bravenet.com

Advantages: Free, comprehensive, loads of choice
Disadvantages: In exchange for free service, you display banner ads

WARNING: This op is HUGE! Scroll to the end for a run-down of functions available if you get bored easily!! For those of you that have no experience of web design, this might seem to be a bit jargon-heavy. I apologise in advance for anyone who feels alienated. I have attempted to make this relevant to all, so you can see just how easy it can be to add a multitude of interactive functions to your own site. I first came across Bravenet when I started ...
...with virgin.net at the time, although I now use a combination of tripod.co.uk and also pay for a domain with ActiveISP. Mine is a personal site, based around showcasing my own illustrations. Visitors are invited to suggest subjects for pictures, and these are drawn and uploaded for free. So, in order to receive my requests, I needed to get the (CGI) script for a (free) E-mail Form. After a little hunt within search engines for the script I needed, ... Read review

Advantages: Free, free, free, oh and it provides a great range of tools
Disadvantages: Not many- but how long can it last?

As the media persuades the unsuspecting public that everyone should have a website, more and more people try their hand at creating their own ‘home on the web’. However, there’s one barrier to this- many of these people don’t have the knowledge- or tools, to create a good website- however good their ideas. Even if you know HTML in great detail- adding other ‘bits’ such as a chat room, or forum can be a difficult ...
...handy. Bravenet provides advertising-funded (therefore, free to you) web tools, such as counters, forums, chat-rooms and mailing lists. They even provide free hosting and tips on using HTML. Whether starting a site from scratch, or looking for additions- there’s something for all. The services they provide are all very easy to set up, and can be used straight away. You simply sign up for a free account- and click on the services you want and ... Read review

Advantages: free, easy to use, nice layout
Disadvantages: TOO MUCH adverts, not able to encoprtate into your website easily

As ive said in my Internet op, the homemade website's frequency boomed. With them a new industry Free web Hosting, what followed was services like bravenet, which allowed you to incorporate their scripts into your site. When I first started building websites, I used Bravenet all the time, for web polls, guest book, hit counter, etc. Then Bravenet had adverts but they where well positioned and didn’t force you to click them. You could cut and paste ...
...page, so it was part of your page, now the users have to click a link which takes them to a bravenet hosted page with the poll on. And if you want to do it the old way you rip the html code of that page and include it into your own, but most people don’t know how to do this or like me cant be bothered. The good services that I use and would recommend to anyone, are bravenet’s guest book, email, tell a friend, web ring, hit counter and greeting cards. ... Read review

Advantages: Plenty of tool, easy to understand instructions, help when you need it.
Disadvantages: The usual banner adds if you opt for the free service

Bravenet is the service you want to join if you are looking for a wide selection of website tools that are easy to set up and manage. First things first, as with all free services there are the standard banner adds to expect at the top of the pages. If you don't mind that it's fine. They also offer a Professional service for those with a little cash to spare, which will give you banner free pages and more available web tools at a decent price. ...
...the range of tools is still plentiful and the adds are pretty unintrusive. The tools available in the free option include: e-card, webring, mailing list, mini poll, photo storage, webspace if you haven't got it already, and a short url service for those that don't have the luxury of a .com but want a short snappy address easily remembered by visitors. I use the short url which starts of www.clik.to and there are various others that are bound to ... Read review

Advantages: Free, wide range of services, easy to use
Disadvantages: Adverts (unless you pay a fee)

Bravenet.com is an internet company offering a variety of services to help you build your own web site. They are available free of charge, although you can opt to pay a fee to have a service with no adverts. The services include: Guestbook: Add a guest book to your site so people can leave messages. Options to send a thankyou email, filter out obscenities etc. Hit counter: Record the number of visitors to your site, with the option to display ...
...track of what links people have clicked on to get to the site, so you can see which websites are sending traffic to you, and records what browser, operating system and screen resolution your visitors are using. Available in a variety of colours and styles. Polls: Conduct polls to get opinions from your users These are the services I have used so far, but many others are available, including chat rooms, instant messaging, mailing lists. All the ... Read review