bravenet.com

.../> What Is It?
Bravenet.com has been around a long time (1997 to be exact) I have been using some of their services for a few years now. There aim was/is to provide the average Joe with the best free web tools going. On their site they state they are one of the top 50 visited websites worldwide and have 7 million registered users.

Their whole website was upgraded this year which has been a huge improvement as the layout is ...
...services you may have a bravenet.com advert showing on your page for some of the services.This ranges from a text links to them on a guestbook or a small button next to hit your counter for example.
Have to have a different account for each website you use there services on. It would be really handy if you could say have more than one guestbook for each of your sites so you can check them all at the same time rather than having to log in for ... more

What Is It?
Bravenet.com has been around a long time (1997 to be exact) I have been using some of their services for a few years now. There aim was/is to provide the average Joe with the best free web tools going. On their site they state they are one of the top 50 visited websites worldwide and have 7 million registered users.

Their whole website was upgraded this year which has been a huge improvement as the layout is clean, non fussy and has a nice professional slick appearance to it. There have also been a lot of new tools added so if you were a member a few years back it would be worth checking them out again now.

Most of their tools are free because they have sponsors or you can go for professional versions if you're after a little more. Their site looks modern and is easy to navigate with a large community following.

For this review I am going to stick mainly to their Free Products as I have not recently used any of their paid services to be able to review them fairly.

Why Would You Use Bravenet?
This site is for anyone with or without a website online, it doesn't matter if you're a beginner or an advanced web designer there will be something for you. The great thing is there are lots of services available but you don't have to have them all. Click on what you want and it shows you the code snippet that you copy and paste on to your page. It's that simple.

You might want to add something to make your site look more jazzy or your looking to add some interactivity to your website without lots of effort or learning how to code. I was after a fast and reliable free service that did not bombarded me with adverts or restrictions when using there services. Bravenet has matched and exceeded what I was looking for.

How Do You Join?
As you would expect it's free and simple to join up.
Go to www.bravenet.com
Click the "Join Now - It's Free" button
Fill in your personal details on there clean easy to follow form
Click Submit.

Your information will be emailed to you when you click a link to activate your account. You can then log in and explore there site.

What's The Members Area Like?
When you log in you are taken automatically to there members area account manager screen. There is a lot to take in when you first log in but you will soon be whizzing round.

The account Manager Screen shows your Member information and any affiliate or billing information. Under this you see the hosting and domain section and below that your registered services (if it's your first time logged in this will be blank until you have selected something).

The next Section is the unregistered services part, all the tools you can use are here, by click on one you can read about what it is see a demo version and set yours up there and then. When you next go to your member's area your new service will show in the registered section so management of your tools is easy.
There is a selection of partner tools at the bottom of the page that you many want to check out currently this is showing things like; accepting credit cards, t-shirt shop and free business cards. To your left there is a helpful link section to "more free stuff" like sound bytes, clip art, scripts, and fonts. From the side menu you can also access the tutorials section which I'll mentioned later.

What Services Do They Offer?
Firstly if you do not have a website you can create one on there site which they will host for free for you too. They have an easy wizard with templates that walks you through creating your site so you have something that looks quite professional very quickly.

If you host a site with them for free then there is a block of small ads that appear but its not very intrusive like many other free hosts can be. Bravenet also offer a paid hosting service where amongst other additions the ads are removed. You can purchase domain names through them to; I haven't done this so can not give an opinion but the prices look competitive.

Free Web Tools
I have decided to describe the free tools I have used followed by a brief mention of the ones I haven't yet tried and give a complete run down.

Calendar
A really nice calendar you can use on your website. The calendar has multiple views (day at a time or week, month at a time). You can add events or appointments for your visitors to see or allow visitors to add events too. There is a reminder by email option which works well. Like most of bravenets services you can customize the look of the calendar so if fits in with your own website scheme.

Classifieds
This is a nice tool I have used in the past; it lets you set up a page of classified ads. Visitors can add the ads with you receiving notification by email of any new ones. You can edit or delete any ads and make the page fit in with your site.

Forms for Your Site
This service helps make your page more interactive and professional looking, you can set up a form for your site so visitors can contact you or you can set up a survey or quiz. You can customize the whole look and set up auto replies to visitors that complete the forms which adds a nice professional touch I think.

FAQ Service
Now this is one of my favorite tools, it's a quick way of adding a help section to your website (especially good I find if you are selling something to make visitors feel more reassured and trusting that you are genuine and care about your clients or products). You basically set it up to match your page fill in the questions and answers you like to appear and copy the generated code to your website.

You can also sort your questions in to categories you create (like payment and returns for example) and allow visitors to ask there own (I don't normally use this part as I like visitors to email me a question and if its something I think would help others I add it to the FAQ page).

E-Postcards
Same as the other services easy to set up and copy the code to your site this one allows you to upload your own photos and create cards (on a travel website I do I have a postcard section with "wish you were here" type cards with photos of the area). You get a report once a month on how many cards and which ones were used, so you can remove any unpopular ones and create new ones when you fancy or for different times of the year.

Guestbook Service
This is the reason I originally joined bravenet, the service I used before kept going offline making my guestbook show page can't be found to visitors and I had had enough. Their free guestbook has to be one of the best around, when you pick that tool you can change any part of it to match your site, you can add music to play when the page is opened, let your visitors use smiles and images to brighten up the page.

What I most like though is you can set it to "review pending posts" this means when someone signs you guestbook you are sent a notification and have to go read and tick the "I approve" box before it will appear on the page. This excellent option, which most free guestbook providers don't proved, means you don't get any spam or abusive messages showing up and keeps everything looking professional and under your control.

