Creating Your Own Free Website
The process of creating a website is typically associated with a number of costs, like web hosting, domain name registration, and creation of the site itself. However, many of these costs can be avoided by looking at free methods to perform the same functions. For example, you can download a free website theme, then use a free HTML editor to create the entire site -- or use said editor to build a site from scratch. Creating a free website isn't too challenging if you have the right tools.
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Instructions
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Download a free HTML web template to your computer from a site like oswd.org or freewebtemplates.com. These are helpful for if you don't want or don't know how to build a site from scratch by coding it yourself. With a template, you'll need just basic knowledge of HTML in order to replace whatever text and images you like.
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Download a free HTML editor like Aptana Studio or PageBreeze. This is the actual program you'll use to edit the pages of your website. You can use a more basic program, such as Notepad, but an HTML editor provides more features and a cleaner interface which is much more useful when trying to locate or work with large amounts of text.
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Use the editor to open the HTML files from the template you downloaded. Typically you can replace any text or images you want with your own, but read the creator's info, usually in a text file or in the footer of the site, to see what you can do. For example, many free themes ask that you keep an unobtrusive link to the creator's site in the footer of each page.
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Activate a free web hosting account if you need a place to host your website. Look at a site like free-webhosts.com to view and compare free hosts. A good web host will have a variety of options and won't force your viewers to see pop-up ads. It will also be rated as reliable with plenty of up-time and good technical support, so look into each one before deciding. Some hosts also offer the option to register a domain, so if you need one, consider a host that allows this. However, it will most likely not be a direct .com, .net, etc. domain, because those must usually be paid for. You may be given a customizable subdomain, however, so look to see what they offer.
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Upload the files to your host, then test it by typing the domain you chose or were assigned into your address bar. If there are any errors, take this opportunity to go back to your HTML editor to correct them. Make sure all of your hyperlinks are linked correctly, and that your images are put in the right folder. For example, if they are in the "images" folder, as most sites have them, you can't upload them to the same directory as the HTML files. They must be placed in an "images" folder inside that directory.
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