Build your own websites for free
78If you’re new to the world of web design and you want to create a website at minimum cost and without having to learn html keep reading. There are a number of Open source (open source = free) Content management systems that can be used to create websites. These content management systems are very easy to use and have supporting documentation and videos that make any problems you come across easy to solve. I have experience with two of these systems and have been using them for over a year now and find that they give you a lot of flexibility while also giving you the opportunity to keep learning and improving your websites. But before we get to that you need to learn about hosting?
Web hosting
Anyone who wants to set up a website will need to get hosting. Hosting is basically a home for your website and is a necessity. For a more detailed explanation of what hosting is check out this hub.There are literally thousands of companies online that offer hosting many of these advertise free web hosting; my experience of free hosting is that they usually get their money back from you one way or the other. If you’re starting out try a free hosting company but you keep in mind that at some stage you will need to get proper hosting. This hub is about my experience of free web hosting servers. When or if you decide to upgrade I personally recommend host gators baby plan. For $7.99 a month you get top quality hosting that allows you to use as many domain names as you want. It’s very easy to use and requires minimum effort to set up.
The first content management system I used was wordpress. I was a complete beginner when I started using wordpress. I had no prior experience with html or content management systems. What I brought with me was patience and willingness to read up on any problems I encountered. Wordpress was created as a blogging platform and that is what it is best at. If you want to build an information based website with content such as articles, videos and photos wordpress is your solution. It has thousands of plugins which can give it additional functionality. A plugin is a program you download and put into your database to give your site extra functionality or capability. An example of a plugin would be a Contact Us form on your site. I have used wordpress to build a number of websites, a number of them have been for small start up businesses, and this one is a personal project of mine. If you have any questions about the site or wordpress feel free to ask.
Joomla is another open source content management system. Joomla is ideal for building online shops and community web sites. It has more depth than wordpress and can give a more professional looking finish. However it lacks in a number of areas. It is definitely not as easy to use as wordpress. With the latest version of wordpress you can upload plugins directly. Joomla requires more searching and often there is a charge for plugins. Also its media management system isn’t nearly as good as wordpress’s.I also found that the online videos and supporting documentation wasn’t nearly as extensive as wordpress. I built this website about Spanish civil war posters with Joomla, it didn’t take me nearly as long as the wordpress one but I had experience with content management systems when I started with it.
Problems with both Joomla! and wordpress.
The main problem with both Joomla and wordpress is that you are limited with your design options. Both require you to upload a template as a starting point. This is the background for your site; these can be found both for Joomla and wordpress online free of charge however they are never exactly how you want them to be. You may want a particular look for your website but you are limited to what’s available online. It also means that your website will not be unique in its appearance as a number of other Joomla or wordpress users maybe using the same template. Other problems include having to adjust your site to the wordpress and Joomla format. This can be frustrating for people may have a very particular site layout in mind.
The next step
For me as someone who is trying to learn how to produce top quality websites that are capable of doing pretty much everything the next step is Drupal. Drupal is a top quality open source content management system. It requires knowledge of html and the learning curve is a lot steeper than Joomla and Wordpress. I haven’t used Drupal but have been told by professionals in the industry that Drupal is the cream of the crop. It can do both what wordpress and Joomla do and more.Luckily I have a gift subscription to lynda.com that has an online video course that teaches Drupal,so that will help. I also would like to learn how to design my own Joomla and Wordpress templates. I guess it’s a case of a lot learnt a lot more to learn.
Free search engine optimization tools
- 5 Great Free Search Engine Optimization tools
This article is about Free Search Engine Optimization tools. There are a lot of good SEO tools available on the internet some are Free some are not. This is a list of the best free Search engine Optimization tools available.
Google Adsense sharing book marking sites
- 4 Adsense Revenue sharing bookmarking websites
This article gives a you a list of the best Google adsense sharing social bookmarking sites available on the internet. If you want to earn money with your backlinks check out this article.
Submitting your site to search engines
- How to submit your websites to search engines
This article is about how to submit your website to search engines.When you launch a new site one of the first things you should do is submit your site to search engines. This article shows you how and where to do it.