You can also set up an auto reply thanking visitors for signing and prompting them to visit you again.

GuestMap
This is a bit of fun instead or as well as having the traditional guestbook above you can use this. When you copy the code to your site a little button appears where you put the code for visitors to click on. When it opens it shows a map (you can choose the map I went for the world) visitors then click where they live and a box pops up letting them pick a flag an icon to represent them and enter a message. Once they have clicked submit a little person or pin (depending what you set up) appears on the map when your mouse hovers over it the message is shown. It's a fun way to see where you visitors have come from I really like this feature.

Message Forum
This is probably the only service that I have tried that I wasn't overly impressed with. This isn't an all singing all dancing forum, so if you expect your forum to have lots of visitors or you are a regular forum user you probably wouldn't want to use this version either. However if it's just to add something to your site and give it a community feel then its fine. All the basic forum functions you would expect are there.

Mini Poll
I like this one you can add a quick multi-choice question to you website quick way to get some feedback from your visitors, or to show that the content is fresh. I used it to ask visitors age ranges to try and find out if a client's target audience matched those who were actually visiting his site. The results are shown in real time.

Mailing List.
This is excellent, if your website sells something then a mailing list is a must. I always notice when I have sent out a news letter to those that have joined up I get more hits on the site for the next few days. I am guessing it's like me if I get a newsletter from a site I haven't visited in ages and something catches my eye I click on it to have a nosey what's changed.

However a word of warning I think if you send too many of these out it would have the opposite effect and be like spam, I find its best to state clearly how often you intend sending them and stick to it unless its a one off reason.

When you select this tool you can set up a template to match you site or use a standard one that Bravenet provide. Any one who joins will register through a link added to you site where they will have to do the normal click on a link sent by email to confirm their registration. They will be added in to your management panel and you will be notified. Very very easy to use!

Other Free Services
Headline News - updates automatically so fresh news is always shown in the style you have selected

Live chat - a chat tool on your website so you can talk with your visitors

Photo Gallery - a nice way to organise your photos in a directory style with categories maybe handy if you have a lot of photos.

Counter Stats - shows your website hits and lets visitors see your stats lots of icons to choose from when setting up

Horoscopes - this will show visitors horoscopes you can choose how it will show on your site

Daily Cartoon - A new cartoon shows on your website everyday without you having to do anything, fun addition to brighten up a page.

Free Links - A links page bit like the classified adds where visitors can add ther own links to our site instantly.

Password Gate - you can set up a restricted area of your site so only people with the password can get in, I have not used this yet but intend setting it up to try it out. The suggested uses are family pages, download pages, Club member areas.

Online Dairy - A journal or blog to your website this can be password protect and looks like it has a lot of nice features but I have not tried it out yet.

Affiliates Program
If you join there affiliates program, you can choose from different links and banners - select the one you like and copy the code on to your website. If anyone who visits your sites sees the advert and clicks on it then signs up bravenet pay you $1. I guess if you had a really popular site this might bring is some extra pennies.

Articles & Tutorials
This is a great help section covering all sorts of topics. If you are new to webdesign or wanting more traffic to your site you will want to read the information here, I have found some excellent tips and tricks of the trade to help market websites and improve search engine rankings. This area seems to be updated with new articles on a fairly regular basis so its worth popping back now and again.

The Bravenet Gathering Place
This is where you can join the Bravenet Community full of all the other people who are using there services. There are lots of sections to help you with any of the services you might need guidance or advice on as well as a nice community area if you want to chat about anything, make some new friends and learn along the way.

They have a showcase of any good sites that members have created. You can make suggestions to improve or expand there services and from past experience they actually listen to what there members have to say. I haven't spend a great deal of time in the community section (ha-ha mainly because I'm on Ciao) but it seems a very friendly place for new comers and long standing members alike.

Advantages
You can set something up to jazz your website up in minutes with no fuss. They have been around a long time so you know your guestbook or forum isn't going to suddenly disappear.
All the code is small for cutting and pasting you can modify the appearance of most of the services to blend in with your own website. A Monthly newsletter lets you know about any new services or special offers available. Many of there services would be hard to find free elsewhere. There 24 hour support is excellent they are always more than willing to help. If you get more traffic due to a popular service you have added then it will help your search engine ratings in turn bringing more visitors to your site

Disadvantages
Unless you pay for one of there professional services you may have a bravenet.com advert showing on your page for some of the services.This ranges from a text links to them on a guestbook or a small button next to hit your counter for example.
Have to have a different account for each website you use there services on. It would be really handy if you could say have more than one guestbook for each of your sites so you can check them all at the same time rather than having to log in for each account. You may wish to be able to customize something more than they allow on the free service

I really can't think of any more disadvantages than that to be honest.

Summary
On the whole I think Bravenet is a brilliant service which seems to keep growing as the years go by. I have never to date had a problem or issue with anything about the site the support is excellent and very friendly On the contact us page it clearly links you to all the different departments so you get get the information you need quickly. The resource center is large and although I have been a member for a while now I often find new tools or sections I haven't visited before keeping me interestedand some of my sites with dynamic new content. The only negative point although I'm not sure its negative is there is a lot to see which might seem a little overwhelming at first. However the member's area is clearly laid out and has everything shown by nice shiny icons which make it easy to see which services you have and which you can choose from.

If you are a professional you may want to use the pay services rather than the free so you do not have the bravenet adverts anywhere on your site. If you are new to web design and learning the rope this is a great way to spice up a site you will be proud to show off to family and friends. I think I can honestly say I have not found a one stop free webmaster service as good as Bravenet. I'ts a great way to keep your website looking like its up-to-date and fresh to increase repeat visitors
 

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