Beyond the Sig ~ Part 6: Resources

Free Hosts

These hosts are all free, and they do NOT allow remote loading or hot-linking, and all are advertiser supported (They have banners and pop-ups on all your pages). Bandwidth is stringently limited. I'm listing the ones I have/had accounts.

Tripod & Angelfire
Both part of Lycos. Free members have FTP access. Angelfire's web shell is easier to use than Tripod's File Manager, in my opinion. Only big drawback of both: Free pages have intrusive banner/popup ads. Can be frustrating for WebTV users (pages take long time to load)

Tripod, and Angelfire have upgradable "Plus" plans. For $4.95/month you get rid of the ads, have more space, and access to more features.

You can find more free hosts via Google.

Pay Hosts:
I'm listing only one that I know is friendly and reliable. But hey, I have been with them since 1999.

Craig's Domania
The FIRST & BEST WebTV-friendly web host. Now part of Arbor Hosting. Loads of space, lots of amenities: file and directory mover, IM tools, PC uploader, vidcap uploader, a super-friendly members forum, blog, help pages, wonderful customer service. You name it, they got it! Fees are reasonable and affordable.

HTML Tutorials:
There are many out there. Here are a few I use.

Draac
The first HTML course I ever took. Draac's hands-on tutorials are fast and easy. He also has tools useful for the WebTV user.

HTML Goodies
Another beginner's guide. Very easy, but the pages are a bit challenging to navigate with the LBB.

Paul Erickson's WebTV Help
This is a mirror of Erickson's excellent WebTV resource on the now defunct Geocities. It hasn't been updated in several years, and most information there — not to mention a bunch of links — is quite outdated. Still, he covers everything WebTV: HTML, newsgroups, email, making a web site, the whole bit. His is one of the best copy-paste tutorials on the web.

December Group
Another easy to understand resource. I use this extensively after Draac. Lists all the tags, attributes, special character codes, hexadecimal colors, etc.

And here are some others. Most are very easy to understand.
Davesite's HTML
HTML Help
HTML Code Tutorial
Of course, there are several excellent print resources: HTML for Dummies, Idiot's Guide to HTML, HTML in Plain English. I consult these books frequently.

Site Add-ons:
Guestbooks, counters, form mail, remotely-hosted CGI, discussion forums, web stats. You may need to look up WebTV-friendly ones via Google or other search engine, or consult other LBB users on what works well for them.

Site Promotion:
I'm linking only WebRing since it's a wonderful way to get more people to your site. It's very easy to join a ring. They'll even "crawl" your page to see if the ring navigation code is in place.
Of course, you can also join one or several Top Sites Directories such as Lasher's Top 100 WebTV Sites
Another option is joining one those "site fights" where visitors vote for your site. The more votes you get, the higher your site is placed in rankings.
In addition, you can simply join a mail group such as Yahoogroups or Google Groups. Tell members about your site, or put a link to your site on your email sig.
Caution! If you frequent newsgroups that ban HTML email sigs, just put a plain text link at the end of your postings.

Transloaders & Other Tools
Transloader by Bloke
Very easy to use. I also have Bloke's transloader script in my IttyBitty Tools
Domania Freeloader
Domania's Freeloader is one of the best around. Very simple to use.
Riverdrift's WebTV Tools
Multi-file transloader, lots of scripts, testbed, etc.
Ult-Tex
Even more tools. Transloader, free scripts, sig builders, tons of images and backgrounds for your pages. Ultra has a wonderful site promotion mailing list. Just submit your site and it will be linked in weekly mailings.
Don't forget my own I Need Help!: Tools, copy-paste HTML, resources, WebbiList, even a few image shares.

That is all the resources I can think of, at least the ones I use and recommend. Please click for One last word...