Links for Making Your First Web Site Without Paying a Dime
Are you eager to get into web development, but aren't necessarily ready to invest anything in it? This guide has links to guide you through the entire process… from learning the code to finding a web host.
Making the Site
First off, you want to create the site. These links are primarily for creating it from scratch rather than using a CMS.
Learn the Code
Many purists will argue that the best way to make a site is to actually learn the code by hand. These resources are great for learning the core HTML and CSS technologies.
- The basics of Cascasding Style Sheets - A great guide to lead you through learning CSS.
- Tizag - A site that has easy to follow tutorials on many parts of web design. You an get a quick start by using the beginner tutorial.
- W3Schools - is a site similar to Tizag, though it may not be as easy for some. W3Schools' strength is that it makes it easy to try out techniques as you learn them.
Make the Graphics
If you want to make great sites, then sometimes it helps to be able to make great graphics. Here are some image editors that may be useful.
- Inkscape - Inkscape is a powerful vector graphics editor and the only one I recommend. For Linux, OS X, and Windows.
- Krita - A "painting and image editing program" similar to Paint.NET. For Linux.
- Paint.NET - A newer raster graphics editor. This editor should not be compared with Paint, as it is much more powerful, though not as much as other packages available. For Windows and possibly other OS's using Mono.
- The GIMP - The most popular free raster image editor is also a very powerful one, though it takes time to learn. This is my editor of choice. For Linux, with OS X and Windows ports available.
Templates
If you have trouble designing sites from scratch, you may wish to use freely available templates online, though they may not be unique at first. However, with enough customizing you can generally fine tune the templates to the point where they bear no resemblance to the original, making this an often preferred route.
- Free Website Templates from Andreas Viklund - Some free templates from an excellent designer
- Open Design Community - A site of many great looking designs, though I have never personally used them.
- Open Source Web Design - Although it is no longer accepting new designs, OSWD is an excellent place to find templates.
- Open Web Design - A new community of designs that rose up in the place of OSWD.
Text editors
More advanced text editors can really help your productivity if you are designing by hand.
- Geany - An advanced text editor with a basic IDE than is great for web development. Recommended by "toiletdude" in the comments below. For Linux with limited Windows support.
- Kate - A great text editor with many advanced features. My personal favorite is the ability to upload directly with FTP. My personal favorite. For Linux.
- Notepad++ - An editor that goes the extra mile to be useful. For Windows, though it works well under Linux with WINE.
- PSPad - A text editor that supports many of the same things as Kate, though more powerful in some regards. For Windows.
WYSIWYG creators
If HTMl and CSS just aren't for you, then you may want to use a WYSIWYG, or "What you see is what you get" editor. Making sites in these is as easy as making a document with a word processor (which one of the below is!).
- KompoZer - One of the easiest and most complete free WYSIWYG's available. This project came from the no longer updated Nvu. For Linux, OS X, and Windows.
- OpenOffice.org - Although it is an entire office suite, the Writer part (word processor) doubles as an HTML editor. For Linux, OS X, and Windows.
- Quanta Plus - An advanced editor that also has some WYSIWYG features that is better for advanced users. My choice for when I do WYSIWYG work. For Linux.
- Seamonkey - A full Internet suite that also includes the Composer HTML editor. For Linux, OS X, and Windows.
Testing
Now you should probably make sure the site in different browsers to make sure it works okay.
- Browsershots - A site that gathers screenshots of your websites across different browsers and OS's.
- IE Tab - A Firefox extension that embeds Internet Explorer into Firefox for quick testing.
- IEs4Linux - A script for Linux that installs several versions of Internet Explorer using WINE.
- W3C Markup Validation Service - A utility to make sure that your mark-up is valid. Most browsers should be able to render valid mark-up the same, but this isn't always true in practice.
Hosting
After you create a site, you need to host it so that the world can see it. Sadly, hosting is sometihng that you may want to pay for, but we'll explore the best ways to get free hosting and the things related.
Free Web Hosts
First off, we want to actually get the free web host. Here are a few free ones that don't have ads, but there are likely many more available.
