We recommend all our users to start small and then add more features to their website as your business grows. This way you will save money and minimize potential losses while avoiding over-spending.
- 15 Fun Websites You Should Build Right Now
- But Wait, What About Social Media? Isn’t it the same?
- About This Free, Step-by-Step Guide
- Made for beginners
- It’s up-to-date
- Platform specific
- Free support
- 3 Simple Steps to Make Your Own Website
- Step 1
- Step 2
- Step 3
- What do I mean by “platform”?
- Popular Site Building Platforms in 2022
- Why use WordPress and not website builders?
- 1: Choose the Right Website Builder For You
- How to make the most of this create a website tutorial?
- How to Create a Website Video Tutorial
- Website Building Platforms FAQs
- Best for building a customized experience
- Best For basic, no-frills websites
- GoDaddy
- 3. Publish your website
- The last important thing you care about is putting your website online. Learn here how to publish your website. Mobirise offers 4 options to you in this department.
- Comments
15 Fun Websites You Should Build Right Now
This is an amazing age of content. We have an unlimited amount of content in our pockets for every minute. Much of it.
One of the pitfalls of this availability is that we immediately switch to the consumer mode. We consume content. But we never make it ourselves.
So it made us think…
Our mission is to show everyone how best to create a WordPress site, but there are many people who have never made a site at all.
If that’s you, then you’ll like this post. We have compiled a list of 15 fun ideas for creating your first website. They are small. Concise. And above all, easy to achieve.
These are small sites that you can create over the weekend and start the next week from your own space on the web.
But Wait, What About Social Media? Isn’t it the same?
Well, it COULD be the same. You can put it all on your favorite social media. Theoretically.
The thing is, it would be like writing a book on a piece of paper that someone will lend you and you have to come back tomorrow.
When you create in space, you don’t control the rules because you can lose whatever you put there. Not to mention your audience.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create content on social media. Nobody tries to leave Zuck without this photo of you as a child which you are not sure should be public (yes, we all have this photo).
But this is your chance to build a project on your own land. On your terms, on your own terms.
Expert level platforms are where you can really build your website technically. Think of easy platforms like renovating an apartment or condominium, while using an expert platform is similar to building your own home.
About This Free, Step-by-Step Guide
Made for beginners
The guide is very detailed, but very easy to follow – even if you’re not very technical.
It’s up-to-date
Other guides may be out of date or misleading. I update this guide every year.
Platform specific
We will use WordPress (free). Your website will be set up the right way on the right platform for what you need.
Free support
I offer free help and consultations by e-mail. I am happy to answer any questions. Contact us here.
3 Simple Steps to Make Your Own Website
You will learn how.
Step 1
Choose a website development platform
Step 2
Choose a domain and host
Step 3
Set up, design and customize your site
Last updated: April 21, 2021
To build a website, you first need to decide which platform you are going to build your website on.
What do I mean by “platform”?
Well, in 2005, when I started creating websites, most of the sites were built using HTML (code), CSS and PHP. Each of them required a long time to learn and was difficult to master.
That’s why most people still find it difficult or requires a lot of coding and design skills to start a website from scratch – but that’s not true.
In 2022, content management systems (CMS) like WordPress made website development accessible to everyone.
Put simply, a CMS (or website development platform) is a user-friendly platform for creating websites and managing your own online content, rather than building a website from scratch using HTML, PHP, and other coding languages.
Popular Site Building Platforms in 2022
To better understand which content management systems are the most popular, I dug up a few recent stats from W3 Techs and BuiltWith.
Just look at the chart below:
Data Credit: BuiltWith
As you can see, almost half of the websites on the Internet run on WordPress.
But what makes them a better option than the others?
Why use WordPress and not website builders?
- 1. It’s FREE (no recurring subscriptions, open-source)
Unlike website builders or website design software, WordPress doesn’t cost you a dime to download, install, or use. It is made by web developers, and there is a large developer community who have designed beautiful free themes and templates to help you get started quickly.
If you know how to use Google Docs, you already know how to add your own content. WordPress is easy to extend with free add-ons to serve just about any website you can imagine – from small business sites to e-commerce sites. With WordPress plugins, you will be able to add contact forms, subscription forms, photo galleries, stores and so on to your website. And it’s all quite simple.
- 3. Your website will be “responsive”. This means it will also work on smartphones and tablets
The website you build will be instantly responsive and will look great on any mobile device, smartphone and tablet. You don’t need to hire a programmer for this.
