There is no substitute for content, of course, but sometimes we all
need a little window dressing. Unless otherwise stated, all services
mentioned below are free. Policies may differ for commercial users,
so please check first.
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What if your ISP does not allow web pages? Try one of the following:
- The Free Pages Page
- A big list of free web page providers.
- GeoCities
- 6MB web space and e-mail address. Popup or banner ad. More space and
features for a monthly fee.
- Tripod
- 11MB web space. Popup ad can be removed for a monthly fee.
- Nyx
- 200K recommended limit. Free Unix shell account.
Signup via postal mail.
- Fortune City
- 10MB web space. E-mail account.
- XOOM
- 11MB web space. E-mail account.
- Homestead
- Online collaborative website publishing.
- Crosswinds Internet Communications
- Free e-mail and webpages with unlimited space.
- Prohosting Free Web Hosting
- 10MB web space. Custom CGI and server-side includes. Popup ad.
- Dynamix Networking - Rampage
- 100MB web space. Custom CGI. Popup ad.
Before using any of the above services, try browsing some member
pages. Is the server responsive or slow? Don't expect too much from
free services but try to find the service that best fits your needs.
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URL forwarders are services that will send a viewer's web browser
from a certain URL to your web page. Why use one of those?
If you expect to change your ISP frequently then you can simply
tell everyone to link to the URL provided by one of these services.
Then when you move your web pages to another ISP, all you have to
do is notify the URL forwarding service and you're done. No more
hassling everyone who has linked to your pages. Sounds good?
Then try one of the following:
- Monolith at Home
- akaMail
- Yearly fee. Also provides e-mail forwarding.
- pobox
- Yearly fee. Also provides e-mail forwarding. Free trial.
- iNamePRO
- This is currently vaporware since iNamePRO is not available
yet. But in the meantime, you can take advantage of
the e-mail forwarding at iName.
- come.to
- Free if you put their banner on your site.
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Now you can have a guest book even if your security-conscious ISP
won't allow you to install CGI programs. Try one of the following:
Or you can become
a Tripod member and get a
Tripod guestbook.
If your needs go beyond a guestbook, InsideTheWeb offers message boards.
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Why
validate your HTML? Here are a few tools that allow you to do
that.
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Webtechs has an online
HTML checker.
If your page passes, you get a little icon to put on your page.
Caution: it can't handle the TARGET attribute
inside link anchor tags no matter what HTML level you choose.
Webtechs also has a
HTML-Check toolkit
that you can download and run locally on many Unix variants.
Note: this is the only tool of the ones discussed
here that checks your page using an SGML parser. The others
use alternative verification algorithms that may
not be as authentic.
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![[W3C Wilbur Checked!]](valid_html-wilbur.gif)
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If you have Perl, try
Weblint.
If you don't have Perl, try one of these
Weblint gateways.
In addition to checking syntax, this program also makes a
number of suggestions on HTML style.
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Doctor HTML
not only looks for HTML syntax and usage problems but also
checks spelling, verifies links, and estimates
page download times. As noted in the Doctor HTML FAQ, this
tool is not a strict validation tool. Doctor HTML focuses
more on browser performance and page rendering problems.
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![[Rx]](docicon.gif)
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Web Site Garage
checks load time, links, site popularity, spelling and HTML code.
It also offers a GIF image reduction service. In addition, there
are some other for-fee custom services if you are not the
do-it-yourself kind.
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The Web Design Group
offers a tool for checking cascading style sheets.
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If you need a background for your web page, try
Texture Land.
Wendy's Fashionable Page Designs offers borders and backgrounds.
If you need background MIDI music, try
The Ultimate TV & Movie MIDI Page.
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If you need icons, try
Anthony's Icon Library or
The Icon Bazaar.
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Joining a
webring
is a good way to get some traffic. Use the ring index to find a
webring appropriate for your content. If your page is
furry-related
(as mine has apparently become), join the
Furring.
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![[An Official FurRing Site]](furmem1.gif)
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Where do those banner ads come from?
LinkExchange
advertises your web page elsewhere in return for sticking a banner on
your page.
