One of my visitors wrote to ask how she could "create a website free of cost", that is, without paying any money for it. This article discusses, in plain language, a few ways it can be done.
A blog is, loosely speaking, just a type of website. You typically log into your blog with your web browser, type whatever you want, and it will appear on your site. You don't have to install anything on your computer in order to run the website.
The simplest and quickest free way to start a blog, is to use a free blog host. These are companies that let you create blogs without paying anything.
All you have to do is choose one of the services listed on the
Free Blog Hosts
page, give them your email address, make up a password and select a user name. You will then
get a blog at a web address generated by their system. This is typically an address derived from the
user name you selected. For example, if you chose a user name of "mysite" and your blog host is
located at www.example.com, your website will be given an address of
https://mysite.example.com. (Note that this is just an example. Your actual web address
will depend on your blog host, and may not follow this format.)
Since you want a website without paying anything, you will not be able to make up your own web address. Such addresses, like "thesitewizard.com" (the name of the website you are reading), are known as "domain names", and they cost money. If you have already bought a domain name, and you want it associated with your website, you will need to look for a blog host that lets you use your own domain. Look for words like "free domain hosting" or "host your own domain" in the list of features that they advertise. At the time I wrote this paragraph, from among the blog hosts listed on that page, both Blogger and Tumblr allow you to do this. But you will of course need to buy a domain name for it to be possible.
Once you sign up, you will usually be given a chance to customize the design of your site. Many blog hosts provide a choice of several designs, and you can often even modify those so that your blog is unique to you. When you are satisfied with everything, all that remains to be done is to add content to your site. In blogging lingo, this is commonly known as "posting", and the article or page that you add to your blog is often known as a "post". (I say this so that you can find your way around the blog interface. Otherwise, you may not realise that a link or button that says something like "Add a new post" is what you need to click to add content.)
That's all there is to it. Yes, it's really quite easy.
Another common way to create a site is to design it on your own computer, and when you're done, transfer it to the Internet. For those who are confused how this procedure differs from the earlier one, the blog method immediately puts your empty website on the Internet, and as you customize and add pages to it, your website will reflect your changes even as you work.
Note that this is not the only (or even primary) difference between those two methods. For those interested in the details, read What's the Difference Between a Content Management System (CMS), a Blog, a Web Editor and an Online Site Builder?
You will need 2 things:
You will need to install a web editor, which is a computer program that lets you design websites. There are numerous free web editors around, so you don't have to pay any money for it.
For those who don't want to bother to go through a long list of free editors, trying to decide which editor to use, let me suggest this: if you use Windows, get Microsoft Expression Web. It's a very good web editor. It's free, but it used to be commercial software, so it has the quality that you usually associate with paid stuff from a major software company.
Alternatively, for those running macOS or Linux (or even if you run Windows), get BlueGriffon.
Information on how to download those editors, as well as how to use them to design a website, can be found in the Expression Web Tutorial and the BlueGriffon Tutorial (depending on which editor you want).
You will also need a free web host. Like a blog host, these are companies which have specially-configured computers that are permanently connected to the Internet. The computers are set up in a way so that when you put your website on them, they can be accessed by anyone on the Internet.
Like a blog host, you will typically be required to give your email address when signing up. You will also have
to make up a password and choose a user name. The user name will then form part of the web address of your site.
For instance, if you choose a user name of "mysite", and your web host's address
is "www.example.com", your website will typically be located at "https://mysite.example.com".
(Again, the actual address you get depends on your web host. Not all web hosts use the above format to generate
your website's address.)
As mentioned above (in case you skipped the earlier section), you will not be able to make up your own web address since that requires that you own your own domain name. That said, should you indeed already have one, and want to use it for your site, make sure you choose a free web host that permits this. Look for words like "host your own domain", "hosting for n domains" (where n is a number), "free domain hosting" or the like in their list of features.
Once you have got both those things, read one of the following tutorials (depending on which editor you chose) to find out how to design your website.
This method has more steps than the first one, but you have greater control over what the end result looks like, what you can put on your website, and how it works.
You can also start a blog on a normal free web host. In such a case, you won't need a web editor, but free blog software which you will need to install on that web host. It's extra work over and above the very first method mentioned, but for those who have their own domain name, it has certain advantages over using a blog host.
If you want to follow this route, one way is to install WordPress, a popular free blog software, on your web host. See How to Set Up WordPress for more information.
Note though that many free web hosts have overcrowded machines, where a single computer holds far too many websites than it can comfortably handle, so that if you install a blog on them, you may find your site to be frequently unavailable (due to the machine being too bogged down). In general, if you want to run a blog for free, without paying for a commercial web hosting account, I think you will get a more pleasant experience using a free blog host (ie, the first method), since they would have set up their system specifically to operate blogs. If you want to use a generic free web host, stick to using a web editor to create your site, since such sites don't use as much resources on the web host as blog software. It's okay if you only want to learn how to install and run your own blog software. But if you hope to get any serious blogging done, you will probably end up being frustrated every time your blog becomes unresponsive.
That's it. As you can see, it's actually not as difficult as it appears. The second and third methods, where you do things yourself is, of course, a bit more involved. If that scares you, just use the first one.
For those who want to compare the above with the proper (complete) way of creating a website, see my main guides How to Create a Website (for the web editor method), and How to Create a Blog (for the blogging method). My main guides assume that you are willing to buy a domain name and a get a commercial web or blog host.
Note that if you are setting up a website for the purposes of earning an income, you should really do it the proper way, since free web/blog hosts have historically not lasted very long. At the very least, get a domain name, so that you can move to a new web host when your current one closes or when they start charging you. Notice I didn't say "if" in the previous sentence, but "when". Read Is it Possible to Create a Website Without Buying a Domain Name? The High Price of "Free". for more information. Don't go into this blind when your livelihood depends on it. Creating a site for free is fine if it's just for a disposable site, created as a learning exercise, but if you are running a business, you're sowing a crisis that you will reap in the future.
Have fun building your site!
Copyright © 2020-2023 Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
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