This
page is devoted to links that I personally find invaluable to
my net-browsing and web-building experience. I highly commend
them to you:
1.
Free Hit Counter
For many years now, I've used SiteMeter
for a free web counter. Their servers are fast, so the counters
don't slow down the loading of your web site. And they have
very solid stats so you can see where your traffic is coming
from.
2.
Shareware, Freeware, Commercial Demos
There's a lot of stuff out there in terms of cool software
that can make our lives and our work a bit easier. I love the
creativity of people who create many of these programs. A lot
of the stuff is provided free...or they make ask for a few bucks
if you continue to use it. I've been bailed out many times by
some of these little applications. Also, these sites can serve
as a good reference for commercial demo (try before you buy)
software. And, the fact that they have independent user ratings
means that you can get some feel for how the thing works based
on the opinions of those who have used it.
Download.com
is a favorite destination. I usually go there first. Their
site is nicely laid out. I also like ZDnet
and visit them fairly often. I don't frequent TuCows...but
I hear good things about them. |
3.Search
Engine Submission
Whether you create one web site or a lot like I do, you need
to get the word about about the existence of your page. SubmitExpress
is absolutely the simplest submission form to all the major
search engines I've come across. Enter your own site and those
of your friends!
If you want a more serious tool for submitting to engines, the
tool I've used the most is SubmitWolf
PRO. It's done a solid job of getting the word out about
my sites. It also can check your current position in the search
engines. And you can save a submission after you've excuted
it so you don't have to re-input the info each time. They also
have a trial version available for download.
I've had some experience, as well, with WebPosition
Gold. It seems like a good program. But it's pricey,
and you can only use on 5 sites before you have to pay an extra
$200 to continue to use it. Ouch! |
4.
Reciprocal Links
However, I have begun to move away from submission tools of
late. Here's why: I've found that the VERY best way to get your
site listed on Google (and most of the other search engines)
is to get quality reciprocal links from other sites...especially
those with good PageRank. Believe it or not, I've recently created
several sites which I have not even submitted to a single
search engine directly, but which have achieved Top 10 ranking
on Google and Yahoo within a week. How? Well, of course,
quality is the most important thing. You have to be creating
sites that are worthwhile to a potential audience...but, right
after that, the next most important factor seems to be getting
linked to from other quality sites that Google already knows
and spiders.
What's the logic behind this? Think about it for a second. Google
claims that they have a huge backlog of submissions that will
take weeks to get thru. Yahoo says theirs will take months.
But if they spider your site manually while doing their normal
cataloging work, there is virtually no delay. In other words,
it's better if they stumble across you!
So I'm finding my sites showing up on Google within 5 days without
ever submitting them, just by getting linked to from other quality
sites.
Because I control a network of many sites, I can link to my
own new sites from other quality sites very quickly, so I have
a huge advantage in that regard. However, I believe in linking
to and from quality outside sites as well. It's my understanding
that relevant links (sites with a similar theme) are
important, and I do make a habit of linking to such sites, but
I also like to turn people on to other quality sites. It only
makes sense to me that the quality of the web is raised slightly
every time we elevate good sites and ignore poor ones.
Frankly, most of the reciprocal linking sites are garbage. A
bunch of nobodies with poor sites, or get-rich-quick types,
or johnny-come-lately types. I grow weary of these kinds of
things.
However, one pretty good place to find higher-quality reciprocal
partners is GoTop
Link Exchange (by the way, thanks to my friend Abby
of Abby's
Good Stuff for Free for turning me on to them). Most
of the others I've seen are OK in concept, and sometimes in
execution: Link
Partners, Linkalizer,
etc. You can find some good link partners thru any of them,
but in some cases, a lot more sifting is required. |
5.
Free Email Accounts
Spam sucks. And, despite all the posturing in Washington, it's
likely to keep sucking for a long time. I talked to a friend
the other day who administers his company's email server and
he said that ONLY 33% of all the email his company receives
is legit....THE REST is spam.
For this reason, I believe everyone who spends significant time
on the internet needs a free email account. You can use it when
you sign up for things that require an email address. Sadly,
some of the companies that offer free things will sell you our
to spammers. A free email address is a good way to keep your
non-critical mail piling up somewhere OTHER than your main email
account.
Even though it's owned by Microsoft <grin>, Hotmail
has long been a great place to get a free, personal email address.
However, everyone has been blown out of the water recently by
GMail...the new
free email service from Google, which offers a full ONE GIG
of storage space in its InBox. Not to be totally outdone, however,
Yahoo
and Hotmail are upping their storage space to try to keep pace.
I do have to say that I don't like the interface for GMail at
ALL. Very frustrating and non-intuitive. I'd expect better from
a great company like Google. Hotmail and Yahoo are definitely
easier in that regard. And all of them are good at filtering
out spam. |
6
. Web Hosting
Looking for a great place to host a "legit" web site?
There are SO many places out there now that I am just withdrawing
my recommnedations. I can't keep up. And, because I have two
dedicated machines leased to hold all my sites at this point,
I don't deal much with individual hosting accounts. I've had
a lot of experience in the past with hosting companies (mostly
bad). (I would recommend NOT using HalfPriceHosting.
And I DO have personal experience with them... I would give
a neutral-to-negative rating to Ready
Hosting. They have let me down several times, but I
hear that things have improved there.) |
7.
Domain Name Registrar
Directnic has superb management tools. And the price
is decent: $15/yr. And I used them for years. However, I've
recently begun transferring all my domains to GoDaddy.
