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Seven_Free_Tools_for_Your_Web_Site
| Seven Free Tools for Your Web Site
A search utility makes your site look more professional, as well
as providing a useful service that will make your visitors
return. I've been using FreeFind, http://www.freefind.com/ ,
which will spider your site on request or by schedule, and sends
an e-mail report of search terms that your visitors have used.
You can also have a "What's New" link and page, with an icon if
you want. You can set member-only pages not to be spidered.
Visitor feedback is also a good idea - though some of the
responses I've had have been confusing to say the least! If you
don't want to create your own form, a ready-made feedback form
provider is FreedBack - http://www.freedback.com/ Once you have
chosen your options, the form is generated on-line. You then
copy-and-paste the code into your web page.
Adding these two options to your site also provides an excellent
(and unique!) article for your ezine - I describe how in my free
article "Use your Feedback". Get a copy by e- mail from
mailto:fsb-uf@getresponse.com
One of the greatest source of free webmaster tools is Bravenet -
http://www.bravenet.com/ Guest books, forums, polls, feedback
forms, site counters, and more. Call in and sign up for as many
free tools as you need, all fully explained to help you install
and customise them to match your site.
A site counter is a must - or how will you know if anyone is
visiting? I've used SiteMeter http://www.sitemeter.com/ for my
sites. They e-mail weekly stats, and by logging on to the site
you can find out who, when, where, what with, how long, and of
course predictions for the future! The help is set off as a
default - to get explanations of the diagrams scroll down and
click on "Help" to turn it on.
If you are offering freebies such as e-books or demo programs,
it's handy to know how many times they are downloaded. I check
my e-books this way to see which are popular, and which I should
remove from the library. LinkCounter http://www.linkcounter.com/
is very easy to use. Sign up, and enter the URL of your download
file. Then copy the generated link code, and paste it into your
web page to replace your direct link. Choose to receive reports
daily, weekly or not at all. Use it to check affiliate or
reciprocal links too.
Starting an ezine or newsletter? I use Topica,
http://www.topica.com/ for my mailing list. Type up your ezine
in a text processor, copy it, and paste it into the "Post
message" box. They supply the sign-up code for your web page,
although you can adapt this, or use your own, if you prefer.
They will provide on-line archives, but these can only be read
by Topica members, so I keep mine on my web site as well.
eGroups is a similar service - they are now part of Yahoo! -
http://groups.yahoo.com/
Auto-responders can be used to send out information to anyone
who requests it. I use OttoResponder from the Newbie Club,
http://newbieclub.com/responder/?pramclub and GetResponse from
http://www.getresponse.com for my articles, "lessons by e-mail",
and sample ezine. For example, if you send a blank e-mail to
mailto:fsb-lessons@getresponse.com , you will get a list of my
free e-mail lessons. You can send out a series of e-mails, or
just one. You choose an account name, and post your e-mail
message(s) to that account. Every time a blank e-mail is sent to
that e-mail address, your auto-responder sends out the
information you've stored.
Some of my favourite freeware sites:
http://www.completelyfreesoftware.com/ http://www.webattack.com/
http://www.jumbo.com/ http://www.moochers.com/
About the author:
Dianne Reuby is co-author of the e-book "First Website Builder",
http://newbieclub.com/builder/?pramclub Dianne created and runs
the Free Site Builder web site and ezine, dedicated to helping
newbies create web sites with free tools, services and
resources. Visit FSB at http://freesitebuilder.co.uk/ Send for a
complete list of free articles and lessons by e- mail :
mailto:fsb-lessons@getresponse.com
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