The below question and confusion regarding xsitepro and custom templates comes up often. Since Xsitepro uses a system unlike any other to build websites, having your custom website template designed correctly and put in the right format is of paramount importance. This is a conversation I had with an Xsitepro user looking to use his custom website image in Xsitepro
I am not the best at designing a sales site, so I hired a person who did a great job for me.
He has sent me the all the files in jpeg and html…
I have read here on the forum as well as looked in the guided and I do not see how
to import these files…
Do I do them one at a time and redesign the site with XSite or is there another way
to import the entire contents all at once…
I would appreciate any suggestions…
************************* Then somone tried to explain how xsitepro uses templates and why you just can’t use an image or regular html.
*************************
Hi Brian:
The information you are seeking is in the big manual Part U Page 266.
I haven’t tried it yet, but as far as I can see, XSite Pro cannot import a full site prepped in another program, like dreamweaver. It can’t interpret the functions and paramaters used by the other program to understand what is required. It can do so if it is an XSite Pro product because it understands the formatting used.
Like me, unilingual English trying to read the manual in French or Italian.
I think you have to do some work. It is one of the larger sections in the manual.
You will undoubtedly receive better information from more expert persons than I, as they scan the forum.
Good Luck
_________________________
Below is my suggestion to help Brian with is dilemma regarding converting an custom designed photoshop image into a custom xsitepro template.
Hi Brian
When creating a website with xsitepro most users will use one of the templates that are provided with the xsitepro program and use it to build their website with.
Others will purchase a xsitepro template and import it into their xsitepro program as their template for their new website.
Still others, like you, will have a custom template designed. Typically a template is created in photoshop or GIMP which are image editors. Next the image is “sliced” into pieces that then…..can be used in Xsitepro to build a template. This file is called an .xse file.
So…at this point you are half way finished. The guy who designed and built your website template finished the image part of the process….next it has to be “sliced” into sections and imported corrected into Xsitepro so that you will have an .xse file.
If you’re not following me, first you can’t use the files you have with Xsitepro.
Second …..the files you have need to be manipulated so that they can be used in xsitepro.
If you have photoshop of GIMP you can slice the images you have yourself….I have a series of videos that shows you how to do …see Make Your Own Templates
If you rather have someone do it, I can do what is needed, send me a PM, otherwise there are other people on the forum that might be able to help you.
Good Luck
Scott
To recap….design the look of your website in photoshop. Next slice the images into sections that can be used in Xsitepro to develop a custom Xsitepro Template. The process is simple but you really need to hire someone who has experience in both Photoshop and Xsitepro.
Everybody loves free web design tools, but there’s a lot of garbage out there so it becomes very helpful when someone recommends a tool to you. When a free web design tool is recommended you can be sure there is no spyware, viruses or any other garbage. Anyway, I grabbed a list of free tools that some of my fellow xsitepro users are using….take your time and read through the list, there are some pretty awesome time saving tools that you can download right now for free.
I thought I’d post about a free piece of software that I always use in conjunction with XSP and Photoshop.
It’s called ColorPic and it let’s you pick out any color in a browser or on an application like Photoshop or XSP! Once you pick out a color ColorPic gives all the info related to it. Perfect for when you want a shade of color just slightly lighter or darker then what you’re currently using.
I’ve been using colorpic for a long time….it’s a great little application.
Someone
might wonder why they would need this little tool. If you do any
website design, it’s perfect for grabbing colors and duplicating that
color. For Xsitepro users, especially version 1 users it is
indispensable for setting up your google adsense ads. Xsitepro doesn’t
really have a very good system of picking custom colors so that you can
match the adsense backgrounds and boundary with your website background
color…..well, Colorpic to the rescue! All you have to do is use color
pic to sample the background of your webpage color and use the color
code in your Xsitepro adsense color values.
Here’s a couple of other applications that are free and helpful when working with xsite or your computer.
I use a free version of Screen Calipers
which comes in handy when trying to duplicate website designs or
determining what size table will fit into a blog column….actually
anytime you need to measure a distance on a website. The free version
is somewhat limited, but I’ve not run into a situation where I needed
to purchase it….very handy too.
