Mr Beach Bum.com

Flash can really make a statement for your website and is very effective, when used properly, for advertising your site. The obstacle to flash, for many, is the upfront cost of Adobe Flash software (at $699). But even if you spend the money on the software, you are then faced with the task of creating your own flash projects, which can be daunting if you aren’t familiar with the software and can also result in less than stellar flash projects if you simply aren’t an artist.

I was faced with this same dilemma recently so I did some research and found a potential solution. It’s called Flash Ad Creator from a company called Laughingbird Software and the price is $39.99.  Sounds like a great price when compared to the alternative, but can this really do what I need it to do?

The idea behind the product is that you are given some pre-made flash templates. When you find a template that works for you, you can edit the pictures and text to make it your own.  The website claims that this is easy to do and that there are hundreds of templates to meet your needs. I decided to purchase the product myself in order to give this some real-world testing.

The purchase and download process is standard enough and resulted in no problems. I did avoid paying an extra $6.99 by un-checking a box that was automatically added to my cart for “unlimited downloads”. I don’t blame the author for offering it but for the $6.99 I will make my own backup copy of the download and take my chances. If, however, you are apt to lose downloaded software all the time then this might be something you’ll want to keep. As mentioned earlier, the price of the Flash Ad Creator is $39.99 via download. They also have options to receive the product on disc too if you really want that.

Now the fun begins…

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A lot of people are interested in setting up their own websites but are just too inimidated by it and give up before they even give themselves a chance for success. I also know some people who go as far as creating a site but never actually launch it because they are too worried about the design and just give up from feeling overwhelmed. Of course there are plenty of “turnkey” solutions out there but many of those are just fronts for some greedy people out there who like to charge you as much as $30 a month for hosting. In fact, many of those types of hosting packages are likely being resold by the person who offers the “turnkey” solutions. The markup on those types of things can be startling.

Enter Homestead. Homestead is an affordable web hosting company that offers you a complete starter package that includes over 2000 templates to choose from. You can customize the professionally designed templates and get your site up and running quickly - with little to no knowledge of html. What’s more is that their hosting fees start at just $4.99 for your first 3 months and go to an affordable $9.99 thereafter. This is for a complete starter package. Check out Homestead and get your site up and running today!

Ever since we moved the site over to Bluehost we’ve been using a somewhat temporary WordPress theme that was just a little quirky in terms of maintenance. Over the weekend we were able to make the necessary changes to a shiny new template and we’re quite happy with the results - of course we hope you, dear readers, are happy as well!

Let us know what you think in the comments section. As much as we love the new design we know there is always room for improvement.