Seven Free Tools for Your Web Site

Dianne Reuby 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