How To Create A Free Website Now
This article shows you how to create your (free) Website with WordPress software right away! We also recommend paid Web Hosts we use and trust.
Skip to “Create A Free Website Now” below for two services that give you a free, easy-to-set-up WordPress Website. For paid hosting read “Create a Self-Hosted WordPress Website” and “Recommended Web Hosts” below.
Do You Need A Website Now?
I’ll make you a Website or help you to make your own. Here are my services and Introductory Prices. Here are my client testimonials.
You’re welcome to ask me questions about your project.
Just email me for your Free Consultation!
WordPress Makes Creating Websites Easier
After learning the basics of WordPress, you can create a WordPress Website using a WordPress Theme. The WordPress Theme contains a predesigned Website and its associated code, so you don’t have to know design or coding.
To create your Website, Install WordPress if it isn’t already, and choose your Theme. After changing the Site Name and other information, enter or paste in your own content. When your content is in and everything works, your Website is complete!
Read “Learning The Basics of WordPress” below for resources containing WordPress tutorials.
Learning The Basics of WordPress
It’s impractical to start using WordPress without first learning how it works. And to be confident your new WordPress Website is set up with the ideal configuration, you’ll need a written guide or an experienced helper.
Learn WordPress Online
To learn WordPress at home most use online courses, YouTube videos, tutorial articles, and free online forums. To learn a function, a quick Web search often yields written instructions or a video that answers the question. Below are resources I recommend.
WordPress.com/learn
WordPress.com Courses contain a Quick Launch instructional and other information to help you create your Website. Their site contains extensive tutorials and links to WordPress.com’s YouTube Channel.
WordPress 101
WordPress 101 produces excellent WordPress video tutorials. Their library includes basic WordPress, and courses on using different premium themes.
You can watch their WordPress 101 course for free and without registering at https://wp101.com/course/wordpress101/. Their monthly price is $12 and they offer a 7-day Free Trial.
WPBeginner.com
WPBeginner.com explains WordPress methods and tools in simple language for beginners. It’s an excellent site whose articles often come up in Web searches.
Here’s an article at WPBeginner.com on learning the basics of WordPress.
Learning Web Design and Development
A determined person investing enough study time can generally learn to design and build WordPress Websites in a few months. If that’s your goal, I strongly suggest taking courses intended to create marketable skills. So when you sit down to create, you’ll already know HTML, CSS and basic Javascript, how to lay out a page, and how to plan a Website. Below are suggestions for online study.
LinkedIn Learning (Formerly Lynda.com)
LinkedIn Learning bought the former Lynda.com, an excellent study center I used extensively. Their instructors are successfully employed in their respective industries and teach from beginner to advanced levels.
Envato Tuts+ YouTube Channel
I’m watching this YouTube Web Design tutorial I completed years ago as I redesign my production methods. You can’t learn every skill needed from this three-hour tutorial. Yet watching the instructor explain what he’s doing while he creates a Website will give you a good idea of the process.
Create A Free Website Now
Use the links below to Just Dive In! You’ll have to learn a few basics but you can do that while exploring your new free account. The services listed directly below are further discussed in the following section.
Try WordPress Free
Scroll down to read the details of these two services. Or you can click one and create a free account.
- WordPress.com (Free and paid Web Host) (Quick way to try WordPress)
- InstaWP.com (Free and paid) (Quick way to try WordPress)
Get A Hosted WordPress Website
Read “Create A Self-Hosted WordPress Website” below to learn about types of hosting. Read “Recommended Web Hosts” further below for details of these Web Hosts. Or just click one and open an account.
- GreenGeeks.com (Paid Web Host)
- DreamHost.com (Paid Web Host)
- WP Engine.com (Paid Web Host)
Create A Free Website at WordPress.com
One way is to create an account at WordPress.com (not WordPress.org) and let them host your Website. You’ll choose a theme and upload your content. You’ll need an email account to sign up. If you want a custom domain, you’ll need a credit or debit card and about $10 to register the domain, even if you choose Free Hosting.
At the very least, you’ll find out if WordPress suits you. WordPress.com offers free and paid Websites. It’s great!
InstaWP.com (below) is quicker if you just want to try the WordPress interface.
