Web Makers' Library
Web Design Media Resources
Adding media (social, RSS feeds, videos etc) can really enhance a user's experience, and keep them coming back to your website. Media add-ons are fun for your website's readers, but can also be very useful in helping you create a community for your website. Here you will find a variety of resources (some repeated from other areas of the library!) to help you enrich your websites!
| Website | Description |
|---|---|
| Blogger.com | Blogs are a great way to keep people coming back to a website, and keep your website in the path of search engines with frequently updated content. Here, from the folks at Google - setup a free blog to add to your website: www.blogger.com |
| Wordpress | Wordpress (a free, open source software product) can be used to create websites, but also is a great tool for creating a blog. Create a beautiful blog page to add to your website here: wordpress.org |
| The Facebook platform enables you to make your website more social. With plugins that let you easily add social features to your website, and dialogs you can use to let your users share your content, you’ll be able to start using the features of the Facebook platform in minutes. By using Facebook Login to sign in users with their real identities, calling the Graph API and using Open Graph to tell stories, your users will be more engaged and more likely to return. This guide walks you through the features available to you, to help you choose the level of integration that’s right for you. Here is the link to the guide: developers.facebook.com | |
| Twitter connects businesses to customers in real time—and businesses use Twitter to quickly share information with people interested in their products and services, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and influencers. From brand lift to CRM to direct sales, Twitter offers businesses an easy way to reach an engaged audience. Visit Twitter 101 for Businesses to learn more. Here is the link to the page that builds the code to add Twitter buttons to your website: twitter.com | |
If a web client has an Instagram account, you can add the web badge to their website to link customers to it. The web client can generate the code for the web badge on their Instagram account, and you can cut and paste it onto their website or blog. Here is the blog entry on Instagram that explains how to do this:
blog.instagram.com |
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| Does your client have a Pinterest for Business account that they would like to share on their website? Here is the link to the page for creating the Pinterest widget: business.pinterest.com If your web client doesn't already have a Pinterest account, here is a link to the Pinterest for Business page to help them set it up and discover if it might be helpful for them: business.pinterest.com/ |
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| Google+ | Google+ is a social networking service from Google. Click the +1 button on a web page to give something your public stamp of approval. Then, if you want to share right away, add a comment and send it to the right circles on Google+. To add the "recommend" button on a web page, use this link: developers.google.com |
| AccuWeather | Does your web client want to add a weather widget to their website or blog? Here is the link to the AccuWeather widget builder: netweather.accuweather.com |
| W3 Schools-RSS Feeds | You may be asked at some point to add an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed to a website, or create an RSS feed for your website to feed to other websites/users. With RSS it is possible to distribute up-to-date web content from one web site to thousands of other web sites around the world. RSS allows fast browsing for news and updates. Here is a link to the page on W3 schools that explains how to use/create an RSS feed: www.w3schools.com |
| W3 Schools-Overview of adding multimedia to web pages | A good overview of adding multimedia to web pages: www.w3schools.com |
| W3 Schools-Using plug-ins for media | Overview of using plug-ins (such a Quicktime, Flash etc) in a web page: www.w3schools.com |
| W3 Schools-Adding Audio to a web page | You might want to add sound bites, music etc. to a web page on your site. W3 schools gives a nice explanation of how to do this: www.w3schools.com |
| W3 Schools-Adding Video to a web page | Adding video to a web page can add interest, and a source of information/advertising for a client. W3 Schools talks about adding video here: www.w3schools.com |
| W3 Schools-Adding YouTube Video to a web page | Here is how you embed a YouTube video on a web page: www.w3schools.com |
| YouTube-creating the code for embedding video into web page or blog | Here is how you generate the iframe html code for a YouTube video. Just cut and paste it! View this YouTube video to see how: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnuwB35GYMY |
| Localendar.com | A calendar on a website can be very userful - for communicating events such as sales, promotions, community happenings etc. This provider lets you create free calendars to embed into your website. It has a publish wizard that generates the html to copy and paste onto your web page. You create and maintain the calendar here, and the updated calendar automatically appears on your web page. The free version is pretty good, and a premium version adds some extra features - like creating a calendar WITHOUT advertisements. Check it out here: www.localendar.com |
| Google Calendar | The Google Calendar is a very popular web based calendar function. You can embed a Google calendar on a website. Learn more here: support.google.com |
| Addpoll | Addpoll allows you to add polls, surveys, forms etc. to your website. You setup an account on their website, create your poll (or survey etc), then publish in a variety of formats (Javascript for a web page). Results are stored with Addpoll, where you can view or export them whenever you want. The free version is pretty robust, and there are premium versions if you need more. Check it out here: www.addpoll.com/ |
| Pollcode | Another poll (polls only, no surveys etc) creation site. It has a free version you can access either with an account, or as a guest. It also has a premium version for a low cost that is paid by poll. This site also generates the html code for you to embed in your web page. Results stored at this website. Yes, free version contains advertisements. Check it out here: pollcode.com |