Build A Website - Tools and Resources

Web design software has come a long way. Today's hi-tech software can do just about anything you can imagine. But before you go out and get yourself the latest web design software on the market, you should know that the software that you use doesn't make your website successful. It can make it look like a masterpiece, but it isn't what makes your website great. The SINGLE most important component of a great website is its CONTENT. The look of your website gives people the first impression, but it's your content that makes them stay and come back time after time or just leave. So let's get on with the list of web design software.

PageBreeze HTML Editor
This award-winning software has both visual (WYSIWYG) and HTML tag/source modes. Its design emphasizes simple and ease-of-use features.

Price : Freeware
Website : http://www.pagebreeze.com
Review : http://download.cnet.com/PageBreeze-Free-HTML-Editor/3000-10247_4-10366810.html
Download : http://www.pagebreeze.com/download.htm

CoffeeCup HTML Editor
An easy to use drag and drop HTML editor with its own built-in FTP client. The free version does not contain the visual editor which allows you to visually create web pages.

Price : Freeware
Website : http://www.coffeecup.com/free-editor/
Review : http://download.cnet.com/CoffeeCup-Free-HTML-Editor/3000-2352_4-9031.html
Download : http://www.coffeecup.com/free-editor/download/

MoreMotion Web Express
MoreMotion Web Express is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor that enables users to develop Web sites and their pages without knowing HTML

Price : Freeware
Website : http://www.coffeecup.com/free-editor/
Review : http://download.cnet.com/MoreMotion-Web-Express/3000-10247_4-10149994.html
Download : http://www.coffeecup.com/free-editor/download/

Web Dwarf
Web Dwarf V2 is an easy-to-use yet powerful drag-and-drop editor for quickly creating sophisticated web pages.

Price : Freeware
Info : http://www.virtualmechanics.com/products/dwarf/
Review : http://download.cnet.com/Web-Dwarf/3640-10247_4-7841876.html
Download : http://www.virtualmechanics.com/products/dwarf/

Personal Web Kit
Personal Web Kit is a popular free software for newbies who don't want to learn HTML.

Price : Freeware
Info : http://www.personalwebkit.com/
Review : http://download.cnet.com/PersonalWebKit/3000-10247_4-10205315.html
Download : http://www.personalwebkit.com/downloads/index.php

Adobe Dreamweaver
Many web designers use Adobe Dreamweaver as their standard tool for web design and management. It's a powerful feature-packed software that lets you edit in both HTML and WYSIWYG mode. It also comes with its own built in FTP client.

Price : From $200
Info : http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/
Review : http://www.creativepro.com/article/review-adobe-dreamweaver-cs3
Download : http://www.adobe.com/downloads/

Microsoft Expression Web
Microsoft's WYSIWYG HTML web design software is part of their Expression Studio package.

Price : From $149
Info : http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Web_Overview.aspx
Review : http://reviews.cnet.com/web-graphics/microsoft-expression-web/4505-3637_7-32383169.html
Download : http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/purchase.aspx?filter=web3

File Transfer Protocol (or popularly called FTP by Internet users) is one of the basic protocols that enable users to transfer files between computer to computer or server to computer. The servers are powerful computers that store information in the form of files or databases. The FTP client is the software that allows your computer to connect to the server and receive or send information. While many web design software have integrated FTP clients, they often do not have the full features of a dedicated FTP client. For example, most FTP clients allow you to change the CHMOD properties (read, write and execute access) of individual files. So, it's always prudent to have a separate FTP client installed on your computer just in case. Here's a list of popular FTP clients.

Filezilla
FileZilla is an open source software distributed free of charge under the terms of the GNU public license.

Price : Free
Info : http://filezilla-project.org/
Review : http://download.cnet.com/FileZilla/3000-2160_4-10308966.html
Download : http://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client

Smart FTP
This is a super light but quick FTP client with many advanced features that does a fabulous job of transferring files between your computer and web server.

