Freewebs - Create Your Free Website
Every one who surfs on the internet some day hopes to have a website of his own but can't due to incomplete knowledge and financial constraints. But that is past now with Bollyball coming up with a website that allows you to create websites for free.
Freewebs is a Web 2.0 site creator that allows you to create websites for free. Yes thats true, they give you their hosting space to their users for free. Freewebs websites are mostly similar to the actual site except the fact that you get a Free Webs URL not an actual real world domain name. That is understandable as domain names are not free. The best part of Freewebs is that you don't need the knowledge of Website development softwares such as Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash etc. for creating your website as Freewebs is packed with a website creator so that even the beginners can create their website. Another important aspect of Freewebs is that it allows you to add blogs, forums, widgets etc. to your Freewebs site so that you can make your website more interactive.
So, lets now talk about how to proceed with Freewebs.
- Sign Up to Freewebs: Well, this is the most obvious first step. In order to use almost any services that are offered on the internet, you need to sign up for that. The sign up process at Freewebs was really simple and the username you choose adds into your Freewebs URL. So, choose it wisely as your username is not just username but your sites identity on Freewebs.
- Templates are ready for you: As soon as you sign up your website successfully at Freewebs, you will be directed towards a page which will contain a number of templates. For those of you, who are basically new to web designing, Templates defines how your site looks up on the internet. Sp, choose the template that you like the most and matches the theme of your website.
- Manage your site: Ok, now you have selected your template the next thing is to manage your site. Click on the Site Manager link on the right hand panel named as Build and Edit. Your site manager will open in front of you where you can add, edit and delete pages to your website. By default, 2 web pages will already be created for you named as Home and Guestbook. Never delete the Home page as it will make your site go offline. Just click on the edit button in front of the Home Page for adding contents to your home page.
- Edit your Homepage: As soon as you click on the edit button, a page opens up with the template you selected and a link "Add New Paragraph". Click on that link and a WYSIWIG editor will open in front of you where you can write the content of the Home page of your website. After writing your content, just click on the Done button on the top right of the page.
- Add Music: I found this tool by free webs very cool. Once you submit your content above, your site will open up in front of you showing how your content looks on the website. Above the page, you will find some links such as Background Music and Background Image. As the name suggests, you can add background music to your site which will play every time someone visits to your site. You can add songs, music or even your own voice.
- Add more pages to your website: Now that you have created your homepage, its time to make other pages of your website. Just go to the site manager once again and click on the "Add New Page" link there. This will take you to a form where you will be asked to name your webpage. Just name it and click on the Done button. You also have the option to password protect your page so that only you and your friends can view this page. Next, edit the page as you did in the Home page.
Now we have looked on how to make an elementary website at freewebs, now its time to look at how to create more advanced websites at freewebs. Well, to create some really good website you need to use some web development software such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Create your website using these two amazing website development softwares and upload the files using the File Manager at freewebs. You can access to the File Manager by clicking on the link named as File Manager below the Site Manager link in the Build & Edit panel. You must keep in mind that you can't upload .exe files unless and until you go for a premium account there.
Now we move on to the Add-ons and Widgets which I love the most. Well, Freewebs allow you to add widgets to you site such as stat counter, ratings and comments, web forms, albums and many more. They just have started a Widget contest too, so if you are a developer than you have a great chance to earn some money by your widgets.
Ok, we are at the end of this post and lets now look at the limitations of Freewebs. The biggest limitation of freewebs is that it does not create subdomains rather creates a folder for you on their hosting account. This can really have great impacts when you want some great traffic from Google, Yahoo etc. Moreover, it doesn't looks nice. Another limitation of Freewebs is that it does not allow any access through FTP to upload your site files. So, although freewebs suffers from the above said limitations yet it is a great tool for beginners to learn how to create websites.