10 marketing strategies for your websites
- 10 Marketing Strategies for your Website
If you have a website and want to build traffic this article will give you some simple marketing strategies that you can apply to your website. These aren't complicated strategies, they are very straight forward and cheap to put in practice.
How I made my own social network for free
- How I made my own social network for free
This article is about how I made my own social network for free. If you want to build your own social network using open source software this article will help you. Many people are put off building a social network as they think it maybe a lot of wor
Good article on website accessibility
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Recently I worked as part of a team on the design and development of a large US healthcare company website. The website sells healthcare insurance to pensioners, so one of the conditions was that it had to...
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Glad its of use!If you any questions about Wordpress or Joomla feel free to ask!
Great Hub here. Still learning about all the WP plugins. Haven't figured out the download manager plugin
Great Hub. I highly prefer to make websites with little html knowledge.
Thanks for commenting
Fgual: I havent used the download manager WP plugin. Usually when I come across a problem like that I look for a youtube video or good instructions to learn about it.It could also be a problem with the plugin itself.This has happened to me quite a few times. The theme and the plugin sometimes dont mix. Im not sure why???
Tammyfrost : HTML is the way to go if you can do it. Unfortunately I dont have the time to learn it. Do you know of any good sites that teach the basics??
Thanks very much for your hub. I am considering setting up a wordpress blog and your hub lays out the options very clearly.
Just two cents, if you are serious in publishing quality websites that will add value to the readers in the long run, paid hosting is much wiser option than free hosts.
Thanks for your comments!
Woodstock Joe:Wordpress is definitely the way to go if your new to the web design. There are hundreds of videos on youtube that will help you. If you have some money and less time to spend searching youtube for quality videos have a look at lynda.com . They have videos that will teach you everything you need to know.
Greatipadbuy : I agree!I started off with free hosting and ended up having a lot of downtime and numerous other problems.It did however give me a chance to learn without having to pay the monthly fee. I recently set up a baby hosting account with hostgator which is brilliant.
Glad i have learnt to use wordpress also. Like you said it has its limitations but it is wonderful.
I just manage to learn Joomla (probably beginner level) its not quite out of the box product iy you want a good website, considering you also have to write article etc, still need a lot of work. Wordpress is a better option.
Thanks. I recently used these content management system and all I can say is that wordpress is more friendly. Thanks
I have just recently entered this world of hubs and article writing. I found your information easy to understand and quite helpful.
You really explained things quite well here. Even I understood what you were saying :)
Cheers,
G.
This is good. Joomia and Drupal are new to me. I'd like to check them out, to see what the layout is like.
Wishing you well with your Websites. :)
Yes Ign, wordpress is definitely the easiest to use.Joomla is useful if you want a site with more depth,but if you want something simple stick to wordpress.
Lady E I'm glad I could introduce you to Joomla! Ive heard Drupal is without limitations thats why I want to learn that next.
Alantrammell and Grantsworld Im glad I could help you guys find out about the options and thanks everyone for commenting.
Well we are glad you could supply us with this information.
G.
Great Hub! I am doing something similar to what your doing. The information on free hosting site has been a big help. Thanks!
No problem tnflash,delighted to help out.If I can help you in any other way let me know. By the way I like the blog!What adsense plugin did you use?
I've got several sites set up using WordPress and a couple using Drupal. As you point out, Drupal is much more flexible and capable than WP, but WP is far easier to use.
Coming from a programming background, HTML, PHP, javascript and CSS are all pretty simple for me -- provided I remember which language I'm writing in at the time 8=) So I've not had much difficulty modifying templates and even taking a static website and converting it to WordPress.
The learning curve can be daunting, but just using HTML will stifle you down the road if you want to grow your site. Just remember to keep it up to date (easier with WP than Drupal at this point).
Nice Way to do things. I enjoyed the read.
Thanks lonewolfmuskoka , ya I really need to learn HTML and CSS,I think its fundamental.Without them Ill always be limited in what I can achieve. Thanks for your words of advice
Dcsantos, glad you enjoyed the read!!!
