Clearpixel in my links

How do I make it and put it on my host

[lizzie]

I've got links on my page with clearpixel.gif in them.

1. How do I make this?
2. How do I put this on my host server- I don't
want people to be able to type into their browser
www.mysite.com/cearpixel.gif and go to it.

Thanks from a newbie.

[tedster]

Lizzie, if I understand what you want to do correctly, you would put the link together just like any image link:
<a href="http://destination.html><img src="clearpixel.gif"></a>

It's a good idea to rename that image to something not so obviously invisible.

In terms of people typing in the URL for the gif, yes they can do that, but all they'll see is a blank page. If you want to use an image on a page, then that image is accessible to anyone.

[lizzie]

Thanks but I meant how do I make the .gif, I already have the link on my page.

I also need to know how to put the .gif image on my
hosting server. I know I put it in the same directory
as the pages it is on. Just stick it in among my webpages?

I also know there is a way to prevent people from being
able to go directly to this gif and look at it.

[tedster]

I use Photoshop -- in Photoshop there are several ways to make the pixel transparent -- including the gif89a export, which lets you choose transparency by color. So you can start with a white pixel and then choose white as the transparent color. Whatever image editor you are using, check the help files for how to create GIF transparency.

Yes, you can just upload clearpixel.gif to the same folder as the HTML document on your server.

I'm missing your point on hiding the gif file, however. First, I never heard of a way to do this, and second, I don't understand why it is a problem. Can you fill us in a little more?

[lizzie]

Thanks, I understand how to make it now, I took a look
at Photoshop. I don't use it much.
It isn't really a problem, it's this:

I'm looking at a competitor's excellent pages and when I
try to go to www.herpages.com/clearpixel.gif I go to her
homepage. If I try to go to www.herpages.com/anypage/ I go
to her home page. In other words if I try to go to any page
other than her home page or one of her named pages, or her site with a page name I make up, I end up at her homepage.
When I try that on my site, I get the message:
"Page not found." I wondered how she did this.

[oilman]

lizzie - your competitor is simply using a custom 404 error redirection. Put this line in your htaccess file:

ErrorDocument 404 [yourdomain.com...]

This simply says "if a requested file is not found then send the user to anypage.html"

[lizzie]

Thanks but the last suggestion didn't work.
When I typed into my browser window
a fake webpage name on my domain
my browser just didn't do anything.