One more is called simple search and replace
and you can use it to search a folder for just about anything. I use it
to search for my google adsense number when I export a site from
xsitepro to dreamweaver and then replace that number with a php include
so that anyone can change one file and all the adsense numbers will be
change.
I do the same thing with clickbank id’s, use search and
replace to find all my clickbank id’s and then replace with a php
inlcude that will direct to a file that contains the clickbank id. This
way, I can make a site and sell it to anyone who doesn’t have xsitepro,
all they have to do is change 2 files, the google file and the
clickbank file which are pulled in with the php includes.
Ok…..what the heck….last one. I use an application to help me stay organized called Treepad.
It’s free also, and the free trial version has worked for me for at
least 4 years. You can drag urls, images or text into a file. You can
use it as a diary, phone book, address book, store important urls,
store downloads, store purchases….you name it and you’ll find this
little application will help keep you organized.
Anxious to see what you guys come up with!
Thanks Patrick and Scott for those excellent pointers. I’m going to go and check them all out right now.
Treepad
sounds right up my street. I use Evernote at the moment, which has a
free version, and that does a similar thing. Here’s the url:
PIXresizer - Free Image Resizer PIXresizer is a photo resizing program to easily create web and e-mail friendly versions of your images with reduced file sizes, http://bluefive.pair.com/pixresizer.htm
So many useful tools I cannot list them all. Here are a few of my favorites.
- Error checker. Checks a pages code and tells you instantly if there
is an error, what the error is, and where the error is. Code, scripts,
CSS. All checked.
- Ruler and line guides. Check sizes AND alignment of objects.
- Outline. Adds an outline to all elements on a page so you can see EXACTLY how a site is built.
- Image options. On, off, and more. Get EVERY kind of info you can image on every image on a site.
Dude, seriously, screen caps and video capture with free file hosting AND super easy to use. TechSmith has top notch products, and this is the top notchiest of them all. Just a little glowing orb on top of your screen and you can catch it all.
Great for sending quick video instructions to clients, or taking screen shots for you blog etc. ==========
Not a day goes by where I don’t use both of those tools for personal and professional uses.
You read my mind Patrick.
I was (and still will) write a longer and more detailed blog post writing about the various Free tools I use.
_________________ Knowledge is not information, it is transformation. ~ Osho ~ Creative Compulsions | Winnipeg Web Design Shop XSitePro | Creative XSitePro Templates
I have to admit It took forever for me to switch over to Firefox , but it’s when I discovered FF’s addon Web Developer that I was completely sold!
Another free application I’ve been using for as long as I can remember is WordWeb. It’s a comprehensive one-click English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows. It can be used to look up words from almost any program, showing definitions, synonyms and related words. It includes pronunciations and usage examples, and has helpful spelling and sounds-like links.
I love Wordweb and you will too. You can grab your free copy at: http://wordweb.info/
Thank you everyone for sharing! And keep sharing your ideas.
Seoquake
is a Mozilla Firefox extension aimed primarily at helping web masters
who deal with search engine optimization and internet promotion of web
sites. Seoquake allows to obtain and investigate many important SEO
parameters of the internet… https://addons.mozilla.org/nl/firefox/addon/3036
Here’s another fantastic Free tool for all you web designers. It helps you to co-ordinate a complementary color mix for you site. left panel, right panel, main panel, links etc etc
It’s great to use with the colorpic tool, and being as it’s so easy now to alter colors with XSP2 it’s just a breeze to play around with colors!
Just enter the color code eg #ffffff into the box and click on submit hex. Or you can use the RGB box. Choose the colors you are happy with!
(make sure you just enter ffffff and not #ffffff ie leave the # off as it’s already in place)
Here is a very good free tool. It is a powerful word replacement
program designed to help writers, copywriters, article marketers, and
‘private label rights’ content users.
First off, great idea here!! Love the pixresizer and the wordweb.
Pixresizer going to help me alot, especially putting up blogs and
resizing the header from the main site to fix the blog.
Here are a few more FF add ons…
Session
manager, if you are like me and have MANY tabs opened.. you know, out
of sight out of mind, this helps bc it will restore your previous
session in case of crash. They also have morning cup of coffee which
can save group of tabs by days but the new version doesnt show the icon
for this. I also use tabsaver as well.