With so many people using the platform (webmasters, small business owners, bloggers), it’s easy to find quick help when you need it. You can get free help or hire thousands of WordPress developers.
In fact, I built WebsiteSetup.org using WordPress as well. Below are samples of my homepage and blog page:
The home page of the site configuration
If that’s you, then you’ll like this post. We have compiled a list of 15 fun ideas for creating your first website. They are small. Concise. And above all, easy to achieve.
1: Choose the Right Website Builder For You
Website builders are very popular these days – and for good reason – but you need to choose one that suits your needs. We’ve shown you our top five and what they’re best for, but if you’re short on time, you can take our short quiz for a personal recommendation.
A huge number of people use website builders to build their websites. Wix alone has over 100 million subscribers, while Shopify recently surpassed 1.2 million.
Why it? Website builders mean anyone can create a website, regardless of technical skills. At the beginning of the Internet, creating a website required a working understanding of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). Then CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) came out to make things even more confusing.
Website builders take care of technical jargon and let you focus on design and content. Some do it with templates, others with drag-and-drop interfaces, which makes creating a website no more difficult than assembling a PowerPoint presentation.
Do you want to earn money on the Internet?
Website builders allow you to easily build online stores. For larger ecommerce ambitions, we recommend an e-commerce specific platform like Shopify or BigCommerce that has the best tools to help your business grow. If you only want to sell a few products, you can choose a “general” site like Wix that has e-commerce functionality. Take a look at our comparison chart of online store builders to find your perfect match.
This means that choosing the right website builder is very important. Different builders serve different needs. Moving forward with the right page is essential to creating a site that you will be happy with.
Which website builder should you choose?
What’s the best way to build a website? Which website builder should I use? What’s the easiest way to build a website? These are the questions we are asked every day. There are so many questions and so many builders. We understand, it’s difficult.
That is why we have conducted in-depth research. The personal experience with website builders is good (and we have plenty of them), but we test website builders with people just like you. So when you create your own website, you can be sure that we will help you.
Our team conducts user testing and interviews and tracks hundreds of features across dozens of products to give you a bird’s eye view of the market. We want you to find builders that fit your needs. With that in mind, here’s a rundown of the best website builders these days.
Wix and Weebly are two of the most popular wizards on the market whose intuitive drag-and-drop features make web designing a breeze. Squarespace is a dream come true for developers, and Site123 is perfect for small websites and has great live chat support.
Top tip! Since most builders offer either a free trial or a free website builder anyway, it’s easy to take one for a spin before you start using the paid plan.
To add a blog in WordPress, you must first select your blog page. I already mentioned above that you can configure your homepage to automatically display the latest posts. However, if you want a dedicated blog page instead and keep your home page static, you’ll need to create one first.
How to make the most of this create a website tutorial?
This is a step by step tutorial on how to make a website. We’ve broken it down into different steps and will walk you through everything from start to finish. Just follow the instructions and you’ll end up with a professional looking website.
We will also point you in the right direction to take your website to the next level based on your needs.
Have fun creating your website.
Remember, if you need help, you can contact us and we will set up your website for free.
How to Create a Website Video Tutorial
If you prefer written instructions, keep reading.
One of the most common mistakes made by beginners is choosing the wrong online platform. Luckily you are here so you won’t make that mistake.
For most users, the self-service WordPress.org site is the perfect solution. It comes with thousands of designs and add-ons that allow you to create any website you can think of. For more information, see our guide on why you should use WordPress.
WordPress is free for anyone to download and use to build any website without any restrictions.
If WordPress is free, where do the costs come from?
WordPress is free as you will have to arrange your own custom domain name and hosting provider, which costs money. For more information, see our article Why is WordPress free?.
A domain name is the address of your website on the Internet. This is what users will type into their browsers to reach your website (for example, wpbeginner.com or google.com).
Then you will need website hosting. All websites on the internet need a web host to store your website files. This will be your website on the Internet.
A domain name typically costs $ 14.99 / year with hosting costs starting at $ 7.99 / month.
This is a LOT for most people who are just starting out.
Luckily, Bluehost has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off hosting.
Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world. They are also the official hosting partner recommended by WordPress.
They have been working with WordPress since 2005 and are committed to helping the community. Therefore, they promised us that if you are unable to set up your website by following this tutorial, our team of experts will complete the process at no cost. They will compensate us, so you don’t have to. Contact us for free website setup assistance.
