Developing and publishing a web site for a worldwide audience is far less time and resource intensive than publishing content to traditional media. Using the free design tools and web hosting services available today, you can design your own website literally for free. This unprecedented marriage of scale, economy, and availability has effectively provided every aspiring author his or her own printing press. It’s no wonder web sites are sprouting fasters than flowers in spring!

Many people are afraid to take the jump into website design because of the outward thought that it is a complex activity. This complexity should not scare off an aspiring publisher from beginning their journey. The fact is, many people today do not understand how very complex technology works, but we still use this technology. For example, only experts know how the inner-workings of a television work, but most people use these on a daily basis.

The first step to design your own website is to decide on the site’s purpose. A site intended to serve as a forum will require a different design than a site intended to share writing, photographs, music or art. The purpose need not be limited to these examples, of course. After deciding the site’s purpose, conduct a search for web site design and development tools which offer the necessary functionality for satisfying your site’s intended purpose.

Software tools offering a what-you-see-is-what-you-get interface require no more effort to master than a simple word processing program. Most of these programs also offer free trial periods. To avoid unnecessary expense, simply develop your site using the tool within the free trial period. Even if you can’t publish the site to the internet yet, you can still save your new site to your computer’s hard drive.

Once you have utilized the templates provided to design your own website, You need to find the proper web hosting firm. It will give you sufficient room for your site’s data on large network computers which are called servers. It will then connect you to the Net, so you can promote your merchandise and/or services by letting all sorts of visitors view them throughout the globe.

A free web hosting plan may just fit your bill in terms of your site’s objective and the number of expected visitors. The cost of free hosting is made up by advertisements that are displayed on your site automatically. There are many free webhosting plans to choose from as you may discover if you conducted a search. All you have to do is upload your files to the active web hosting service at zero expenditure and the whole world will be able to view your site.

It takes far less time and resources to develop and publish content to a website than by using traditional media outlets. With the many free design tools available and the variety of web hosting services you can design your own website for little or no cost. The unprecedented combination of scale, economy, and availability that this has created has made it possible for every aspiring author to have their own virtual printing press. Considering this it shouldn’t be surprising that websites are increasing in number so rapidly. Perhaps intimidated by the apparent technical complexity of website design, many people have yet to take the leap.

– Tem Balanco