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This page was constructed to assist webmasters or
those thinking of building their own site. This page contains three sections, the building blocks of a website.
Here you will find information and links for 1) increasing your site traffic 2) finding graphics and web buttons & 3)
misc. services such as counters and personalized banner ads.
So lets begin with the first thing on any potential
Webmaster's mind...
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR SITE TRAFFIC
There are many different methods for increasing traffic
to your site but I will start with my favorite one first. TrafficSwarm will advertise your site in their database and search engine for free! It takes less than five minutes to sign up with
them and once they review your site (usually within 24 hours) you are advertised on their site. You don't have to do
anything else. Some people choose to use them as a start page for more advertising credits, but it's not a requirement.
If you choose to sign up with them you can also add
a search box to your site like the one below. Go ahead and enter a search string in there to check out some of their
sites. Be advised it will take you out of this site so you may need to hit your back button. All other links on
this page will open in a new window so you won't have to worry about losing your place.
Another very important step to advertising your site
is submission to a search engine. By far the best one I have found is ExactSeek. You can submit your site to their engine for free
and you can also download a free engine submission tool. This downloads very quickly (zip file) and will submit your
site to the top 40 engines. I had used many other free submission sites and had never been listed on Google until I
found this site. They had me listed on Google the very next day!!
FINDING GRAPHICS, ANIMATION & WEB BUTTONS
There are thousands of sites on the web advertising
free graphics but some are better than others. After checking out many of the sites and being disappointed with either
poor graphics or animation design programs that don't work, I finally found these four that I will list below. All four
of these sites are highly recommended! They all offer free graphics that are definitely worth a look. They also
do have a paid members section but for my little site I've gotten along just fine with the freebies. They are also listed
in order of recommendation. And feel free to click on as many of them as you would like, they will all open in separate
windows so you won't lose your place.
OTHER WEBMASTER TOOLS
And now that your site is finished and submitted to
the search engines, check out these other must haves.
Probably most anyone who has been surfing the net
for more than six months is familiar with Bravenet but if you haven't checked them out in awhile you may just want to drop by. They have lots of new things to add to
your site. Of course they have their famous hit counters but you can also pick up a GuestMap while you are there. You also might want to check out their Password Gates and MiniPolls.
If you are wanting to advertise your site with
a banner exchange program or just wanting to make a banner for other reasons you will want to check out AdDesigner. They have many different animated banners to choose from and they are very easy to create. By the way, did I
mention they are free?
Another free service that I should mention is FreeSticky. They are similar to Bravenet in their services. As of yet, I haven't found anything in their site for my personal
use but I thought I would mention them anyway. They have lots of various web features (joke of the day, local weather,
Ebay auction results).
And if you are wanting to make some changes to the
appearance of your website you can check out FlashButtons. They have some really cool flash buttons that will add some flair to your site. Primarily it's a pay site but
they do have a couple pages of "free" flash buttons to choose from. Downside is that you do have to carry the FlashButtons
logo on your interface.
Well that's all the free Webmaster tools I could come
up with for you. I hope you found something here that was of benefit. Happy web designing!
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