When I first learned to build my own website in 1999 I used a completely free service. At the time I didn’t even have a business.
Yep, that’s right. My idea of a fun time was building websites, with CODE, from SCRATCH! How ya like me now? 😉
When people ask me how they can start out and make their own website, totally free, I do understand where they are coming from.
I have to caution you though, if you are in business it’s almost always better to go for professional resources to build your website. In the case of website hosting, domain names and email address you certainly get what you pay for.
When you decide to go the ‘free’ route you will often get unwanted advertisements, less control and lower quality results then you would get had you paid for them.
With that said, everyone needs to start somewhere!
Totally Free Website Builders For Instant Setup
Here are my suggestions for starting your website for free. Please keep in mind that I haven’t used ANY free website services for years now so you’ll want to check into these yourself and find the best fit for you:
Google Sites – I tested out Google Sites quite a while ago now. The thing about building your website right on Google is, well, it’s Google!
Weebly – Weebly was voted as one of Time’s 50 best websites of the year. I am pretty sure this site was created by a well-known internet marketer. The templates are very good looking and the layouts look clean. Worth looking into.
Bravenet – I have used Bravenet in the past and while I don’t recommend you use this for a business site, it is a great place to get some experience with starting a website and many of the nifty tools available on the internet. If you insist on using free, Bravenet might be an option for you.
Consider Blog Platforms
If you are looking for a free website to start with but want to progress towards a professional platform than I highly recommend you just get started with blogging. There are two blogging software programs I can recommend to you:
Blogger – This is a Google program that hosts your blog so it’s totally free.
WordPress – I use WordPress for all my websites and it’s really very reasonable in terms of price. You can start with a completely free blog at the free WordPress site and then when you are ready you can move that blog to a host where it is 100% owned by you.
The problem with using any FREE service to host your website or blog is that you won’t own your website. You will have no control or say if the place you’ve set up your site decides they want to drop it without warning or notice.
Yes you can have your website created very quickly for free. What you need to do is decide whether the disadvantages of free and quick outweigh the advantages.
