Creating Website with WebNode.com

Author: Jimmy

13 Feb

Introduction

Webnode.com is a newly-launched (web 2.0) service by a Czech startup which gained $1.2 M investment recently. WebNode’s service competes with what of well-known Google Page Creator and a number of other online website builders like Weebly, Jimdo, Synthasite, Sampa and RealEditor. After playing with it for a while, I know why WebNode has confidence to join so crowded market.

It has great website builder tool,
Drag-n-drop functionality,
Office2007-style ribbon,
Many ready-made widget/gadgets from eCommerce, polling to external ones like Flickr, Box.net.
You can read and manage emails through browser (professional edition only, but I could not find where to register for it?).
You can monitor and analyze website traffic with build-in analytics and it doesn’t prevent you from using external services like Google Analytics, StatCounter.
It’s free like Wordpress.com and big news: you can use your own domain name.

Creating a site step-by-step

My first trial was to create a web hosting site with WebNode. Registration is extremely easy, just fill your desired (sub) domain name and e-mail address for confirmation then you can start building your website with a 3-step wizard.

1. Fill website heading, slogan.

WebNode.com Wizard 1

2. Select a template (FYI, a lot of cool ones).

WebNode.com Wizard 2

3. Finish wizard by clicking “Start” button (hmm, look like Windows way )

WebNode.com Wizard 3

And you will be redirected to Admin Panel with clean UI — very easy to get where to start a job.

WebNode.com Admin Panel

Using “Website builder” tool is really joyful though it would take time to explore all functionality. Most of tasks you have to do are dragging desired widgets to appropriated locations and defining “lists” of products/services you want to sell or anything you want to publish.

Please visit my example site at http://goodhosting.webnode.com but you may never want to buy a web host if you trust the WebNode, right?

Issues

Frankly, I don’t expect a bug-free service from a new company. During my exploration to WebNode tools, I found some issues:

1. My first registration e-mail (a Yahoo!Mail) did not receive confirmation. I had to change to another e-mail address to get activation link.

2. Statistics did not work: I received error report as image below.

WebNode.com Statistics Error

3. The “File Manager” functionality in website builder uses a Java Applet which took long time to load and crashed my Firefox sometimes (oh, I’ve never been a fan of Java Applet.)

Hope they can fix/improve them all soon. Thanks for great service, team!

Want your service reviewed? Just send an introduction to jimmy(a)JustTalkAboutWebDotCom.

Recommended Reading: This site recommends Website Magazine for 'Net Success

Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on future posts!

Share and Enjoy:

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Filed under: Web 2.0, Web Service Reviews

15 Responses for "Creating Website with WebNode.com"

Webnode February 13th, 2008 at 5:12 am 1

Hello Jimmy,

first of all, we’d like to thank you for your review, which somehow found its way to us We appreciate any kind of fair publicity.

Statistics for your project should be allright now. It is probably out of place to discuss other issues here, so feel free to contact us at support(at)webnode.com for further info.

Have a nice day,

Petr Kratky
Webnode team
Jimmy February 13th, 2008 at 6:38 am 2

I found the statistics working now, thanks for quick fix. I think you should concern activation e-mail issue because user may give up if it does not show.

However, your service is so good and these bugs are not too serious, I suppose.
Webnode February 13th, 2008 at 7:18 am 3

You are true, that we should concern about e-mail delivery issue. It’s special case with Yahoo, where e-mail aren’t delivered at all.

Good is, that guys from Yahoo replied to our request and they will put our servers to whitelist, so activation e-mails can be delivered. Good for us, that Yahoo users will receive activation e-mails and good for Yahoo users, that they can sign up for Webnode

Regards,

Petr Kratky
Webnode team
Jack Laybourn March 25th, 2008 at 6:36 pm 4

Hi There,

Just came by your site searching for more infomation about web traffic building&Seo tools, and I found some great info here

I`m working on building the best! Viral Traffic Blog site now so I do a lot of reviews all over the net.