Note: At WPBeginner, we believe in transparency. If you buy hosting via our referral link, we get a small commission at no extra cost. In fact, you will get a discount on hosting + free SSL + free domain name. We would get this commission for recommending any WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend products that we personally use and believe will add value to our readers.
Let’s go ahead and buy a domain name and hosting.
First, you’ll need to go to Bluehost’s website in a new browser window and click the green “Get Started Now” button.
This will take you to the pricing page where you will need to select a hosting plan for your website. Basic and Plus plans are the most frequently chosen by our users.
You have to click Select to choose the plan you like and go to the next step.
On the next screen, you will be prompted to select a new domain name.
Ideally, you should stick with the .com domain name. Make sure it’s related to your business, easy to pronounce and spell, and easy to remember.
When deciding which pages to add, consider what information would be most useful to your visitors. You also need to think about visual content such as photos.
Website Building Platforms FAQs
It depends on the purpose of your website and what you are looking for. For creating a simple website: We highly recommend Zyro. This innovative tool is beginner-friendly and reasonably priced. For an online store: Shopify is an all-in-one tool for creating e-commerce today. It has everything ready for you. You can extend your sales channel to other platforms.
While there is an option to create a store in most website builders, we still believe Shopify is the right one. You easily manage your products, customer information, integrate with other sales channels, etc.
It’s hard to determine the actual cost of making a website. It often goes beyond money. Remember that you need time and effort to build a website. If you are a business owner, should you include monthly expenses as part of your costs?
But if you’re asking for the initial setup cost, the approximate figure does include
1. Domain name ($ 10 – $ 15 per year)
2. Website builder ($ 8- $ 20 / month) or web host ($ 3- $ 7 / month).
Most website builders such as Zyro, Wix, and Weebly offer the convenience of optimizing your site for search engine. However, there are too many factors that will affect your website ranking. Your website will not appear on the first page of search results using any particular site builder.
Buying (and managing) a domain with the website builder makes things easier, but costs more in the long run. A website builder typically charges anywhere from $ 20 to $ 30 a year to register a domain. In comparison, a domain costs $ 8-15 a year with GoDaddy or NameCheap (domain registrars).
Yes. All website builders have easy-to-use drag-and-drop functionality. This feature allows you to create a website even if you are not a professional.
The first step is to choose the right template for your industry. Then you can start editing and filling it with content.
No. Unfortunately you cannot do this.
If you built a website with website builder, it also brings together several aspects. For example, web design, database, hosting, and coding language are all things that include.
Simply exporting and importing may seem like an easy task, but it is unrealistic. There are many aspects of ownership that come into play. If you don’t use a CMS like WordPress, you can move your site to any host you like.
Each website builder has its own unique selling point. It can be good or bad. Each company wants to be different and offer something unique to win the market. This results in a great variety that users can choose from. We highlighted a few key differences that we believe are important.
Usability: Includes user interface, backend management and website editor. Some are well designed to be user friendly, some are a bit technical and some are intermediate. Most website builders use a drag and drop interface where you can add objects to the desired position. Others will have to use a few lines of code to make it perfect.
Features: You may need to sign up for a free trial to familiarize yourself with the features of each website builder. Go back to the initial stage of your website goal. Think carefully about what you want to do with your website. Search for a site builder that offers the most important feature you are looking for.
Costing: The fee is the least important factor. If your website builder comes with the elements to make your website grow, it’s worth the money.
With so many people using the platform (webmasters, small business owners, bloggers), it’s easy to find quick help when you need it. You can get free help or hire thousands of WordPress developers.
Best for building a customized experience
Duda is a smaller player compared to the other builders above, with around 15 million websites built and focused on a specific market segment: designers and design agencies. It caters to individuals and groups who make up multiple sites, but with a powerful and easy-to-use wizard and many varied offerings, it has become a good option for anyone looking to expand their online presence.
Duda’s Creator offers a number of features that make it stand out, including mobile page customization, detailed data analysis (e.g advanced metrics such as form submission, time spent on page and bounce rate) and user personalization so you can easily display specific messages or offers users based on the time of day, their location, or their browsing history. It is also known for multi-lingual support and a free e-commerce add-on that allows you to sell up to 10 products.
Duda’s prices are slightly higher than those of major competitors like Wix and Weebly, starting at $ 14 / month for the Basic plan. For $ 29, you can add up to four editors to your site (instead of just one in Basic), access advanced analytics, and start using Duda as your own brand / custom branding builder, another Duda’s perk. Its $ 59 / month “Agency” plan is aimed at web designers who create multi-client pages, and includes four websites and the ability to download site files for portability.