Y
SLOW another must have. YSlow analyzes web pages and tells you why
they’re slow based on the rules for high performance web sites. YSlow
is a Firefox add-on integrated with the popular Firebug web development
tool.
Recommended by the 30 Day Challenge folks. I haven’t tried it yet but it looks good: http://www.socialmarker.com/
OK…man, you guys/gals have come up with some really good stuff.
Anybody ever use HTTrack Website Copier?
Before
you start thinking this is illegal, remember just about anything you
put online is accessible to anybody….I don’t like it anymore than the
other guy, but and that’s a big but, it depends on how you use this
material.
Bottom line, if you download someone else’s stuff and
use it on your website or sell it then you are a thief…plain and
simple, your a thief just like any other parasite.
However, as a webmaster HTTrack can do many things for you.
First let me tell you what it does. Basically it downloads the entire website to your desktop, complete with folders files ect.
This is from their website:
Quote:
It
allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a
local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML,
images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack
arranges the original site’s relative link-structure. Simply open a
page of the “mirrored” website in your browser, and you can browse the
site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can
also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted
downloads. HTTrack is fully configurable, and has an integrated help
system.
There are a number of ways you can use this tool.
For instance if you are working with a person who has a website up and
there has been an argument between the domain owner and the webmaster,
and the domain owner hired you to redo his site….You can download
almost everything on the server.
I almost hesitate sharing this
tool because I know there will be some that will use it in an
unscrupulous way. Please don’t think you can download someones site and
steal their content, images and site structure…..that would make you
a real jerk!
Once I had a client that was a doctor and they
wanted to put 100’s of pdf’s directly on their site that came from
another doctor. The other doctor gave their permission and I was able
to use HTTrack to grab the needed files.
Basically, I use the
tool to grab a website and plug it into dreamweaver and study how the
site was put together. I’ve learned a lot of tricks and I’ve been able
to duplicate affects that I would have never figured out on my own.
So….in essence for me, it is a great learning and teaching tool.
You
can configure the program to only download certain sections of a
website. I would highly recommend only downloading what you need.
Remember if you snag someone’s site that is huge, you’ll be taking
bandwidth from them.
The tool has been around for a while, many
people use it. Just remember to use it wisely and if you think you are
going to use anything you download….please, please get permission
first.
For
some of you guys who are new to building websites, it’s a great way to
learn html. You’ll be able to learn certain effects and transfer those
effects to your Xsitepro websites. When you see a site with something
really cool and it doesn’t show up on “view source code”, you can give
httrack a try. By the way, this tool isn’t foolproof and will not grab
everything, but you will get more than is available with “view source
code”…..plus you can see how a site is structured.
Most will
pass this by, but perfection involves understanding. Even though you
use Xsitepro, at some point you need to start learning html…unless
you are building only one site in your lifetime.
I’m constantly
amazed at the number of people who bitch and complain the xsitepro
won’t do this or that…when in the long run, some basic understanding
of html and css would prove invaluable in the development of your sites.
Oh well….I better stop before I say something that gets me in trouble
I cannot believe I did not list my #1 pluggin for Firefox
FireFTP - Built in FTP program, that is super easy and does everything you need an FTP program to use. fireftp.mozdev.org/
Glad to see this thread is helping XSP users discover some kewl new free tools to help with web design.
I’ve been using the FTP addon program for Firefox for some time now and love it. It’s simple to use and you can beat free when it comes to cost. Well most of the time.
An interesting Firefox addon that I enjoy is Foxmarks. With Foxmarks I can go anywhere in the world, get on a computer, and still have all my bookmarks! It’s smart stuff.
Just because you own Xsitepro doesn’t mean you can get away without ever learning any html. Html is the basic coding of any website and although you can read up on how to use html, there’s nothing like seeing html used in real life.
The wysiwyg editor of Xsitepro works very well, however there are times when you will need to know some html to get things right…so you better learn html coding! Below is a post I did in the Xsitepro Forum hoping to help some of my fellow xsitepro users with a free tool that will help them study html coding in existing websites.
OK…man, you guys/gals have come up with some really good stuff.
Anybody ever use HTTrack Website Copier?
Before you start thinking this is illegal, remember just about anything you put online is accessible to anybody….I don’t like it anymore than the other guy, but and that’s a big but, it depends on how you use this material.
