From: David Jones

Date:

If you've have done my night class course on Web Design, you'll already know that there is so much free stuff on the net that you can even have your very own personalized website for nothing more than the cost of a domain name, which you can get for less than $10 per year.
If that isn't cheap Internet Real Estate, what is?

For years I have been searching for a company that will host your site for free and NOT include banner or popup ads on your site. At last I have found one that I have faith in and the icing on the cake is that they provide more disk space and better features than the old style ad supported sites ever did. They are positively brilliant and as proof of my confidence, I currently have 4 websites hosted by them, two of which are kiwifisher.com, and my son's site sporeology.com

So now I can tell you all about how to set up and build your own website with your own chosen domain name for less than $10 using just a few images, paragraphs and a video.

If you think there's a catch in all this, click here to read the pros, cons, advantages and disadvantages of free hosting.

When choosing your website or domain name, as much as possible aim for it to be:

• Short as possible - example: companyname.com rather than companynameinternationalinc.com
• Specific to the subject of your website or name of your company/business
• Relevant to the nature of your site, ie, .com for commerce, .org for charitable organizations, .tv for media sites etc.
• Country specific if your target audience is just your country. Example, .co.nz if you are only selling in New Zealand.
  

Compose a list of several preferred names then check their availability in the search box at a site like www.GoDaddy.com or www.ipower.com.
If you are based in New Zealand I recommend www.freeparking.co.nz for searching and registering .co.nz names.

Be aware also that once it's registered it can't be changed (though you can simply register another one) and search engines will rank you higher if your domain name contains some of the same subject 'keywords' found in your site.

Once you have decided on a name that is available, simply register/buy it at any of the above three websites keeping in mind:
www.GoDaddy.com offers all available suffixes, but
www.ipower.com has cheapest .com prices and
www.freeparking.co.nz gives best service if your based in NZ.

The strategy is to basically register/buy your domain name at any of these companies (or any other one you may already know) and simply 'Park it' there while you have your actual website hosted on the free servers at my recently found hosting site (which doesn't register domain names).

Once you have opened your hosting account, you will need to come back to the company you have your domain registered/'parked' with and simply redirect it to 'point' to where you have your website hosted. It's a simply process and I'll explain it once we have your account set up.

The basic specs given at 000webhost are:

To view all the features click the 'View all features' button on right navigation bar at 000.webhost.com

Opening your free hosting account is as simple as going to www.000webhost.com and clicking on the
'sign up' button.

Then filling out your details:

Once you have finished the sign up process you can then redirect your parked domain to 'point' to your new hosting site so it's ready to broadcast your soon to be built website.

Please watch the videos below to see how this is done...

If the above video is not visible, click here to download it

With your domain and hosting now all set up, you now have three available methods you can use to build your website.

The three options are:

1. Use the website builder utility provided by 000webhost and build your site online using their program. - ideal for beginners and the main focus of this tutorial
   
   
2. You can download one of their custom built templates and personalize it on your own computer using your own web building program such as' NVU'
   
   
3. You can design and build your site completely from scratch yourself on your computer then upload it to your account at 000webhost - for experienced web site builders mostly.

This Tutorial only covers option 1/ in any detail, so if you decide to go with either options 2 or 3, then you will need to explore those further yourself.

Regardless of which option you choose to use, it is always best to first plan out on paper the basic structure and content of your website. Decide on what pages you need, what their names and titles will be and also what keywords and descriptions you will insert into the meta tags.

For more information on the subject of key words and title tags etc, click here.

Using the Sitebuilder function is the quickest way to get a website up and running.

To do this, simply login to your 000webhost account, select your domain name and go to the 'CPanel'.

Once you're in CPanel, scroll down till you see the Website Builder icon:

This will take you to the sitebuilder start page where you select your template by following the link in section 1 which leads you through the process of previewing and selecting a template for your website.

Once you have selected the layout you like, it will install the necessary files into your account ready for you to customise your website. You are now ready and able to edit/build your new web site using the link under section 3.

The editing/building process in Sitebuilder is simple yet comprehensive and with some time and thought you can create a very good website. Due to obvious copyright issues, it is beyond this tutorial to teach you how to use the sietbuilder functions in detail - this I have to leave up to you to learn from their help menus if you need them.

At first use, it may seem difficult to add, change or modify some of the template features, but I assure you that with practice and experimentation, there is alot of flexibility and ability to customize their templates and your website. Patience and persistance always pays off.

Once you have built your website you are 'on the net' and live with your own website - Congratulations!

You can go back and update, change and improve your website anytime you like, but keep in mind that if you decide to change the template design of your website, any new template you choose (by revisiting the link in section1 above) will overwrite your existing website and require you to rebuild from scratch.

