Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

1.  You can create a site with iWeb and publish it to a folder on your computer.  Then you need to upload those files via FTP to the server where you host your site.  This allows you to actually put your iWeb site at your domain.  (You don`t need .Mac for this.)  I tried this first and though it was easy to do, it proved to be a pain in the butt every time I wanted to make a change (like fixing typos or something bigger.)

2.  Through iWeb, you can publish the site directly to your .Mac account.  It`s really easy with the single "publish" button.  The problem is that the URL will be something like "web.mac.com/perennialgirl" and not your custom domain, perennialgirl.com (or whatever it will be.)  The solution is to set up an automatic redirect with the domain registrar to go to the .Mac URL.  This will still show your .Mac URL which you may or may not care about.  Or you can set up a "frames redirect" which will hide your .Mac URL but keep the domain URL the same no matter what page you are on.

I did my `Home Sweetest Home` website with the latter method.  Click on the various pages and you will see that the URL stays the same.  I decided that since my site is only a few pages anyway, it didn`t matter if they had different URLs.

iWeb and .Mac definitely have their technical limitations.  It`s certainly geared toward the consumer market, not businesses.  You just need to play with the setup to make it cleaner and more professional from a customer`s perspective.  If you don`t know how to code, think you can pull off web design and aren`t planning on doing anything too elaborate, I think iWeb/.Mac is a good tool for a simple, brochure-style business site.