Aside from using blogs and WYSIWYG editors, there are a number of tools available on social networks that can help you build simple websites. In some cases, these resources can help you create forums, photo albums and anything else you might need to make your website more appealing and productive. Whether you’re building a hobby page or a site for your business, social networking site tools offer an easy way to design websites and locate suitable audiences for them.

Ning Networking

Today, Ning is one of the hottest new social networking sites. When you sign up for their free services, you’ll be able to create a blog, homepage, photo album, and even a forum for your site. Perhaps best of all, if others are interested in the topic of your network, they’ll be able to join your group and create the same type of features. This can offer you a tremendous opportunity to create all sorts of online resources that can help you make money or advance a social cause.

For people who don’t know how to code in HTML, these sites can be ideal. Just like popular blogging sites like Blogger and Blogspot, Ning provides you with standardized templates that will help you build your first site in a matter of minutes. If you do have some HTML skills, you’ll be able to modify these templates to suit your own style and needs.

Bookmarking sites

Even though the Ning network does not allow you to create bookmarks, you can create free link pages using social bookmarking sites like Delicious and Stumble Upon. Aside from offering you an easy way to organize your favorite bookmarks, these sites are also invaluable when it comes to backlinking to your own webpages. When combined with resources on the Ning networks, you can create an enormous amount of traffic by combining your resources with those of others on the network.

Squidoo

Squidoo is a new type of social collaboration network in which users create “lenses” – simple websites designed to showcase a user’s knowledge on a specific topic. When you register with Squidoo, you can choose the topic you’re interested in writing about and then create a site about it using their simple drag and drop interface. Squidoo lenses can be a great introduction to basic site design – plus you have the advantages of being indexed quickly in the search engines and gaining traffic from the vast network of Squidoo users.

Depending on your needs and objectives, a variety of social networking tools can be used to help you build and promote your website. Aside from offering templates that make it easy for you to publish your materials efficiently, you can also use these tools to manage search engine optimization at the same time. Even if you are a seasoned web designer, you might find that social networking tools allow you to quickly gain a web presence in a certain niche and tap into tons of free traffic from users on these sites.