How to Create a Free Website ?
Everyone likes something for nothing, but should you really create a free website? For you to build, design and promote a new website, your start up website development cost is very minimal since many of the tools are free. This article is not to discourage you from wanting to create a free website using any of the free hosting providers but show you the disadvantages, especially if you are wanting to make money on the internet.

Disadvantages

1. Space very limited to create web pages
2. May have promotional banners and/or pop ads on all (or many) of your pages
3. Difficult to remember web address (instead of yourdomain.com)
4. No guarantees of site availability and longevity (here today, gone tomorrow)
5. No branded emails addresses (you@yourdomain.com)
6. Lack of help and support options (if any)
7. Unable to add interactive features (chat rooms, message boards, games, online ordering etc.)
8. Search engines often ignore these sites (A HUGE disadvantage to try to make money online)
9. Visitors may doubt your credibility and professionalism
10. May not be free forever
11. Unable to join a lot of the affiliate programs to make money online

Advantages

1. Easy to remember website address (yourdomain.com)
2. No banners or popups
3. Multiple branded email addresses (you@yourdomain.com)
4. Plenty of web page space for site expansion
5. No worries of site being removed unexpectedly
6. Looks more professional and adds credibility
7. Easier to get listed in search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask etc.)
8. You have complete control over look and feel of your website
9. More flexibility for design, creativity and functionality
10. Help is readily available
11. Able to get into any affiliate program or use advertising to cover costs.

Plan Your Website - Identify your intended audience, define the purpose of your site, create a draft for each web pages, specify your start date and update frequency, and select a host. What are you going to say? Content is the hardest, most time-consuming part of any Website development project. When do you want to start your site? How often do you plan on updating your site? Where are you going to host your site? Choosing the right hosting service depends on your individual requirements.

Design Your Site - Visual appearance is the first thing a visitor sees upon entering a Website. The use of colors, consistency, content, graphics, navigation and Web style all work together toward creating an effective Website. Draw an organizational chart by hand of your site. This should show how your pages are linked to one another, your navigation scheme.

Code Your Website - As mentioned above, there are three ways you can create a Webpage:

1. Use a pre-made HTML template.
2. Use an HTML editor.
3. Use a text editor such as Notepad and write your own HTML code.

If your Website is hosted on a UNIX/LINUX system, check the case of your file names. UNIX/LINUX host are case-sensitive (the file index.html is different from one named Index.html). In addition, html files on a UNIX/LINUX host must end with an .html extension, not .htm

Upload Files - FTP is most commonly used to download a file from a server (host) using the Internet or to upload files to a host. If you don't have a FTP program, you will need one. Here are some of the more poplar free FTP programs. FileZilla This free, open-source FTP application is handy if you're looking for a basic tool to handle FTP transfers and don't want to part with your bucks. Core FTP LE A free FTP Client with user-friendly interface. AceFTP Is the easiest-to-use free FTP client software available for transferring files over the Internet.

Test & validate your site - Check your Web pages against the formal standard published by the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), check your Web pages for broken links and identify spelling errors. Various validation services are available for free.

Promote Your Site - To promote your Website you need to add your Webpage title, meta description and meta keywords. Create a text file containing your promotion data. Select your search engines and directories. Add your URL. Maintain records of all your promotion actions. Add an e-mail signature file. Promote your Website off-line. Promote your Website as often as possible.

Maintain Your Site - For your Website to be a success you must maintain it. If you expect visitors to return, you must provide them with something new, correct errors and keep your site up to date. In addition, you must continue to monitor your search engine ranking, continue to promote your Website and find out who is linking to your site.