This section of the site shares the information I collected during the creation, promotion etc of my site. Feel free to use the stuff here
without worrying about copyrights, patents etc.
Note : Some files available here are compressed in the ZIP format. If
you do not have an archiving utility, download
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About This Site - some information specifically about this site
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Creation of a site - Essential software and how to use it.
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Graphics - Images, icons, animations, backgrounds etc.
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Enhancements - Create forms, use CGI scripts etc.
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Site Promotion - self-explanatory really
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CompuServe - information for members of CompuServe
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About your own site - Visit SiteInspector, an online utility which rates your site on
Browser Compatibility
Load times
HTML design
Spellings
Search engine readiness
Links (validity of the links)
while it alse tells you about your site's popularity. Besides all this it gives you advice on improving your ratings in these fields.
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If you need any help from me, just mail
me.

And now, let the games begin (Not that that statement was relevant, but I always wanted to put that down in writing somewhere!) or forget creating your own site and, hopefully, enjoy mine!.
About this site
I
created this site on a Dell Precision Pentium 60 computer. I began creating this site with Netscape Communicator's "Composer" component, which is pretty much a WYSIWYG editor (translate : you don't have to learn HTML)
However, now as I begin to enhance and expand my site, I realize the limitations of composer and therefore use SightMaker (freeware, a friend of mine and I wrote it). This program isn't a WYSIWYG editor, so you must know HTML.
Being a member of CompuServe I am eligible for 5MB of web-space provided by their OurWorld community.
Finally, I'd like to thank
Andre
Velthoen and
Mark Vinnola
for all their help.
Creation of a site
If you want a reason to setup your site, know how to create a unique
one or advertise it, check out 'Stepping
Out' at CompuServe's Ourworld site.
WebSpace
If you want to build a home on the web, you need some real-estate.
You should first ask your internet service provider (ISP), if they provide members with web-space. If they do, then take it because ISP provided web-space is more reliable and faster than free services.
On the other hand, if your ISP doesn't give you this facility, visit
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/8015/pop3.html
Software:
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For creating the site :
Netscape Communicator
An easy to use but limited WYSIWYG editor. Great to start a site on,
but you'll discover it's limitations soon.
SightMaker
SightMaker is a piece of software which a friend of mine and I created
for an inter-school contest. It came out much better than we expected so
I now use that. It should be available for download on this site once we
complete it.
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For graphic creation and editing :
Those wonderful headings on each page of this site were created by me using Paint Shop Pro by JASC Multimedia. Even if you do not want to create any images, I believe
Paint Shop Pro is an essential tool for tweaking images.
If you are using PSP, then you must pay a visit to Brandy's Web Design Emporium. Besides being a source of various filters which can help you create artistic stuff in PSP, you'll also find a tutorial.
Other useful tools include GIFConstruction Set and AniMagic. These tools
will help you create animated GIFs. Search for "animag" and "gcs"
at www.filez.com
from the OurWorld community at CompuServe. Categories include - Spruce
up your webpage, Scanning pictures, etc.
Graphics
Texture
Station - About 400 background textures, and growing. The woodden background
on this site was taken from here.
You'll find a lot of nice icons, many of which have been used on this site.
For example, the flashing LED's on the Homepage
and the Earth icon on the bottom of this page.
Rainfrog's Webart - Ensembles
of artwork for your website. I have used some of the graphics by Rainfrog
in this site. For example : The Jalapeno at Link Central
page and the pen on the About Asim page.
Download these sample ensembles I took from this site
JALAPENO.ZIP (9,538 bytes)
PAWPRINT.ZIP (8,250 bytes)
STATNERY.ZIP (12,718 bytes)
Clipart -
Full of loads of ... you guessed it ... Clipart.
ToonWorld is full of wonderful cartoons.
The free art-work they offer at this time is limited but they're adding
to it every month so be sure to check it regularly.
The cartoons at The Cookie Shop, were taken
from here.
Under
Construction image - I found this wonderful image to use on any page
which is "Under Construction".
Cool Archive - A large, categorized
collection of icons, backgrounds, animated GIFs, bullets etc.
The fire
in the Trophy Room :-) and the basketball player
in the About Asim page are from this database. The Cool Archive, originally Web Grafx, has now expanded a great deal and offers other forms website help besides graphics.
Andy's Art Attack - Lots of really cool graphics, and I mean really cool.
Even if you have enough graphics to last you a century, this site is worth visiting because even the site is neat.
Enhancements
Response-O-Matic - These guys are really cool. If you want to use forms on your website, these are the people to go to. Since they process the forms remotely, you don't even have to worry about the capabilities of your website host. For example, if your website is on CompuServe's OurWorld web-space, this is the "form-processor" for you. And to top it all off, itz FREE!
Features include - telling visitors that they've missed important fields, semi-customized acknowledgement pages etc.
All the forms on this site have been possible because of Response-O-Matic.
Linko - Ofcourse there are numerous free guestbook and counter providers, but I've never seen a free message board provider. It could make your site pretty interesting.
The
CGI Resources Index - You really want that cool counter or those scripts
that process forms or that cool script which lets your site show images
at random, then you really need to visit this index. It is a collection
of some links to free and paid remote script hosts. This index is really
important to those people whose web-space providers don't allow them to
use CGI scripts or have a limited amount of them.
Amazing Free Stuff - Counters, guestbooks, web-pages, software etc.
all to help you with your site and all for FREE!!!
Counter -
The counter on my homepage is from the nice guys
at CompuServe and Sprynet.
LPage - LPage is probably the most well-known and successful free guestbook provider.
Site Promotion
LinkExchange - The father of all banner exchange programmes, LinkExchange has practically become the first step of site promotion.
Promote Your Website -
Some nice people have dedicated a whole site to help you register with
search engines, win awards, some things called META tags and more.
The Utlimate Exposure
200 Index - Over 200 search engines, website listing services etc.
Register with as many as you can.
Award-It - Think you've created
an online masterpiece and all you need is the credit for it. Fill one form
and register with a large number of people who might give you an award
if they think the same.
Better URL - If your webpage is on your
Internet Service Provider's server or on some free service such as Geocities,
chances are you have a very long and hard to remember URL.
One of the things that can help you increase your hits is having a
URL which is very easy to remeber. So, head of to where this
link leads you, and obtain a free, easy to remember URL.
What this service actually does is forwards the web-browser to your
real URL. For example, my real address was http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/asimz,
but thanx to the people who run the service mentioned, you can access it
by pointing your browser to http://surf.to/asim. Neat.
The Award Archives - Visit this site for a comprehensive list of awards which you can nominate your / somebody's site for.
CompuServe
If you are a member of CompuServe visit the Internet
Publishing Forum (GO INETPUB). This forum is one of the best places
to exchange queries and the resources you find here will help you improve
your site.
Also, you should visit the OurWorld
Forum for any help you need from the OurWorld community.
Links to forums
If you would like to add links to CompuServe's forums etc. to your
webpage (such as the link to the Internet Publishing Forum above) create
a link to
http://www.compuserve.com/cgi-bin/gocserve?CIS:GOWORD
Where 'GOWORD' is the word you use in CompuServe. The link to the Internet
Publishing Forum, above, was a link to
http://www.compuserve.com/cgi-bin/gocserve?CIS:INETPUB
NOTE: These links work only with WinCim version 2.0 and above.
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Site Help last updated : 22nd July, 1998 |