Bottom line, if you download someone else’s stuff and use it on your website or sell it then you are a thief…plain and simple, your a thief just like any other parasite.
However, as a webmaster HTTrack can do many things for you.
First let me tell you what it does. Basically it downloads the entire website to your desktop, complete with folders files ect.
This is from their website:
It allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack arranges the original site’s relative link-structure. Simply open a page of the “mirrored” website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads. HTTrack is fully configurable, and has an integrated help system.
There are a number of ways you can use this tool. For instance if you are working with a person who has a website up and there has been an argument between the domain owner and the webmaster, and the domain owner hired you to redo his site….You can download almost everything on the server.
I almost hesitate sharing this tool because I know there will be some that will use it in an unscrupulous way. Please don’t think you can download someones site and steal their content, images and site structure…..that would make you a real jerk!
Once I had a client that was a doctor and they wanted to put 100’s of pdf’s directly on their site that came from another doctor. The other doctor gave their permission and I was able to use HTTrack to grab the needed files.
Basically, I use the tool to grab a website and plug it into dreamweaver and study how the site was put together. I’ve learned a lot of tricks and I’ve been able to duplicate affects that I would have never figured out on my own. So….in essence for me, it is a great learning and teaching tool.
You can configure the program to only download certain sections of a website. I would highly recommend only downloading what you need. Remember if you snag someone’s site that is huge, you’ll be taking bandwidth from them.
The tool has been around for a while, many people use it. Just remember to use it wisely and if you think you are going to use anything you download….please, please get permission first.
For some of you guys who are new to building websites, it’s a great way to learn html. You’ll be able to learn certain effects and transfer those effects to your Xsitepro websites. When you see a site with something really cool and it doesn’t show up on “view source code”, you can give httrack a try. By the way, this tool isn’t foolproof and will not grab everything, but you will get more than is available with “view source code”…..plus you can see how a site is structured.
Most will pass this by, but perfection involves understanding. Even though you use Xsitepro, at some point you need to start learning html…unless you are building only one site in your lifetime.
I’m constantly amazed at the number of people who bitch and complain the xsitepro won’t do this or that…when in the long run, some basic understanding of html and css would prove invaluable in the development of your sites.
Oh well….I better stop before I say something that gets me in trouble
Exclusive Membership Sites For Professionals For the purposes of the discussion, you may want to think of mid ticket items as being priced in the $37.00 to $67.00 range per unit.
There are plenty of methods you can use to promote your mid ticket offerings. Here are some examples of methods that have proven track records of generating interest among existing clientele as well as garnering some attention from new customers as well.
E-Books
It seems that no matter what the type of product or service that is offered, an electronic book will be an ideal way to generate interest. Why? There are actually several levels on which an E-book attracts us. Here are three examples:
In spite of the hype, most of us do like to read. We will read everything from sonnets to the backs of cereal boxes.
E-books are easily stored. We can download them onto our hard drives and read them any time we like.
E-books are E-Books often free or available at a fraction of the cost of a hard copy book.
When using an E-book to promote your product line, you will most likely have it available as a free download.
Providing a few online excerpts from the book as hooks will entice people to take the few moments needed to download the book and will also increase the chances they will actually read it after downloading.
You may want to also give them the chance to read a few pages before they perform a download, assuming you have the bandwidth required for this sort of activity.
Another potential way to keep the relationship going is to have a sign-up page where basic contact information is collected before the download commences.
This will give you the chance to follow up on everyone that downloaded the book and perhaps close a sale very quickly, due to the obvious fact of your diligence.
Read more in the next couple of posts and learn how to, Make more money from your repeat customers, establish substantial credibility and expand your product empire!
I was looking around a few forums and found a post by Kim from Niche Health Products, and I wrote a quick post of praise for the awesome plr health related membership site that includes two free custom designed xsitepro templates each month. I posted my message below.
Hi Kim
I had to take a minute to make a comment about Kim’s Health PLR membership sites. Did you know you get 2 free custom xsitepro templates each month?
In the interest of full disclosure, I create Kim’s Graphics and Minisites for each subject….and for anyone who might be a bit skeptical, Kim didn’t ask me to make any comments here
I’m constantly amazed at the quality of Kims articles and books, the articles are thorough, well written and complete. All articles are based on keywords that will get you results.
