How To Create Your Own Website for Free Without a Credit Card
By Kara Page
Whether it's for personal use to communicate with family and friends or a move to begin building your business's presence on the Internet, creating your own website is an easy and exciting process. While professional web designers charge a high price for their services, several web hosts offer room for lots of content and media, along with easy navigation for even the inexperienced to design a website, completely free and without requiring a credit card number.
Wordpress
Click "Sign up now" at Wordpress.com. Enter a username, password and your email address, along with a domain name and title for your website. Click "Create blog."
Click "Appearance" on the left side of the screen and browse the templates. Click a template to preview, then click "Apply" to use it on your website.
Click "Posts" on the left side of your dashboard. Give your post a title, text and click the image icon to upload any pictures on your computer. Add tags (i.e. "travel," "books," "cooking") to the tags section on the right and add any categories in the categories column to help visitors navigate your website once you have several posts up. Click "Publish" when you are finished to make your website available for anyone to find.
Blogger
Click "Sign me up" on Blogger.com and enter a username, password and email address. Enter your desired domain name and title on the form, then click "Create blog."
Search the templates on the next page. Click one to preview and click "Apply to blog" when you find one you like.
Click "New post" and enter a title and text for your first post. Click the image icon to add pictures from your computer. Add tags (i.e. "travel," "books," "cooking") to the tags section beneath the post box and add any categories in the categories column to help visitors navigate your website once you have several posts up. Click "Publish post" when you are finished to make your website available for anyone to find.
Tumblr
Fill out the form with your email address, password and domain name on Tumblr.com. Click "Sign up."
Select "Themes" and find a template, then click "Appearance" to change the colors and design of your template.
Click "Text" and enter a title and text, then click the image icon to add any pictures from your computer to your website. Click "Create post" when you are finished to make your website available for anyone to find.
References
Tips
- For a small yearly fee, these website hosts allow you to acquire a domain name ("mywebsite.com" instead of "mywebsite.wordpress.com"). Go to your dashboard and click the "Upgrades" or "Domains" link. Enter the domain name you want and click "Add domain"--the host will check to be sure the domain is available. You will need to enter your credit card information to purchase a domain, but your website and all its features are still free.
Writer Bio
Kara Page has been a freelance writer and editor since 2007. She maintains several blogs on travel, music, food and more. She is also a contributing writer for Suite101 and has articles published on eHow and Answerbag. Page holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of North Texas.