Remotely hosted services - is a category of widgets, also called interactive features, which can be added to the site by cut-and-paste operation taking usually several minutes. The major advantage of remotely hosted services is that they dont need server-side installation and dont load users site as they are kept on the server of a provider.
Lets look at the particular services which can be useful for many website owners as well as for webmasters.
Voting poll:
Voting feature is used for collecting statistical data on audience opinion regarding particular question. Instead of hard-programming voting component into web page you can use remotely voting feature which is more simple and cheap (or often free). All has to be done is specifying voting poll settings and copying HTML or JS code which then should be pasted into the page of your site.
This kind of services is proposed by a number of providers including PollDaddy, Neomyz.com, Nupolls.com, Websitetoolbox.com, etc.
Free version often involves substantial disadvantages such as ads (name of provider), and displaying voting results on the separate page not linked with the user's site or directly on the provider's server. This situation is obviously unacceptable for any serious website owner.
So for example voting results of Nupolls are displayed on the Nupolls server and the results page contains other free services providers ads.
PollDaddy displays voting results at the same page on the users site but the voting window still contains a link to PollDaddy site and comments link which refers to PollDaddy.
Websitetoolbox.com is a paid service which is free form ads and other disadvantages. Provides one week of free trial.
Votingserver.com ads free, highly convenient server displaying voting results directly at the users page without page reloading. Currently the service is free.
Feature for sending webpage content by email (usually called Email to friend or Send to friend).
The feature allows visitors to send useful content of webpage (text, pictures) to their acquaintances by entering email address into the entry field and clicking the button. Working as viral AD this feature contributes to attracting new people to the site.
The best option to be implemented are services which allow sending required content of the page, including link to the resource, without redundant components such as ads and page menu. From remotely hosted services you can use votingserver.com.
Randomizer
Service for rotating items of the site (it can be pictures, articles, AD and whatever else) represented by valid HTML/JS blocks.
The feature is useful for sites with specific content which is difficult to update every day, but which should be kept fresh.
Even the funniest joke, the most attractive picture gets boring after a while. You have a choice - to consistently update your site content (which is usually time-consuming) or to use Randomizer the service is provided by Voting Server.
Randomizer allows creating a range of items (images, articles, AD) which will be rotated automatically in preset time intervals. Since items vary by categories: images, articles, ads, etc., you can create separate block for each category. Dedicate some time to creating a groups of attractive items - and keep you website fresh and interesting for your visitors without any effort from you side.
News
Service for managing news and announcements.
Some websites are created using static HTML or reside at hosting with limited database or script language support. As well, webmasters often need to manage several websites and news synchronization throughout websites which is a troublesome task even if your CMS supports news management.
Voting Server News service allows to publish news and announces using simple centralized interface. To add the service you need to inject a small code snippet into your website or websites and fully-functional news system is ready.
Rating feature
No matter what type of content is represented on your website - it can be article directory, online catalogue system or picture gallery, sound tracks collection or products list. It is always useful to know what your visitors think about particular items. For company representing products on the site, information about their rating may be crucial to its business. Unfortunately only a few in-box solutions support items rating feature. And it's really bad - this kind of statistics is one of the most important things one should know about your audience and their preferences.
Rating feature permits site visitors to evaluate particular items of your content on a scale of 1 to 5 or any other number and to show what they like and dislike on your site. Thus the service helps to make the website more audience targeted.
Guest book
Guestbook is one of the most popular features for all kinds of sites. Remotely hosted Guestbook is particularly useful in case when hosting doesn't support scripting or doesn't provide DB connection. Moreover it can be efficient when you manage several websites and want to use one guest book for all websites. External Guest Book services are not a good solution for such cases as your guest book would reside at a different website and most probably would have a design not corresponding to your website style, with very limited tools to configure.
So for example functions guestbook service at dreambook.com. Created guestbook resides at the providers site and contains the link to Dreambook site.
A paid GB service of www.websitetoolbox.com in return resides at your own site and doesnt include any ads.
www.votingserver.com - provides professionally looking guest book residing at your website (nobody can distinguish where guest book is actually located). It allows adding a guestbook even if your hosting provider doesn't support DB or restricts server-side script. The system used in creating your website also doesnt matter. Voting Server can support one Guest Book for several websites. Free.
Shoutbox
Shout Box - is a remotely hosted service which looks as a little chat placed directly on your webpage. No installation is required, to get it started you need just to copy and insert one line of code into your page. This tool is a convenient way of on-line communication with tour visitors immediately at your site. The feature is especially useful when you need to provide online users support.
Free providers of this remotely hosted Shoutbox service are www.saybox.co.uk (burdened with ads), and www.votingserver.com (ads free, customizable). Service provided by Voting Server permits creating several Shoutboxes for different groups of your products or services.
Splash box
When you need to announce about important events or ensure that specific information on your site will be noticed you can use Splash Box service.
