by: Tabby Blades
www.articlecity.com
Free web hosting is no secret, but finding a decent free host most certainly is! If you aren't techie enough to build your own server, and don't really want to pay for hosting. This is a good way to have a nice site for no cost to you to make a blog, show off your vacation photos in a new annoying way, Keep in touch with family, ect.
I've found a few tools I really like over the last few days I've used on this site you're viewing!
Domain Names
First, we're going to need a domain name - if you want to be fancy and get a nice .com feel free to head to Go Daddy, and register one. However, most of the good names are taken, and the one I have works just as well. Eventually we'll run out of .nets and .coms, and everyone will have to go to other extensions realizing they are exactly that.. since anyone can register a dot com they don't win much with me in the way of credibility. There is no 'real business' or 'trustworthy individual' application.
There are plenty free domain names you can get, but most are long and rather ugly. Mine is from a website called uni.cc (www.uni.cc) if you aren't googling it already. You can choose to have your freebie hosting forwarded or do a real deal DNS update which many free domain hosts don't offer. They are ad free, and only ask you place a small button on your page (like the one at the bottom of mine) stating you are a member of the uni.cc network. I like this site best, but there are plenty others you can grab up with extensions like .co.nr, .zap.to, ect.
Okay, we've got a free name! Next on our list is web hosting.
Webhosting
Since I've not got around to the other project i've reminded myself about (Home server/media center) it's time to get some free hosting! I've found many hosts; some better than others. Here's my top list for you to pick from!
#1 Freehostia (www.freehostia.com)
* Disk Space: 250 MB
* Traffic 5Gb
* 2 Domains
* 1 MySQL Database
* Their ads? No
* Your ads? Yes
* Custom 404 Pages
#2 Awardspace (www.awardspace.com)
* Disk Space: 200MB
* Traffic: 5GB
* 2 Domains
* 1 MySQL Database
* Their Ads?: No
* Your Ads?: Yes
The above listed providers have many other features available. There's one thing I dislike about Awardspace.. if a visitor encounters an error on one of your pages they are directed to the providers homepage with no back link or explanation for the error! I went with Free Hostia since I can edit my own 404s. However, you can get more space, traffic, ect. by allowing ads - That opens up your options a lot, but this should be fine for a personal page.
Now we have a domain name, and webhosting for $0.00. : )
Html Editors
Now that we have a place to park we need to get ourselves a car! Usually webhosting editors leave much to be desired if you're not an html wizard, but fear not. You can download many external programs to make this task much easier for you! If you are not very good at html you'll want something with a WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You Get) editor. There are plenty of these out there both commerical and open source.
I'm using Kompozer (www.kompozer.net) for my editing needs. You can open an existing document, or create a new one. If you have any experience with simple html at all this program will serve you well. For more advanced users you can edit in raw source code, there's a preivew button, view in browser option, ect. ect. All for zero dollars.
There are many other options that offer trial periods or 'restricted versions such as FirstPage, Coffee Cup, ect. I was using firstpage, but it started crashing on me as soon as they added the teaser wanting you to buy their full version..Don't know if they've fixed it or not since then, but you can check it out.
When you get done playing you can either upload directly to your webhosting using FTP with the built in program (though I prefer Filezilla) or you can click source, copy the code, and paste it into your not so friendly editor on your webhost.
Domain, webhosting, and an HTML editor.. that will be $0.00! Please come again. : )
RSS, and updating feeds
-----------------------
The newest thing i'm playing with is what you're reading! I wanted an easier way to do site updates, and integrating a blog seemed a great way to go. I messed with some things, and decided I like blogger the very best.
If you'd like to use blogger (www.blogger.com) on your website - I've found FTP to be the easiest way for me.
1. Go to your blogger homepage.
2. Click the Settings tab--- > Select "Publishing"
3. Choose the 'Publish via FTP option.
Now you need to enter your upload information. The FTP server information will be given to you somewhere on your host's page. You'll need to enter..
1. Your host's address FTP server address
2. Blog url (Enter the homepage address if you want the blog there.)
3. Enter the FTP path (/www.yourpage.com/ for the homepage.)
4. Enter your FTP Username and Password.
You can leave everything else alone - As they don't need to be edited to get it working. Click save, and blogger will ask if you want to republish. If you have blogs posted already click 'yes', and they will be uploaded to your webpage instead of blogger's pages.
If you want to change your site's front page content you can visit blogger, and post as normal. When you publish your site will get some new content for your visitors! There's an option to subscribe, view archives, recent posts, ect. So if your friends, family, co-workers, ect. are fans of google reader like I am they can subscribe to your webby, and be notified when you post something new!
