Seven Free Tools to Create your Web Site

Written by Dianne Reuby


Coding your HTML by hand gives much better results than using a WYSIWYG program. You can getrepparttar layout that you want, and make small adjustments easily.

NotePad comes free with Windows - but a much better text editor is NoteTab Light. This has a sidebar with HTML tags - double-click to enterrepparttar 134800 tag you want, with a dialog box for those that have options or preferences, such as size, colour, placement, etc. Download it from http://www.notetab.com/ . There is also a NoteTab mailing list, where you can ask questions, and exchange tips and tricks - subscribe torepparttar 134801 basic list by sending a blank e-mail to mailto:NoteTab-Subscribe@eGroups.com

When you're used to coding, an award-winning program is First Page from http://www.evrsoft.com/ . It runs in easy, normal, expert and hardcore modes - so you can learn to use it and continue to keep up with your web page output. Version 3 is due out any day. A built-in browser lets you view your pages as you create them, there are buttons or menus for tag creation, JavaScript wizards, HTML reference guides, template facility, and much more. Don't buy an HTML editor until you've tried this freeware!

You'll need to check your pages for errors. I use CSE Validator Lite from http://www.htmlvalidator.com/ You can also buy a PRO version, but I've foundrepparttar 134802 free version enough for my needs. You can correct errors directly inrepparttar 134803 main window, and each error is explained as you highlight it.

Graphics often need a bit of a tweak before you add them to your pages. Cropping, makingrepparttar 134804 background transparent, resizing, or just finding that picture that you **know** you've got somewhere on your hard drive! Irfan View can carry out all these tasks, and includes a great browser which loads atrepparttar 134805 click of a key, and displays thumbnails for you to choose from. Available from many freeware sites (see below), you can also download from http://softwarecenter.net/irfanview/

Uploading to your server (the computer where you web site is stored and accessed from) is done using File Transfer Protocol, or FTP for short. Two good freeware programs are FTP Explorer from http://www.ftpx.com/ and WS_FTP, available from many freeware sources (see below). Both have graphical interfaces, very similar to using Windows Explorer. You can download a free WS_FTP tutorial in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format by Steve MacLellen from my e-book library at http://www.freesitebuilder.co.uk/library/library.html If you haven't got Adobe Acrobat reader, userepparttar 134806 link on my library page to download a free copy.

5 Things Which Make Your Site Sticky

Written by Dan Grossman


Your site's stickiness is its ability to retain visitors and bring them back again later. Here I point out 5 great sites which offer a free service to make your site sticky:

1. Moreover - http://w.moreover.com/ - Add stickiness to your site by adding a Moreover webfeed. You can add news headlines to your site, no matter what it's topic, by choosing from hundreds of topics or creating your own with their webfeed wizard. Be your visitors' source of news!

2. CoolBoard - http://www.coolboard.com/index.cfm - Have your visitors coming back again and again by adding a message board! CoolBoard offers free remotely hosted message boards, making it easy to customize and add one to your site. If you put inrepparttar effort to build a community you'll be ensured plenty of repeat traffic to your site.

3. Atomz - http://www.atomz.com/ - Being able to search your site allows your visitors to find what they're looking for faster. Chances are, if they can find what they want, they'll end up browsing deeper into your site than if they couldn't search it. Atomz offers free site searches, that look just like your site, free for up to a 500 page site.

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