with his or her experience. This could help avoid a lengthy session with a more advanced template that ultimately ends in frustration and loss of time. More advanced users also have a variety of templates to match with their skills.

Search Engine Friendly: Of course, your website is only useful when Internet users can find it. Search Engine Optimization or SEO is as important as the quality of your website. If you create a great website and have no way of driving people to that site then the effort has been for minimal gain. WIX allows you to enhance your website and add the nuances that will enable search engines, such as Google, to find your web pages. You can easily add key words and links to improve your search engine rankings and attract the eyes of Internet surfers.

Price: In general, one of the major attractions of website builders is they provide a cost-effective means of creating your website as compared to the cost of having a professional build one for you. This holds true with WIX. Building your site here is free. However, you will have to pay to get your website published and running. The WIX building site offers several publishing packages. Each of the available packages is less than $20 a year, and the price includes hosting. This is a good deal when you consider the hundreds of dollars it could cost to have someone else built a website for you.

Tools: WIX has a seemingly endless number of small tools or widgets that add to the user’s ability to maneuver and take advantage of the software’s many photo and video options. WIX also makes it easy to add outside features from outside sources. This creates the opportunity for even more flexibility and diversity within a website.

Beginner Friendly: Building a website can be intimidating. The guidance and direction provided by this software gives beginners and advanced users a good chance to create visually pleasing and effective websites.

What separates WIX from its competitors is the varied templates that the software makes available. You may have noticed that many build it yourself websites leave you with a flat and plain product. With the Flash-based builder, WIX gives you the ability to create a finished product that figuratively jumps off the computer screen. This is true even if you are a beginner who has never designed a website. As long as you adhere to the template as a guideline and don’t stray too far from the original foundation, the software will allow you to make numerous changes and guide you through the process.
The Flash-based builder is also great for artistic designers because it gives them plenty of tools to play with and create more intricate websites. One drawback to the WIX Flash-based websites is that they are not as search engine friendly. This runs the risk of costing you potential visitors.
All things considered, WIX is a good way to build a website because of the various template options and the guidance the software provides.