Your site will get a nice little subscription url like mine too! (http://diyproductions.uni.cc/atom.xml) Clicking it will open up a page asking if you want google reader (or whichever feeder their using) to subscribe them.
You can edit the blog template to look pretty much anyway you like. Just make sure you don't delete any code needed to transport your blog. I did find that trying to paste the template code to Kompozer, editing, and pasting it back to blogger didn't work well..
So, I made the layout how I want it in kompozer, and paste the snippets back in their appropriate places to keep the blog working. A little slower, but nothing monumental.
Bam! Blog with RSS subscribing.. $0.00 folks. : )
Search engines
----------------
Something else that's a little irritating to find is a search engine. One that will send results of YOUR site, and not results of others from google. Most of them want some massive monthly, yearly, first born, fee to use theirs or you need the technical know how to code your own.
There are several free ones you can use. Google themselves make a site search - Though there's was not working well for me for some reason. So I went with Free Find (www.freefind.com). All you do is sign up, paste the code, have them spider your site, and you have a search for your site.
It'll search all the pages you have, and collect results for your users if you have lots of blogs or files to look through. They offer this service ad free save one banner/small text ads on top of the results page which are not very obtrusive.
You can also customize the results page to appear how you want it too! Check out mine (www.diyproductions.uni.cc) by submitting a search for anything. Clicking the logo or 'back link' sends you back to the homepage. You can alternatively select to have a 'web search' as well as site search.
We're still at zero dollars spent and we have a domain, webhost, search engine, HTML editor, blog, and an RSS feed!
There are plenty more freebies you can find by use of everyone's favorite search engine. HTML templates, buttons, graphics, pre-made content, ect. ect. This is a short list of ideas to get you started, but there are LOADS of cool site things available.
The internet was meant to be free - And we need to keep it that way! : )
Tabz
www.articlecity.com
About The Author
Created by www.Diyproductions.uni.cc
"If you want it done right, do it yourself!"
For more 'How To' and 'Do It Yourself' articles visit my website!
If you'd like to subscribe to my RSS feed, and see all my articles you can use the following link!
http://diyproductions.uni.cc/atom.xml
www.articlecity.com
Free web hosting is no secret, but finding a decent free host most certainly is! If you aren't techie enough to build your own server, and don't really want to pay for hosting. This is a good way to have a nice site for no cost to you to make a blog, show off your vacation photos in a new annoying way, Keep in touch with family, ect.
I've found a few tools I really like over the last few days I've used on this site you're viewing!
Domain Names
First, we're going to need a domain name - if you want to be fancy and get a nice .com feel free to head to Go Daddy, and register one. However, most of the good names are taken, and the one I have works just as well. Eventually we'll run out of .nets and .coms, and everyone will have to go to other extensions realizing they are exactly that.. since anyone can register a dot com they don't win much with me in the way of credibility. There is no 'real business' or 'trustworthy individual' application.
There are plenty free domain names you can get, but most are long and rather ugly. Mine is from a website called uni.cc (www.uni.cc) if you aren't googling it already. You can choose to have your freebie hosting forwarded or do a real deal DNS update which many free domain hosts don't offer. They are ad free, and only ask you place a small button on your page (like the one at the bottom of mine) stating you are a member of the uni.cc network. I like this site best, but there are plenty others you can grab up with extensions like .co.nr, .zap.to, ect.
Okay, we've got a free name! Next on our list is web hosting.
Webhosting
Since I've not got around to the other project i've reminded myself about (Home server/media center) it's time to get some free hosting! I've found many hosts; some better than others. Here's my top list for you to pick from!
#1 Freehostia (www.freehostia.com)
* Disk Space: 250 MB
* Traffic 5Gb
* 2 Domains
* 1 MySQL Database
* Their ads? No
* Your ads? Yes
* Custom 404 Pages
#2 Awardspace (www.awardspace.com)
* Disk Space: 200MB
* Traffic: 5GB
* 2 Domains
* 1 MySQL Database
* Their Ads?: No
* Your Ads?: Yes
The above listed providers have many other features available. There's one thing I dislike about Awardspace.. if a visitor encounters an error on one of your pages they are directed to the providers homepage with no back link or explanation for the error! I went with Free Hostia since I can edit my own 404s. However, you can get more space, traffic, ect. by allowing ads - That opens up your options a lot, but this should be fine for a personal page.
