A Simple Guide On How To Start Your Own Website For Free
Admit it. You've probably tried to create your own website at some point in your life. Either it's a blog, or an e-commerce, I don't know.
You know, when I was a kid I really wanted to make a website cause it's kinda cool, right? Yeah, so I Googled everything I needed to know about making a website. My dream was crushed when I found out that I needed to pay for the servers, domains, and basically everything. And that's the story on how I ended up on Blogger.com. I started my first Blogspot when I was 11 or something. It was just bunch of random stuffs like an article on how to download Minecraft for free, links to pirated musics, how to get a admin account, etc. Blogger.com is great. Nothing is wrong with it. But that's not what I'm gonna talk about today.
Today, I'm gonna teach you how to get free servers and domain (and SSL certificate so you can use htps on your site) for free, so you don't have to pay at all.
The first thing you have to do is find a free server. Server is like, well, server. When someone wants to access your website, his/her browser asks the server what to load on your screen, and then the server gives back the information needed by your browser.
Now, there is a lot of options to choose from. There's FreeSubdomain.org, InfinityFree, and a lot more. But my personal favorite is Byethost (they are called hosting services). I'm not sure why, but I think it's because of their domain. When you sign up, you will be given a subdomain with byethost*.com (* is a random number) as the main domain. I think they kind of keep the spammers and hackers out of their service. This is important because, I tried to share the link of a website I registered on FreeSubdomain on Facebook and it says that I can't because 'the content is suspicious' and I guess it's because a lot of hackers and spammers are using FreeSubdomain and got away with it. I haven't had any issues with Byethost so far, so I kinda recommend it to you, but unfortunately they are having some kind of technical issues right now (July 4th, 2018) so you might want to try InfinityFree (haven't had any problems with it, too)
But really, it's matter of your personal choice.
Once you register for an account and create a new website (they'll give you a subdomain), you can move on to the next step, because subdomains are unattractive, right?
The next step is getting a free domain.
Domain is like a street sign. It shows your browser where to go, or where to get the information needed to access a website. So when you access a website like Facebook, the domain facebook.com tells your browser to get the information from 66.220.144.0, one of Facebook's IP address (IP address is like an address for servers. Different servers have different IPs)
Domain names costs like at least $2 and if you want the site to keep alive, then you're gonna have to pay for the renewal every year until you die. That sucks. For beginners it would be unwise if you bought a domain when you had no experience with hosting a website at all. If you just started, I recommend you using a free domain at first. If you're happy with it, you can buy a new one, and if you don't, well you lose nothing.
There's only one place I know where you can get free domains, so drop a comment below if you know any alternatives to it.
It's Freenom. You can check if a domain is still available to you. There is a lot of domain names you can choose from, like .tk, .ml, .ga, .cf, and .gq.
Unfortunately, it's only free for the first 12 months and you're gonna have to pay afterwards, but don't worry, you can still access your website from the subdomain link the hosting service gave you, or you can just register a new domain with new email (just kidding, don't actually do this cause you might get blacklisted from the service)
Once you have both server and domains, go to the control panel on your hosting service and click on 'Parked Domains'. Now, there's this thing called 'nameservers', they look like ns1.byethost.com. Write them down on a piece of paper.
Now you go to Freenom and log in to the client area. On the top menu, click 'Services' and click on 'My Domains'. There, you'll see the list of your registered domains. Click 'Manage Domain' on the domain you want to use. Click on 'Management Tools' and click on 'Nameservers', then choose 'Use custom nameservers' option and enter the nameservers you've written down earlier and click on 'Change Nameservers'
Now, go back to your hosting service, and enter your domain name on the 'Parked Domains'
It can take up to 72 hours to do the nameserver migration. You can watch TV, browse internet, or anything while you wait. Or you can start setting up your website, writing the codes, etc.
For the SSL, I recommend you to use CloudFlare. It should be on the control panel of your hosting service.
Thanks for reading, if you have any questions you can just comment below and I'll try to do my best to help. Have a great day!
But really, it's matter of your personal choice.
Once you register for an account and create a new website (they'll give you a subdomain), you can move on to the next step, because subdomains are unattractive, right?
The next step is getting a free domain.
Domain is like a street sign. It shows your browser where to go, or where to get the information needed to access a website. So when you access a website like Facebook, the domain facebook.com tells your browser to get the information from 66.220.144.0, one of Facebook's IP address (IP address is like an address for servers. Different servers have different IPs)
Domain names costs like at least $2 and if you want the site to keep alive, then you're gonna have to pay for the renewal every year until you die. That sucks. For beginners it would be unwise if you bought a domain when you had no experience with hosting a website at all. If you just started, I recommend you using a free domain at first. If you're happy with it, you can buy a new one, and if you don't, well you lose nothing.
There's only one place I know where you can get free domains, so drop a comment below if you know any alternatives to it.
It's Freenom. You can check if a domain is still available to you. There is a lot of domain names you can choose from, like .tk, .ml, .ga, .cf, and .gq.
Unfortunately, it's only free for the first 12 months and you're gonna have to pay afterwards, but don't worry, you can still access your website from the subdomain link the hosting service gave you, or you can just register a new domain with new email (just kidding, don't actually do this cause you might get blacklisted from the service)
Once you have both server and domains, go to the control panel on your hosting service and click on 'Parked Domains'. Now, there's this thing called 'nameservers', they look like ns1.byethost.com. Write them down on a piece of paper.
Now you go to Freenom and log in to the client area. On the top menu, click 'Services' and click on 'My Domains'. There, you'll see the list of your registered domains. Click 'Manage Domain' on the domain you want to use. Click on 'Management Tools' and click on 'Nameservers', then choose 'Use custom nameservers' option and enter the nameservers you've written down earlier and click on 'Change Nameservers'
Now, go back to your hosting service, and enter your domain name on the 'Parked Domains'
It can take up to 72 hours to do the nameserver migration. You can watch TV, browse internet, or anything while you wait. Or you can start setting up your website, writing the codes, etc.
For the SSL, I recommend you to use CloudFlare. It should be on the control panel of your hosting service.
Thanks for reading, if you have any questions you can just comment below and I'll try to do my best to help. Have a great day!
I saw your blog address through your post on BMF, and I tell you your blog is absolutely amazing. You've got a free member lol...i'm in my way to making my own site too
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