Find Free Publishing Websites
Free Personal and Commercial Sites for Advertising Your Writing
Mar 7, 2008
Many of the largest websites hosting companies require expensive monthly or yearly payments. There are several ways to get free websites, however. These sites have no hosting fees whatsoever but can attract the same attention as a paid site.
HubPages offers "hubs" that can be designed in a number of ways with text, photos and links. The hubs require no programming knowledge and can be used for anything that is not overly commercial. They can not be used to advertise a website, but hub creators use AdSense and eBay and Amazon affiliate programs to bring in revenue. There is no limit to the number of hubs that a persona can create.
Squidoo has setup that is much like the HubPages model. The sites are called lenses and can be used for any purpose. Most of the lenses are commercial and designed to sell items through the lensmaster's website or through affiliate programs.
Freewebs
Freewebs offers websites that are easily created through its site manager. The site offers a large selection of templates and a file manager that allows the storage of photos and documents. The sites can be used for online stores, personal sites or for advertising. Like HubPages and Squidoo, the webmasters of these sites do not have their own domain name.
Blogger
For a free blog, Blogger offers a free site that is simple to use and can be used for any purpose other than adult content. Bloggers who use these free blogs are given a subdomain of the main Blogger site. There are a number of templates, and no programming is needed. For bloggers who want to program, that option is available for extra customization of the blogs.
Google Free Hosting
None of the above sites can offer the users a unique domain name, but none of them cost anything. To use Google free hosting, there is the cost of a domain name. Domain names bought through Google are actually routed to GoDaddy for purchase, but the price is a flat $10 instead of a variable rate. After the domain name is bought, the hosting through Google is entirely free. The domain will have to be renewed once a year for another $10 fee. But, with no monthly or yearly charge for hosting, it is the lowest-cost way to get a site with a unique domain name.
Free websites are a good way to get started in online publishing before spending money on hosting and Web design. But after trying them, some people find that free sites meet their needs well enough that they never need to pay for a site.
Related articles: How to Write for the Web, Beginner Sites for Web Writing
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