Now we have a domain name, and webhosting for $0.00. : )
Html Editors
Now that we have a place to park we need to get ourselves a car! Usually webhosting editors leave much to be desired if you're not an html wizard, but fear not. You can download many external programs to make this task much easier for you! If you are not very good at html you'll want something with a WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You Get) editor. There are plenty of these out there both commerical and open source.
I'm using Kompozer (www.kompozer.net) for my editing needs. You can open an existing document, or create a new one. If you have any experience with simple html at all this program will serve you well. For more advanced users you can edit in raw source code, there's a preivew button, view in browser option, ect. ect. All for zero dollars.
There are many other options that offer trial periods or 'restricted versions such as FirstPage, Coffee Cup, ect. I was using firstpage, but it started crashing on me as soon as they added the teaser wanting you to buy their full version..Don't know if they've fixed it or not since then, but you can check it out.
When you get done playing you can either upload directly to your webhosting using FTP with the built in program (though I prefer Filezilla) or you can click source, copy the code, and paste it into your not so friendly editor on your webhost.
Domain, webhosting, and an HTML editor.. that will be $0.00! Please come again. : )
RSS, and updating feeds
-----------------------
The newest thing i'm playing with is what you're reading! I wanted an easier way to do site updates, and integrating a blog seemed a great way to go. I messed with some things, and decided I like blogger the very best.
If you'd like to use blogger (www.blogger.com) on your website - I've found FTP to be the easiest way for me.
1. Go to your blogger homepage.
2. Click the Settings tab--- > Select "Publishing"
3. Choose the 'Publish via FTP option.
Now you need to enter your upload information. The FTP server information will be given to you somewhere on your host's page. You'll need to enter..
1. Your host's address FTP server address
2. Blog url (Enter the homepage address if you want the blog there.)
3. Enter the FTP path (/www.yourpage.com/ for the homepage.)
4. Enter your FTP Username and Password.
You can leave everything else alone - As they don't need to be edited to get it working. Click save, and blogger will ask if you want to republish. If you have blogs posted already click 'yes', and they will be uploaded to your webpage instead of blogger's pages.
If you want to change your site's front page content you can visit blogger, and post as normal. When you publish your site will get some new content for your visitors! There's an option to subscribe, view archives, recent posts, ect. So if your friends, family, co-workers, ect. are fans of google reader like I am they can subscribe to your webby, and be notified when you post something new!
Your site will get a nice little subscription url like mine too! (http://diyproductions.uni.cc/atom.xml) Clicking it will open up a page asking if you want google reader (or whichever feeder their using) to subscribe them.
You can edit the blog template to look pretty much anyway you like. Just make sure you don't delete any code needed to transport your blog. I did find that trying to paste the template code to Kompozer, editing, and pasting it back to blogger didn't work well..
So, I made the layout how I want it in kompozer, and paste the snippets back in their appropriate places to keep the blog working. A little slower, but nothing monumental.
Bam! Blog with RSS subscribing.. $0.00 folks. : )
Search engines
----------------
Something else that's a little irritating to find is a search engine. One that will send results of YOUR site, and not results of others from google. Most of them want some massive monthly, yearly, first born, fee to use theirs or you need the technical know how to code your own.
There are several free ones you can use. Google themselves make a site search - Though there's was not working well for me for some reason. So I went with Free Find (www.freefind.com). All you do is sign up, paste the code, have them spider your site, and you have a search for your site.
It'll search all the pages you have, and collect results for your users if you have lots of blogs or files to look through. They offer this service ad free save one banner/small text ads on top of the results page which are not very obtrusive.
You can also customize the results page to appear how you want it too! Check out mine (www.diyproductions.uni.cc) by submitting a search for anything. Clicking the logo or 'back link' sends you back to the homepage. You can alternatively select to have a 'web search' as well as site search.
We're still at zero dollars spent and we have a domain, webhost, search engine, HTML editor, blog, and an RSS feed!
There are plenty more freebies you can find by use of everyone's favorite search engine. HTML templates, buttons, graphics, pre-made content, ect. ect. This is a short list of ideas to get you started, but there are LOADS of cool site things available.
The internet was meant to be free - And we need to keep it that way! : )
Tabz
www.articlecity.com
About The Author
Created by www.Diyproductions.uni.cc
"If you want it done right, do it yourself!"
For more 'How To' and 'Do It Yourself' articles visit my website!
If you'd like to subscribe to my RSS feed, and see all my articles you can use the following link!
http://diyproductions.uni.cc/atom.xml