Thanks,

Have A Great Day
Regards,
Jack L
Admin.
Viral Traffic Center.com
Philippe March 31st, 2008 at 7:47 am 5

1) Domain mapping but the original isn’t redirected => DUPLICATES (you know what it means)

2) No way to unpublish (temporarily ou permanently)

3) Adding components (even simple ‘image & text’) takes forever (for me it didn’t even work, and if it did I have no patience to wait 10 minutes)

4) No way to remove RSS feeds once added (choice before the generation, when you don’t even know how it looks)

5) Remove your guestbook. Now, how do you add another one ?

6) No way to remove default pages like news, sitemap, etc. (even if you don’t link to them, they still exist)

7) Every URL with a trailing slash (.html would allow you to easily host static pages elsewhere while keeping your URI structure, the too simple “Weebly” does this)

BTW, no export/backup.

9) email directly published online, by the time you notice it and edit it, you know what could happen (same for the contact form)

10) Spelling mistakes in translations.

And I’m sure you could find other “features”. One day is enough for me.

Relatively advanced, but BAD service. Still, free, so judge by yourself…
James Postlethwaite April 9th, 2008 at 10:52 am 6

Hi,

I recently started a website with Webnode and I tell everbody who reads this it is the best FREE web host on the market by far. All other free web hosts don’t have features that Webnode does I.E: RSS, Feeds, Polls and Site Maps, Also search boxes!

Keep up the great work and anyone who is thinking of starting a website, start one with Webnode!

Also Webnode offers some pretty cool templates. If you wish to see the layout and features of a Webnode website please feel free to visit either of the below:

http://www.webnode.com and click on Demo
http://www.therealhustlegroup.webnode.com

Thanks
James Postlethwaite
Adam Barger August 6th, 2008 at 4:55 pm 7

How do these website builders compare to http://Webstarts.com?
Emily August 8th, 2008 at 10:15 pm 8

You can register for Pro by selecting a project and going to it’s menu where you will see website editor, website stats, ect. Then click Premium Services and Domains. There you can register domains, purchase a package, and see info on your billing.
Emily August 9th, 2008 at 2:49 pm 9

I switched from freewebs to weebly, and then from weebly to Syntha Site, and from Syntha Site to Webnode. GO WEBNODE!
Little Intercessors August 16th, 2008 at 8:19 am 10

We just made our group website today at webnode.com, and it’s great! We’ve been to different free webhosting and webnode.com is the best! Nice! Very professional!
Cathy August 17th, 2008 at 10:56 am 11

I used Webnode to create a storefront for selling my OOAK handbags.

Webnode has been the only company that has provided me with the means to have an affordable, functional, and professional internet storefront!

The Webnode team have been wonderful about returning my emails, and have helped me with all my questions.

I have no complaints about Webnode, and I am very glad that I discovered them! There is no turning back for me!

Webnode provides an area that allows people to make their suggestions for improving Webnode, so it is simply a matter of communicating with them.

I highly recommend Webnode!

Should anyone need help with creating their Webnode website, please go to my storefront and leave your questions in my Guestbook, and I”ll get back with you. Please go to http://www.katehandbags.com

Thanks!
Cathy
Todd August 28th, 2008 at 8:02 am 12

I have been using Webnode and I found it extremely easy to use. Some things that I find frustrating is their level of customer support and their support database is very weak. I had been having problems getting my website verified by google. I tried to assess my keyword tags through page rank with little success. I have noticed that in my website, the there is a “page cannot be found” in the system pages. I believe this is being flagged by google.
Has any one had this problem

As far as customer support is concerned. Synthasite is the best. They are very responsive. Webnode is much easier to use from a design perspective
Mindaugas September 17th, 2008 at 7:26 pm 13

I’ve been trying to use Weebly with little success. The supposedly customisable templates are a farce - you can not even remove the stupid default pictures. Support for external templates also seems non-existent. Also although they’ve lauched at the beginning of the year after 9 months (which is forever in web terms) they haven’t added any features whatsoever. Promises in the FAQ are still promises. Weebly / Synthasite come on top for me.
Adam September 25th, 2008 at 4:03 pm 14

I just started using webnode about 3 days ago. I tell you what, If I EVER need a hosting website, or need to expand. I will defiantly buy their premium packages.

It is ridiculously stupid how easy this website it!!! I LOVE IT!!!

THANK YOU WEBNODE!!!
bn October 4th, 2008 at 4:58 pm 15

absolutely cannot get anything but error messages. what a joke.