Site Features

If you need some extra features to add to your site, have a look at the folowing services. You're certain to find something useful, but try not to overdo things.

This page is a little lacking at the moment, because I only have experience of a few services. Please please please e-mail me the details of any service you think are worth recommending.

Hit Counters & Trackers

TheCounter.com

TheCounter.com is probably the leading counter for websites - registration is completely free and you get a nice simple counter. Unfortunately you now have to pay for the full range of stats that once came free, but it's still a pretty good service in my opinion.

WebCounter

Probably the simplest hit counter I've ever come accross, all you need to do is paste an IMG tag into your page which gets the counter image from the WebCounter servers. There are no fancy features, but if you're just looking for a straight count of page views you can't go wrong.

Guestbooks

Dreambook

You can register for a free dreambook in seconds, which will give you links to two pages hosted on their servers: a page where people can read you guestbook, and another where they can air their own views. As with most free resources, banner adverts will be added to the pages.

TheGuestbook.com

TheGuestbook.com (like its Counter equivalent) offers a simple service but with plenty of options to boot, including the ability to customise the basic look and feel of the submit entry and guestbook pages. Beware the banner ads though!

Search Engines

Atomz.com

Atomz.com provides the search engine used on HTML Central, and for a very good reason. For FREE (up to 500 pages), you get a fully customisable site search engine. You upload a template for the search results page to keep your site looking consistent, add a simple form (code provided) to take search requests from your visitors and that's it. There are plenty of options to get things working just how you want, and all you need to do in return is display their logo on the search results page.

Mailing Lists

EGroups

EGroups operate thousands of e-mail lists on a variety of topics. There are dozens of settings to play with, allowing you to fully customise how your list will operate. They even provide HTML code to quickly add the list to your site with no fuss, or everything can be done via e-mail or on their site. Only snag is that ads are appended to all your messages.

Multiple Service Providers

The following sites provide several services from one site, which could save you having to remember several different login names and passwords. It will also keep the look of your site slightly more consistent.

Beseen

The Beseen site gives you access to a wide range of free services, including a hit counter, search engine, guestbook, visitor polls and many more. I have found most of their services to be basic but nonetheless worthwhile, although you need to login to each one separately.

MyComputer.com

Although aimed mainly at professional sites, MyComputer.com still has services that will be of use to the more junior site designer. They've got the usual package of services - hit counter, guestbook, search engine etc., and have tried to tie all the services together to make life easier.

HTML Gear

Part of the Lycos network, HTML Gear has a lot to offer. As well as site features like mailforms and guestbooks, there are tools such as link checkers and validators to help keep your site in top shape, and avoid dreaded dead links and 404 errors.

Hitbox

I've always thought of Hitbox purely as a site traffic analyser, and this is still their premier service. By adding a Hitbox logo (rather large unfortunately) to your pages, you'll be able to access detailed information about visitors to your site though a brilliantly designed interface. In addition, Hitbox now offers a range of extra features to add to your pages.