I have been writing for various different blogs for quite some time now. I recently thought of starting my own blog but, after looking around the web, I found that this required a lot of investment. I wanted to to do it with minimal investment.
There are a lot of free resources available over the internet too. If you are smart enough, people may not even realize that your website is built with free resources. This article is not intended to promote my website or any of the other websites listed here. Rather, examples showcase how easy it is to build a professional looking website: if I can do it, anyone can.
Here are some ideas that helped me procure a professional looking website for a cost as low as $1.
Personal Domain Name
The first step towards building a professional website is procuring a personalized domain name. The cheapest domain name that you can get is a .info domain name. I bought one for $1 from Godaddy. There are various vendors but I found this one the cheapest.
Free Hosting Space
When you buy a domain name for $1, you do not get any hosting space but, don't worry as there are huge resources over the internet that are free. You can easily sign up for a blogger account which is absolutely free. Once you have a blogger account, your website address looks like abc.blogspot.com; however, you can configure your .info domain name to point to all your content on Blogger.
Free Forum Hosting
When you have a professional blog with your personalized domain name, it is most likely that you also need a forum where your blog members can interact. Forumotion provides a free forum for your blog. This is a completely customizable forum with advanced admin access. This free forum can be configured to have a web address like forum.your-domain.info.
Free Personalised Email Hosting
Having an email with your domain name gives an extra edge when you interact with external agencies for promotions and affiliate programs. Google Apps is an incredible product from Google. Once you subscribe for Google Apps Standard Edition, you can configure your account for an email address like info@your-domain.info which makes your blog more reliable. Google Apps Standard Edition is an absolutely free offering from Google.
RSS Feeds
FeedCat is a free RSS provider which enables feed subscription on a web address like feed.your-domain.info. You simply have to register for an account with FeedCat and you can configure your domain with FeedCat for similar URL.
Everything that I've mentioned above is personally tried and tested. This is just an overview of creating a free (or $1) professional looking blog. You can configure these free resources with any type of domain name whether it is a .com, .org, etc.
