Bravenet offers all the tools you will ever need to build your own online Web community. Signing up only takes a few minutes and then you are given a whole list of things you can do from there. You can password protect your pages, add chat rooms, hit counters, greeting cards, search and email forms, get an easy to use URL, create mailing lists, polling booths, and classified ads, store photos, add a storefront and much more.
These features are so easy to use that you will be positively stunned. To password protect your pages all you have to do is click on the "register" button next to the password option. When the next page comes up it will have some code on it and a button under the code that says "Copy To Clipboard". When you click on this button a message comes up telling you that this code has been copied to your site's clipboard and all you will have to do to add it to your site is copy / paste it to your site. It just can't get any easier than that.
Adding a chat room, email forms, greeting cards, Internet search, site search, mailing lists, poll booths, classified ads, announcements, cartoons, free for all's, guestbooks, forums (message boards) and FAQ for your site are just as easy. Just click the button and add the code to your site. Simple!
Adding hit counters so you can keep up with your site's statistics is a little more difficult, but not much. To add one of these to your site you must first decide what you want to call it, what number you want to start at, if you want your stats private or public and what you want it to look like. There are many options for the design of your counter and once you decide on one you can click the "Create Counter" button and the code will be given to you. Then just click the "Copy To Clipboard" button and have it added to your site.
Do you want a nice short, simple URL for your site? They will give you one for life. Even if you decide to have your site hosted somewhere else someday you can still keep the URL. To get your short URL just type in a word you would like to use and it will tell you if that word is available. Then if you want to use it click on "Take It" and it's yours. Want an email address to match? Just fill out the form on the next page and start reading your email.
If you are interested in making a little money on the side you can sign up for their affiliate program. You will get paid for referring people to sign up for the Bravenet service from your Web site. Make sure you read the overview and the terms and conditions before signing up.
Would you like to store your photos online? How about your bookmarks? What about files? You can do this in a matter of minutes by just registering for the service and adding your photos and bookmarks to your site. Uploading your files and pictures is easy and creating a directory for your bookmarks it easier. Now you won't have to worry about losing files when your hard drive crashes anymore.
They will even help you host a storefront if you have something you want to sell or promote. Or you can sign up for or create your own webring so you can associate with others who's sites are similar to yours. They even offer an instant messenger program so you can chat with other people on Bravenet. With their Web Phone people can call you right from your site. If you want to keep track of stocks from your site you can do that too. They will also monitor your site so that if it goes offline for some reason you will be notified.
On top of all the services they offer they also have lists of other tools and services that you can use to make your site better. Some of these are meta tag checkers, site submitters, javascripts and other freebies.
When you have signed up for all your tools and services you can add them to your Web site. Bravenet also offers Web site hosting so you can have your personal Web site hosted online with them as well.
When you are through using the tools on this site you will have one of the best equipped site on the Net. There is so much you can do here and so much you can do for your site that you may spend several weeks putting it all together but it will be well worth it in the end.
