Some answers to your questions: Below you will find a list of the most frequently asked questions. If you can't find what you're looking for, please try the search option.
No! We are excited about our product and do not ask for anything to try it out. You can go to any "Try It Now" button on the main page and become familiar with the SiteBuildingSystem all at no cost and with no registration required.
You can use free disk space to publish a few pages but soon you will run out of space for your pictures, etc. Also, your site will probably be hosted under the domain name of your ISP (ex. http://www.bigisp.com/~yoursite). This gives people a cheap impression and creates no top of the mind awareness for your name or brand, if commercial activity is even permitted at all by your ISP.
Add to this the fact that you will need to learn HTML at a minimum in order to create a site to host at your ISP, and you still won't be able to reproduce the quality Flash-based dynamic qualities of pages built with the SiteBuildingSystem.
You can use the "Try It Now" feature and create a sample site. This will give you an indication of how easy it is and the time involved. How big a site and how much content you create is completely up to you.
First, until you Publish your website using the Site Editor, you will get a holding page that states that your site will be coming soon. Your domain should get registered worldwide within 24 hours, and all features of your account will then be active. You can login to the Members section and take all the time you need to build your site. Just Save the changes you want to keep and edit until you are happy with the site, then choose Publish in the Site Editor and your site will go live! Until then, nobody can see what you've created.
On their own, some of our members have built entire sites within hours; others have built theirs over the course of several months. Some members update their web sites daily; others only seasonally or less frequently. In other words, while you can get a basic site up and running quickly, maintaining your web site is an ongoing process that can take as much time as you're willing to invest.
If you can click and drag your mouse and press keys on your keyboard, you can build a professional looking web site. Really, it is that easy. Feel free to see this for yourself by going to our Try It Now! page and putting the editor through its paces -- there's no charge to do so, and you'll discover that it's quick and easy to produce good-looking results.
No, our tools were created so that you would not have to do any programming of any kind. You just drag and drop the information into place right in your browser window, upload your graphics, pictures or files and place them where you want them, save everything and Publish. You make changes to your site the same way -- just access your Account Administration page, select Site Editor and then make any changes you wish to make. You can save your changes without publishing them, and then come back and Publish later. Our easy-to-use tools put the power in your hands.
While we don't provide server-space for html pages independent of our system, you can upload html-coded pages to be served as individual files by using our File Upload module. The file will be represented by an icon on your page, and will open in a new window when the visitor clicks on it.
If you're already skilled in creating Flash animations, you can upload .swf files to serve as the background image of your pages by using the Theme creator. These can include whatever links you wish to imbed in them.
Yes, international members can use our entire service. This is after all, the Internet and we currently provide documentation in Spanish as well as English. We are working to open our system up to further internationalization and to provide the capability for international partners to offer our services entirely in their native languages.
If you ever have a question about SiteBuildingSystem, go to our Support page by clicking the Questions link from the main page or the ? icon while in the Editor. There you will find this list of Frequently Asked Questions, the User Guide, an e-mail Contact form and a link to our excellent Live Assistance service. Live Assistance is available during business hours, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and questions submitted through the form on that page are submitted immediately to our support staff and are usually answered within a few hours.
Our site and our customers' sites are consistently available over 99 percent of the time. The SiteBuildingSystem and all customer data, from e-mail to website contents, is hosted in a tier-one enviroment with redundant fail-over backup servers, high personnel-security and power generators. You can rest assured that your e-mail and website is secure and available to your contacts and customers.
We need your existing e-mail address so we can send you your username and passwords for the SiteBuildingSystem and send you information you'll need in order to get started. We also use this e-mail address to send you important information about your account status and urgent news. We will not send you spam or sell or give your e-mail address to anyone else.
We ask everyone to create a SiteBuildingSystem password to use along with an e-mail address as an additional measure of security when signing in to our service. This SiteBuildingSystem password helps to keep your web site information safe and your personal information protected. Please keep in mind that the main password you create to administer your SiteBuildingSystem account is different from the passwords you will create for each e-mail account.
If you currently have a domain name, you can transfer it to our servers. Or, you can create and purchase your domain name at the time of registration through our site. We don't offer any services that don't include a domain-name either transferred to our system or registered and maintained through the SiteBuildingSystem.
Our business is to help you create your own Internet identity. This begins with the establishment of a unique domain name for you or your business. You can transfer and use your existing domain name or create a new one using our SiteBuildingSystem. We will buy the name for you and continue to renew each year as long as you are still a member. You own the name and have complete control over it so, you can transfer it any time. This domain name will be the basis for your website and e-mail addresses, and we remain totally behind the scenes.
No. While you own the content and pictures you provide for site we host for you, and are free to save and reuse these with another web site, SiteBuildingSystem web pages themselves are dynamically generated by our service. As a result, SiteBuildingSystem pages can't be moved to another website. Of course, any custom backgrounds, text, graphics and photographs, in addition to any other files (PDFs, etc.) belong to you, and you should keep backups of these files locally.
