Yahoo One of the oldest and still one of the best directories around, it's also probably the best organized. Well categorized and also searchable. It's a great first stop when exploring the web. Webcrawler My father loves their random link feature for doing some adventurous surfing. Point-Lycos Though their "Top 5%" award doesn't mean as much as it once did, now that there are so many sites on the web, this is one of the most comprehensive and best organized collections of site reviews around. Alta Vista and Hotbot When it comes to indexing every word on the web, these sites rank at the top. Find pages with the word "glockenspiel" on them or search for other info. They take a little learning to use well, but if you master these, you can surf the web like a pro.

Advertising and Promotion

The Internet Link Exchange A great way to promote your site through free advertising. Plus they have a decent tutorial on how to create an effective banner. Banner Advertising: Networks & Brokers A very report on banner networks and advertising brokers with a very skeptical slant. If you believe the author, nothing really seems to work and if you're not a huge site, you're screwed. Take the report with a grain of salt, but when the author of it takes a strong stand against a company, he's got a good track record of being right. Commonwealth II Their latest incarnation. Be careful, though. Commonwealth I cheated me out of hundreds of dollars with "corrections" to their database long after they had already secured thousands of advertising impressions while promising much higher rates of return. A few affiliates have gone so far as to file a class-action lawsuit against them. Take whatever they promise you with a very large grain of salt. Virtual Promote Links to many great promotional resources like free submission services, paid services, free-for all's, award & review sites, etc. Submit-It Seems like this free submission service has been around longer than any other. They also offer a very reasonably priced paid service.

Site-Building Resources

The Webmaster's Reference Library A great site for links to other info. Especially recommended are their beginners and webmasters sections. Microsoft's Site-Builder Workshop Sure, they're going to use it as an opportunity to try to convince you to use Internet Explorer specific stuff and sell you Microsoft products, but if you get past that, there's some really good info and tools here. Matt's Script Archive Some great, free CGI scripts to spice up your web site. The WASHED-UPdate's Has-Been Chat is run using a modified version of Matt's WWWBoard scripts. Selena Sol's Script Archive More great scripts, plus links to lots of other script archives. Explore the site, explore the links, and dream of what your site can be. NoNags Shareware Site and TUCOWS Shareware operates on the "try before you buy" concept and these are two of the best sites to find Windows shareware for all of your webmastering and sitebuilding needs. Pick up a WYSIWYG web page editor, an HTML tutorial help file, or a mail program to help you manage that list of visitors you'll be signing up. Nonags is particularly dedicated to shareware that doesn't expire or nag you to buy it.

Learn By Example

These are just some of the best or most successful sites on the web. Amazon.com The world's largest online bookstore. 1-800-FLOWERS The commercial success story people love to cite as an example of how your big business can get even bigger using the web. The Dilbert Zone Do you know a computer nerd who doesn't like Dilbert? The comic strip that filled the void in geek lives everywhere after The Far Side went kerplunk. The Internet Movie Database A few movie enthusiasts from around the world who met through the net, a big bunch of data, and a dream led to the creation of this immensely popular web site and the largest online repository of movie information in the world. C|net If you haven't heard of C|net, you don't have cable. They've branched out into multiple web ventures, all of which do quite well for themselves, but this is where it all started... C|net Central.