Welcome to BigScreenBiz.com

For those of you doing your own websites, what software are you using? What do you like or dislike about it.

as a consumer of websites I think: hire the professionals. If not I would use the godaddy, etc. Why reinvent the wheel unless you are a gifted wheel builder?

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

I have used Microsoft Frontpage for years. It's nothing fancy, my website doesn't incorporate alot of "flashy" crap, and it gets the information to the customer.

It's very easy to use, not that expensive, and I can update my website on a moments notice as many times as I need and/or want to.

Being an independant theatre owner, I've been told (by my better half), that I'm somewhat of a control freak when it comes to the website. I like the fact of having the ability to make whatever changes I want, and not just being able to edit certain fields, or worse... relying on someone else to make the changes for me.

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Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Lebanon, Tennessee

Stardust Drive-In Theatre
Watertown, Tennessee

I would never rely on someone else to update my site. Heck, it only takes less than 5 minutes to do it yourself. Some of the free templates that are available today are extremely nice, so you don't have to be a web designer to have a great looking site.

I've used both Dreamweaver and FrontPage for years and Dreamweaver beats FrontPage in just about every aspect. It's easier to use, is more WYSIWYG, and FrontPage uploads are finicky. You can download a free trial version of Dreamweaver to try it out prior to purchasing. But then again, I'm biased... anything non-Microsoft is already better!

If you're going to go at it yourself, I recommend using Hostgator.com as your host. They have the most features/bandwidth/disk space for the buck, they are very cheap ($4.95/mo), and they have great customer service (which is getting rare) with live chat. Many professional web designers use Hostgator. Plus, if you ever move your site to another host, they use cPanel, which is the most universal control panel for easy transferring of your data.

I have used front page for years. I update it all the time myself. Since it is going out of service I was thinking of looking at other products.

I have seen some services out there who look like they can do a good job at your website. They interface with your POS to pickup the show times and even put the posters on your website with the times.

I am not sure I could give up the control becase I have a lot of other info on my site about the theatre and other activities which I like to keep updated. I have had one person they check my website for when there is an event downtown because I normally have it mentioned on my site. AS I expand the business I need more time and the website is becomeing a burdon. I hope one of my kids will take it over.