Create A Free Temporary Website at InstaWP.com
InstaWP.com is a Website that creates temporary WordPress Websites quickly so you can test themes and Websites, or to quickly try WordPress. You can export your completed site to a Web Host or pay to keep it live. InstaWP.com’s paid plans let you create non-expiring Websites and templates for quickly launching new sites. Website creators use InstaWP.com for prototyping, and move their new creations to one of many Web Hosts, including the Hosts below.
Create a Self-Hosted WordPress Website
Another way to create a Website is to buy a Hosting account, install WordPress on it, choose a theme and upload your content. Web Hosts typically (or even universally) offer a one-click installation of WordPress. So you’ll have to read the instructions and learn a few steps. Please see below for Web Hosts I recommend.
What type of Web Hosting should I get?
Which Host is right for your project? That depends on your budget, your audience size, how much downtime will cost you, etc. You can compare types of Web Hosting at the companies listed in “Recommended Web Hosts” below.
Business Web Hosting
A business WordPress Website is expected to be fast and reliable. Three common choices are:
- A VPS (Virtual Private Server)
- A computer created in software, that runs on an actual hardware computer. It behaves like a hardware computer but is far less expensive.
- Managed WordPress
- A Managed WordPress account is optimized to serve WordPress Website pages fast, and is maintained by a technical staff.
- Cloud Hosting
- Cloud Hosting is a computer created software like a VPS, but uses more recent technology.
Prices for each of these start at about $30 per Website, except that a VPS or Cloud may allow you to create multiple sites.
I suggest paying for Managed WordPress Hosting for your company Website, and other sites you want monitored and kept running. If you’d like to run multiple business Websites, a VPS or Cloud Hosting are less expensive than Managed Hosting for each one.
Shared Web Hosting
For learning WordPress on a budget and being able to create multiple sites, you might use Shared Hosting. It’s inexpensive but slower than the above, and may not promise as much reliability. Shared Hosting shares hardware resources across different customers’ Websites, so if things get busy, all the Websites may slow down.
You can run Web businesses on shared hosting but a VPS, Cloud Hosting or Managed WordPress runs faster, and have their own resources.
You’re welcome to contact me for a Free Consultation.
Recommended Web Hosts
Three Web Hosts I’ve used and recommend are GreenGeeks.com, DreamHost.com and WPEngine.com. WordPress.com is also a popular host, if a bit expensive.
GreekGeeks.com
GreenGeeks.com is so green they’ll plant a tree when you buy some accounts. They offer VPS Hosting, WordPress Hosting (Optimized but not Managed) and Shared Hosting. They are a well-regarded Web Host with competitive pricing when signing up for a year. GreenGeeks.com also uses the cPanel Control Panel for their hosting accounts, rather than their own control panel. Some prefer cPanel because they’ve already learned it and many other hosts use it.
DreamHost.com
I’ve used a DreamHost.com VPS (Virtual Private Server) for about a year and recommend the company. DreamHost.com is affordable, offers VPS, Cloud, and Shared Hosting. Email is included with VPS and Shared Hosting accounts. I have come to trust the company for their service selection, support and their business practices. They created their own Control Panel and don’t use cPanel.
WPEngine.com
WPEngine.com is a large Web Hosting company specializing in Managed WordPress Websites. WPEngine.com handles high-traffic Websites (including the NY Times) and are a good candidate for commercial sites. Their Web Servers are very fast, so your pages will load fast.
When creating a high-traffic Website, find out what the bandwidth cost will be in advance. It can become expensive.
WordPress.com (Paid Option)
As discussed above, WordPress.com offers free and paid Websites. If you’ve created your free Website there, you might find it convenient to buy their paid version. WordPress.com’s paid hosting is reputable but a bit expensive in my opinion.
I Hope This Helped
Even when you know how to create a WordPress Website, there’s nearly always a bit of figuring out, troubleshooting, and trying something new. A Website is both a graphic presentation and a complicated machine. So I hope I have outlined how you can create a Website, and how much work it might be.
Do You Need A Website Now?
I’ll make you a Website or help you to make your own. Here are my services and Introductory Prices. Here are my client testimonials.
You’re welcome to ask me questions about your project.