Yes. We have several levels of service from among which you can choose the level that suits you best. These packages include the registration and parking of a domain name only, a domain name together with a block of associated e-mail addresses, or a fully-outfitted account with domain name, e-mail addresses and a website. All website accounts include e-mail addresses, and additional e-mail addresses may be available for an extra charge if you need more than are included with the basic plan. Secure, fast, and easy to use, the Sitebuildingsystem's fully integrated Webmail interface gives you easy access to all your e-mail accounts from anywhere on the Web, and you can also configure standard IMAP-aware e-mail clients like Microsoft Outlook to access your accounts with us.
Yes, you can upgrade or downgrade your package at any time and there is no setup fee. You will be billed the new amount at the beginning of the next billing cycle. There will be no refunds for downgrading between billing cycles, since our service is billed prior to usage.
Our integrated application enables us to easily and seamlessly update our system without interruptions to your service. You will receive an e-mail indicating what is to take place and when. If an unseen problem arises, a notification will be sent out. We do our best to avoid interrupting your service for any reason, and we are constantly working to improve the SiteBuildingSystem for the benefit of our customers.
You can submit your site to search engins (such as Google and AltaVista) and directories (like Yahoo!, About.com, and the Open Directory Project) to help new and existing customers find your site. Also because you have your own domain name you should have it printed on your business cards, letterhead, brochures, etc. Advertising a website is a good idea to turn a little advertising into a lot of exposure.
Your website will be periodically "crawled" by all the major search engines like Google and Yahoo. This probably won't happen right away, but it will eventually. You should make sure to give your site a clear, simple title that accurately reflects how you'd like users of search engines to find your site. You can do this under the Contact tab on the main Account Administration page. It should also include a brief description that includes certain keywords for which you wish to be found. In addition, we provide the ability for you to edit your keywords "meta tag" to supply search engines with the keywords for which you'd like your site to be found.
Visitors to your site can contact you by e-mail if you place a Contact Form module on your site. This is found under the Modules menu and is automatically linked with the e-mail address that you specifiy.
Yes, you can simply add links to other sites to your own by selecting text to use as a link or an area on the page to serve as a link. You can also add links to other pages to your own top-level page, although linking deeper in your site is not possible because of the dynamic nature of your site -- we can't guarantee that pages will always reside in the same physical location on our server. Use the Links menu in the Site Editor to add and edit links.
Yes! It is quite easy to change your theme at any time. All you need to do is choose Change Theme from the Theme menu while editing and this will take you to our Theme Selector. There, you can search by category or keyword and choose from among our collection of over 400 professionally-designed themes. You can also make your own theme by preparing either a .jpg or .swf (Flash) file that is 775x600 pixels and uploading it using the Create My Theme selection. You can change themes as often as you like; so, for example, you might choose a holiday theme during Halloween and instantly change the look of your entire site.
Yes, we have a Photo Gallery module that you can add to your site with ease. In the Site Editor, there is a Modules button that will give you a menu of modules to add to your site. The Photo Gallery module is among them.
You can also upload and edit pictures without putting them into a gallery. You can even have one picture become the background for a whole site, placing your text and other elements on top of the picture. Just remember that the loading time of the site is somewhat affected by the size of your pictures.
Yes! You can upload Microsoft Publisher, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, PDFs, text files, Rich Text files, HTML files and Word Perfect documents to be served from your website. These kinds of files will be represented on our system as icons and will open in a separate browser window. We're currently extending our system to allow you to be able to upload other types of documents. If you have a particular request, feel free to let us know.
You have the option of changing your current Theme to one of the many predesigned Themes available, or you can design your own theme and upload it. Other aspects of layout such as placement of images and graphics is easy using the Site Editor. Just use the handles to drag the elements to their destinations while in Edit mode and then select Preview mode to see how everything will look once the handles are gone.
Our staff is also available to work with you in the event you want a custom made theme and don't want to do it yourself.
You need to use the buttons on your site to select the page you wish to edit. For example, if you're editing your Home page and wish to edit the content of your Contact page, simply press the Contact button while editing and the Contact page will appear in edit mode, ready for you to make changes just as you would on any page. Don't forget to save your work when you're satisfied with it, and publish the site when you're ready for the world to see it.
No. At this time, any e-commerce capability is up to you to add to your site. We have found that it's easy to accept payment via PayPal for items on your site; but, unfortunately, we don't offer any further e-commerce options. We focus on you, the small-business owner or family member, instead of focusing on consumers. We provide you a place to build and manage an online identity and the tools and suggestions to help you better reach new and existing customers. You have the freedom to participate in other malls if you so choose.
Sure you can, it is easy. Just set up a sale on your PayPal account and cut and paste the code it generates as a link on your site, along with a description of the sale.