If you are very computer- and Internet-savvy, you may be able to code the HTML, CSS, PHP, and Javascript, set up a host server from your computer, and get a domain name. But if you are just the average computer and Internet user, the last sentence was a jumble of unknown acronyms and terminology. So, if you want to set up a free Web site, you might need a little help.

There are a number of sites that offer free Web sites. If you type "free web sites" on your favorite search engine (Yahoo, Google, Ask, etc.), you will probably find a few hundred thousand sites. Out of these, there are two that are reliable and fairly popular among average web users: Yahoo! GeoCities and Google Page Creator. The two services are similar in use; both require an account with the provider. However, they differ radically in what you get. GeoCities is ad-supported, meaning you have ads all over your pages, Page Creator isn't ad-supported. GeoCities offers 15 megabytes of space for your pages and files, Page Creator offers 100. The differences continue. In the interests of time, I'm just going to explain Page Creator, as it offers a better deal.

First, go to pages.google.com. If you have a Google account, enter it to sign in. If not, click the "No Gmail Account? Sign up" link. You find yourself at the main page. Click the "Create a new page" link, give your page a title, and press enter. The page you see is editable like a word processor. What you see is what you'll get on the Web. Above the editable page are buttons for changing the font, adding a picture, or whatever else you want to do. Make your changes, then click the "Preview" link in the top left. Page Creator shows you what the page will look like to visitors. If it's good, close the preview and click "Publish." Congratulations, you have just set up a free web site! Feel free to use the rest of that enormous 100 megabyte space for more pages and media. Enjoy!

Learn more about this author, Jonathan Palto.
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