Surf Point
is a directory of LinkExchange member pages.
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The
Web Site Banner Advertising
page has plenty of links to banner advertising services, reciprocal
link exchanges, and even companies that will pay you for
displaying a banner on your web page.
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After all that hard work, the next step is to make sure others can
find your pages.
Submit It!
will register your web page with a number of
search engines and directories.
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CRAYON
stands for CReAte Your Own Newspaper. Voila! Instant content.
Here is mine.
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NET-FU is a logo
generator based on the GIMP.
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If you use inline GIF images, head to Raspberry Hill's
GIF Wizard
to see if those can be shrunk. This amazing web utility can sometimes
achieve significant space savings without sacrificing image quality,
and this is more often true for animated GIFs. Your audience will
appreciate the faster downloads.
Here is a GIF Wizard form you can use:
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WWW Chat is one place
where you can get your own web chat room.
ParaChat and
ChatPlanet
offer Java-based web chat rooms.
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NetMind offers
URL-minder, a service that allows visitors to request
e-mail notification
when your page changes.
The
Spam
mailing list manager allows you to set up a mailing list to which
your visitors may add or remove themselves.
Spam does not watch for changes to your pages. You have to send
mail when necessary. The advantage is you have more control over
the information you send out.
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Prescient Code Solutions offers
Mailform,
a CGI program that sends mail to you based on input from a form
on your web page. You do not need to have CGI access at your site
since the CGI program will run at the coder.com site.
Mirabilis
is better known for ICQ but they provide a web form
for anyone to send you an ICQ message.
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For a visitor count display on your web page, visit
Web Counter,
Being Seen,
BoingDragon
or
Pagecount.
Pagecount offers visitor statistics.
Do check first if your system administrator has already installed
a counter CGI program. A local counter should be more reliable.
If you have CGI access, try
Count.
If you have access to server logs, try
Analog,
a server log file analysis program.
For a comprehensive list of web counters, visit
the Web Page Access Counters and Trackers page, courtesy of Mark J. Welch.
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The US Naval Observatory now offers a way to add a
running clock
to your web page in the time zone of your choice.
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Yeah, that's where I live... in "Joizee".
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The Garden State Plaza in
malltown Paramus is the biggest mall in New Jersey and also my
favorite. I have probably been there too many times and I even had a
dream about it. Now
that is freaky.
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The Bergen Record
is the local newspaper for Northern New Jersey. I prefer the
New Jersey Online
site for current news though. The
Asbury Park Press
is a South Jersey newspaper.
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How about a magazine dedicated to New Jersey? Read the
New Jersey Monthly.
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Looking for a job in New Jersey? Try
NJ Careers.
This site offers career advice, job searches and a resume posting
service.
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How's the
weather
in New Jersey? Here's a
radar image.
How's the
air?
*cough* *gasp*
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Long Beach Island
or LBI is a pretty nice stretch of beach on the Jersey Shore.
Also see
The Guide to the Jersey Shore,
The New Jersey Shore Home Page,
Beachcomber,
and ShorePoints
(or the
ShorePoints bookmarks page)
for information on some other NJ beaches. For other NJ attractions,
visit the
New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism
and get their publications.
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Here is a list of
New Jersey Wildlife,
part of the
New Jersey Online: Audubon
pages. Around my neighborhood, I've seen cotton-tail rabbits, chipmunks,
woodchucks,
striped skunks,
gray squirrels, weasels,
raccoons,
and a few other unidentified mammals.
Canada geese
are ubiquitous and quite bold. Incidentally, the
Island Beach State Park
is one place in NJ where you may see
red foxes,
if you're lucky.
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What is the
New Jersey Devil?
See also NJ Online's
Jersey Devil
news feature. The
New Jersey Devils (plural),
on the other hand, is a hockey team. Here is a good
New Jersey Devils page.
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Actually, the only New Jersey link I need is
New Jersey Link.
But that wouldn't be so much fun, would it? There are more
collections of links at the
NJ Info-Web and the
New Jersey Internet Directory.
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And now, I offer the obligatory link to the
State of New Jersey
site. Let's not forget
Bergen County
either.
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