The Best Way To Learn How To Make A Website For Free

There are many ways to go about learning how to make a website for free. Before starting, take the time to outline a plan. What is the purpose of the website? A personal blog? Or online storefront? Do you plan to expand the site over time? Are you interested in monetizing your site with ads? How much control do you want over the appearance of your site?

Once you've made a general plan for your website, make a prioritized list of features: Critical (the features you have to have, Important (features you want to have), and Desirable (features you'd like to have).

There are many free hosting options with a wide range of features as well as limitations.

Evaluating a Free Website Host: 17 Things to Consider

How much disk space are you allowed (number of pages).

How much bandwidth are you allowed per month and what happens if you exceed that amount? (Some hosts block your site until the new month; others bill you for the excess.)

How fast does the site load? Download?

What file types are supported?

Are you allowed a database or scripts?

What will the url of your site be?

Does the site include email accounts? If so, how many?

Does the site allow e-commerce?

What e-commerce tools are available (shopping cart? SSL?)

Are there restrictions on e-commerce? (For example,PayPal buttons with text input can't be used on Wordpress, but they can on Blogspot.)

Is the free hosting supported by ads? How many, where, and what type? (Some free hosts have multiple annoying popups before the site ever loads.)

Are you allowed to sell advertising on your site?

What is the host's record as far as downtime?

What tech support is available? Look at both availability and response time, as well as multiple contact options. (7-day toll-free numbers are preferable to email support tickets).

Can you "grow into" your own domain or paid hosting with more features?

Does the host offer a WYSIWYG site editor such as Site Studio?

Who owns your content?

Building Your Free Website

Many hosts, both free and paid, offer site editors that may include such features as WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing and dozens of prebuilt templates or themes complete with graphics. Using one of these can guarantee you an attractive site in a matter of minutes. However, once your site is built, it's a good idea to open each page in your browser and right-click "view source". A window should pop up, showing the html code for the page. Save each page as a text file for backup purposes. If you don't get a page of code, the page may be displaying as a graphic In that case, if there's a problem, you'll need to recreate all your content.

Most productivity suites, such as Microsoft Office and Open Office, allow you to save files as html. There is a "preview in web browser" option on the "file" menu. While this method isn't as easy as the online drag and drop site editors, you have more control over color, graphics, and layout.

But the most important thing is to just do it. Once you learn how to make a website for free, you'll probably want to make more!

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