Price : Free
Info : http://www.smartftp.com/
Review : http://download.cnet.com/SmartFTP-Client-32-bit/3000-2160_4-10028635.html
Download : http://www.smartftp.com/download/

Go FTP
GoFTP is a FTP client that uses special "buffer overstuffing" technology and on-the-fly compression to achieve speeds 3x of other multi-threaded FTP programs.

Price : Free
Info : http://www.goftp.com/
Review : http://download.cnet.com/GoFTP-Free/3000-2160_4-10638803.html
Download : http://www.goftp.com/download.php

There are basically 2 types of logs that you should religiously check periodically when you run a website - your server logs and your website statistics. Your server log is basically a report of every activity that happens (in your server) connected to your website. This includes where a visitor is from (IP address), what page he requested and the related files/images connected to that page etc. Raw server logs can give you crucial information - especially when something goes wrong with your website and you need to pin-point the exact file, time or visitor that caused the problem - but they are extremely difficult to read and understand due to the volumes of information. Which is why there are website statistics software and services that compile all this information and present them to you in easily readable formats. Checking your website statistics should be a daily activity for you if you are serious about your online business.

Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free service provided by Google to help webmasters track visitors activity while on your website. It shows where your visitors came from, how they found your site, how they explored your site and a lot more so you can improve your website's earnings, sales and conversions. Their statistics are comprehensive and with one of the most useful statistic being the ability to track Adsense earnings (and goal conversion) by traffic sources as well as keywords.

Price : Free
Info : http://www.google.com/analytics/
Sign Up : http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html

StatCounter
StatCounter is a popular web tracking service that allows you to cut and paste a small piece of code in your web pages and begin tracking statistics for it. The most popular feature for StatCounter is it's invisibility - you do not need to have any statistics or ads showing up on your pages if you don't want them to.

Price : Free / Paid
Info : http://www.statcounter.com/
Review : http://website-traffic-statistic-service-review.toptenreviews.com/statcounter-com-review.html
Register : http://my.statcounter.com/register.php

AddFreeStats
AddFreeStat's service provides free web statistics for up to 1000 visitors, which makes it a good choice for small websites. The information provided is quite comprehensive, given that it's free.

Price : Free / Paid
Info : http://www.addfreestats.com/
Review : http://www.askwebhosting.com/review/6822/AddFreeStats_reviewed_by_Randy_Kemp.html
Sign Up : http://www.addfreestats.com/cgi-bin/newuser.cgi

When you've got great content, you can make your website better by incorporating great graphics. Images can complement your content and add a visual "break" from too much text. They're also a great way to communicate in one image, what could possibly take hundreds of words. SEO optimized images are also a great way for visitors to find your website - millions of people search Google's and Yahoo's images daily.

While most websites' content are text-based, images are also the main content of many websites. If your website is about modern art, a showcase of your artwork, or you offer free images for download then your content IS indeed images.

For the most part though, you will find that you often need to use Image Editing software to create banners and buttons that that unique to your website. It's possible to use free images that you download from free-content websites, but they can never be 100% suited to your website. That's where image editors come in. There's a great list of image editing software here - from totally free to industry standard software that costs a pretty penny. However, they ALL do the same thing - create images for your website.

Online Image Editor
If you're on a tight budget and you don't want to download and learn how to use free software, then Online Image Editor lets you upload an image and edit it online. Because it's a basic editor, there are limited functions that you can perform, but it does cover the basic editing functions. The most obvious advantage of this tool is that you can edit images from anywhere in the world.

Price : Free
Site : http://www.online-image-editor.com/

PIXLR Online Image Editor
Pixlr's online image editor is amazingly easy and quick to learn and its features are as advanced as most mid-range free image editors. Its interface is pretty much like any other professional image editing tool, so it's easy to get used to it. In fact, it allows you to do so much that you can probably use it to produce almost any image you need for your website.

Price : Free
Site : http://www.pixlr.com/editor/

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program
GIMP is an open source software for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. Many developers has contributed to making GIMP a powerful yet user friendly graphic design software comparable to Adobe's Photoshop.

