The Benefit Of Building A Free Website

While blogs, free web hosting platforms, and social networking pages continue to grow in popularity, creating a personal web site with a web hosting provider still has several advantages. In addition to a more polished appearance, having a web site is more appropriate for individuals who want people to remember the name of their site without any difficulty or who just have neither the time nor the need to update it on a regular basis.

A personal site with a traditional web hosting provider appears much more professional than a social networking page or a blog hosted on a free platform. This is advantageous because the name of the social network or free blog site is not listed in the URL, and any advertisements that accompany the host don’t clutter up the screen. This is preferable for those individuals whose ambitions with the personal web site are, in part, professional--including the display of static information to potential clients. Also, the ads won’t annoy any potential visitors who don’t expect the ads to be present.

In addition, lots of sites don’t need to be updated every day or so for the information listed therein to be relevant. A church or local business, for example, may just need a site so that a list of products, services, and addresses is visible to guests who need that information. The format of a blog calls for regular updates, and if one is slow to do so, whatever appears on the home page will nearly always appear out of date. Even if one has a standard home page, it’s still possible to have a “News and Updates” section or even a blog embedded within the page that one updates on an as-needed basis. Moreover, businesses that direct potential clients to a social networking page may find that their customers are clicking on ads for competitors instead of looking into the products and services offered by the business that maintains the page!

Your personal site with its simple URL (yourname.com, for example) is much easier for your friends, family, or anyone you would like to see the site to remember than something like yourname.nameoffreewebplatform.net. This will keep more people coming to your site, and will be an easier name for you to distribute among contacts. You won’t even have to write down the URL for anybody. Furthermore, since the site isn’t just part of a social network, visitors won’t have to create their own account with the social network in order to view the site.

If you have a blog, you need to post on it all the time if anyone is going to be interested in looking at it. If you maintain a social networking page, then you have to do the same thing if anyone is going to “socialize” with you. For many working people, this just isn’t feasible, nor is it what they picture their web site needing. Individuals just posting photos from family trips will find the blog format cumbersome, and they may also find social networking platforms too limiting in terms of how they’re allowed to display photos in albums. If you have neither the time nor the need to update the site regularly, then a personal web site with a traditional web hosting provider may still be what you need for your own home-away-from-home on the web.

There are many reasons to have a website. People have personal websites to display their creativity or to promote their ideas and opinions. People with no interest in computing can still use the web to connect with prospective clients and share information. Among the billions of active web sites, the first few steps that led to internet presence were the same. This article provides a simple explanation of what is required to get your personal site online. It is not a how-to manual or a recommendation of any one domain registrar or hosting service. It is hoped the information here will take some of the mystery out of the process so the reader can join in and become connected to the world. No technical knowledge is required and very little technical information is provided -just a basic overview of the first simple steps. 

This set of simple and basic steps will get you started along the path leading to your own web presence. Accessing a website begins when someone types a website name into a browser program running on a computer or other device. The name of a site consists of two main parts. Every website must have a totally unique name called the URL. With literally billions of active websites on the web, the simple names are already used. You will discover that most of the good names are already used. You may have to do several searches to find a suitable and available name. The name you choose will be the part of the URL before the “dot”. There are websites that can help you search various names to find one that is not already used. The ideal name for a website is one that is short, descriptive and very easy to remember. More thought put into this part of the process will reward your efforts when people start visiting your site. Long, obscure or cryptic names are hard to remember and harder for people to share with others.

 After the dot is the Top Level Domain component of the URL. This is the “.com”, “.org”, “.us”, “.ca”…etc. Although you have some choices about the TLD, you are limited to the choices offered by the domain registrar you choose and the money you are willing to spend. Some TLDs cost more than others because they are more common and registrars can inflict higher charges. As the web has evolved the choices have expanded but not all TLDs are available from all registrars. When you research available names for your site you will combine your choice of names with one of the many TLDs. Sometimes a name such as “mysitename.com” has been registered but “mysitename.org” or “mysitename.ca” is still available. 

Once you have chosen a name and made sure it is available, you will have to get your URL registered and assigned to you. There are several domain registrars that are certified by the internet’s primary regulatory agency: ICANN. ICANN has a web site that lists all their currently accredited registrars or you can do a search for “domain registration”. Any of these can register your chosen name.This becomes your domain and is your property as long as you keep it registered. The cost of domain registration varies greatly. ICANN expects to get something for its service and the registrar you choose expects to get something. Prices can start at less than $2 and go up. Annual renewal is also required. Added services and features offered by the registrars increase the cost. Most registrars also offer hosting and some will offer free hosting with a new domain registration. Some research into the least expensive options will save you money. Once you have your domain registered you will need some method to put your new site out where it can be seen by the millions of visitors you expect. This is called hosting. The hosting options can range from setting up your own personal computer as a host for your site (called self-hosting) to contracting with one of the full-service hosting companies. Not even the savviest tech-heads are willing to take on the challenges of self-hosting.

 There are thousands of companies offering hosting packages. Many offer free hosting but monthly hosting fees can become quite high if you pile on the options. Free hosting usually requires that you accept advertising on your site. This sometimes interferes with the appearance you work so hard to build into your site. To eliminate the ads you will have to pay for hosting. Monthly fees for basic hosting service range from a few dollars up, depending on included services. This is another area where some time spent on research will pay off.

Now you have a domain name and a web host but you do not yet have a website. For many, this is the fun part – designing and building a site to reflect your message, products, or personality. Most hosting services offer site templates where you simply plug in your text, pictures, etc and get online quickly. Some even offer basic site design services at minimal cost. You can go this route and be online with an active site quickly while you start designing your own personal site. You will be able to replace or revise your site by uploading files to it.

The basic process is: you use your choice of design and development tools to design and build a site that exists as a set of files on you local computer. You connect to your web host and upload your files to the host. This is called publishing a site. This process is ongoing. As you change your site’s content, modify its appearance or make any other changes the modifications are made to local files then uploaded to your host.

You now have an active website. After carefully and cleverly deciding on a name for your site you have registered the name as your domain. This probably cost you a few dollars. You have done your research and chosen a hosting service that provided you with basic templates or web design services to get you online quickly. You have customized the template or accepted the proposed design and uploaded files to your site. Your site is now one of billions of sites on the web and you email all your friends a link to your site. Chances are that is as far as your web presence goes unless you take steps to get your site widely recognized. Many site owners use social media sites to tell the world about the new site. Unless your site has very compelling content that everyone wants to share, the process of developing a significant following requires a lot of effort. Most sites are focused on small niche groups of specific interest.