HTML - The Hyper Text Markup Language

Counters and related information:

David's How to Add an Inline Counter.

Count WWWebula!.

Counter.

Counter 4.0.

Digit Mania.

Java Access Internet Audit Bureau.

Wishing Com.

Another method for WWW Page Counts.

The Digit Collection offers an array of graphics for representing numbers (such as in counters).

Digit Mania went all-out in producing a singular source for counter digit sets. You still need a program to handle producing an image of s specific value, but these folks certainly have a collection for you to choose from.

The Anti Counter puts up random digits.

Introduction to Web multimedia technologies An associate of mine call this a great (Win95/Netscape-oriented) introduction to Web multimedia technologies (things like Shockwave, VRML, RealAudio, etc).

Brain Soup Currently offers two collections of 50 256 color 100 X 100 BMP tiles. Neat stuff.

Doc Ozone Different backgrounds and images. A nice collection.

Over The Rainbow Good/nice 3d borders and other stuff. There is a LOT of stuff here.

John's Backgrounds Page Neat berries, blue marble, and purple water/wave. These are not original art (you'll recognize much material from the Doc Ozone pages here), and the guy admits to "lifting" the graphics for the collection, but then -- if you're out looking for background pictures, I guess you're planning on doing the same...

Innovative Internet Backgrounds Two Volumes of Professionally designed backgrounds for $25 each. You can see some lo-rez screenshots each volume here. Hey -- not everything can be had for free, tho unfortunatley here, the volumes are not all that large.

HTML Converters. Links to converters TO and FROM HTML. This site is a MUST.

An Information Provider's Guide to HTML. A great reference and introduction to HTML/SGML.

Ant-Hill's WebTools.

Snazz of the Day provides you with a new page embellishment each day of the week (M-F).

Background of the Day provides you with a new page background pattern each day of the week (M-F).

A reference on Transparent and Interlaced GIF resources.

Texture Land. A great source of inspiration.

WWW Developer Tools. Useful things to be found here.

Colour and Background Tester. A useful tool to test effects.

Background Colour Reference Page. A list of the values for different colours.

Free Art Website. Laurie McCanna's site which has "icon templates and lots of other greate graphics for your website including alphabets, eyeballs, golden 3D trinkets, and more!"

Creating Greate Web Graphics. An overview of Laurie McCanna's book on creating art for use on the web.

Webmaster Magazine.

The Web Letter. A site for getting information on using the WWW for publishing.

Dynamic Diagrams. An SGML service bureau. They do web page desgin as well as user interface design, and other stuff.

Info on SGML.

The Web Developer's Virtual Library contains MANY useful links to resources.

Software for the WWW.

The Beginner's Guide to HTML from NCSA.

the HTML specification from the W3O.

The W3O Style Guide.

CERN's style guide for online hypertext.

HTML Guide from CERN.

Composing Good HTML (for portability).

WWW Developer's Page

Internet Distribution Services The home page from an excellent web publisher.

Multimedia Authoring Web

NCSA Mosaic Demo Document

MacMillian HTML Workshop. A site with HTML references, organized by user skill level. A useful reference for anyone looking to create their own web pages.

Also try lurking in the following newsgroups: comp.infosystems.www and comp.infosystems.www.users

You can also check out my Web Tools and Services page as well.

Q: Does anybody know where I can download windows software that will convert text files into gif-graphic files?
A: Check Here.

Advertising your page

Several of the major Web Search sites offer the ability for users to add a page address to their databases. Specific ones I'm aware of include (listed alphabetically):

Lycos

NCSA

Webcrawler

Yahoo

You can also post an announcement message to the comp.internet.www.announce newsgroup. Be aware that most people don't actually hang out there, so most likely information archivers (the people collecting information to add to indexes -- although often they won't be live people, but instead programs reading and parsing the messages for content) will be the primary audience there -- make your post as concise and objective as possible in order to ensure the maximum carryover from your post into their indexes. I would also suggest you READ several posts in the newsgroup to get a feel for the accepted format and content.

Also post to newsgroups relative to the page content (for instance, if your web page were heavily geared towards resources for photographers, you might post in the rec.photo heirarchy). Be careful when doing this -- avoid posting to groups which have little relevance or which do not permit such posts (especially if your page is commercial in nature).

DO NOT post multiple times (either many messages, or a scheduled or periodic update post). Doing so will incur the wrath of the people using the newsgroups for actual communication. Advertising - whether personal or commercial, is generally frowned upon in Usenet. If you aggravate the wrong group of people, you can be sure to expect headaches.

Consider adding an "X-Homepage:" line to your mail and news programs (see the software's manual on "editing message headers"). Not all programs offer the ability to add such a line. However, if they do, then using it will permit a wider range of automated "URL grabbers" to locate your page address to add to their databases. Additionally, adding it in your .sig (signature) file will advertise the page every time you send an EMail or post to Usenet. As always, you should avoid large signature files (this will get people angry at you) -- the web page should contain your content, not the .sig.

Whenever and whereever you advertise your web page, give it as a properly formed URL. This helps newusers and experts alike, since most sytems either allow "cut and paste" in one easy operation (without risking typos by users), or allow for jumping directly to things which look like URLs.

MAKE SURE TO CHECK THAT THE URL IS VALID BEFORE ADVERTISING IT. I've actually seen hardcopy (printed) material which had incorrectly formed URL addressing. A bad URL address will make someone think your page isn't available, and with the plethora of stuff to do on the Net, your page may never get a second thought.

Use index.html for a standard homepage (valid on most web servers - check with your provider). This means when someone goes to your web page directory, they'll automatically be greeted with a web page, rather than a browser-generated file list. For example, when possible, it is preferrable to have a home page at "http://www.professional.net" than at "http://www.professional.net/MyHomePage.html" -- people CAN'T MISS the first one. REMEMBER, not all traffic to your page will be from a direct link - it may often be from someone browsing around the web. I've found a LOT of useful information by stripping out the page name and finding a default web page (or heading to the default page for the server the page is on). This is the very nature of exploring the web.

Finally, if you want to advertise a web page service regularly in Usenet without annoying people (it is always a good idea not to annoy people), perhaps the best way to do it is to actively participate in that newsgroup. By providing accurrate and helpful advice to people, your email will be better recognized, and will generate interest in travelling to your web site (which you can mention in the messages, such as "There are some useful references in my page..." or "you can find specific references in my page" - just don't make it the ONLY content of your message).

Well, one last thing - corporate environments running their own web servers would be well-advised to consider allowing their employees to have their own web pages (complete with disclaimers that the content of those pages expresses the views of the employee and not the company), since the page can link back to the corporate or departmental homepage. Literrally free advertising exposure for the company from the myraid of links to the employees personal pages.