Splash Box allows to create window appearing above the shaded content of your page which closes automatically or manually. When visitor comes to the page he or she will see a window with your news in the middle of page above the shaded content. News frame is visible during predefined period of time. The service can also be implemented for reminding users about specific events - sizes and appearance frequency of frame can be easily defined.
Splash box is obviously more convenient way to emphasize important information comparing to site redesigning which causes in case of static sites a great deal of routine work.
The same principle of work has Pop up service opening as pop-up or pop-under widow, though it is mainly implemented for ads demonstration.
Despite negative attitude of visitors to Pop-up and Pop-under, ads effectiveness of these windows proves to be very high. Reasonable use of this technology not only can enhance the attractiveness of your site as ad platform but also considerably increases site ROI. Using pop-under windows increases the surfing time of the visitor at your site.
Recently there has been a problem of suppressing of pop-up windows by the majority of modern browsers. Voting Server proposes simple and effective way to show Popup/Pop-under windows regardless browser settings and installed plug-ins.
Pop up service allows you to show ads and important information in Popup/Pop-under windows. All you need to do - is to set appearance parameters of pop-up window (URL window content, its size, demonstration frequency and show mode - Popup or Pop-under). After injecting code into the page popup window appears with a click on a hyperlink at a present web-page.
Tracker
The service is used for analyzing website traffic and navigation structure.
Web Tracker detects and analyzes following data:
Geographic Location - it searches for IP address to detect visitors' Country and City.
Referrer - it identifies how visitor came to your website.
Search Engine Keywords - it extracts keywords used in search engines to reach your website.
AD Placement - it extracts information from Google AdSense in order to identify websites bringing the best traffic.
Most popular providers are:
Google analytics
www.onestat.com - paid service
www.statcounter.com - free, but not exhaustive data (it provides statistics on Page Loads, Unique Visitors, First Time, Visitors Returning Visitors)
www.websitetoolbox.com paid service, providing highly detailed reports on different statistical figures
www.votingserver.com free service, provides highly detailed reports demonstrating all important figures.
There are many companies on the market which propose the above services. It should be kept in mind though that the free services will inevitably include providers ads. Paid services dont include any ads but as in the case of the free ones they can hardly be found in one place. Each provider usually proposes one or maximum three-four mentioned features.
All of these services are available for free at www.votingserver.com, which was designed as webmaster toolbox. Voting Server services are easy to install and don't require deep knowledge of HTML or other languages. All you need is to copy the code snippet and paste it into your page.
Flexible capabilities provided by Voting Server give additional competitive advantages both to large, high-traffic corporate sites and to small sites.
VS services reside on our high-speed server meaning that you wont have additional load on your site and any headache with installing and maintaining them.
Lets look at the particular services which can be useful for many website owners as well as for webmasters.
Voting poll:
Voting feature is used for collecting statistical data on audience opinion regarding particular question. Instead of hard-programming voting component into web page you can use remotely voting feature which is more simple and cheap (or often free). All has to be done is specifying voting poll settings and copying HTML or JS code which then should be pasted into the page of your site.
This kind of services is proposed by a number of providers including PollDaddy, Neomyz.com, Nupolls.com, Websitetoolbox.com, etc.
Free version often involves substantial disadvantages such as ads (name of provider), and displaying voting results on the separate page not linked with the user's site or directly on the provider's server. This situation is obviously unacceptable for any serious website owner.
So for example voting results of Nupolls are displayed on the Nupolls server and the results page contains other free services providers ads.
PollDaddy displays voting results at the same page on the users site but the voting window still contains a link to PollDaddy site and comments link which refers to PollDaddy.
Websitetoolbox.com is a paid service which is free form ads and other disadvantages. Provides one week of free trial.
Votingserver.com ads free, highly convenient server displaying voting results directly at the users page without page reloading. Currently the service is free.
Feature for sending webpage content by email (usually called Email to friend or Send to friend).
The feature allows visitors to send useful content of webpage (text, pictures) to their acquaintances by entering email address into the entry field and clicking the button. Working as viral AD this feature contributes to attracting new people to the site.
The best option to be implemented are services which allow sending required content of the page, including link to the resource, without redundant components such as ads and page menu. From remotely hosted services you can use votingserver.com.
Randomizer
Service for rotating items of the site (it can be pictures, articles, AD and whatever else) represented by valid HTML/JS blocks.
The feature is useful for sites with specific content which is difficult to update every day, but which should be kept fresh.
Even the funniest joke, the most attractive picture gets boring after a while. You have a choice - to consistently update your site content (which is usually time-consuming) or to use Randomizer the service is provided by Voting Server.
Randomizer allows creating a range of items (images, articles, AD) which will be rotated automatically in preset time intervals. Since items vary by categories: images, articles, ads, etc., you can create separate block for each category. Dedicate some time to creating a groups of attractive items - and keep you website fresh and interesting for your visitors without any effort from you side.
News
Service for managing news and announcements.
Some websites are created using static HTML or reside at hosting with limited database or script language support. As well, webmasters often need to manage several websites and news synchronization throughout websites which is a troublesome task even if your CMS supports news management.