- 110MB - A free web host with more features than I have seen at some paid sites.
- 50 Webs - A simple and reliable host, though a tad bit short on features.
- FreeShells.ch - A Unix shell that offers free web hosting as well. Only for advanced users!
- Freewebs - A host more aimed at beginning users. If you are lazy, you want to head here first.
Free domains
To help improve your image, you may wish to have an actual domain or short subdomain instead of what free web hosts give you by default. However, options here are often not as grand as paying for a domain. Domains can be tricky if you don't buy a domain initially because it's a pain to move later. Some things, such as pagerank, may take months to reclaim if you aren't careful, so this may be the one place where you pay.
- co.nr - A site that gives you a .co.nr name.
- Domain Lagoon - A site that eventually lets you get a free .com, though it's not too easy. Jarek has been able to do this before.
- .tk - The only site I know of that you can easily get an actual domain name with. However, it places advertisements on the site. Uses the .tk extension.
- uni.cc - uni.cc, unlike co.nr and .tk, actually works like a regular domain in that you can link to pages within it. However, not all web hosts support this. From the list above, 100MB and 50 Webs do.
FTP Clients
For some web hosts you will need to use FTP to upload your files.
- Cyberduck - A new type FTP client that integrates well with Mac OS X.
- Filezilla - A great FTP program that also has a server version. For Linux, OS X, and Windows.
- FireFTP - A Firefox extension for uploading to FTP, instead of only downloading which is included by default. For all OS's where Firefox runs.
- gFTP - An easy to use FTP client. Nothing special, but it does the job. For Linux.
In Conclusion
Hopefully you can get up and going on your first website without investing a dime, though you may want to later for a decent host and domain. I am open to more suggestions if you have them!
This is definitely a good list of sites for every new webmasters, I am sure it is going to help lots of new webmaster to get their first website online.
great list!
Although, you should add Geany to the list under editors. It's a great one for linux (and i believe it's cross-platform.)
@Toiletdude: Thanks for the suggestion! I added it to the list.
Don't forget Aptana. It's a port of eclipse (popular Java IDE) specialized for web development including syntax completion for XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and AJAX libraries. It also supports FTP and SFTP uploading, and is available on all major platforms. Community Edition is open source, and has everything you need.
For testing the page, there's some other great extensions…
Web Developer toolbar - real-time CSS editor and waaaay more
HTML validator - instantly checks page with W3C validation and Tidy support
FireBug - JavaScript / AJAX tool
Check my upcoming book
XHTML / CSS / JavaScript / PHP / MySQL / AJAX All in One for Dummies. Every single technology used in the book is free.
There's no reason at all to buy any expensive software for web development.
@twoPi: I was planning on doing an article in the future about different web development IDE's. There are many of these and I would like to give them each more in depths reviews than in this article. Also, I'll take a look at those extensions; thanks!
Nice list!..thanks for sharing..it's really a big help..^^
how about smartftp? it's very very very good
@Joy: I'm glad the article helped! Let me know if you have any questions.
@Dave: I've personally heard of a lot of bad things with SmartFTP, so I've stayed clear of it. Whenever I here problems, I just point people to Filezilla.
Why learn all the codes when you can get a free web site when you buy a domain?
@George, I'm not entirely sure what you are saying. Are you asking what the point of learning how to make a website is? Its so you can make the website you want.
@George: (extension of what jarek said) The domain may give you web hosting, but you will still need to build the site. Even if the site in question gives you a free site builder, you can usually make a better site by learning the code or even use a more complete WYSIWYG solution.
Thanks for the link! I will release a series of new templates within a couple of days, including a couple of designs that are aimed at beginners starting from scratch. This was a very good collection of basic "getting started" links, so I will make sure to recommend it with the new templates.
I've seen my share of free tasty web hosts with a truckload of features, all of them were in some kind of maintenance mode which was communicated to you after you clicked the "sign up" button. These sites are very fishy as why would they offer something they pay for freely and I'm not sure what the digg waves would do to their servers. Go for a cheap $5/month host, if you can find a better offer let everybody know, I've got a $6 /month plan and I'll change as soon as it expires.
