Building a website, any free domains/hosts? PLEASE HELP
 

I am have been assigned to start marketing out barn and services :) I am a working student for my wonderful trainer :)

I am currently working on a FB page for us but that is pretty darn simple.

Can anyone point me at places I can build for free? I have never built a website before but would love to give it my best shot...any advice is welcome

I use Yola :-) (check out my website:wink:)

Actual domains (.com / .net) cost money, you'll never find a free one without some sort of terms or conditions stuck to it, like pay for web hosting and they'll throw one in as a loss-leader to get your business.

If you're going to be selling or marketing a service then it's definitely in your interest to buy a domain because it will make you look that much more professional as opposed to using a free service with advertisements, etc. I'm sure your trainer would understand and give some money towards the project. Most of the free website builders are garbage anyway, but to each to their own and maybe I'm being critical because I design professional websites. Some companies you can check out are:

http://www.wix.com
http://www.webs.com

You could also check out Dreamhost http://www.dreamhost.com and look for a current promotion where you can get web hosting for as little as $5/mo and it will include a free domain. They also have a site builder, I believe, but I'm not sure how good it is.

I recommend webs.com I use them for my fish site and it's easy. Your web address will be:
Nameyoupick.webs.com
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Just a warning, buying hosting with a "free" domain can be hazardous. Way too many times have I seen people lose domains this way.

Sometimes the hosts go out of business, the host industry is a joke by any standards. Also if you have a dispute and decide to move hosts you will either lose the domain or be blackmailed into an extra high cost to take it with you.

If you do sign up with a host who offers a free domain, get one that is a throw away name, get your real domain from a seperate domain registrar.

If this had been an actual sales pitch for domain names I would have included my link ;)

I use "dot easy". It is easy to use. You make your site with whatever software you want and then upload it to an ftp server. The domain was pretty cheap and the hosting is free. I am thinking that I pay something like $20 a year or less for my domain.

Web Hosting & Domain Names - Doteasy.com

My default recommendation for questions like this is Stablehost. Love them. One of the best companies I've dealt with.

You don't want a "free webhosting" account if you're setting up a site to represent a business.

Agreed. Another thing to consider: A lot of the free and/or low-cost hosting companies that offer "unlimited bandwidth" are really oversold (more accounts than capacity). As they cram more "unlimited" accounts on the same number of servers, people will have lots of problems getting your website to load (instead, they'll get 503 errors suggesting that your website is just "unavailable"). They have a solution to this, of course: All you have to do is upgrade to a higher, more expensive level of service and get your own dedicated server. Nice scam. Most folks don't need an entire dedicated server of their own.

Also, consider how you're using Facebook. Use it to drive traffic to your website (which you control), not as a replacement for your website. That is not a trustworthy company and you don't want your content subject to their whims.

weebly is one I use just for messing around. It is very easy to use and is "free" just refrain from using too many personal details.

I prefer to use intuit. It is free for the first month and then has a low monthly fee. It is completely awesome as far as customizing options and it is easy to use. If you need any web design advice, let me know! I have been doing web design for several years now in a professional manner.

Freewebs.com is (obviously) free, and has a pretty decent site builder if you don't want to code you own site. You can also right your own HTML & CSS and upload it to that site. The only downside is that the '.webs' will be in your domain name. So it would be yourdomainname.webs.com.