Thank-you for sharing this information. Hope to make it fruitful some day soon.
I'm not yet to a place where I can afford to have my sites hosted, but I'm going to bookmark this hub for future reference on how to go about making my own sites for free!
Thanks for the insightful information!
I will hve to keep this page in mind if I decide to go into business.Being unemployed gives new meaning to the word free
I av been serching for something like this for a long time, cause most of my friend and me want to exterblish a web page, and have doming at the same time but thanks, that you are there,and the basic information i learn .
Thanks all for your comments, wayne sr I can understand what you are saying about freedom coming with unemployment.Try wordpress if your interested in setting up a site its very user friendly and can be a good stepping stone.
Great hub Kev, I have also heard a lot about the Drupal system, and I've been meaning to try it. But as you've stated, the learning curve on some of these website systems can be pretty steep, but hey I guess it's worth it to learn a very invaluable money-saving skill. Currently I use SBI for hosting and have nothing but good things to say about the system. It is a good investment if you want to build a content-rich website Business. I wrote about my expience with it here:
Thanks for the above, Ill definitely check it out!I need all the help I can get!
From this hub one can learn how one can create one's website for free. Thank you so much for all of useful information.
Great hub, and you mention some good options for budding website builders. I use weebly and I am very happy with their service. Webs.com is another decent one out there. Lynda.com is a great resource for people, I am a fan of Lynda's Dreamweaver books. Cheers!
can I monetize my website created on wordpress or joomla?
please help..
Yes!!You can use plugins to add adsense to your websites or create Amazon stores. Similar to what happens here at Hubpages but a little more complicated. For wordpress use easy adsense. For joomla I think the plugin is of the same name.It will take a bit of work to make it profitable but its worth it.
Your Spanish Civil War Poster site looks great, kev8. If you wanted to do straight HTML (yes, they still make static html sites, and they still pay), I'd recommend looking at http://thesitewizard.com for some great tutorials, using Kompozer.
Having said that, I'm 100% WordPress. Static sites, ecommerce, blogs...they're good enough for what I'm doing. But great stuff you have here on the hub (and you've got some design skills, for sure!).
Hi 5institutes. Thanks very much for the above comment.Ill be sure to check out the links recommended above.Im in the process of learning html and css so hopefully Ill be up to speed soon.I agree about wordpress, I think it has everything one could need.
impressive. some of the info was very helpful
Hi Kev,
Good information in this Hub. Dipping a toe into website building is not for the faint of heart but it can be an exciting process because you learn new skills and can actually earn money while you are at it.
WordPress can be hard to learn but it seems to be a good blogging platform for SEO.
As well, for those who do not want to monetize, Webs offers free websites.
Certainly, these days, there are a number of options available.
hello, I'm very interested in your hub. I am learning WordPress these days and edit some of my experience of it. Welcome to my hub!
Great i have learned some great things
Yes tou are right when you say that at anyday, a hosting change will be need. Those free are very insecure, usually you don't get any suppport and it uses to be offline for a long time.
It's better to get a space of (real) 100 mb's and 5gB's from a friend that a unlitimed space (super impossible) and bandwitch(impossible).
What you can can do is get a hosting servie and domain(there are packs of 25-30EUR, at least where I live, Portugal), and sell some ad and get it payed back.
Good hub!
Thanks for all the help kev, I've been trying to learn how to create my own website by myself, I previously used software that formatted the website according to my preferences. But now im looking for simple and inexpensive ways to claim a domain.
Thanks for your comments guys.
Entourage_007; I strongly recommend wordpress, very easy to use and to customize. You will have your own site up and running in no time. If you have any problems check out wordpress codex.
Plapa; yes free hosting is definitely not a good idea. Unfortunately I had to learn that the hard way.
Thanks for the infomation. I'm working on my site using wordpress. I have had some problems, but I'm still building.
Great article.Very informative.Thanks
Sandyspider Level 2 Commenter 23 months ago
I will have to bookmark this. I opened up a WP account and haven't done anything with it.