How to Start a Free Social Website

Wetpaint offers free social sites.

A free web application that lets you start a social website on a topic you love is Wetpaint. The website can create wikis, blogs and forums, plus it can be home to a number of contributors who love your topic too. Read on to learn how to start your own social website for free.

Things You'll Need

• An Internet connection
• A topic to share

Instructions

1. Go to Wetpaint. To get started, just fill in two forms. What you want to name your site and what you want the URL to be. (The URL will be yourname.wetpaint.com.) Click the big Go! button.

2. Start creating the content you want on your Wetpaint site. You will use familiar icons like those used in Microsoft Word to add and edit text. To see any of the tools for editing and adding content, click the Easy Edit button. This brings up a toolbar where you can select text formatting options, add widgets, spellcheck, add images and more.

3. There are simple icons that allow you to add YouTube videos, calendars, polls, music, chat, RSS feeds and photo slideshows. Supported widgets include Google Calendars, Google Video and YouTube video, Vizu Polls, Photobucket Slideshow, Meebo IM, Gabbly chat, RSS feeds and Imeem Music Player.

4. You can allow others who share your interests to add content to your site, or you can bring in that content using tools like the RSS feeds feature. Use the settings to establish who can add content to your site and who will be able to moderate your site. Adding a discussion forum will bring in more content from your readers. Add the chat feature to allow social contact among your readers.

Tips & Warnings

• There are two advanced Wetpaint applications for developers called Wetpaint Injected and Wetpaint Attached.

Resources

• Wetpaint
• Wetpaint FAQ page