Southern Muse's Web Helper

Favorite Search and Page-Building Tools
Google ~ Open Directory Project ~ Hotbot ~ Dogpile Mamma ~ Ask.com ~ Alta Vista
Get Tools & Add-Ons *from Google...* Google Maps About Google Adsense Google Adsense Home *from other sites...* Submit Express WordPress (free blog) Blogger: Get a Blog! Sizzling HTML jalfrezi Pico ~ Free Search Tool Virus Protection AVG Free or Professional	For In-Depth Searches Answers.com iTools ... Infomine The Internet Public Library Library of Congress Librarians' Internet Index Academic Info Langenberg (Multi-searches) Digital Library of Appalachia Dirpedia: Dictionary, directory, encyclo. Language & Learning Dictionary.com ~ Wikipedia The Free Dictionary.com Encyclopedia.com Encyclopaedia Britannica On-Line Bartleby.com (Columbia Encyc.) JSTOR: Scholarly Journal Archive	Webmaster's Helpers Developer Shed Submit Express Submit Express Validator E-how: Copyright Permissions Sizzling HTML jalfrezi Network Solutions Free CGI Kirupa.com Dead-Links (Link Validator) HTML Writers Guild Web Source , Learn the Net Webopedia (Computer Tech. Encyc.) Technology Aspects (Dalton) Quirksmode (Javascript Tutorial) PhotoBucket (Photo Host)

The webmaster tools above were gleaned from years of searching the 'Net in desperation, looking for ways to teach myself about website publishing. If you've ever been curious about web authoring, but were afraid to try it, the sites above can be a great help. Read about my own webmaster's journey, below...

How Southern Muse began...
I started my page building years ago. My first site was Bugbones. It's still there, but I never did very much with it. It seems that technological problems were always standing in my way. Angelfire would upgrade from time to time, leaving me in the dark until I read up on the new features. The upgrade would cause my browser to crash (I was working on an old dinosaur of a computer, used and old when I got it). In fact, I actually started Bugbones before I had a computer of my own. I was that desperate to get onto the great "information superhighway" I had heard so much about. That little site was my first attempt at it, and it was purely for fun. But I have Angelfire to thank for starting me off on the right foot. Their Web Monkey tutorials were great! I learned all my basic HTML code there. Their FTP was easy to use, and their directory structure was easy at first. But Angelfire's upgrade nearly did me in. My browser simply wouldn't support their new templates.

In spite of all the problems, I realized what the Web could be as a publishing tool. Your home page could be your own voice! Bugbones was limited to fun graphics, humor, and silliness. Even the name was silly ~ one that I had picked when I was a kid. (The logo is my own). But I wanted a page that could be deeper and reflect more of my interests. Around 1999, the dot-com crash caused a lot of changes on the 'Net. Some of the desperation began to be reflected in the web hosts' policies. Angelfire's ad requirements became a little too aggressive for me. I wanted an ad-free site.

Going ad-free was a big step for me. It meant buying a dot-com. I wanted my own name, no doubt about it. Registering a domain was easy and cheap enough, but I greatly feared the fees and the charges associated with all the hosting packages. I had read about InterNic fees. The idea of contracting to send an unspecified money to an unknown entity was frightening to me. (Don't laugh! It was before Google became the search engine of choice!) Who or what was InterNic? How much were those fees? Every host referenced the required "InterNic fees," but no site explained what or where InterNIC was. Search after search came up empty. It seemed futile. I was short on money, but long on determination. I finally bit the bullet, risked an unknown fee, and decided to register my domain name Southern Muse. Read more about how Southern Muse began...

Webmastering continues to be a learning experience for me. My page-building needs eventually went beyond the scope of Angelfire's Web Monkey tutorials, causing me to seek out various other tips, tools and tutorials. Google, of course, offers some of the best tools for monetizing your website! HTMLjalfrezi was a big help with HTML code. I can even smile at their early suggestive graphics and HTML examples ~ not to mention their original domain name (inspired, perhaps, by the fantasies of a teenaged boy?). Those nearly scared me off. HTMLjalfrezi, too, has become a little more sophisticated. I plan to continue my website publishing. I'll trim, tweak and hone my site ~ seek out new tools and technologies. Over the years, I've gathered quite a few handy web helpers. It is with gratitude that I present these sites that have been so helpful to me. Thanks!


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