Now that you've got your page built and uploaded, you start to wonder, "is anybody seeing this?" Naturally, you want a counter for your pages, so you can see if anyone stopped in . . . and a guestbook, so your visitors can tell you what they think . . . Well, everything you need is out there, (as I've said before) and most of it is Free.

Page Counters

There are a lot of free page counters out there, some of them work. The thing to watch out for is a page counter that slows down your page to the point that visitors leave before the page loads. The LE FastCounter is the best of the freebies. It doesn't slow down your page, and it's reasonably reliable. Once again, a no frills kind of thing that appeals to me. If that's not what appeals to you, There are plenty of fancier models out there. Check out Free Counters - Listing dozens of free visitor counters and trackers for your website. Included in this list is a different kind of counter, a tracker. Trackers don't necessarily have numbers on them for you to see at a glance how many visitors you've had. Instead, you go to a predetermined URL (usually by clicking on the graphic displayed on your page) to check your stats. Trackers can tell you a lot more about your visitors than how many you've had! I've been using the Extreme Tracker on my graphics site, and I love it. One warning, tho, I tried to use one on my main page, but there seemed to be a conflict with all of the Java Script on that page. Talking to people I've discovered that this is a fairly common problem. I don't have a solution. If you have any kind of script on the page that you use a tracker on, be sure to check the page in both Navigator and IE before posting it to the web.

Guest Books

Now that you know how many visitors you are getting, you might want to know what they think of your site. You may be reluctant to put your E mail address on your page for fear of spam, but you can always put up a Guest Book. Besides, some folks are more willing to sign a guestbook than to post an e-mail. There are a lot of freebies available, some better and more reliable than others. For a list of many of the free guestbooks, visit Virtual Free Guestbooks. The problem with some of the free guestbooks is that they may be unreliable. When a guest decides to sign your guestbook, it may not be available for him. When you want to view your guestbook, it may not be available or worse yet, it may have disappeared. Some of them, I understand, are quite reliable. I guess it's something you have to experiment with. One thing to look for in a guest book is the ability to delete undesirable entries. You never know what's going to inspire someone to flame, and you really don't want to provide a forum for such flames, do you? I decided to go with a Paradise Guestbook, which is not free, but is cheap. The guestbook that I bought (for $10) came with a counter that doesn't slow down my page. I've been satisfied with both.

Web Based E-Mail

Conversely, there are a lot of people who are not willing to sign a guestbook, for the same reason you may not want to put your e-mail on your page. They don't want their e-mail address on your guestbook page for the spam mongers to steal. These people may be perfectly happy to e-mail you personally, though! If you want to put your E-mail address on your page (and you probably do), the best thing to do is to get a free web based e-mail account and use that address on your pages. You can pre-set the subject line like so <A HREF="mailto:yourname@email.com?subject=My Webpage Title">E-Mail</A> Then, when the spam mongers get your E-mail address two good things happen: First, the junk e-mail never gets to your hard drive, it's all out there on the web; Second, you don't have to read it to see if it's actually junk, you can tell by the subject line! Any mail that comes with a different subject line can be safely deleted. Just don't use this account for anything else. I wish I had thought of that before the spam mongers got my real address! You may want to get a separate web based account for the purpose of signing guestbooks. Where to get such an account? There are plenty of them out there, you just have to find 'em! Hotmail is one of the best, with a great reputation for controlling spam in both directions. Yahoo also has a good reputation in that department and may be more convenient for you. Another choice is ZD Net Mail which is convenient if you find yourself at ZD Net downloading software often. Then there is MailExcite which may be more convenient for you if you use Excite a lot. Are you sensing a pattern here? Just about every major site is offering free web based e-mail! Where ever it is that you find yourself often, look and see if they offer this free service.

Forwarded E-mail

Another, less effective but more convenient option is forwarded E-mail, an E-mail alias that forwards mail to your real E-mail address. While a lot of these services try to filter out the spam, they aren't as effective as you wish they were. But, it's better than using your real address! One thing that they are useful for is if you switch ISP's often. With a forwarded E-mail account, your e-mail will follow you from ISP to ISP. Bigfoot is one of the most popular. They allow you to set your own filters (like to reject any e-mail with the word 'adult' in the subject) which is cool. It's the one I use, but that's me. NetForward and Net@ddress are two other providers.

Site Promotion

Ok, so now you're all set to go, but your cool new counter just won't move! Don't you hate it when you have a Webpage and nobody visits? Thing is, how can the world visit your site if they don't know it exists? If you want visitors, you have to invite them! One way is to join a ring, or two. There are many to choose from. Go to webring.org to view a list of possibilities. If you are a Southerner, and your site is Family Friendly, you might want to join the Bayou Belles & Beaux. The B3, as we call it, is a ring that I and my great good friend, Wanda, created to promote Family Friendly Sites by and/or about Southerners. Another chore that must be performed is registering with the search engines. I say chore because that's what it is, a job. One way to do it is to cruise from search engine to search engine clicking on the Add URL link of each, filling out the same forms over and over . . . blech! What a nightmare! Not all search engines require lots of forms, there are some that you merely provide your URL and your email addy, and they do the rest. A spider or a bot will visit your site and index it according to your meta tags or the content of your pages. The Free and Easy way to submit your site to up to 18 of these engines, including Webcrawler, is to use All & Sundry's Easy Submit

Promote your site to 34 popular search engines for FREE! Title URL email

Other engines require you to fill in your keywords, your site description, etc. This is where things get frustrating. Fortunately, there are easier ways. One way is to find a service that will, for a fee, take care of your search engine submissions for you. One such service is SubmitIt!. Another option is to use a freebie service, providing the appropriate link back or displaying their banner, or whatever the price is for the free service. I used the Add Me service, and you found me, so maybe it works. I did say easier, it's still a chore. Plan to spend at least an hour.

One other option is to get software that will simplify the task. Like the services, it's still a chore but at least all your info is stored on your computer. One to try isSubmission links : 1000+ search engines & directories. Free ! - SubmitWolf shareware : 1000+ SEARCH ENGINES and directories . Feel free to submit your url to as many engines as you like. All submission links are free !