WebShop.org
Welcome to the Virtual Web Workshop of Phoenix Technologies
A DIVISION OF THE NON-PROFIT PHOENIX FOUNDATION
           

81 TOOLS FOR DO-IT-YOURSELFERS!
15 Useful Internet Utilities - 4 Useful Domain Tools - 5 Useful HTML Tools - 23 More Must-Have HTML Tools - 38 FREE Search Engine Tools
Coming SOON on CD

Free Tools for WebShop Clients

A sampling of these free tools and tips are available from our parent site at Phoenix-Tech.org, but hundreds more are available only to WebShop clients. Registration and password is required.

PLUS THIS HUGE TOOLBOX
for WebShop Clients

Animation - Animation is one of those things you want to use in small doses for it to be effective. Too much of it will make your web page confusing and slow-loading, and drive your visitors away when they get tired of waiting for your page to load. Any you do use should be small and compact.

Backgrounds - A background image can add sophistication to your website. Of course, there are some 216 "web-safe" colors you can use, but these present a solid background. Solid can be better because it is less distracting. However, a muted or textured background can add that "extra something special" to your site.

Banners & Buttons - Banners and Buttons seem to be almost indispensable. They show up on almost every website. Banners are usually used to sell you something, while buttons are used to help you navigate from one place to another on a website.

Calendars - Calendars and clocks are useful to many, but not all, web sites. Most operating systems (Windows & Mac) show the time right on the screen, unless that feature is disabled. Calendars, however, can be a bit awkward to access through Windows or Mac Operating Systems (OS).
    There are also tools that allow you to place a calendar on your site that can be accessed by your visitors (usually restricted to members) so they can add their own events to that calendar.

Clip Art - Clip art, like animation or music, can spice up your website but you need to be careful not to overdo it. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of web sites that offer free clip art. Be forewarned, though - most of what is available is very amateurish and/or cartoon-like in appearance. That may be fine if it matches the "personality" of your website, but if you want a more professional look, such as for a business, you may want to forego clip art in favor of actual photographs. There are also some websites offering free photos, as well as CDs you can buy for as little as $10 that have extensive photo collections.

Copy Protection - In truth, it is very difficult - if not impossible - to keep a determined hacker from stealing your web site's content. Content protection is a lot like door locks - they keep honest people out. Of course, it is possible to completely encrypt a web page so that no one, not even you, can read the code ... but that makes editing a nightmare. Learn some simple tricks that work for most applications.

Colors - A color scheme can make or break the success of your web site, all other things being equal. Some colors attract buyers, others convey a sense of trust, still others are depressing and morbid. Find out what colors are "in" and which ones to use to accomplish your web site's goals. You do have specific goals, right?

Content - If you turned on your TV and saw a still photo that never changed week after week, month after month, you'd probably give up on TV. Likewise, web sites have to change frequently to keep attracting new visitors and to keep your existing ones. Find out how to automatically refresh your site without having to do it yourself.

Counters & Stats - Counters are often over-rated because they can be so easily manipulated. Some sites that have been online for only a week may claim over a million visitors. Yeah, right! Stats can tell you who your real visitors are, where they come from, which pages they find the most interesting, how long they stay on your site and a host of other valuable information that can help you constantly improve your site.

CSS Menu Generators - CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are often used to simplify text formatting, so you don't have to keep switching between Arial and Times Roman for headlines and text, or keep switching from red to black or 10 to 18 point type size. Find out how to use CSS for all sorts of things.

Design - 

DHTML - DHTML stands for Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language (or Dynamic HTML). Now that you know that, you'll probably never need to know the long version again. DHTML has many uses, similar in some ways to Javascript. It can be used to create drop-down menus, calendars and a host of other web site gizmos - some useful, some worthless.

Document Effects - You can do a lot to make your text look more like art, but without the extra file-size baggage that makes pages slow to load and drives your visitors away. But like animations and clipart, you have to use it sparingly.

E-Books - Lots of people are making lots of money from E-books and so can you! You don't have to be another Ernest Hemingway ... just focus on something you know how to do very well, better than most. These tools help you plan and write an E-book and select the software you need to turn an idea into a finished product.

E-Commerce - Find out how E-commerce is used and compare reviews of various software and E-commerce providers. You might not need to deal with credit card merchant accounts at all!

Email Cloaking - Did you know that most of the spam you get may be coming from your web site, where your email address is out there in plain site for every spammer and harvest machine to grab for free? Find out how to encrypt your email address so it is invisible to the harvesters but looks the same to your visitors.

Flash - Flash is probably one of the most over-rated "gizmos" on the Internet, but a lot of people still insist on it just because it's "the latest greatest thing." If you're one of those, these resources are for you.

Forms - Forms always come in useful, especially on business-related sites where you want feedback from visitors or customers - or where you sell a product or service. Forms enable visitors to input their purchase information right into their browser and send it to your email box - often along with a payment.

Free Stuff - I realize many people just starting out don't have the finances to do a lot of the fancier things they'd like to do with their website - even at our low, low costs! Perhaps by helping you get something for nothing, you'll remember us when you're ready to move up, or when you need help with your current site. These are freebies that don't fit into a particular category, or cases where one source can provide several different types of free tools.

