Free applications to make your Web site shine

So you don’t have a big budget to create custom polls, host videos, or build a social network on your Web site?

No problem. You can do those things, and more, for free, thanks to several relatively new applications that are finding favor among small-business owners.

I know what you’re thinking. "Free" is a word that makes you suspicious. You know there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and experience tells you that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Here’s the thing about these applications: They’re not entirely free. Want more functionality? It’ll cost you. Added customization? Credit card number, please. All the bells and whistles? Click right here for a secure payment.

But that’s fine, because the following applications are good even in their stripped-down forms.

1. Create your own social network.   There’s a lot of talk about Web 2.0 and the importance of social networking to small businesses. Beyond the realm of finding a friend at Facebook or MySpace, social networks are moving into business settings to help employees and customers share knowledge and ideas. Before modern social networks came online bulletin boards, which allowed users to exchange messages and swap pictures. And while they offered free versions, they often required advance programming knowledge.

   But 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 give you options like video sharing, photo sharing, and full-featured discussion forums. Yes, it’s free, but you’ll pay if you want to run ads, use your company’s domain name, or add more bandwidth for your visitors. Ning keeps e-mail addresses of your members private, and offers other options to help protect your social network from unwanted visitors (see the Ning for Businesses page for details).

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.

   The basic service is free if you receive less than 100,000 site visitors per month. I’ve been evaluating HitTail for several months on my travel site, and it’s given me some suggestions that I’ve used, such as blog entries on cruise ships—and some, such as the virtues of nude hiking, that I haven’t.

3. Handle forms and polls easier.   Feedback forms are a hassle to code, and the data you get from the form isn’t always easy to pull together into something that’s easy to analyze. There are two solutions I like.

   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. The free version is pretty limited, giving you just three forms with a maximum of 10 fields, and capping responses at 100.

   For polling, I’m partial to a site called BuzzDash that helps you create nice-looking questionnaires that can be easily added to your site. As far as I can tell, these polls are completely free with no strings attached. But what I like most about BuzzDash is that it allows you to leverage the power of its network. I ran a poll about summer travel trends on my site and on BuzzDash, and collected a lot of valuable responses.

4. Allow customers to contact you from your site.   Taking orders online is a fairly streamlined process these days. It takes just few clicks to set up an order form and sign up for a payment system. But consider the fact that some customers still want to place an order over the phone or speak to a live person to get an answer. You can always post a phone number, but 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. The free version limits you to 60 minutes of call time per month in the United States and Canada, and you can only view 30 days of call history. The paid version (fees are modest) allows for more minutes and longer call history archives.

5. Host videos on your site.   It’s not just a saying: Seeing is believing. And sometimes the most effective way of communicating the benefits of your company’s product is by posting a video on your Web site. But you don’t want to send them to another site to watch your production—that wouldn’t be professional.

   One solution comes from a new site called Fliqz that 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.

These applications could help turn an ordinary Web site into an Internet presence that shines. Sometimes, the best things in life are free.

About the author   Christopher Elliott is an Orlando, Fla., 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.