Create a free website in 10 minutes (or less)

>> Shortal
One question which comes up regularly in the Website of the Day mailbag is “How can I put together a basic website with no technical experience?”
There are a range of free online tools available which enable you to create a site by customising a template in your web browser – There’s no need to download any extra software, and no technical knowledge is necessary.

What makes Shortal different to many of the existing tools is both its ease of use and its flexibility. If you can send an email, use a word processor, or find an existing website you already know enough to set up a page on Shortal – Simply sign up for a free account, fill in your name and contact details and write one paragraph describing yourself, your business or the subject of your site, and Shortal can use that information to lay out a basic homepage for you.

From there you can edit your existing page (changing layout, colours and adding pictures) or add as many pages as you want. There are page templates suited to small business sites, online photo albums, hobby sites, online CV’s and weblogs. Shortal also provides secure online document storage and sharing.
The free service is funded by advertising at the top of each page or you can upgrade to a premium service to remove the ads.

Alternatively ….
Other free online site-builder tools include Yahoo Geocities, Lycos WebBuilder and Freewebs all of which are worth a look, but be aware that the adverts on Geocities and Lycos sites can be overly intrusive.
If you want to create a journal site or weblog rather than a traditional site, there are even more options available. In addition to the afore-mentioned sites there are many dedicated free ‘blog’ providers.
>> Read Miles’ guide to the best ‘blog’ providers

See also:
>> BBC Webwise: How can I build my own site?

Comments

[Ron Barr]

Miles,
I heard your piece today about website building possibilities for those without the technical expertise. I thought I would share my experience of this with you. I am no teckie but with the assistance of an 'easy-build' site I have managed to create web pages and join a www commmunity that is great fun. I love taking photo's and travelling and have used www.virtualtourist.com to publish some of my stuff. It is truly easy and has resulted in me making all kinds of contacts around the world. If you get time take a wee look and of course if you think its worth sharing with listeners that would be great. When you hit the homepage you could search for my offerings using the search dialog. Search for 'member' and enter my username 'ronaldbarr' Your slot on Steve's show is wonderful and i try not to miss it. Best wishes from Northern Ireland. Wrap up warm. Ronald Barr

[Dianne Bate]

Miles,
Enjoyed your piece on building a website. Could have done with the info 2 years ago when I started work on developing a website!
I do have a website www.salsanites.co.uk, which I use to promote my dance classes.
It's great to have a website - but how do you get people to see it.
A piece on the show of inexpensive, or free, ways to get your site appearing on the main search engines would be great.