Price : Free
Info : http://www.gimp.org/
Review : http://download.cnet.com/GIMP/3000-2192_4-10073935.html
Download : http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Photo Pos Pro
Photo Pos Pro photo editor is a powerful freeware program that has an extremely user-friendly interface enabling you to work intuitively. Its powerful features have made it a very popular image editing software today.

Price : Free
Info : http://www.photopos.com/
Review : http://download.cnet.com/Photo-Pos-Pro/3000-2192_4-10264444.html
Download : http://download.cnet.com/Photo-Pos-Pro/3000-2192_4-10264444.html?part=dl-PhotoPosP&subj=dl&tag=button

Paint.NET
Paint.NET is a free image and photo editing software that features an intuitive, innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects. Paint.net has a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. To help users, an active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plug-ins.

Price : Free
Info : http://www.getpaint.net/
Review : http://download.cnet.com/Paint-NET/3000-2192_4-10338146.html
Download : http://www.getpaint.net/download.html

PhotoScape
PhotoScape is a fun and easy-to-use photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance images and photos.

Price : Free
Info : http://www.photoscape.org
Review : http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/photography/reviews/12263.aspx
Download : http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/download.php

Serif Photoplus
PhotoPlus is the amazing photo editing software from Serif that enables you to enhance your digital photos and images, create stunning bitmap graphics and even web animations.

Price : Free / Paid
Info : http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/photoplus/photoplus-9.asp
Review : http://download.cnet.com/PhotoPlus/3000-2192_4-10183726.html
Download : http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/photoplus/photoplus-9.asp

Adobe Fireworks
Adobe Fireworks has become an industry standard software for producing and editing images for the web. Its easy to use interfaces and features make it one of the most popular softwares today.

Price : From $299
Info : http://www.adobe.com/products/fireworks/
Review : http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/software/113170/adobe-fireworks-cs3
Download Trial Version : http://www.adobe.com/go/tryfireworks

Adobe Photoshop
Professional graphic designers have one thing in common - all have at least worked with Adobe Photoshop. In fact, the name Photoshop has become synonymous with image creation and editing. The one drawback is the price tag. However, you may be able to get the older versions which are just as versatile.

Price : From $699
Info : http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/
Review : http://www.trustedreviews.com/software/review/2007/05/22/Adobe-Photoshop-CS3/p1
Download Trial Version : http://www.adobe.com/go/tryphotoshop?promoid=EVCOW

Paint Shop Pro
Corel's Paint Shop Pro combines ease of use with full professional editing power. It gives a comprehensive range of features minus the heavy price tag of big names like Photoshop. Paint Shop Pro is a favorite of many graphic designers who like its rich features and value for money - which goes to show you that you can still get a professional level image software for a reasonable price.

Price : From $59 (Offer price at the time of publishing - regular price is $99)
Info : http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1184951547051#versionTabview=tab1&tabview=tab0
Review : http://download.cnet.com/Corel-Paint-Shop-Pro-Photo/3000-2192_4-10001995.html
Download Trial Version : http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1208530085925

You'll find that while many image editing software are great, they just don't have EVERY tool that you need to create stunning images. One example is color-blending or color matching. Although I've been creating images for as long as I can remember, I've found that finding the "right" blend of colors is never an easy task - because there IS no right or wrong. That's where image design utilities like these come in. I find color matching tools and online services invaluable in the design process. Not only do they make the whole process of finding the perfect color match easy, they save loads of time by cutting out the trial and error phase. There ARE hundreds of other image design utilites that I could add to this list, but here are the essential tools everyone needs to create great looking images.

Color Scheme Designer
This is a free online tool that is a must for every web designer. All you have to do is select a particular base color and this tool will produce a color scheme that complements that color. It's so powerful it allows you to experiment with mono, complement, triad, tetrad, analogic and accented analogic color schemes.

Price : Free
Site : http://colorschemedesigner.com/

Color Schemer
Color Schemer is another online color matching tool that allows you to select a base color from a palette of 216 colors. It will then output 16 different colors that match/complement your base color. The online tool is free to use, while you can download the software for a fee.