@Andreas: I'm glad you liked the article. I've personally always been a fan of your designs and I look forward to the new ones. Also, thanks in advance for the link!
@Karl: I listed sites that I know will last because they've already been around for a few years. I have at some point used them personally as well. Yes, I agree that paid hosting can be better, but I do know some people that run simply domain'd sites with 50webs in particular. Free hosts can work for your site in some circumstances.
Thanks for the help. Mom's been buggin me about making her a website (since I'm the computer nerd of the family!) But, since she took off Firefox, I might not make it anymore! Well, thanks anyway!
@Charles: Hope it can help! By the way, for Firefox, you could always just install the Portable version on a jump drive or even burn it on a CD. It's slow to load, but plenty fast to use.
i love you g
Ahh I've always wondered about free hosting and domain. I tried before and failed so decided to pay, it's a lot easier. Thanks.
Nice list. Those using WYSIWYG editors should be careful. Some of those programs add a lot of junk code to your files.
Man, this is great to have all these free products listed here. Once I get a new computer at home, I'll have to look into installing some of the open source apps you mentioned.
Also, for FTP on Mac OS, you can get a good free version of "Transmit". It's been working good for me so far.
great tips! I found this on stumbleupon, and fav'ed it of course! I'll check out some of these links, thanks.
http://ich4z.blogspot.com
[…] Jatecblog propose brièvement quelques liens pour le futur webmaster qui voudrait monter gratuitement un site web (éditeur, hébergeur, design etc.). On peut le prndre comme un petit rappel de sites/logicels basiques pour tout créer de vos p'tites mains. […]
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[…] Build a Website Without Paying a Dime: Are you totally broke and need a website to start your online venture? Check out this great […]
Ever notice in FF when you click on the left hand side and everything becomes selected ?
If you change your #wrap style to :
overflow:visible;
it will solve that problem…
Not sure what it will break but it's something that I have had to fix on my sites…
Thats a very nice list!
Surely one of the best I've seen to date!
Notepad also has built in FTP, or at least the version I use does. Its my fav because it does so much more than just Web Dev
This is a great list! I have recently opened a web hosting business. I am a huge open source advocate and I used to develop with Yoper Linux when I had the time. If you want to find a reasonable web host that likes to promote Linux, and Open source please consider using thesuntree web hosting.
You can check us out at thesuntree.com
My name is Walter and I am the owner of the company. We have only been around for a few months so we may not be as fancy as some of the others out there but we will do everything we can to make things good for you. Give us a shot. Thanks,
Walter
Another Mac FTP freebee is Cyberduck. Piece of cake to use, simple drag & drop.
I followed your tips and created and uploaded a great little webpage in a day! I am amazed at how easy it is, thank you!
huggkruka.110mb.com !!!!
These are some awesome resources, but you left off the free sites that are based on site builders!
My absolute favorite site builder is Site Kreator. It's the most intuitive, easy-to-use site builder I've found, and the basic version is free. You can't assign a domain name to the free version, though. The other versions have amazing capabilities (like you can manage forums, member areas, opt-ins and newsletters and more) that are just as easy to implement.
Another free site builder I use a lot is Microsoft Office Live. With their basic version, you get a free domain name and free hosting for life. It actually has some decent capabilites for free - I have over a dozen Office Live sites.
People who don't have any web development background are usually a lot better off going with a site builder. I have a few other low cost ones listed at Low Hanging Loot
Hope this helps!
Jake,
I actually want to learn all this and more, however due to work situations as well as family ones too…I am not able to learn for a couple of years and then start, nor am I in a position to do a "starter" page and then progress. I have functional ideas and need advanced and "right now" going ability and then the learning is possible. I have a scope of work to submit and see if you are interested. Actually, I hope you will help me. My work email = btrupp@customcolor.com please let me know,
Thanks,
Bob
can i make a website
Very useful. I had bookmarked this excellent list a yaer ago, I think: now that I'm tackling my web sitre I'm very glad I've found it again.
Thank you.
looks good