And that's all there is to the easiest way to own your own website for under $10.

BUT WAIT! Building a website is the easy part. The hardest part of having a website is getting people to visit it - believe me. With more web pages on the net than there are people on this planet, being found is harder than you think. Marketing your website and making people aware that it exists can be another whole job in itself so I recommend visiting the following website to get you started:
www.marketing.insites.co.nz/traffic.html

You may also want to read 'Internet Marketing Secrets' - eBook or simply google 'Website promotion' for tips and ideas on spreading the word about your website.

However you go about it, promoting your website is vital if you want your website to be of any benefit to you or your business.

If using their sitebuilder is not to your liking, you can go to www.000webhost.com homepage and on the right hand navigation bar towards the bottom you'll see a link called 'Website Templates'. You'll also find these templates available in your CPanel. Click on this link and you will be given a wide range of categories to surf through to select a template that you think will fit your preferred website style. Download the template onto your computer and save it into a folder where you can file all your website files.

You will also need a website building program to edit the template. If you already have one, excellent. If you don't there are some good free applications such as NVU, and you can check out other programs at www.bellsandwhistles.com. If you can get a copy of the commercial program 'Dreamweaver' all the better, but it is not necessary to have an expensive, top shelf product just to edit templates.

Modifying templates will require some basic knowledge of html code and possibly even using CSS. If you need to, take the time to go through some html tutorials at www.thesitewizard.com

Once you are ready to edit the template, it's really just a matter of opening the template in your web site building application and modifying the text, links and image place holders to reflect your own personal content. Make a new page for each page you require for your website and when all done you'll need to upload all your new pages and their content to your account at 000.webhost.com.

Do this using either the ftp function of your web editor or by logging into your account at 000.webhost.com, going to cPanel, selecting file manager (which will ask you to log in again) and opening the folder 'public_html'. You can then click the upload button to select and upload all the files associated with your pages.
The required server and login details you will need if uploading via the ftp function can be found at 000.webhost.com under the 'view account details' icon on CPanel and will look something like this:

If you are experienced at building websites from scratch with a web application you can simply build the site as you please and simply upload it to 000.webhost.com as your free hosting server. Keep in mind though that with a free account you may not have all the available features or abilities that complex websites often need. In this case you can always upgrade to a paid hosting plan that will have whatever features and resources you need.

Whatever strategy you use with 000webhost.com, I'm almost certain that you'll be pleased with their great service.

Pros and Cons of free website hosting.

Like everything in life, different people require different things and different companies provide different services. Likewise, free webhosting services will not suit everyone and has a few drawbacks that one must consider before using them. They also of course provide a service that is fantastic for many people and is of huge benefit and help especially to those starting out in the Internet world.

Benefits of free hosting at 000webhost.com:

1/ It's free and costs nothing but your time to set it up and build a website. So if you're on a limited or zero budget, this is a great way to get started.

2/ Can use your own personalized domain name for your website rather than 'piggy-backing' on another domain name.

3/ Comes with website building facility so that anyone can build a great looking site without having to know about much html coding and stuff like that.

4/ Does not have banner or pop-up ads to detract from your content and annoy visitors.

5/ Comes with the 'Fantastico' script installer for one click installation of Blogs, Forums, CMS, and Photo Galleries for your websites.

6/ With 250mb of disk space, you have plenty of space for a significantly large website.

7/ Has an affiliate program so you can earn some extra dollars by recommending their service.

Limitations of free hosting:

1/ You cannot take your website with you if you wish to change hosting companies. If you have used their template system and site builder to build your site, it is integrated into their servers and cannot be copied and used elsewhere.

2/ Does not provide functions for shopping cart systems (to sell multiple products) or data base requirements. (You can however use 'buy now' buttons for selling individual products).
So if you are wanting a full blown business site with online shopping and a product data base, you will need to upgrade to a paid plan.

3/ Technical support may be on the slow side as they give priority to paid accounts.

4/ Free accounts may be hosted on slower servers than the paying accounts, although I have never found free sites hosted at 000webhost.com to be slow at all.

5/ Free hosting companies have in the past be known to go broke and close shop without warning, thus leaving you with no website. 000webhost.com however is supported by a parent company with other income streams so is unlikely to fall into this category.

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IN CONCLUSION:

Registering your own domain name then hosting a free website for it at 000webhost.com is the easiest way to get on the net for next to nothing. It's great starting point and will help you start learning the in's and out's of web design and owning your own piece of internet real estate.

I wish you the best of success in all your web site bulding and internet ventures.

David Jones.

PS. Comments, questions or feedback can be emailed to me here