Price : Free (Online) / $49 (Download)
Site : http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html

Hyper Gurl Color Match
Color Match is a HTML color code generator that will show you how to match your web site colors and will save you time when choosing a web site color scheme or color code. Quite a nifty tool to have at your disposal although it's not as versatile as Color Scheme Designer.
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Price : Free
Site : http://www.hypergurl.com/colormatch.php

Color Blender
Another nice color blending tool that isn't quite as sophisticated as the ones above, but it does produce a nice set of color blends. You can choose to have the tool produce up to 10 color matches for your choice of 2 base colors.
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Price : Free
Site : http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/color-blend/

Color Pic
A nice tool that lets you point to any color on your computer screen and pick it. The tool then lets you know the hexadecimal or decimal value of the color. You can then reproduce this color in your design application or find color matches for it using the color blending tools mentioned above.
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Price : Free
Site : http://www.iconico.com/colorpic/

Photo to Cartoon Software
This is a free software that allows you to convert your photos into a cartoon image.

Price : Free / Paid
Site : http://www.caricaturesoft.com/products/photo-to-cartoon.html
Download : http://www.caricaturesoft.com/products/photo-to-cartoon/download.html

Photo to Line Drawing
A fun to use free software that outputs your photos into line art.

Price : Free / Paid
Site : http://www.caricaturesoft.com/products/photos.html
Download : http://www.caricaturesoft.com/products/photos/download.html

Creating websites is so much easier these days because there are hundreds of sites that offer free generic banners, buttons and icons that you can use as part of your overall look. If you don't have the skill or inclination to design your own images, then free images are your best option.

Image hosting plays a crucial role to running a cost effective website. If you are hosting your website with a web host, then you should already know that you are alloted a specific bandwidth threshold which means is that you are allowed to transfer information up to a specific limit to and from your web server. As your website grows and the number of visitors increase, they will be requesting lots of pages from your web server. This isn't a problem if your content is mostly text-based. However, if your pages are graphics heavy, then the transfer of these images from your web server is going to eat up your bandwidth allotment and that means money. To help reduce the bandwidth of your server, many website owners use free image hosting services like the ones listed below.

To use a free image hosting service, you need an account - which is usually free. You then upload your images to your account. Then when you create a web page, you link to that image in the free image host instead of your web server. For larger websites, this relieves the web server of the task of transferring non-critical images so that it can instead focus its resources on critical tasks like retrieving and sorting content from databases, and processing user requested tasks. Eventually, all these translate into savings for you.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Thousands of royalty free photos for websites, newspapers, magazines, video and TV productions, iPhone applications, PowerPoint presentations, forums, blogs and school work. All photos are free for corporate and personal use. Every image is free, with an option to buy high resolution versions for use in print or graphic design.
Site : http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Thousands of royalty free photos for websites, newspapers, magazines, video and TV productions, iPhone applications, PowerPoint presentations, forums, blogs and school work. All photos are free for corporate and personal use. Every image is free, with an option to buy high resolution versions for use in print or graphic design.
Site : http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Free-Graphics.com
A huge collection of clip art images that you can download for use on your website.

Site : http://www.free-graphics.com/

iClipArt.com
Another site with lots of graphics and free clipart you can use for your website. There are free samples you can use, but a paid subscription lets to have access to a huge library of images.

Site : http://www.iclipart.com/

Image Shack
Image Shack is a popular free image hosting service that allows you to upload and store your images. You can then link to these images from your website.

Site : http://www.imageshack.us

Photo Bucket
Together with Image Shack, Photo Bucket is a very popular choice for free image hosting.

Site : http://photobucket.com

FreeImageHosting.net
Another popular image hosting service.

Site : http://www.freeimagehosting.net/

reating a website from scratch can be an overwhelming task for many people. Even for seasoned webmasters, the conceptualizing and design of new websites can eat up lots of time and effort. Fortunately, the Internet is a treasure trove of all things free and website templates are one of the most sought after freebies. In fact, websites have mushroomed because it's so easy to download a free website or blog template, customize it to your own needs, fill it with content and publish it. For experienced webmasters, building a website using freebies can take less than an hour. There are a few things that you need to be careful about when downloading and using free website templates though. Make sure the templates :

• do not have links to other websites than to the template creator's website. Even then, make sure that this website is not a banned site by using the Google banned checker tool.