Voting Server News service allows to publish news and announces using simple centralized interface. To add the service you need to inject a small code snippet into your website or websites and fully-functional news system is ready.
Rating feature
No matter what type of content is represented on your website - it can be article directory, online catalogue system or picture gallery, sound tracks collection or products list. It is always useful to know what your visitors think about particular items. For company representing products on the site, information about their rating may be crucial to its business. Unfortunately only a few in-box solutions support items rating feature. And it's really bad - this kind of statistics is one of the most important things one should know about your audience and their preferences.
Rating feature permits site visitors to evaluate particular items of your content on a scale of 1 to 5 or any other number and to show what they like and dislike on your site. Thus the service helps to make the website more audience targeted.
Guest book
Guestbook is one of the most popular features for all kinds of sites. Remotely hosted Guestbook is particularly useful in case when hosting doesn't support scripting or doesn't provide DB connection. Moreover it can be efficient when you manage several websites and want to use one guest book for all websites. External Guest Book services are not a good solution for such cases as your guest book would reside at a different website and most probably would have a design not corresponding to your website style, with very limited tools to configure.
So for example functions guestbook service at dreambook.com. Created guestbook resides at the providers site and contains the link to Dreambook site.
A paid GB service of www.websitetoolbox.com in return resides at your own site and doesnt include any ads.
www.votingserver.com - provides professionally looking guest book residing at your website (nobody can distinguish where guest book is actually located). It allows adding a guestbook even if your hosting provider doesn't support DB or restricts server-side script. The system used in creating your website also doesnt matter. Voting Server can support one Guest Book for several websites. Free.
Shoutbox
Shout Box - is a remotely hosted service which looks as a little chat placed directly on your webpage. No installation is required, to get it started you need just to copy and insert one line of code into your page. This tool is a convenient way of on-line communication with tour visitors immediately at your site. The feature is especially useful when you need to provide online users support.
Free providers of this remotely hosted Shoutbox service are www.saybox.co.uk (burdened with ads), and www.votingserver.com (ads free, customizable). Service provided by Voting Server permits creating several Shoutboxes for different groups of your products or services.
Splash box
When you need to announce about important events or ensure that specific information on your site will be noticed you can use Splash Box service.
Splash Box allows to create window appearing above the shaded content of your page which closes automatically or manually. When visitor comes to the page he or she will see a window with your news in the middle of page above the shaded content. News frame is visible during predefined period of time. The service can also be implemented for reminding users about specific events - sizes and appearance frequency of frame can be easily defined.
Splash box is obviously more convenient way to emphasize important information comparing to site redesigning which causes in case of static sites a great deal of routine work.
The same principle of work has Pop up service opening as pop-up or pop-under widow, though it is mainly implemented for ads demonstration.
Despite negative attitude of visitors to Pop-up and Pop-under, ads effectiveness of these windows proves to be very high. Reasonable use of this technology not only can enhance the attractiveness of your site as ad platform but also considerably increases site ROI. Using pop-under windows increases the surfing time of the visitor at your site.
Recently there has been a problem of suppressing of pop-up windows by the majority of modern browsers. Voting Server proposes simple and effective way to show Popup/Pop-under windows regardless browser settings and installed plug-ins.
Pop up service allows you to show ads and important information in Popup/Pop-under windows. All you need to do - is to set appearance parameters of pop-up window (URL window content, its size, demonstration frequency and show mode - Popup or Pop-under). After injecting code into the page popup window appears with a click on a hyperlink at a present web-page.
Tracker
The service is used for analyzing website traffic and navigation structure.
Web Tracker detects and analyzes following data:
Geographic Location - it searches for IP address to detect visitors' Country and City.
Referrer - it identifies how visitor came to your website.
Search Engine Keywords - it extracts keywords used in search engines to reach your website.
AD Placement - it extracts information from Google AdSense in order to identify websites bringing the best traffic.
Most popular providers are:
Google analytics
www.onestat.com - paid service
www.statcounter.com - free, but not exhaustive data (it provides statistics on Page Loads, Unique Visitors, First Time, Visitors Returning Visitors)
www.websitetoolbox.com paid service, providing highly detailed reports on different statistical figures
www.votingserver.com free service, provides highly detailed reports demonstrating all important figures.
There are many companies on the market which propose the above services. It should be kept in mind though that the free services will inevitably include providers ads. Paid services dont include any ads but as in the case of the free ones they can hardly be found in one place. Each provider usually proposes one or maximum three-four mentioned features.
All of these services are available for free at www.votingserver.com, which was designed as webmaster toolbox. Voting Server services are easy to install and don't require deep knowledge of HTML or other languages. All you need is to copy the code snippet and paste it into your page.
Flexible capabilities provided by Voting Server give additional competitive advantages both to large, high-traffic corporate sites and to small sites.
VS services reside on our high-speed server meaning that you wont have additional load on your site and any headache with installing and maintaining them.