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New Year's Day is special to me not only because it represents a new beginning, but also because it is, like the internet, a holiday with world-wide participation. Understanding diverse points of view stimulates my creativity. The result of some of that creativity is available at our Master Series site. Here are some ways to make your site more interactive. This article only presents ideas for scripts that already exist. All can be implemented now. Also, this article is not intended to be all-inclusive. Instead, it is meant to stimulate ideas by presenting some of what is available. My favorite script directory/download site other than our own Master Series at http://willmaster.com/master/ is CGI Resource Index http://cgi.resourceindex.com/ Unless otherwise noted, scripts and categories of scripts mentioned in this article can be found from the http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/ URL. Banners and Other Web Page Advertisements Advertisements can be a method of guiding site visitors to other sites, or other areas within your own site, which might be of interest. Although often of a commercial nature, advertisements do not need to be such. Banners seem to be less effective than in the past, being ubiquitous and noticed less by seasoned surfers. The eye doesn't focus on them or actively avoids elements that appear to be banners during the first glance at the page. Movement within banners can be considered distractive and generate negative feelings related to the site displaying it. There is some evidence that site navigation systems looking like banners are often the last place the eye scans for navigation links and might not be viewed at all. Having said that, the positive is that banners can still be effective. The design and content of the banner, its position on the page, the number of other advertisements on the site, and the banner's relevance to the site's subject matter or theme all effect response. An excellent banner rotator, which can also be used for a banner exchange, is WebAdverts from http://awsd.com/scripts/webadverts/ Advertisements that do not appear to be banners, such as text ads, images in sizes or shapes not usually associated with banners, a combination of text and image, or flash movies can be more effective than banners. A program that works well as an ad rotator, one that can rotate text, images, flash movies, sound, and combinations of those is Master Merry-Go-Round from http://willmaster.com/master/merrygoround/ Although some people consider classified advertisements to be ineffective, a classified site exclusively focused on a specific niche has potential. There are many classified ad scripts available. The CGI Resource Index mentioned above has a separate category just for classified ads programs. Games Depending on your site's purpose and visitor demographics, making games available could increase your site's perceived value. In general, CGI is a bit slow for games that involve changing boards or images. Those that do not, such as crossword puzzles, can be done well with CGI. JavaScript can deliver good performance in interactive games, although they may be limited when graphical elements need to be updated rapidly. See http://javascript.internet.com/games/ for several dozen games to choose from. Auction You can have an auction for your visitors without running a large, commercial operation. If you have your own products or services, you can auction these on your site. Also, you might arrange for discounts selling other people's products and make your minimum bid so your lowest acceptable profit is assured. Consider your site's niche when deciding what products or services to auction. Shopping Cart This helps your site visitors by keeping track of selections as they surf from page to page. Selections need not necessarily be limited to products being purchased; it can be any gathering of information such as files to download or links to other sites. (Note: If you have a list of products that fit on a one-page order form, you don't necessarily need a shopping cart. See "Customer Friendly, Cart-less E-commerce Site" at http://willmaster.com/possibilities/demo/ces/ces.html) Many shopping carts are available to choose from. Our own Master Shopper is a customizable cart that can handle thousands of products. Because it is customized for each installation, it is not sold as a downloadable program. If interested in Master Shopper, contact us at http://willmaster.com/master/contact.shtml Feedback or Contact Form If you only have one CGI program, make it one for visitor feedback. Site visitors are much more likely to write to you using a feedback form than when they have to click an email link to launch an emailing program on their computer. Visitor feedback is almost always sincere and is important enough to the visitor to take the time to write. You can find yourself the recipient of ideas or suggestions, from time to time, that have the potential to improve your site's popularity or income. Master Feedback from http://willmaster.com/master/feedback/ is an excellent program. It also helps spam-proof your site by eliminating the need to have any email addresses in the source code, not even in hidden fields, which would be susceptible to spammer's email harvesting robots. Survey and Voting This category of CGI programs are excellent tools to consult your visitor's reactions to different ideas related to your site. With the right questions and enough participation, you have an excellent opportunity to make your site more pleasing or useful to your visitors. One survey program you may wish to consider is Master Survey. See http://willmaster.com/master/survey/ Bulletin/Message Board These types of programs are excellent for building a community of users interacting with each other. Many different interfaces and page renderings are available, as well as widely varied features. Shop around for what you prefer. Some of these type of programs can be used for other purposes, too, such as maintaining an FAQ page or a weblog. Just keep the board posting URLs and links private so only you can update those pages. Web Page Creation/Self-Replicating Site These are programs that let your visitors create and edit their own pages on your server. These programs usually generate a web page or site from a template, inserting custom information provided by the user. Programs in this category vary widely in function, from generating a web page using a simple template to generating multi-page sites with all pages customized. You would choose your program by what you need it to do. As an example of what can be done, http://essentialoilsrus.com/youngliving/ is a multi-page site generated by a custom site creation program. Each site that is created has two distinct e-commerce systems -- (1) Master Shopper (mentioned above) for product sales, with credit cards accepted on its own secure server and (2) a system to sell additional sites with credit cards accepted via a remote credit card authorization service. Site Search Engine A nice service to offer your visitors is a site search engine, especially if your site is multi-page. Various features are available. See "Search Engines" linked from http://willmaster.com/possibilities/archives/ for an article about search engines. A good site search engine is Master Search from http://willmaster.com/master/search/ Site Recommendation Having a site recommendation link available for visitors is being considerate. It also benefits you in that it brings pre-qualified visitors. Master Recommend from http://willmaster.com/master/recommend/ is a popular program. When someone likes your site, s/he may think of someone else who would like it. If a clear "recommend" link is available, your visitor can use it. Otherwise, with continued surfing your visitor is likely to forget your URL or even that there had been an intent to make a recommendation. Guestbook Guestbooks are often associated with hobby or home pages. But they can be put to good service on some professional sites, especially niche sites where visitor diversity appeals such as travel or entertainment. Guestbook programs do not have to be labeled as such. They can be called "product comments" or "post your opinion in public," for examples. Other Ideas See http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/ and our own http://willmaster.com/master/ for more ideas. Have fun with it! Copyright 2000 William Bontrager
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