by Zachary Katkin

Created on: July 08, 2008

How to get a free web site up and running in just one day

What, a day, for a website?! That's far too long. How about less than an hour?

That's right you can have a gorgeous, fully functioning website in less than an hour. The truth is technology has evolved and those in the web industry have harnessed this technology, developing it to a point that any laymen can simply and easily create a fully functioning website, right now, for virtually nothing. You don't need to know XHTML, CSS, PHP, in fact ignore that I even wrote those acronyms. Don't let them sink in and scare you away, you don't need them. All you need to be able to do is type, and even then hunting and pecking will be quite alright.

I recently showed a potential client how to do this, and why. Not everyone needs something custom, and honestly I was tired of building websites where the owner's let them go stale with old, outdated content, and a lack of participation. So, instead I opted to show this particular woman, in less than an hour, how she could have her own website, complete with blog functionality in less than an hour!

Step #1 Create It!

This is usually a later step when you are dealing with a more complicated web presence or web application. But, if you're looking for speed and cost effective, jump right in. There are a number of very effective, very search engine friendly (AKA marketable), FREE platforms available on the web. Not only do you NOT PAY for the service, you also don't pay for hosting (what is comparable to rent for your website). If you are a small business owner, or just someone that wants to create a personal space online I highly recommend this as a first step. If you are able to handle the responsibility (of constant updates and responding and learning from your audience) and learn a little bit in the process maybe one day you can graduate to a more robust web presence.

So, where should you sign up? I highly recommend WORDPRESS.COM as it is very search engine friendly, and is one of the simplest tools to use. It allows you to add any number of pages or subpages to your website, includes a blog, and has a large community a community you can leverage to drive traffic to your new site. Other great services include blogger, typepad, and hubpages (which will even pay you!).

For this short example we will use WORDPRESS.COM. Simply go to their website, sign up for an account (currently the big green "SIGN UP NOW BUTTON" on the homepage), input your username, password, email, select "gimme

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