Tools For Developing & Maintaining Your Web Site

Language Translation
Babble Fish Translation — The most comprehensive list of languages, including Russian.
Google Language Tools — Limited number of languages but includes Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

Metric Conversion Tables

Current recommendations:
   Xe.net (Most common world currencies)
   Coin Mill (Common and exotic world currencies)

Current recommendations:
   Total Choice Hosting (Lowest Price, Highest Features)
   Accelerated Web (Rock Steady Stability, Good Features, Good Tech Support)

File Transfer Program (FTP)
CuteFTP Pro — After registering a domain name and setting up a hosting service, the next tool needed to start building your website is a file transfer program (FTP). (The FTP creates a network link between your pc and the internet files stored on your hosting service's hard drive.)

Credit Card Processing
PayPal — highly recommended.

Product Developer's Workshop ... resources for inventors and product developers.

Strouds CWS ... links to download sites for internet applications software. All applications are reviewed and graded.

Netsol Whois

Inernic Whois

Open Directory Project -- A very good source of ideas! We use it to fit products and services into popular categories ... and for studying the toughest competition!

Select "safe" colors for your web pages!
Web Browser-Safe Colors ... follow the 00-33-66-99-cc-ff rule for color selections and you'll be safe. Here's what these colors look like.

Track your "hits" by key code!
To know which of your promotions are driving traffic to your website, assign your promotions key codes then track your hits from your log files! Access Probe is an easily installed cgi script that can do it for your, if you have access to your logs.

HTML ... these sites can provide all the vital, up to the minute information you need about the HTML coding for your pages, including titles and the meta tags you need to get recognition from the search engines.
   World Wide Web Consortium
"W3C is over 500 organizations leading the World Wide Web to its full potential. Founded by Tim Berners-Lee, the Web's inventor. The W3C Web site hosts specifications, guidelines, software and tools. Public participation is welcome. W3C supports universal access, the semantic Web, trust, interoperability, evolvability, decentralization, and cooler multimedia."
   Web Reference.com
The Webmaster's Reference Library - Web Authoring Tips & Tutorials for Developers.

Current Search Engine Information ... these are sites you should visit regularly before writing and posting new pages -- if you want good positioning from the search engines.
   Search Engine Watch
   Web Developer.com's links to sound information about search engines

News Readers: Download Agent
This is an important tools if you use newsgroups!

Second Hand Books, Libraries, Etc.
Search the world for out-of-print books... or just better prices on 2nd hand reference books you need! Keep in mind, shipping can be expensive. Try to find the book you want at a bookseller closest to you!

Standard Rate & Data Service ... SRDS publications give rates for many different media, from daily newspapers to direct mail lists to radio & TV to package insert programs and much, much more. While subscriptions are expensive and not for the casual media buyer, you should be aware of this service. The books -- very big, very heavy, published monthly -- can sometimes be obtained from a local advertising agency. In fact, they might even give you an outdated copy of the book that you want... and even out dated books are useful for many, many years!

CGI
For help finding, understanding and installing cgi script, try the following resources:

CGI Resource Center
Even if you have no plans to use cgi scripts on your website, if you want to understand interactivity on the internet, go to this site and browse through the many scripts that show you just how interesting you can make your web site. Most of these scripts are available free or for a very modest fee. Only the really heavy duty scripts cover more than $100!

CGI Programming 101 - Learn CGI Today!
This on-line tutorial takes you through the basics of CGI scripting. As a minimum, this on-line course will help you understand the CGI scripts (such as Perl scripts) which you may already have installed at your website. The first six chapters with code samples and examples are free. If you want more, you can buy her book. While the author claims that no programming experience is needed, you will find that some programming experience is very, very helpful!