I recently was asked by a friend, “How do I get a website”? The first thought that went through my head was that I needed to offer this person a solution that was incredibly simple and inexpensive. There are many ways to get a website up and running and many potential problems and costs that you may run into depending on the type of site you want to have. For the sake of time and money, let’s say you just want a personal website that you can maintain yourself with little to no programming ability and with a very small budget.
Solution: WordPress.com
Step 1: (Cost $9.99)
Register your domain name with GoDaddy. You can do the same thing with other registrars, but GoDaddy does have very low prices and their customer service is good.
Step 2: (Cost $0)
Create a site at WordPress.com. They offer plenty of instructions and the process is very quick and simple. Video tutorials can be found on wordpress.tv. There are no hosting charges unless you upgrade and/or your site becomes ultra popular and you start getting slammed with hits. But that would be a good thing!
Step 3: (Cost $0)
Log in to GoDaddy and redirect your site to go to your new wordpress.com site URL.
For examples of sites using WordPress.com – see the WordPress Blog.