How to start a website for free and monetize it
Today, it is easier to make money online than ever before. However, some still don’t believe that owning a website is easy. Due to technological advancement, many website builders have cropped up to offer free website creation. You can go ahead and monetize your website as your business grows. Do you want to be part of online entrepreneurs? In this article, we shall tell you how to start a website for free.
What is a free website?
As the name suggests, a free website doesn’t charge you for hosting or using.
You can choose among the many website builders to build a free website for your business. Some of such popular website builders include WordPress and Joomla. When designing your site with these builders, your site will have a domain such as yoursite.wordpress.com. If you wish to have a website with a domain that doesn’t have any external name, you will need to buy your custom domain.
Can I create a free website?
The answer is a resounding yes. You can create a website today for free, even if you have zero skills in coding and designing. While some newbies may still find it challenging, a person with the right attitude and useful tools can smoothly sail through.
It is worth noting that you need to put in some time and effort to complete all the steps on your own. DIY free websites are not as complicated as most people perceive, so long as you understand the main stages. Additionally, picking the right tools, website builders, and apps will help you a lot in the process.
There is no need to hire an experienced website developer to create your website. Additionally, you don’t have to pay anything as you begin experimenting with your ideas. All you need is your time and a professional website design software that allows you to develop free projects.
How to make your website for free
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Set up your objective
What will be the purpose of your website? You must have a clear objective.
Is the website going to be a personal blog where people will get to know more about you?
Are you building an affiliate website where you will be earning money when people purchase through your affiliate links on the site?
Are you planning to have an eCommerce website where customers will be purchasing your goods and services?
There are many ways that a website can help you. You need to settle with one or a few objectives to avoid being a jack of all trades and a master of none.
Having a clear purpose will enable you to choose an appropriate platform and a domain name. It will also determine how you will design the website and launch it.
In fact, niching down to a specific objective will help you reach more targeted audience at an affordable budget without sweating too much. Therefore, don’t skip this step.
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Choose a platform
You don’t need a list of skills like HTML and CSS to create your free website. All you need is the right website builder to kickstart your website building process.
You can choose a good website builder that provides free features such as Weebly, Drupal, Wix, Joomla, Squarespace, or WordPress. They are all user friendly, and their expert designers had user experience in mind when designing these builders’ templates.
You can easily add content such as videos, photos, maps, text, and many more using their versatile drag-and-drop software. At a click of a button, you can come up with a small or large website that is both responsive and versatile. Whether you are a complete beginner or seasoned, there is no need to worry.
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Choose a domain name
You can now come up with a domain that people can type in their browsers’ bar to arrive at your website. Very crucial step. If you want people to remember and identify your site quickly, keep the domain name simple.
Which websites do you frequent? You could easily remember their names due to their simple and easy-to-remember names. Are you creative? You can come up with a word that doesn’t exist but can become a brand in the future! Google did so, and now their name is both a noun and a verb!
Even though a website builder will allow you to use a free domain name, you will have to stick with its subdomain. Therefore, your domain will read something like “mysitename.wordpress.com” instead of “mysitename.com.”
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Set up your website
Depending on the purpose of your website, the website builder will help you step-by-step. Your website may function as a personal blog, business card, portfolio, or online store.
Therefore, it is essential to determine the aim and purpose of your website. The good thing about website builders is that you can easily add new features, converting your blog into an online store in just a few clicks.
The theme of your website will determine which template to use. For instance, if your blog will talk about traveling, the website builder will offer you themes related to traveling. The themes are customized to handle traveling content needs, such as photographs, text editing, etc.
After designing your website, it is time to add in all the elements you have always dreamed of for months. You can choose from a library of apps that allow you to add SEO tools, contact forms, and even analytics features.
After that, it is time to throw in your content. Be sure to add photos, videos, text, and other types of content to make your website lively, professional, and engaging. Take your time to learn the ropes and then advance to more exciting actions like enabling/disabling comments, changing taglines and titles, and editing your footer.
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Launch
Your website is now ready to go online! Go on and push it on social media platforms to let your friends and family know about your baby. If your content is engaging, some friends might share it with their friends.
Don’t stop there. Go beyond by performing SEO, paid ads, word-of-mouth, or using any other marketing method, depending on your budget and target audience.
FAQ
- Can a free website make money?
Yes, a free website can help you make money. However, to appear professional, rank well on Google, and earn the trust of people, you will need to upgrade to a paid domain. Additionally, if you have money, you should purchase premium themes or hire an expert to work magic into your website.
- Can I monetize a free website?
You can monetize your free website to earn a decent living or pocket money. Many people have gone ahead and monetized their free sites in various ways. Such ways include affiliate marketing, selling their products and services, sell Amazon products, using advertising programs such as Google AdSense, building an email list for remarketing, or using relevant niche advertising and product reviews.
- What are free website builders?
Free website builders are software platforms that allow you to create a site without paying anything. Such builders include:
- com
- Wix
- Weebly
- SITE123
- Jimdo
- Joomla
- Webnode
- IM Creator
- Squarespace
- Drupal etc
Final Verdict
These days, there is no reason why you should not own a website. Whether your pocket is lined up with several dollars or not, you now know how to start a website for free.
You don’t need to hire a top-notch website designer to come up with a beautiful website. Additionally, there is no need to take up programming and website development classes. All you need is time, the right attitude, and the right website builder.
After designing your website, you can launch it and advertise through digital marketing and other means to gain traffic. You can then monetize your website using various ways to earn some money.
However, to make your website stand out and be professional, you need to spend a few bucks on a completely custom domain. Google and people at large don’t fancy domains that bear the website builder name in the subdomain.
Additionally, as your business grows, consider buying premium website hosting like A2 Hosting or Siteground, themes and templates that offer more robust features. You can also hire a website designer to work more magic into your website.
Remember that it sometimes needs money to get more money. Just start slowly by first testing the waters using a free site. After that, you should advance into a more severe website.