Duda is a bit expensive, but it fills some of the gaps that major players have, such as analytics, multilingual capabilities, better personalization, and mobile personalization.
Best For basic, no-frills websites
GoDaddy
GoDaddy is best known for its custom domain names and hosting services, so it makes sense that they also offer website builder software. The name is dense – “Sites + Marketing” – but it’s a similar template experience to the other options on this list, designed to get your basic site up and running in under an hour.
The free tier includes extras such as email and social media marketing, PayPal payments, and an SSL certificate. The $ 10 monthly plan is simple; $ 15 adds SEO tool; $ 20 for extended meeting support and $ 25 / month eCommerce plan applies to the online store capabilities, including impressive product lists and shipping options for your ecommerce store.
Even though GoDaddy is better known as a domain seller, the domain is not included in these prices – you have to add it separately. But overall, the current builder of the GoDaddy website is a nice step over the now discontinued GoCentral product. Likewise, when you upgrade to the free tier, there is no longer a 30-day timer, so you can take your time kicking your tires out to see if GoDaddy is right for you.
Note that you don’t need to finalize all theme settings right away. You’ll be able to customize it much better once you have some content on your site.
3. Publish your website
The last important thing you care about is putting your website online. Learn here how to publish your website. Mobirise offers 4 options to you in this department.
- Free hosting
- Local folder
- FTP
- Github Pages
- Free hosting – Publish your site on the built-in .mobirisesite.com subdomain of your own. You will publish your website in seconds. Your website will automatically receive an SSL certificate. You can publish up to 3 subdomains from your own Mobirise account and the page count, space and bandwidth are unlimited.
- Local Folder – This is the publishing way you use when you just need to upload your website files to the hosting server the way you want. This option gives you the freedom to use whatever hosting solution is convenient and cost effective for you.
- FTP – Mobirise allows you to publish websites via an FTP connection. Just enter your FTP server credentials and hit ‘Publish’ and your site will be live.
- Github Pages – The last option is for those who want to use the best free Github Pages hosting. Create your Github account and get your site on the Github.io subdomain as easily as possible.
Comments
User:
After setting up the website and programming FTP, the formatting is completely disabled once downloaded to the network. I am sending you a copy of the website as it should be, in a copy of the website as it appears on the Internet. I contacted the webmaster and they assured me that everything is there, I need to know how to fix this? Can you get back as soon as possible?
Mobirise:
Try to host your site again and make sure you don’t miss some site files in the process of uploading. Read this simple tutorial on creating a website.
User:
I created a website and at the time of publication I chose the LOCAL UNITS FOLDER option. You save a folder that is added to HTML but not saved. I don’t know if it’s not my computer. I am aware that my computer is blocking HTML files.
Mobirise:
Please provide more information and related screenshots so that we can help you solve your problem.
Do you have any error messages? Also describe step by step how you publish?
User:
When using Mobirise, I am experiencing data distortion between creating a project and publishing the project. The colors I chose in the app do not show the same on the web after publishing the page. Is there anything support can do to eliminate this persistence.
Mobirise:
Try clearing your browser’s cache.
If that doesn’t help, then it looks like some scripts / stylesheets have not been loaded (you can check this in your browser console).
Try to host your site again and make sure you don’t miss some site files in the process of uploading.
User:
I am writing because I used Mobirise to create a website for my university club. I am now delegating site responsibilities to another student, however, when they use my login credentials on their computer, the site I created does not appear in my account. Can I manage and edit the site from different computers using the same username / password?
Mobirise:
This is not possible as all projects are stored locally.
Use the export and import functions to transfer projects from one computer to another
User:
I just wanted to know the process of hosting a website created by mobirise by the domain godaddy. Bought a domain from go daddy and would like to know how to publish a site via filezilla with go daddy’s domain name
User:
First of all, thank you for letting us know how to create your own website this easy. My font color doesn’t update when I publish my site. It should be black and black is selected on the platform, but that title is published as yellow. How to fix it? When you hover over my services in the selection bar at the top, it will automatically jump to that page without the user initiating a click. Thanks for the help.
Mobirise:
Try clearing your browser’s cache. If that doesn’t help, then it looks like some scripts / stylesheets have not been loaded (you can check this in your browser console). Try to host your site again and make sure you don’t miss some site files in the process of uploading.