What is a Webring?
Webrings are an enhanced method of navigating the World Wide Web. Essentially, webrings group sites with a common theme into a continuous loop. Through navigation links found on member pages, visitors can easily travel to all or any of the sites in a ring. Visitors familiar with webrings find this an advantage over search engines, because they know that within a ring, they will find pre-sorted content on the subject of their choice.
But the real beauty of a webring is that visitors need not be familiar with them to use them. Most visits to webrings do not originate through the webring directory -- most visits begin when surfers stumble across one member of the ring, perhaps through a search engine, advertisement, or other means, and sees and uses the ring navigation bar found on the page to seek out more sites directly related to the surfer's interest.
Web rings are an excellent way to travel between similar sites without needing a search engine page as an intermediary. They speed up search time and greatly enhance any research experience, providing
more traffic (and more revenues) for every member of the ring.
What isn't a Webring?
A Ring is Not a Banner Ad!
Although some experts predict that rings may be the next massive marketing trend, it's important to note that they represent something entirely new. They are a way to advertise, yes. They are a way to increase traffic to your site, yes. But they don't involve random promotion for someone else's site.
Who can join the Web St. Louis Webring?
This ring is exclusively for webpage owners who live or work in St. Louis and its surrounding counties. Your page, however, does not have to be about St. Louis. Businesses, Shops, Sports, Education, Arts, Entertainment, Organizations, Clubs, Professionals, and other web sites made by St. Louisans are welcomed and encouraged to join. Lets promote our diverse communities, and show the world what the best city in the "Show-me" state has to offer! Personal pages of St. Louisans that offer quality content are welcome too. Sorry, no vanity-only (see me! see my cat!) pages here; members must offer some content. Sites promoting racism, hatred, violence, pornography, or sites consisting ONLY of ad banners and links, need not apply. Whether a prospective site is a quality site and fulfills all the requirements and goals of the ring is up to the complete discretion of the Web St. Louis Ringmaster.
Still undecided about joining?
Learn what
E-Business Magazine has to say about web rings in this interesting article.
How to join Web St. Louis:
Joining is quick and simple - just follow the 4 easy steps below:
- STEP 1
Fill in and submit the following form with information about the site you wish to add. You will receive an email with a site ID. Save this information. You will need your site ID to complete the next step.
- STEP 2
|
Next you will need to choose an image (there are 12 to choose from), and place some html (copy below) on your page. The html fragment will produce the Web St. Louis navigation bar. Here is a sample of what your navigation bar will look like: |
 |
- Member -
Web St. Louis
Web Ring
|
|
PREVIOUS SITE |
|
RANDOM SITE |
|
NEXT SITE |
|
LIST SITES |
|
This site belongs to ~Your Name Here~ |
|
-
Select desired image
- Copy the html fragment shown below and paste it on your web page where you want your Web St. Louis navigation bar to appear.
This should be on the page who's URL you listed on the "Submit Site" form above. The customary placement for a webring navigation bar is at the bottom of the front page to the site.
*If for some reason this placement doesn't work on your site, it is acceptable to place the Web St. Louis webring navigation bar elsewhere, AS LONG AS there is some kind of clearly identifiable easy to find link to it from your front page, (such as a "WebRings" or "Web St. Louis" link or button) so that visitors traveling all the sites in the ring can find it.
<![CDATA[<!----BEGIN WEBSTLOUIS WEBRING FRAGMENT--->
<CENTER>
<table border=4 bgcolor="000000"><tr>
<td rowspan="5"><A HREF="http://members.aol.com/webstlouis">
<img src="NAME OF IMAGE YOU SELECTED" WIDTH="205" HEIGHT="118" BORDER=0
ALT="WANT TO JOIN THIS RING? CLICK HERE!"></A></td>
<td bgcolor="FFFFFF"><center>
<FONT FACE=VERDANA font size="-2">
- Member -<br></font>
<FONT FACE=VERDANA><SMALL>
<b><a href="http://members.aol.com/webstlouis">Web St. Louis</a></b><br>
<FONT FACE=VERDANA font size="-2">
Web Ring<br></font></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="FFFFFF"><FONT FACE=VERDANA SIZE="-2">
<a href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=webSTL;id=XX;prev">PREVIOUS SITE</a></font></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="FFFFFF"><FONT FACE=VERDANA SIZE="-2">
<a href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=webSTL;random">RANDOM SITE</a></font></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="FFFFFF"><FONT FACE=VERDANA SIZE="-2">
<a href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=webSTL;id=XX;next">NEXT SITE</a></font></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="FFFFFF"><FONT FACE=VERDANA SIZE="-2">
<a href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=webSTL;list">LIST SITES</a></font></td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan=2 td bgcolor="FFFFFF">
<FONT FACE=VERDANA SIZE="-2">
<center>This site belongs to
<a href="mailto:-YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HERE-">
-YOUR NAME HERE-</A></center></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
</CENTER>
<!----END WEBSTLOUIS WEBRING FRAGMENT--->]]>
- STEP 3
After you have pasted the above html fragment onto your page (don't worry, you will be able to read it then), you will need to make the following 5 changes to personalize it and get it working right:
- Line 5: Replace NAME OF IMAGE YOU SELECTED with the name of the gif or jpg image you selected and copied from the image library. Make sure you place the name inside the quotation marks (don't delete the quotation marks)
- Line 18: Replace XX with the site ID number you received when you submitted your site information.
- Line 24: Replace XX with your site ID number.
- Line 34: Replace -YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HERE- with your e-mail address. Be careful not to delete the end quotation mark.
- Line 35: Replace -YOUR NAME HERE- with name that you want to appear in the navigation bar. This might be your personal name (ex: Willie) or a company, business or organization name (ex: Willie's Wonder Widgets, Inc.)
- STEP 4
Send me an e-mail letting me know you have completed the above. That's all there is to it!
Once I have verified that your site meets the Web St. Louis membership criteria, and that working code is on your web page, you will be added to the ring. You'll receive an e-mail telling you that you have been successfully added to Web St. Louis.
If you need assistance with copying, pasting, or customizing the html fragment (steps 2 and 3), or encounter any other problems, please email Karen at
webstlouis@aol.com. - I will be happy to help you in any way I can.
Editing Your Site Information
If you are a member and need to edit your site information, enter your site ID and password below:
