I have to manage multiple web sites. There are a lot of different tools out there that claim they are easy to use, and that claim that they help you manage your sites. I've found a product that actually lives up to the hype.



If I had a blank sheet of paper, and could design any tool I wanted, a tool that I would actually USE to manage multiple web sites - this tool comes pretty darn close.

In my plan for an ideal site management tool I would like to be able to: have a page template that was easy to design and update (even if I had hundreds of pages in my site); a tool that would allow me to concentrate more on my content than on getting everything to work together correctly; a tool that would automatically create site maps and robot.txt files so I don't have to generate them by hand; a tool that would allow me to simply copy/paste to create pages, one that would help me to keep track of my keywords and page descriptions; one that would allow me to publish one or more sites with the click of a button; and I would want this at a price that wouldn't break the bank.

I have copies of text editors, and my ex-favorite HTML tool, Macromedia (Adobe) Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is a very power product for creating pages. Individual pages. It has a good search and replace that I can update pages across the entire site. I can even upload multiple pages or an entire folder of content with a click. BUT, the problem with Dreamweaver is that once I update the pages, I'm the one that has to figure out what pages changed, and manually upload them. I'm the one that has to generate site maps. I'm the one that has to generate my AdSense code and manually paste in the correct places in all the pages and then manually upload them. Oh, and the latest version of Dreamweaver costs $399 ($199 for the upgrade).

Don't get me wrong - Dreamweaver is an excellent, feature-rich product. I use it for other projects all the time. But, I was looking for a tool that would allow me to concentrate on content, and not so much on structure, and at a price that I could afford.

OK - the tool that I found that met all these needs is called "XSitePro". Is this piece of software the end-all, be-all of software to manage sites? No, but it's pretty darn good!

The things that I really like about XSitePro are: you can create a good-looking page design in minutes, and you don't have to be a designer; you can begin creating content almost immediately; the program will keep track of building all the navigational menus for you (and you can put them where ever you want); it will auto-generate bottom menus, side menus, contents of related pages (in bulleted form or numbered form with or without descriptions); it will break long articles into multiple pages (with navigation on the pages) with the click of a single button; you can auto-generate a breadcrumb trail (Section -> Minor Section -> You Are Here) links with no programming; it will automatically keep track of "link" pages and you and promote and demote links and the program will auto-generate the pages; you can even generate a Google Sitemap and keep track of your AdSense setting and insert them into a page with a single click.

You can also create popup ads (the good kind!); create text boxes with different colors and borders; choose from a wide assortment of JavaScript Scripts (close window, time now, today's date, add to favorites and many more); you can edit in either a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) mode - or if you know html - in the raw HTML source.

XSitePro even has a built-in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) feature that will tell you, on a page-by-page basis how the page you're looking at and whether it's optimized for the keywords you've specified. It's got a built-in spell checker, tells you when you've forgotten ALT tags on an image, has a single-click backup mechanism, will allow you to export your site for further tweaks in your favorite HTML editor (including Dreamweaver), and much more.

The best part - is they offer a ONE YEAR money-back guarantee! The price is a very reasonable $197.

What about CONS? There is very little to complain about, but there are a few things that I hope the publishers will address in a future version. I wish that you were able to use multiple templates per site. Right now, each site can only use a single setup. It's not terrible, but it would be great to use different page templates for different sections in a site. The web site with the sales copy is a bit "hyped" in my opinion - although DO NOT let that stop you from purchasing. Once you try it, you'll love it!

On Eric's scale of 1 to 5 (5 being best) XSitePro score a 4 out of 5! If you are trying to manage multiple sites - all the "click button close" features make this tool a clear winner.

To download your copy - go to http://www.1clicktraining.com/xsitepro.htm.