Because I work for Kim, I know the quality that she insists on…and it’s second to none. She is completely committed to her members always attempting to provide the very best.
You might ask yourself, why should I use PLR…haven’t they kind of dissappeared into the electronic ethos as most IM trends?
The answer is yes….in most cases.
However, Kim’s health plr memberships focus on one specific niche that has the capability of being drilled down deeply….that being the Health Niche. The Health Niche is a hot niche composed of many sub-niches, which makes it an ideal niche for selling affiliate products, your own health products and/or developing small silo of minisites. And…if you’re motivated enough to combine these with your own network of blogs…..watch out!
Each month you get 2 PLR packages ….each one focusing on a different health niche…things like influenza, old age, pregnancy, stress, aids and on …..and on…..
Since I do the graphics and minisites, I wanted to share how I do these. Each month I take each of the subjects and create a variety of header grahics, ecovers, flat book images, footers and full website templates in standard html and .xse the xsitepro format.
Keep in mind you get 2 xsitepro templates that are unique each month that will allow you to build your health based website directory on. This is big…go and try to get a custom xsitepro template made….it ain’t cheap!
I created a quick video so you can see an example of some of the website templates that are included:
I’ve seen some adsense site packages that are wso’s selling for $27 or more. You’re actually getting two completely new adsense sites each month along with the PLR package!
I’m sorry….I just get really excited when I think of Niche Health Products…it’s been here at least 2 years providing the same high quality material each and every month.
If you have an interest in health related subjects…If you create websites for doctors, chiroprators or any number of health professionals….get them to sign up for this membership because the articles are perfect feeder articles to help their sites and/or blogs to get indexed along with being able to start autoposting.
Another idea is some of the numberous people that are involved with multi-level maketed health products. Most claim to cure just about everything…..what a better way to promote these products then by using some of the PLR articles and books for developing regular visits by those indexing spiders. Don’t mistake my intentions, I’m not making fun of these MLM products….I take a few myself and feel better when I take them than when I don’t…..my point is that an advanced mlm’er could make some hay with these articles, graphics and sites, by incoroporating some of the internet marketing strategies you’ve learned over the years. Things like building a list, marketing affiliate products…etc.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. I’ve known Kim for at least 2 years and her focus on creating a superior product each and every month is second to none….I’m really proud to be part of the NHP project.
One more thing…we could provide you with the best of the best….and that’s what this is, however, all it takes is a little effort on your part to make these sites and articles stand out…..Yep, WORK is that 4 letter word most run away from…but I don’t want you to think that this is some magic membership that will make you 1000’s……as Dennis from OneKaDay says…set your goal at 5 bucks a day, accomplish the goal and then move it higher.
Grap this offer while you can…I don’t think you’ll see this kind of pricing anytime soon
If you offer a trial membership, make sure you provided specific terms, as well as a way for the prospect to convert the trial membership into a full membership at any time during the trial.
Trial Software Offers
If software is involved in your product or service offering, you may also want to provide a demonstration version of the software that is good for a limited amount of time. Think in terms of some of the free electronic trail games you can download.
Many of them will allow the player to access and start a new game session for a specific number of times before the software becomes inoperative and they player will have to purchase the full version in order to continue.
Trial software should be representative of what the full version does, but you want to make sure that the software cannot be reconfigured to get around the limited Trial Membership Offers time usage.
This is not a difficult task for anyone who develops software; all you will need to do is provide the perimeters of the trial time and you are all set.
As with the trial membership offers, you want your prospect to be able to upgrade from trial to permanent software at any point during the trial time, so make sure you include that in your package as well.
Promoting your low ticket items will keep your company moving along, providing the operating capital that you need to enhance your offerings and also develop more high priced offerings as well.
By utilizing these and similar ideas, you can effectively increase your client base without investing a huge chunk of your profits into public relations endeavors.
Mid Ticket Product Ideas
Having established yourself with some of your low ticket offerings, you will want to investigate the potential for up-selling your client by creating interest in your mid ticket products and services.
Read the next post because you want to, Earn your prospects trust quickly at LOW risks and HIGH volumes with these amazing low ticket product ideas that you can quickly and easily develop for your own!
, but 
