How To Create a Chat Room Website

Live chat applications have become easy to add to your blog.

Creating a website users can visit to chat or adding live chat to a website gives your users an opportunity to participate and to engage with others in your online community. Live chat applications have become easy to add to your blog or website. A number of free services provide customized chat rooms or allow you to embed chat directly in your web. A free version of a Java application called ParaChat is easy to install and allows you a choice of implementation methods.

Things You'll Need

• The ability to edit your website's HTML code.

Instructions

Add a Chat Window to Your Website

1. Go to ParaChat.com. From the menu on the left, move your mouse over the "Basic" menu item and then click on "Get your free chat room."

2. Fill out the form. You must enter a room name. You can adjust the size of the chat window, the background and foreground colors and the language. If you select "yes" for the "Enable Network Roaming" field, your chat users will be able to see and navigate to other free ParaChat rooms that have Network Roaming enabled. Click on the large button labeled "<<CLICK HERE>> - SHOW ME MY ROOM CODE."

3. Copy and paste into your own web page the HTML generated in the text fields below the form. You have a number of options for creating your chat room. The embedded option will place the chat application directly within your web page. The pop-up link will provide your users with a button they can click from your website to launch the chat in a pop-up window. The text link option will provide a link for users to navigate to the chat room hosted on the ParaChat website. The final option is an HTML link. You can send this link in emails or text messages to invite users to your chat room.

4. Share your chat room. You can use the code generated for your chat room anywhere. You can send it to friends or partners to include on their websites and anyone who joins a chat through their sites will be entered into the same chat room as users of your site.

5. Test your chat room. When you visit your chat room, the first thing you will see is a small text box asking you to enter a user name. ParaChat will take whatever you put in and create a unique user name by adding digits to the end of it. When you are prompted for a password, click the button that says "Enter Chat Room without a Password."

Tips & Warnings

• Chat rooms can be used for all sorts of nefarious and illegal activities. The free version of ParaChat does not have the option to ban users or password protect your chat room. To protect your chat room from misuse, use a chat application, such as ParaChat Standard, which includes security features.

References

• ParaChat
• Boutell.Com: How do I Add a Chat Room to My Website

Resources

• MakeUseOf: Six Ways to Add a Chat Room to your Website