• do not have hidden links (for example while links on white background) or one-pixel links which are against good SEO practice and can cause you to be banned.



• do not use copyrighted images. It may be difficult to check this, but you should stay away from templates that use images that resemble popular logos or trademarks.



• do not have hidden scripts or are virus infected.



• are easy to manage and do not contail lots of complex codes that you do not understand. KISS (keep it simple "stupid") is best.

FreeWebsiteTemplates.com
You can download and use completely free templates from FreeWebsiteTemplates.com. They've got loads of templates to choose from - all beautifully designed with pleasing color schemes.

Site : http://www.freewebsitetemplates.com

FreeWebTemplates.com
FreeWebTemplates.com has a huge collection of templates that you can choose from covering a comprehensive range of niches - from business to leisure to eCommerce and blog themes. I'd be hard to NOT to find a template that you like here.

Site : http://www.freewebtemplates.com

MetaMorphozis.com
Metamorphozis provides a really decent collection of free web templates in addition to paid ones. Their paid templates are priced from $30 so they're fairly reasonable when you consider that this is a one-time investment that could potentially bring in lots recognition and profit.

Site : http://www.metamorphozis.com/free_templates/free_templates.php

Free Wordpress Themes
The worst part about this resource is you'll find so many nice themes for your blog you won't be able to decide which one to use. At the time of publishing, they listed 946 themes free to download and use.
Site : http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/

Free Wordpress Blog Themes
A nice collection of themes free to download and use.
Site : http://www.bloggingthemes.com/

100 Free Excellent Wordpress Themes
As the title goes, this is a collection of 100 nice wordpress themes - best of all they're FREE.
Site : http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/08/100-excellent-free-high-quality-wordpress-themes/

Unless your website or blog is for pure personal pleasure, you are going to WANT traffic - people visiting your website. To do this, you need to be listed in the search engine ranked pages (SERPs). To get ranked high in the SERPs for popular keywords and phrases generally means more traffic, but not all #1 rankings for keywords guarantee high traffic. Even then, you do not necessarily have to rank #1 for every keyword to get traffic to your website.

For example, ranking between #5 to #10 (still on page 1) for the phrase "make money online" would still give you loads more traffic than ranking #1 for a phrase like "paris hilton pictures". Not only would the former phrase bring in more traffic than the latter, but it would probably also be quality and targetted traffic. Read the lens "Build a website - myths and truths about making money online" for more information about targetted traffic.

There are many keyword tools and services that help you find the right keywords to optimize and target. Many of them cost quite a bit, but there are just as many that are free. You just need to know where to find them and learn HOW to use them. Google's Adwords Keyword Tool used in conjunction with Google Analytics is a potent combination and many webmasters swear by this combination. A lot depends on your personal preference and obviously your budget.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool
Site : https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

SEOBook's Keyword Tool
This is an awesome free keyword tool that gives you an overview of the estimated keyword searches for the major search engines.
Site : http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

Keyword Discovery
Site : http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/

Wordtracker's Free Keyword Suggestion Tool
Free Site : http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
Paid Site : http://www.wordtracker.com/

SEOToolSet Traffic Checker
Site : http://www.seotoolset.com/cgi-bin/checktraffic.cgi

Making your website user-friendly is an important aspect of website development and management. You want to add features that make it easier for your visitors to find stuff, do things and basically ENJOY being on your website while they look for the information they're looking for.

The beauty of websites (especially blogs) is that there seems to be a limitless array of widgets and plug-ins (small pieces of code that you can add on to your website) that do just about anything. One important thing to remember is NOT to go overboard. Very often, new webmasters use way too many scripts to their website and cause the following problems :

• Strain on server resources. The server tries to run too many scripts for too many visitors.


• Difficult to de-bug. Too many scripts also mean too many ways for something to go wrong and when it does, debugging (correcting the problem) can be a nightmare.


