I need to learn to make a website/ need a website.

[licisik]

I have no skills in coding or what so ever.


but im always eager to learn!


I just want to have a simple yet pretty cool FREE website.


It'll be a website of my portfolio. My artworks/videos/etcs


Do you guys know anyplace where i can get a free website?


SO far i'm looking at http://www.weebly.com/


but im just concerned about the url.. i don't want "something.weebly.com

 

[gruso]

The 'anonym' referrer threw a malware warning on my PC so I've removed it from the URL. (Probably not a concern, Trend Micro is a little skittish.)


On the topic, I don't know if there is a way to have your cake and eat it too (ie. your own domain name and 100% free.) But if you're just looking to host a creative portfolio, there are plenty of sites that are perfectly 'normal' to use. A domain name with .weebly or .tumblr or .wordpress in it won't make you look terrible. Content is the important thing.


I know there are other free services aimed at what you're doing, names don't come to mind right now.

 

[vadsamoht]

I've looked into this myself, and Gruso is right - you can't get absolutely everything for free. That said, If you're willing to compromise and buy your own domain name, then there are a lot of options I could recommend.

 

[licisik]

I've looked into this myself, and Gruso is right - you can't get absolutely everything for free. That said, If you're willing to compromise and buy your own domain name, then there are a lot of options I could recommend.

is there a way that i can buy my own domain name for not so much money (broke college student) and not have a monthly pay on it?

 

[vadsamoht]

You normally have to pay around 10-15 USD per year.


EDIT: The amount depends on your host, and how long you register the domain for (longer=cheaper)

 

[licisik]

oh okay


ive been looking at this.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/FyIeXnD_1Ho?feature=oembed

and its very simple and clear, im just worried about like the coding and such because I'm making it for my art portfolio so i dont know exactly how i'll be able to do it.


I was looking at wordpress.com and it seems p cool and free with downloadable themes, just little annoyed on what the url will be haha

 

[licisik]

im actually really looking at this.


http://webstarts.com/


have you heard of it?


nvm cost is over 50 bucks yearly so cant do it. If its around 14-15 dollars for a year for two i can do that but i want it to also have my own personal url and pre loaded with themes so i dont have to deal with coding.

 

[licisik]

nvm i think i got it

 

[vadsamoht]

OK, Several things:

1. I can help you with hosting, but that is different to having a domain name. You don't really need either, but a domain name means you don't have yourname.someothersite.com, as you mentioned earlier.
   
2. Web design is not hard, but options like WordPress and many others are good too. Again, I can point you to some reliable placesp, but you really need to decide exactly what you want.
   

 

[licisik]

i have finals this week but im definitely looking at weebly. I just don't like their pre-desgined themes.


After i have all this school stuff finished im going to really start diving into it. Thank you for all your help!


Edit: i had to edit this post like 5 times and im p sure ive used the word "like" in every sentence so im sorry haha! its 3 in the morning and i should be studying!

 

[Prometheus]

I've previously found wordpress.com to be very good, myself - the software's nice and flexible, and it seems to be well-suited for showcasing your work (you can just set up a selection of pages with optional sharing/"like" buttons, instead of using it to make blog posts, and integrate a widget to display the most recent Tweets from a Twitter account if you have one, and so on). They also have some domain name offers, that are displayed to you when you're logged in to your Dashboard.


On the freebie front, there are also always (ad-funded) URL-forwarding/shortening services (for example, vze.com), although those are essentially just shorter versions of the whatever.whatever.com issue, in the end...

 

[diligentcircle]

If you're looking for a top-level domain, there's of course .tk (free TLD) and .co.nr (technically a sub-domain of Nauru's country code, but not particularly noticeable). Both of these just redirect to your real URL, perhaps masking it with the redirect one.


Of course, you can also shell out some cash to get an actual TLD for your website. I don't know if you noticed, but on Weebly, domain names are payed yearly, not monthly. They're separate from "Weebly Pro". The most expensive it gets on Weebly is $40 a year (that's if you buy it for one year), which is still expensive for a domain name (I think), but you can also buy a domain name from somewhere else.


Other than Weebly, you may also want to take a look at 000webhost. It's a bit more complicated to use than Weebly, but it offers more control.

 

[Blue Protoman]

You can buy the domain name and use it with a website engine that requires no coding, like IMcreator or Weebly. IMcreator costs money to use a domain you already own, though.

 

[licisik]

If you're looking for a top-level domain, there's of course .tk (free TLD) and .co.nr (technically a sub-domain of Nauru's country code, but not particularly noticeable). Both of these just redirect to your real URL, perhaps masking it with the redirect one.


