Free Website Options
In this portion of the site, I will provide three different free web site options with step by step tutorials for using each option. Each option includes built-in website creation tools that eliminate the need for learning html and programming. Also, I show how you, at your option, can use your own domain for this free site at an additional cost of about $9 to $15 per year.
WordPress.com Blogs
WordPress is perhaps the most used blogging platform. You can set up a free blog in a matter of minutes and you can, for a cost of about $15 per year, have that blog redirect to your own domain (this is optional). Note that with this free blog terms do not allow commercial advertising of third party services, but this is not usually an issue with church sites. Also, you can not use custom themes or plugins - for those options you need a hosted WordPress blog. There is a fair amount of support available at WordPress help forums.
- Step-by-step instructions for setting up a WordPress blog
- Directions for changing the look of your blog with a new theme (it takes only minutes!)
- Getting more help and support with WordPress blogs
Blogspot Blog
Blogspot (also known as Blogger), owned by Google, is another popular choice for a free blog. Setup is very simple if you stick with one of their templates. And cost is free, unless you want your own domain name which would require a $10/year fee to cover registration. A drawback of Blogspot, however, is that you can not categorize posts (like we do on our church blog that uses WordPress). But, you can, however, place links to important things like Church Times, Staff, using the top dropdown menus of the free themes I provide. So if your site is not too extensive, a Blogspot blog might be a very economical (or even free) way to have a church website. I have created another site with step-by-step instructions for creating a Blogspot blog and tutorials are listed below.
- Creating a Blogspot Blog - Step by Step
- How to switch to another Blogspot template
- How to implement the free church templates I provide
- Here are the Free Blogger Church Templates!
- How to post and how to make dropdown menus
- Blogger settings information
Webnode
Webnode will allow you to produce a fully functional site with features such as guestbooks, photo galleries, and site search. A sample Webnode church site is http://christcompassion.webnode.com. If you stay below a certain amount of file space and transfer space, this service is free. Note that Webnode is not a U.S. based company. Resources for using Webnode are given below.
- Step-by-step instructions for creating a Webnode site
- Changing your banner on your site
- Changing your homepage on your site
- Having your Webnode site redirect to your own Godaddy domain
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