How can one design their own website?

Creating your own WebsiteThere are two main options available, either use a service for creating free websites, which is much easier and is usually free, or you can create your website from scratch with your own domain name (such as www.example.com) and hosting.

Note that there are two guides on this page. Please see the related links below for links to services/websites mentioned.

- Creating a Website using a Free ServiceThere are many websites that will handle most of the hard work for you, the most popular sites are Webs.com, google Sites (for websites), Blogger and Wordpress (for blogs)

For most of these sites, you create an account, fill in a form about your basic website information, pick a layout, then it's all ready to start adding content!

You will get a unique URL for your website such as "http://**.Wordpress.com/" (asterisks will be the name you've picked)

If you are interested in making your own website and having your own domain name, (eg. www.example.com), you can try to follow the guide just below this one.

Note: google Sites allows you to buy a domain name, instead of a default. Domains are usually around £7/$12 per year.

- Creating a Website from ScratchFirst, you will need to learn a language called HTML. You can learn it for free at htmldog, google code, w3.org, or w3schools (see links below). It is quite easy to learn, you shouldn't find anything too hard.

Second, you will probably want some software to help create your web pages. If you want to be able to make them without looking just at the source code, then you should get a 'WYSIWYG' (what you see is what you get) editor. Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Expression Web are the most popular, but these are not free. Amaya, CoffeeCup and SeaMonkey are popular, free alternatives.

Now you will probably want to buy a domain name. Domain names are what you type into the address bar, but only act as a link to a hosting server. '.com' domain names are about £7.50/$12 from GoDaddy, or $10 from google Apps, but it can vary greatly.

You can get a free 'domain name' from www.co.cc, but the choice is limited.

Next, find a hosting service. These companies will put your website on the web, and there are quite a few websites that offer free hosting. However, the problem with the free services is that it can be a lot slower than paid hosting, and may contain adverts.

You will have to link the domain to the hosting service, then all you need to do is upload files (the method to upload files varies between which host you picked, but it'll probably be either through a website or by FTP)

As you become more familiar with creating websites, you may choose to learn how to properly use HTML, CSS (W3C standards and XHTML/HTML5) and maybe even more advanced languages like JavaScript or PHP/ASP. You will then be able to make much better-looking websites with the ability to do anything you could imagine!

There is also a step by step process that walks your through the whole process... such as Site Build It. They are not free but they are Excellent.