The following is a listing of products or computer services that I personally use, love, and/or recommend.

Artisteer

Ok, so Artisteer is probably my favorite web design software ever! It’s a template creator for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, DotNetNuke, and Blogger. It has tons of built in options, but what I love most is that I can upload my own designs into the template (including button designs, glare, background images, header images, etc.) to create my own completely customized theme that works great! I’ve created tons of WordPress Themes (including this site) as well as blogger themes with it. You don’t need to know any code to use this product, but as always, knowing code always gives you the most control over any design software. They are constantly improving and adding more features, and they also offer some great forums and support. I’ve more than made the money invested back through this product!

SiteGrinder

Site Grinder is an amazing plugin for Photoshop that allows you to create a website completely in Photoshop simply by using tags and the Layer Comp options. I’ve used it to create a few sites, and really love the design flexibility and convenience it gives. My initial website was created entirely using SiteGrinder, but I recently changed my site so that just the landing page is from SiteGrinder and the rest is through WordPress because of the CMS options. While SiteGrinder does not currently offer CMS, they are constantly adding and improving and I’m sure will come out with a version soon that incoperates that helpful feature.

Pros for SiteGrinder

• It’s a True WYSIWYG that allows you to implement your exact design in Photoshop into a working website. So, as fast as you can design, you can create cool web pages.
• The customer service is unbeatable, and there are a ton of helpful docs and tutorials to teach you how to use the plugin.
• You are not limited to web templates or other programers if you do not know much about code.
• An astronomically lower learning curve than a program such as Dreamweaver, and more flexibility in design.

Cons for SiteGrinder

• It is fairly pricey
• While the code it puts out works on a website, it’s not as “clean” as many would like it. This isn’t a huge problem unless you are designing a site for a large company. You can pull the pages it creates into Dreamweaver and clean up the code very easily, though if you know how.
• As of right now, there is no CMS option, although I’m hoping to see them put one out soon. There are some who have learned how to incoperate a free content management system called Cushy into the SiteGrinder pages, so that’s always an option.

Mozy

Mozy is an awesome way to back up your computer quickly, efficiently, and easily without having to buy or keep track of an external hard drive. I’ve been using Mozy since January and love it! If you don’t have a ton on your computer (just emails, music, documents, etc.) you can use the home edition for free. I went ahead and purchased the full version since I have a lot of design software and projects on my computer. For me it’s invaluable to know that these projects are still there in the event my computer crashes, gets stolen, or gets a virus.

Vista Print

I have used Vista Print for tons of printing needs. They are generally the cheapest way to go in printing and they do a good job with a good turn around. They are almost always running sales, but you just have to weed through all of the extras that they want you to buy.

Jacquie Lawson

If you love sending e-cards but are tired of the same old ones that every one sends, you will love Jacquie Lawson’s site! It does require a small, yearly membership fee, but it is well worth it to have access to hand made (yes, I do mean hand made) e-cards, screen-savers, etc. I’ve had a membership for a year now which was given to me originally as a birthday gift, and I just signed up for automatic renewals myself. These cards, backgrounds, and screen savers are all meticulously hand painted designs that are scanned in to a computer and turned into incredible animations designs tied together with beautiful music. They are continuously putting out new designs, and the image seen here is one of their newest cards. So, check them out, and if you are a friend or family member of mine, you’ll probably be getting one of these cards from me some time.