We all know how important the World Wide Web can be for promoting a project. Whether it’s in the early stages when you’re looking for funding, pre-production when you’re getting the word out for crew and casting, or the final task of marketing. The bottom line is having a working website is not only “cool” for your project, it is without a doubt necessary.
But what do you do if you’re not into coding? Personally, the idea of learning code never appealed to me. I have tried and eventually learned how to handle some of it. But with all the advances in creative design programs, I often wondered why a “drag and drop” system had yet to be created for website design. I’ve become too accustomed to creating/designing in Photoshop/ Illustrator to bother with anything that involves coding.
I cannot say enough good things about Wix.com. In the past year I have created a few sites for clients using this system and I am thrilled with the results it gave me. I was able to be more creative because I no longer had to worry about my coding limitations.
Wix.com is a flash based web site creator. It allows you to create a site based off of templates (which some are really nice and very customizable) or you can start from scratch from a blank slate.
It offers drag and drop features along with a seemingly unlimited amount of clip art, animations and other little additions that can add a spark to your site. (I would be careful with this though, just because it is there doesn’t mean one should necessarily use it. Most video people remember the advent of the page curl transition and how badly it was abused when it first came on the scene!)
This product is not without its downsides, but they are open and honest about the current limitations.
I’ll cover some of these during the course of this review.
In my opinion if you can’t figure out a basic drag and drop template interface then you need to hire someone, because it’s really not going to get any easier than this. You pick your template which is available in several different categories, or you can go from a blank page. Importing your own photos, logos and other materials is also a snap. I would be willing to bet a person who has material ready (web ready photos, text etc.) could potentially have a Wix based site up and running within hours.
