Free Applications to Make Your Web Site Shine

In these economic times, discounted prices are good — but free is even better. With that in mind, here are five cool tips to improve your online presence absolutely free. In most cases, you can upgrade the free basic services for a modest fee.

1.) Create your own social network.Ning allows you to skip a pricey programmer and create a customized social network in just a few minutes. Ning hosts your network on its site, and provides options like video sharing, photo sharing, and full-featured discussion forums.

2.) Write what your customers want to read. While you can ask visitors to your site what they want in terms of content, it's hard to get an answer that represents the majority. An application called HitTail offers a better solution. Just install a snippet of code on your site and it offers a real-time analysis of which keywords people use to find your site. Based on those results, HitTail suggests topics that you should cover, which presumably will bring more visitors to your site.

3.) Handle forms and polls easier.Wufoo lets you set up custom online forms that look good and can integrate easily with your site. It has an intuitive report manager that allows you to view data and spot trends that you wouldn’t see by looking at a spreadsheet full of numbers. For polling, I’m partial to a site called BuzzDash that helps create nice-looking questionnaires that can be easily added to your site.

4.) Allow customers to contact you from your site. Online purchasing is fairly painless these days, but many customers still want to interact with a real person and now there’s a free application called Ccube that allows customers to initiate voice calls directly from your site. Place a Ccube icon on your Web page, and anyone who clicks on it connects automatically to your customer service agent by phone.

5.) Host videos on your site. It’s easier than you probably think. Fliqz offers a free, plug-and-play video player that you can host. If you need more features, Fliqz also offers for-purchase versions with custom start screens, ratings, and playlists. The nice thing about a Fliqz video is that it really looks as if it’s part of your site. Plus, the player is easy to use and the video quality is terrific.

Christopher Elliott is an Orlando, Florida, writer and independent producer who specializes in technology, travel, and mobile computing. His work has appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines, and online. You can find out more about him on his Web site or sign up for his free weekly newsletter.