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How To Make A Custom Bookmark Icon

By Robert Smith http://smithfam.com

I'm going to tell you about a little known feature in Internet Explorer version 5 that will help your bookmarks stand out from the rest by creating your own distinctive icon. Sometimes the little things you do can make all the difference.

It's Not Hard, Here's How It Works

Let's start with an example and then I'll tell you how you can make one of your own for your website.

If you have Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 5 or newer visit the following page. Make a bookmark, and then check your favorite places to see my custom icon. You will see my unique custom icon that is different from all the other bookmarks. You may have to close and re-open Internet Explorer in some versions to see the custom icon. http://www.smithfam.com/

Whenever you make a bookmark, Internet Explorer attempts to locate a file named favicon.ico on your server. Favicon means "Favorite Icon," if it's found Internet Explorer will display your bookmark's custom icon instead of the default icon normally used.

Creating Your Custom Icon

1) Internet Explorer 5.X expects the favicon.ico file to reside in the same directory of the page being bookmarked. Put one in every directory on your website.

2) The icon itself must conform to the following specifications. a) Use not more than 16 colors b) The icon must be 16x16 pixels in size

3) You will need to create the icon using icon editing software. Download A Free Demo Program to learn http://www.icon-maker.com/

4) Save your finished icon as "favicon.ico" and upload it IN BINARY MODE to your primary web directory.

That's all there is to it. You can test you icon by making a bookmark of any page on your server. You will see your custom icon instead of the web page icon supplied with Windows that all the other bookmarks use

Tracking Custom Bookmarks

You can even track your custom bookmarks from your server logs. For every reference to the favicon.ico file you will see an entry in your server's log, it means that someone accessed your website via your custom bookmark.

You can monitor which pages were bookmarked by installing the following script to track your bookmarks. http://www.nihongo.org/snowhare/utilities/favicontracker/

More Information About Favorite Icons http://www.favicon.com

Some hosting services like Geocities.com do not allow icon files (.ico) on their servers; this limitation can be handled on most servers. Here is what you do..

After making the icon file rename it to favicon.gif in order for most servers to be able to upload it. upload it and rename it again back to favicon.ico. You may not be able to see it in your file directories after you rename it but it should work fine. This method will work with most servers.

Have fun creating your own Custom Icons

About the Author

ROBERT SMITH helps thousands successfully market their Internet based business. You'll find tons of free marketing tools & resources on his Internet Marketing web site at http://www.smithfam.com/.

The WebKit CD Now with Complete Sales Website http://www.smithfam.com/webkit/

You can reach him by phone at (541) 689-1847 PST and by email at http://www.smithfam.com/askbob.html