Have you spent any time agonizing over which website builder to use? There are so many, after all.

First we have the paid, software variety:

FrontPage 2003 and Dreamweaver CS3

Then we have the pay-per-month online deals:

GoDaddy, Yahoo, Homestead, just to name a few.

Now, I’ve tried them all. I’ve physically built sites using each one of the web builders mentioned above and, to tell the truth, I was a bit frustrated with what I saw.

Then Tripod came along. Tripod website builder (http://www.tripod.com) is unique to start with. Why? You can sign up, build a complete site, and even begin selling online before you pay out a dime. That’s the beauty of the system.

Then, when you’re completely satisfied with your site and are ready to hit the big leagues with a domain of your very own, you can pay the small domain and hosting fee. Less than nine bucks a month for a top level domain name and a generous amount of bandwidth for all of your anticipated visitors. Pretty great, actually.

And, of all the others, Tripod has the smallest learning curve. Every button is nicely marked, even redundantly so, and they have one of the easiest to use help systems that I’ve come across.

Plus, they make it very easy to build a site that looks like it was designed by a professional – and that’s what I’ve seen differentiates them from the others. With the others, the learning curve is either too great to get started with a nice site right away, or things are a bit too complex for the average user, even one with some web building experience, to make anything that looks remotely like a professional website.

Now, to make this a completely fair review, I guess I have to hit some negatives.

Let’s see.

Tripod is nothing if not simple to use, so a more advanced builder might get a bit annoyed by the lack of coding necessary. You know those guys. If a site isn’t pure HTML or CSS they call the lame cop out to play. But, in my opinion, the less HTML or CSS that I have to be able to pull out of my delicate little butt, the better.

Okay, here’s another. Their template choices may seem a bit lax in complexity. But, it’s been my experience to use one of the basic templates, either choosing a horizontal or vertical navigational design, and customizing everything on it to the point where it looks like my vision – which only takes time and isn’t nearly as difficult as it might sound. Custom colors, logo and other site elements where I want them; so I’ve never been concerned with templates as long as they are customizable enough to fit my needs.

Again, a techie would go nuts working with a template because they feel you can only be a web designer if you write the code out by hand; but, working with a template really only means that the site is up and ready to go, making your life easier right from the start. Change what you want to make it your own – and truth be told, if you do a good job, even a techie wouldn’t know it came from a template.
Hmm. Suppose that about wraps it up. If you want to build a website and have the process be about as simple and step by step as it gets, go with Tripod.

Thanks for coming,

Audry Grant


If you’re interested in learning more about building a website on Tripod, Word University, http://www.smallbusinessonlinecollege.org offers a step by step 6 module course for building a website and has live instruction and a social community where you can interact with fellow students. If you aren’t ready for a course, “Cyber Gold” 2nd Edition, ISBN:9780615181073 can be found where books are sold and will get you started building your website right away. Audry Grant is the author of numerous online articles and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.