I used to have some real gripes about their site usability...but
as of 9/03, they've made some very nice improvements. Most importantly
though...they are pretty much the king of prices among the major
registrars: Less than $9/yr for new registrations and less then
$8/yr for transferring your existing domains. Add in their 24/7
phone support and they are the champs in my book. |
8.
Good Deeds Done Cheap....er, Free!
I have to admit that I am slightly skeptical about the world
hunger problem. I guess I'm a little bit jaded because its so
hard to know what is true and what is hype. And, in the case
of hunger, it seems SO unbelievable that a million people a
day die from starvation, I find myself wondering just how accurate
the estimates, in fact, are. Having said all that, I like The
Hunger Site a lot. Someone had the wonderful idea of
getting businesses to pony up money for the hungry in exchange
for people viewing their ad banners. It only takes a few seconds...I'd
say it's a very small price to pay to make a difference. I am
trying to get in the habit of going there every day. |
9.
Web Graphics
I'd like to be better at web graphics creation than I am.
But I love things that save me time and look better than my
level of graphic talent deserves. I use Photoshop
(and ImageReady) a lot. But for really quick web graphics, I
really like Xara
Webstyle. They've taken a lot of the hassle out of creating
and customizing buttons, navigation bars, etc. And I use the
program a LOT for something it's not really intended for...creating
transparent GIFs for title pages. They load faster and they
float very nicely over the background...great quality transparency
from this program. Also, for logo creation, I love The
Logo Creator. They've recently released a new version.
It's one of the most creatively designed and useful programs
I've seen in quite some time. If you're into templates (as I
have become over the past year or so, there are tons of them
out there...but I've done well with Boxed
Art and DesignLoad.net.
Both companies offer a nice package of templates..."all
you can eat" for under $50/yr. |
10.
Web Page Music and Video
After watching splashy TV graphics for many years, there's always
a temptation to want to add movement and sound to your web page.
I really hate MIDI that auto-plays when a site loads...although
I enjoy having the option to listen to music...especially when
I'm on an artist's site. Having said that, I use exclusively
the MP3 format exclusively for music and audio on my
pages.
Why? Because the quality is very solid and it works in all the
major media players (Quicktime, Windows Media
and RealPlayer). I have a very strong dislike for Real
Networks, the producers of RealPlayer, or RealOne, or
whatever they call it this week. Their technology is pretty
stable, but the company's attitude toward its potential customers
is atrocious. I will have nothing to do with them. I don't even
have their free basic player on my system. They are bascially
hucksters, in my book.
Window
Media is decent technology, and as the default MP3 player
for Windows, it does a good job with audio, and a fair job with
visuals. It does occasionally hang up during video playback,
but does well overall.
Quicktime
is a very solid player. Great technology. Really good for watching
movie trailers. The biggest downside is that the filesize of
the Quicktime format is HUGE. But. that's the price of quality,
I guess.
One hint: If you're creating audio or visuals for the web, PLEASE
don't just link to the media file. Learn about streaming from
your web server by using key files. A key file is a small text
file that sits on your server and contains nothing more than
the physical address of the media file. However, by using a
key file, you allow the file to "stream"...i.e., to
begin to play without having to download the file to your hard
drive first. This can save time and bandwidth...especially when
people don't like what they hear well enough to listen to the
whole thing. Trust me, it's much better than forcing people
to download your stuff to check it out. One other benefit...if
they do like it well enough to continue listening, they can
continue browsing your site while they listen instead of sitting
and waiting for it to download. |
11.
The Web in Motion
One of the most common signs of a new web site designer is the
tendency to jam a lot of little graphics and animations on their
web page. Over time, maturity sets in and we begin to look for
fun and interesting ways to make the browsing experience better
for our visitors. One of the most exciting technologies in recent
years is Flash.
It's small (and therefore, it loads quickly), it's colorful,
it moves, it has sound capability. However, unless you know
how to program Flash (which I don't), you're left with "the
poor man's Flash", Java
effects. Personally, I am feeling more and more that Java's
time is passing for this type of use. Most of the effects look
amateurish... and even when they are smooth and clean, they
often tie up so many resources that other functions on the web
page are affected. Another option that's emerged with the latest
generation of browsers is DHTML. There are some very
powerful effects already developed, and my favorite place to
find them is Dynamic
Drive.
As
I said, I don't know squat about programming Flash...and I certainly
don't have an extra $500 for the program...but I've recently
started using a pretty cool little program that costs about
a tenth of what Flash costs. It's called Firestarter. I've had
a lot of fun with it...adding little Flash elements to quite
a few of my sites. It's only like 50 bucks. And there's a demo
of it so you can try it out. Check it out here . |
12.
Google Toolbar
Google
is the most important search at this point (Yahoo is a strong
second). These engines drive the vast majority of traffic, and
even feed many other of the popular engines their content. It's
always interesting to see how Google ranks a page's overall
value, but it's especially helpful when choosing reciprocal
link partners.
The Google Toobar (now in its second iteration) is the best
way to view Google's PageRank (it's displayed automatically).
It also has other uses, including a site-specific search engine,
and a fairry effective popup ad blocker.
Check out what else I have to say on this subject here,
or just go install
the toolbar now. It's hard to believe you'll be disappointed
in any way. |
IN
CLOSING
If you're starting to get serious about building your own web
site...especially with the intent of making at least a little
bit of money, check out another of my web sites, which has more
specific advice and more links to products and services that
you are likely to find helpful. Thanks for your interest! ;-) |
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