• Slow loading. Lots of scripts obviously make a web page unnecessarily bloated and difficult to load, which is a big turn-off for visitors


• Stumbling blocks to search engines. You can inadvertently block search engine spiders or bots from crawling and indexing your web site effectively if you have too many scripts.

Here's a list of popular sources for scripts and software :

Scripts.com
Site : http://www.scripts.com/

HotScripts.com
Site : http://www.hotscripts.com/

DynamicDrive.com
Site : http://www.dynamicdrive.com/

SiteScripts.com
Site : http://www.sitescripts.com/

ScriptArchive.com
Site : http://www.scriptarchive.com/

When you build your first website and you seriously start to think about monetizing it, the first thing you learn is that you need to learn! Seriously. I thought I knew a lot about building websites. Then I learnt that technology runs faster than my brain and world economics impacts my websites earnings directly. The only way to NOT get left behind is to constanly learn. I'm not saying that you NEED to learn every new technology or know every single detail about what's happening in the business world, but the fact is change is constant in the online world. You NEED to be prepared to learn all that you have to when it relates to your website and online earnings.

If your seriously want to make money online, you're going to need to learn about what makes your website tick - inside and out. You'll need to learn about :

• the basics components of your website - HTML and any other language.


• how to advertise and market your website


• how to make your website user and search engine friendly


• how to treat your website as a business

This is a starter list for beginners and will include business and marketing tutorials soon :

HTML Tutorial
Site : http://www.w3schools.com/htmL/

HTML Code Tutorial - Free Reference Guide For Help With HTML
Site : http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/

48 HTML Lessons and Tutorials
Site : http://www.htmltutorials.ca/

HTML Source : HTML Tutorials
Site : http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/

Learn HTML and CSS
Site : http://www.html.net/

PHP Tutorial
Site : http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/DEfaULT.asP

PHP : A Simple Tutorial - Manual
Site : http://www.php.net/tut.php

PHP Tutorial - Introduction
Site : http://www.tizag.com/phpT/

JavaScript Tutorial
Site : http://www.w3schools.com/JS/default.asp

JavaScript Tutorial - Intro
Site : http://www.tizag.com/javascriptT/

JavaScript Tutorial - Webmonkey
Site : http://www.tizag.com/javascriptT/

CSS Tutorial
Site : http://www.w3schools.com/Css/default.asp

CSS Tutorial
Site : http://www.csstutorial.net/

CSS Tutorial - Introduction
Site : http://www.tizag.com/cssT/

One of the best things about websites and online businesses is that they run 24/7. However, this doesn't mean that everything runs smoothly after you launch your website. Like everything else in the world, things CAN and DO go wrong - this includes your website. If you make a substantial amount of money from your websites, you'll want to make sure that your website is healthy and running smoothly.

As far as websites are concerned, there are many things that can contribute to problems - anything from mistakenly uploading a wrong page to the server and getting an important link wrong to servers crashing. You can't control everything. Neither can you foresee every problem, but you CAN put in place checks so you can detect potential problems.

Make it a habit to do the following on a daily or weekly basis :

• check your website statistics. A sudden drop in traffic is a clear indication that something is wrong


• check your website rankings. Again, a sudden drop in rankings can mean anything from a search engine penalty to your web server blocking a spider from accessing your website


• check your website's analytics using Google Analytics. This free tool is by far one of the best tools you have to help you manage your website


• check your website's status using Google's Webmaster tools. Like Google Analytics, this tool offers invaluable insight into your website's health.

Here are some tools that you can use to check if your website is running smoothly.

Website Speed Test
Site : http://www.iwebtool.com/speed_test

Free Website Speed Test - Website Speed Analysis
Site : http://www.selfseo.com/website_speed_test.php

Check Server Headers Tool - HTTP Status Codes Checker
Site : http://www.seoconsultants.com/tools/headers.asp

Website Monitoring Service
Site : http://host-tracker.com/

Google Banned Checker Tool
Site : http://www.iwebtool.com/google_banned

Multiple Google Datacenter Keyword Checker
Site : http://www.dccheck.com/