WebSpawner.com Blog

One of the many features included in your WebSpawner Enhanced web site account is a Links page, which you can use to create your own categorized directory of links to other sites that you think will be of interest or value to your site’s visitors. Viewers of your site may also submit links for their own sites to your Links page; this is referred to as Free For All Linking, which allows sites to share viewer traffic with each other. Today we will cover how to manage your Links page.

To turn on the Links page option for your web site:

• Login to your WebSpawner account with your Username and Password.
• Select your Start page under Step 1 in the Member Menu and click the Modify button under Step 2.
• Scroll down in the Modification form until you reach the Free For All Links step as shown below, and click the Yes button:

• Click Continue at the bottom of the Modification form, then click I Like It at the test page preview.

After you have completed these steps, your web site will contain a Links button which, when clicked, will open your Links page.

The Links page is color-coordinated with your site, matching the Background, Text, and Link colors which you selected for your Start page. The Links page has 10 different categories: Business, Computers, Education, Entertainment, Government, Health, Internet, Miscellaneous, Personal, and Recreation.

At the bottom of the Links page is a form where you (or a viewer of your site) can add a new link. To add a link, enter a Website Title and the complete Website URL address, along with an Email Address and Description of the site. Select a Category using the pull-down menu and then click the Post My Link button as shown in the sample below:

The new link will immediately be added to your Links page, as shown in this example:

You can repeat these steps to add links as you wish to each category. Viewers of your site will take the same steps if they submit their link to your Links page; however, you will be able to remove any links that you do not wish to keep.

In the Member Menu of your WebSpawner account, there are tools which you can use to manage your Links page. To access these tools, click the Free-For-All Links Page icon which appears under the Add-Ons tab as shown below:

The FFA Links Page Edit window will appear, which has three function buttons at the top:

• Click the Edit Links button if you wish to remove an undesirable link.  All links will appear, with a Delete button next to each one. Simply click the Delete button next to the link you wish to remove, as shown in the example below, to immediately remove that link from your Links page:

• Click the Emailer button to create a form-letter message which will be automatically emailed to each viewer who subsequently adds a link to your Links page. Enter Your Email Address, a Subject line, and Your Email Message body in the fields, then click the Update button as shown in the example below:

• Click the Options button to adjust additional options for your Links page. You can enter text for the Headline to appear at the top of your Links page. Use the pull-down menu to select a Maximum number of links for each category of either 25 or 50. The other pull-down menu allows you to select whether to Display the user-provided Link Descriptions… if you choose Yes both the Title and Description for each link will appear on your Links page; if you choose NO only the Title of each link will be shown. When you are finished, click the Update button to save your changes to your Links page, as shown below:

When you are finished making changes in the FFA Links Page Edit window, click Close Window to return to the Member Menu.

You should check your Links page often so that you can remove any undesirable links that may have been added by viewers. Each link should also be checked from time to time to make sure that it is not a “dead link” to a site which no longer exists. Keep your Links page cleaned up regularly, and it will be a useful resource to help the viewers of your web site find other valuable sites online.

One of the challenges of running a successful web site is retaining visitors. You can achieve more returning visitors by updating your site frequently with new unique content of interest. Also, you can encourage return visits by notifying visitors of new information or items available on your site; ask visitors to click the Contact button on your site to provide you with an email address where you can send them notices of updates to your site.

By setting up a Group Mailing List in your WebMail account, you can quickly and easily send an email message to an entire list of people whenever you have something new on your web site to announce, in the same time that it takes to send an email to a single individual. In today’s post, we discuss how to create a mailing list to streamline your email communications to groups.

First, login to your WebSpawner web site account and then click the WebMail icon in the Member Menu:

(Note: WebMail is only available if you have an Enhanced account with WebSpawner. If you don’t see the WebMail icon as shown above, click the Enhance Your Site icon which appears there instead to upgrade and add many additional tools and features to your account and web site! You’ll have access to the WebMail icon after your upgrade is complete, as well as to unlimited page creation, image gallery creation and more.)

Next, in the WebMail window, click the Address Book link in the toolbar on the left:

The Address Book screen will appear, showing any Individuals or Groups that you have previously added. Click the Add New Group Entry link:

The next window to appear will look like this:

In this window, you need to do three things:

1. Next to Nickname, enter a name for your Group in the box, such as “Visitors List” or whatever you choose.
2. In the Addresses box, enter the email addresses for the individuals that you wish to place in this Group list. Each email address must be complete, and you should enter a comma between each address.
3. When you have finished entering the Nickname and Addresses for your Group, click the Add New Entry button.

When the screen refreshes, you’ll see your new Group appearing in the menu, as shown in the next image below. You can then add another Group by clicking Add new Group Entry and repeating the steps above; or, you can edit any Group in the list by clicking on the Group’s Nickname to add or remove addresses.

When you are ready to prepare an email message to send to a Group, click the Compose link on the toolbar at the left, as shown here:

In the message Compose window, any Individual or Group addresses that you have added will appear in a box to the right of the screen. Select your Group list in the box, and then click the To: button to send your new message to all members of that Group with all addresses visible, or click the BCC: button to send your message to all members with the addresses of other members hidden:

Now enter your Subject line and body of your message and click the Send button. A copy of your email will be sent to all members of the Group you selected.

In this manner you can save yourself considerable time whenever you have news to share with multiple individuals by email.

A closing reminder and disclaimer regarding the Group list feature: The people that you add to your Group lists should be people who have provided you with their email addresses themselves and are expecting to receive email from you on occasion. If an individual contacts you and asks you to stop sending them email, you should honor that request by editing your Address Book to remove the email address from your Group list(s). WebSpawner’s Customer Agreement prohibits the use of WebSpawner’s services for the purpose of sending unsolicited or unwanted “spam” emails.