Of course, you can also shell out some cash to get an actual TLD for your website. I don't know if you noticed, but on Weebly, domain names are payed yearly, not monthly. They're separate from "Weebly Pro". The most expensive it gets on Weebly is $40 a year (that's if you buy it for one year), which is still expensive for a domain name (I think), but you can also buy a domain name from somewhere else.


Other than Weebly, you may also want to take a look at 000webhost. It's a bit more complicated to use than Weebly, but it offers more control.

whats the deal with .tk?


Can i make a domain using this .tk and apply weebly themes on to it for free?

 

[diligentcircle]

whats the deal with .tk?

It's a free URL redirect. Your actual URL will still be e.g. "mysite.weebly.com", but you can create e.g. "mysite.tk" and have it redirect to the real site, and it also masks the real URL with the .tk one in the address bar. The masking feature is optional with co.nr.

 

[licisik]

whats the deal with .tk?

It's a free URL redirect. Your actual URL will still be e.g. "mysite.weebly.com", but you can create e.g. "mysite.tk" and have it redirect to the real site, and it also masks the real URL with the .tk one in the address bar. The masking feature is optional with co.nr.

is it there any way i can get rid of the " mysite.weebly.com" the .weebly.com part. or would i have to go pro for that..


is there another way where i can incorporate the mysite.tk and use another sites themes and such and have none of their ".theirsite.com"

 

[licisik]

OK, Several things:

1. I can help you with hosting, but that is different to having a domain name. You don't really need either, but a domain name means you don't have yourname.someothersite.com, as you mentioned earlier.
   
2. Web design is not hard, but options like WordPress and many others are good too. Again, I can point you to some reliable placesp, but you really need to decide exactly what you want.
   

if i decide to have a mysite.tk for my domain name.


How would i go about to making the theme and such or can i find free online web themes?

 

[diligentcircle]

is it there any way i can get rid of the " mysite.weebly.com" the .weebly.com part. or would i have to go pro for that..

Weebly Pro is separate from buying domain names, so no, no need to get Pro. To get a top-level domain rather than a subdomain of weebly.com, you'll need to get a top-level domain. Of course, like I said, if you use a .tk redirect domain, the actual domain name is masked so visitors don't see it. co.nr is actually even better, because it allows you to use the alias for specific pages on your website (example: mysite.weebly.com/page.html can be aliased as mysite.co.nr/page.html) and there's also an option to use your own favicon, so the illusion is more complete.

 

[gruso]

FWIW, I picked up a couple of .com domains today for $6 each here: www.crazydomains.com.au


Beware their upsell tactics. First thing they do is default your registration period to two years (doubling the cost). Then you click through numerous screens as they try to sell you extra DNS services, webmail, hosting, some other garbage, and before you know it you're pushing $200


You can ignore all that though. I stuck with the domains only for now, two domains for two years, $24.


I will probably use wordpress for my sites. There are two ways to use wordpress, and since I'm pondering it myself right now, I might as well unleash my stream of consciousness...


Option 1. Get a free site at wordpress.com. It will be called 'blah.wordpress.com'. You can then map your domain name to this, so it appears as 'blah.com'. Wordpress charges a fee for the domain mapping, about $20/yr IIRC.

• Pros: You never need to worry about back end, security, reliability, or doing any coding. You just take care of themes & content.
  
• Cons: Limited theme selection (it's hard to get away from the blog look) and limitations on the kind of web technology you can incorporate. No iframes, java, flash... the list of what you can't do is endless. You can embed photos, and media hosted at certain sites, that's about it.
  

Option 2. Go to wordpress.org (note different URL), download their free software and install it on your own host.

• Pros: Unlimited freedom of design & content.
  
• Cons: You manage the back end yourself (or if your web host does that for you, you'd better hope they do it properly). If wordpress and its plugins aren't kept 100% up to date, you will get hacked eventually. This is true of any website, but out of date wordpress installs seem to be an easy target for kiddie hackers cutting their teeth.
  

You can get your own hosting for around the same annual amount wordpress.com charges just for domain mapping, so the comparison is not one of cost. It's a matter of how much freedom you want, and how much you're willing to manage things yourself.

 

[_wb_]

Or you can learn HTML and CSS and maybe some PHP and then all you need is a simple text editor, something like gedit or mcedit will do. CSS3 allows you to do pretty cool stuff. See for example this website I recently made for my daughter's birth: http://nettesneyers.tk


HTML and CSS are not very difficult - Just look at the source of webpages to see how to do things, or read the official specs at http://w3.org