Creating a free website blog CMS or forum
Why would you want to create a free website?
- I want to learn how to program websites
- I want to have a good website where I can post my articles
- I want to earn money online
- I want to be a part of my OWN community
- I do not want to waste money on a project that might not be successful
- I still need to learn a lot before I jump to paid hosting
- I just do not want to pay for a website
Determine what you want to host.
First you should be asking yourself, what kind of website do I want to have? The question is pretty simple, but the answer might be a bit more difficult. If you want to learn web programming languages the answer is easy : “My self made custom website!” But you do not need to learn any programming languages to manage a website. There are a lot of options for people without programming knowledge. You will need to search a suitable free web host, keep in mind that if you want to host a cms,blog or forum you could just search a host that offers a script collection and automatic script installer, this will get you started immediately and without any manual configuration or programming. If you want to host your own custom website you should think about further expansions you want to make. Make sure you pick a host that allows all the scripting languages you want to use. All free hosting services always claim to be the best. But don’t believe everything they say. It’s not possible for any free web service to have a 99% uptime guarantee, some hosts even offer unlimited disk storage and bandwidth. Keep in mind that nothing is unlimited in free web hosting, when the server is to crowded and there are no limitations on bandwidth the server will have loads of downtime, slow processing of client pages, and other problems.
Content management systems (CMS)
You could for example install a content management system on your free web space. A CMS is much like a blog, but far more advanced. You do not need to do any programming, just install the CMS and start adding and managing content! Most CMS software uses MYSQL and PHP so make sure you sign up with a host that allows PHP scripting and supports mysql databases. A good free CMS is Drupal or Joomla You could install the CMS manually but if you do not want to waste an hour configuring your installation you can look for a free web host that offers a script collection and a script installer like Fantastico on Cpanel or Ivista on Vistapanel. These installers will automatically install the chosen CMS on your web space.
Blogs
Ofcourse you could just sign up with a free blogging website like wordpress.org, but it’s a bit more professional to install blogging software on a free web hosting service. There are load’s of advantages, All free web hosts offer some sort of control panel where you can view in-depth statistics for your whole website. This way you can also chose a suitable subdomain, which is far more convincing than any subdomain a free blogging site might offer you. Not to mention that you can not add other scripts or html on free blogging sub domains. When you install blogging software on a free web host you will never get stuck, the options are endless! Again you can manually install free blogging software, but most free web hosts offer automatic installation for blogging systems, recommended is wordpress!
Forums
You can start your own forum, for free on a free web host! Manual installation is possible, but ofcourse automatic installation trough a script installer is a more likely choice. Good free forum software : SMF or MyBB MyBB is oftenly included in script collections offered by free hosts.
