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More stuff for your web site, and most of it's free too!

There are lots of things you can do to customise your web site, add interest and encourage people to visit again.

Many of these require you to register, they will then e-mail, or display on screen, some HTML code for you to add to the relevant web page. Beware, some HTML editing software chews up special HTML code. It is best to make a copy of the page and add the special code manually by using Microsoft Notepad (or the Mac "Simple Text" program).

Hit Counters

When you have gone to the trouble of creating a web site, wouldn't you like to know how popular it is? Many ISP's provide a counter facility that shows how many hits (visits) your site has received. Your ISP's homepage will give you the information you need to put a counter on your site, it's usually just a simple bit of code. If your ISP does not provide a counter facility there are lots of free counter services. They usually require a bit more code on your page but may offer more comprehensive reports.

Referrer Tracking

This is a more advanced type of hit counter service. Referrer tracking not only lets you know how many hits you have received, but may also report details like where they were before they visited your site and lots more.

Virtual URL

If you are using a free host and you do not have your own domain name you can make your web site URL simpler and easier to remember by using a URL redirect service. After registering with the service instead of giving people your cumbersome old URL that might be something like: http://www.members.host_name.co.uk/domain_name/index.html you could use something like: http://come.to/my.website or whatever else you wanted!

Guest Book

Give your visitors a chance to let you know how much they like your site! A guest book is a type of form that automatically displays the input of a form on a page of your web site for all your visitors to see. Your ISP will often have a guest book script on their server, which will be easy to set up. If your ISP does not provide a guest book facility there are lots of free guest book hosts. They just require a bit of code on your page.

Themes for Microsoft FrontPage

If you create your web pages with FrontPage you can use "Themes" to add professional backgrounds, bullets, buttons and graphics to your web pages. Over 50 Themes are provided with the program and there are lots more available (for a fee) but you can get sample Themes for free.

Password Protection

You may want to protect one or more pages in your website with a password. There are many different "scripts" that can do this, but they are easily defeated. The best way is to use a feature of a facility known as ".htaccess" that your web space provider might offer.