I am new to iWeb - it came "free" with my new iMac 27", hence I played with it after Christmas producing a small but acceptable site:
http://www.nagelestock.eu. The fact that it did not allow easy access the the code did put me off for a while, but I started again in February and came up with my present main-site
http://www.nagelestock.com. With an external HTML editor, (don't laugh, I used: MS Frontpage on a PC) I was able to insert the important Google Analytics, Stats and META tags.
iWeb is easy, but most of all it is pixel-accurate. Once one learns to overcome the initial limitations, it is quite powerful and indeed, fun to work with. I published the various finished sites to separate folders on the Mac/PC and uploaded these to my various web-spaces via FTP (in my case CuteFTP, but there are many free programs available).
The major shortfalls in my view are:
1.) It is very irritating that when editing changes to a published page, one has to re-enter all personal code again as clever iWeb in it's wisdom will overwrite all previous changes.
2.) Apple thinks that any link one wants to make to an other site will be Apple's own site - they are wrong and extremely aggravating in the process by automatically inserting their own URL.
3.) There are of course ways to back up your various sites, but not within the iWeb software, you will have to Google for the answers. This could have been made much easier instead of chucking it all into one "Domain" bucket.
I have looked at, downloaded and worked with most Mac paid-for packages (except Dreamweaver - too expensive and an overkill for my requirements) and came to the conclusion that iWeb wasn't all that bad for a "free" (when you buy a Mac) package.
Template packages are an other way to go, but these restrict ones individual input and they do nothing to learn web technology however simple.
In short, I would recommend iWeb: give it a serious try and learn to overcome it's shortcomings - you'll be pleased.
Edmund Nagele F.R.P.S. - nagelestock.com