HTML - This section contains at least 23 must-have HTML tools. There is far, far more to understand about HTML (HyperText Markup Language) than I could possibly share here. Dozens, if not hundreds, of thick heavy books have been written on the subject and more are coming out all the time as HTML evolves and changes.
   However, you will find an assortment of (hopefully!) easy-to-use tools gathered from around the world and gathered together here for your convenience. I have tried some of them and have added my own comments - pro and con - as to how much they really help.

Hosting - 

Income Opportunities - Most web site owners seek to make money with their site, unless your site is strictly a personal hobby. There are several ways (allegedly) to do this; some work, some don't. Here are a few of the possibilities.

Java - There are many types of Java, including Javascript, Java Beans and Java applets. They are not the same thing. Discover the differences and what they can do to bring new life to your web site.

Links - Without links there would be no Internet. Links are what get you from one place to another. The more sites that link to yours, the higher you will rank in the search engines. Discover how to create links, when to trade links - and when not to!

Menus - Menus are the roadmaps that make it easier for a visitor to navigate your website. If your roadmap is wrong, confusing or leads to dead-ends, guess what! You've just lost a visitor. There are many types of menus and many ways to make them. Find out which works best for you.

Metatags - Metatags are those invisible little lines of code at the top of every well-designed web page. They exist for the search engines. If you've ever searched Google and find a link followed by garbage text, you've probably just found a page without metatags. Find out why you need them, which ones you need and how to create them.

Music & Sound - These days, a web site without sound is like a radio without music. Yet there is nothing more annoying than coming across a web site that blares music out at you, whether you want it or not. Sound comes in many types - WAV, MIDI, AU, SND and MP3 files. Find out how and when to use them on your site.

News Feeds - Earlier, we mentioned the absolute necessity of having fresh content on your web site. News is one of those contents. Chances are no matter what kind of web site you have, there is a newsfeed somewhere to match your needs. Discover how to find it and how to use it.

Password Protection -

PDF - Probably everyone has run across those PDF files that require Adobe's Acrobat Reader™ to view. Find out when PDF files are useful and when they're not - and how to create them for free.
    PDF (Portable Document Format) is considered "the" format when distributing information online. Sure, you can send it as text or a Word doc, but you have no guarantees. It might look like "a ^mEs.s." on the receiver's machine.
    PDF writers eliminate that risk, making them indespensible for forms, e-books, presentations etc.
    If you've tried making a PDF document, you'll know that Acrobat Reader™ really is just a reader - and that Acrobat (full) is expensive. Should you pay the $249 for Acrobat PDF writer software? The answer is yes. If you have the money, you should. It's the most powerful PDF writer on the market.
    If you don't have the money, then this is for you. Here are alternative, free PDF writers.

Search Engine Tools - One of the first things you want to do when creating a web page is to keep in mind what key words will bring someone to that page if they were searching for it in a search engine such as Yahoo or Google.
     You cannot just submit a site once and then forget it. It is something that should be done monthly - so put it on your calendar!
     Every page must have its own unique set of keywords - words which appear frequently enough in the body of the page to catch the search engine's attention.
     And forget about those folks who want to charge you $30 a month or more to list you on "the top 100,000 search engines." Most people use - and can only remember - maybe 7 or 8. Discover what to use and what to avoid.
     Some companies (such as Sitemeter.Sitetoolbox.com to name just one) charge as much as $1,000 a year for the FREE tools we are providing you here.

Tagboards - A tagboard is a great way to interact in a fun and informal way with your web site guests. You can leave short bits of news or greetings, and ask your visitors to respond. Your visitors can also easily interact with one another, thus forming a sense of community. If you want to keep visitors coming back to your site, and want your site to seem open and friendly, try a free tag board and see if it helps!

Templates - The first thing I do when building a web site is to create a template - a "shell page" that contains the top banner or header, the hidden code I want on every page (such as copy protection, copyright notice, navigation aides, menus, etc. It saves so much time you won't believe it! All that remains is to open a template window, fill in the gaps and save it as the new page you want.
    You can also find free templates or buy them rather inexpensively. If you're really big budget, you can even have them custom-made ... but then if you have that much money, what are you doing here?

Text Editors - Everyone needs a "down-and-dirty" Plain Jane word processor that doesn't add a lot of coding garbage (like MS Word and most other sophisticated WPs do). One of my favorites (Windows) is NoteTab. It's a free and easy download and the creator is easy to approach for help. It's been around for over 10 years, has won all kinds of awards and has NotePad beats hands down! I give it 5 stars out of 5.
    Of course you can also use NotePad or WordPad that come with Windows. But do NOT use a word processor like MS Word. Find out why!
    Also find out what fonts to use and what not to use - and why, unless you want your beautiful creation to turn to garbage on someone else's screen.

Translation Tools - Translation has always been done better by humans than machines, but who can afford to find, let alone hire, a translator? Still, machine translation can get it right enough to at least decipher the crude translations. If you have an international audience, you need to see this.

Web Rings - Web rings are kind of like poor people's search engines, but with a neat twist. A web ring is a group of sites with a similar theme or interest. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. They can help boost your site's popularity. You can join an existing Web ring or create your own.

Windows Pop-ups - I hate pop-ups. So does everyone else, including probably you. I don't use them, won't use them - except for providing pop-up help screens, etc. No ads allowed! Still, for those of you who want to drive your visitors away, here's how to make pop-up windows.

All these many tools and more are available ONLY to My-WebShop members.

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