Create Free Web Page

From LoveToKnow Web-Design

Whether you are a business owner or just someone who wants a web page that your friends and family can keep up with your day-to-day life, you need a home on the Internet; but why pay money when you can create free web pages?

Not as Complicated as it Seems

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) has been around since there have been web pages. It is the language that your browser reads and interprets in order to show you the web page as it was designed to look. Don’t let that intimidate you. Web pages can now be made without knowing a single line of code and what’s more is that no one looking at it could ever tell that you did not go to school for it. Is it helpful to learn basic HTML? Of course, but it is not required.

How do You Want it to Look

The first thing you should do is decide what you want your page to look like. Once you have formulated an idea of how you want your web page to look begin searching free designs so you won’t waste time trudging through things that you really are not interested in.

Graphics

Graphics are another thing to consider. If you are good in Photoshop then you can create your own buttons, navigational bars and the like to adorn your home on the web. If you are not adept at graphics, you can find thousands of free resources on the Internet that will provide you with a ton of images that you are free to use.

What Do You Have to Say

What type of content do you want on your web site? Maybe you have a small store and you want to sell a few things so you would need an order page. If you are a college student, maybe you want to put up a daily blog of what you are doing. If you have pictures, you may want a different page for that. Once you have these things mapped out, you can start making your pages.

Create Free Web Pages with Templates

Templates are a new web designer’s best friend. These little gems can be found free all over the Internet. They allow you a “boxed” design to edit as long as you keep a link back to the person who created it or the site where it was hosted. You don’t need much in order to edit templates. You can pick up plenty of free web-design software packages, trials of web-design software or even edit them through Microsoft Notepad.

These are some great sources for web design software:

Microsoft FrontPage – This is probably the most used program for web design that is on the market today
DreamWeaver – There are many templates created specifically for DreamWeaver
WebPlus Website Design Software – 100% free software unless you want to upgrade
Personal Web Kit – Yet another free software program that costs money to upgrade to a better version

Some web hosters like Homestead give you the ability to create free web pages by supplying you with a built-in web site builder. This can save a lot of time but you aren’t free to design to your liking as you can with using templates. So where can you find templates? Follow some of the resources below:

FlashMo – This website offers free flash templates. The downside is that to edit them you will need a flash editor
Free Website Templates – One of the premiere sources for free templates as it offers some very simple designs to get your feet wet or some very advanced versions using flash and style sheets
Templates Box – Limited amount of free templates but enough to choose from to keep your site interesting

With any template, you can customize. Some of them will come with filled in header graphics or ads to their creator. You can edit these images with Photoshop or another graphic program.

One rule is never become discouraged. If this is your first web site, you have a large learning curve and it takes time to learn about Flash, CGI, JavaScript and Style Sheets. For now, you can get started by using one of the thousands of free templates. When you pick one and download it, use your design software to open the HTML files.

Hosting your Site

Now that you have your web site created and ready to go on the Internet you will need a place to host it. A quick search on Google for “free web site host” will net you hundreds of hosting sites. Free hosters come with free ads tacked on your web site code so keep that in mind.

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