If you make an effort to do something, you try very hard to do it.

If you say that someone did something with effort or with an effort, you mean it was difficult for them to do.

An effort is a particular series of activities that is organized by a group of people in order to achieve something.

If you say that something is an effort, you mean that an unusual amount of physical or mental energy is needed to do it.

If you make the effort to do something, you do it, even though you need extra energy to do it or you do not really want to.

If you do something difficult or painful by an effort of will, you manage to make yourself do it.

If you say that something is worth the effort, you mean that it will justify the energy that you have spent or will spend on it.