If you’re not sure exactly what you want to achieve with your website, start with a free one. There is nothing wrong with a free website. Using providers like WordPress.com, you can create professional sites with little effort, without it costing you the earth.

Free websites from providers like WordPress.com, Weebly, and Wix all have a few things in common.

All of them have no contracts or fees when starting out. They will allow you to choose a domain name, but they will give you a subdomain URL in the form of chosenname.provider.com This is not a bad thing, because at least you are building your brand recognition with your chosen name.

They often use user-friendly page builder tools, though some are more user-friendly than others. And there are often a number of themes that you can choose from for your websites. No technical skills are required to get your website up and going—you just need the content.

However, the free options also possess similar cons too.

The options and resources available for your websites will be limited. For example, Wix and Weebly don’t allow you to embed signup forms on your website to external providers. On WordPress.com, you might not be able to have an embedded form, but you can use a popup signup form to common email list providers.

The free sites also tend to offer limited technical support, and they might require you to pay for add-ons or upgrades to become fully usable sites. They will restrict how much customization you have access to, limiting how much of your branding you can incorporate into your site.

And the biggest con: the cost of a free website is the advertising that providers put on your website. Sometimes, you can influence what ads are shown, but more often than not, you can’t.

I know I’m sounding a little negative about free sites here, but seriously, they are a good option for newer and emerging writers. I started out on a free website from WordPress.com with a custom domain mapped onto it. If it wasn’t for business decisions that I made years ago, I would likely still be using that free website, nearly a decade after it was first created.

My Own Website Journey

I had my first website back in 2000, and back then, websites needed to be manually coded. I hated doing it, and the website eventually disappeared.

Jump forward to 2014—and my decision to actively seek publication of my fiction—and I was freaking out when I saw that agents and publishers wanted to see your website. But I finally caved and reached out to my brother-in-law, who is a web designer, to ask for his advice. He knew my background… and he knew my skills. And he told me to just sign up for a free website with WordPress.com.

I will admit that I was dubious at first, knowing that sometimes free is not always quality… but I was blown away with how much website technologies had changed.

I had the first iteration of my author website up and running within a span of 30 minutes. I kid you not. All I needed was the content. The theme and website builder did the rest.

I spent the next month tweaking the website, changing out themes and trying different designs. And I finally came across a combination that I adored. And it was FREE.

So… When I started my editorial business in 2015, I went with a free website with a custom domain on top of it. It cost me in the order of US$30 per year.

In 2017, I moved away from the free websites, but purely for financial reasons. At the time, I had two free websites with custom domains sitting on top of them, costing me US$60 per year total (or thereabouts). But for the Black Wolf Editorial business, I needed a custom domain email. It was about looking professional. So, in 2016, I paid for a Google custom domain email at US$60 per year. Then I started looking into the self-hosting and discovered that for the US$120 per year that I was paying, I could get a hosting package that would give me full control over my websites (with no ads) and an unlimited number of emails on both domains. So, I made the switch and have never looked back.

But had it not been for the need of the custom domain email, I would likely still be using the free website option with the custom domain sitting on top of that, keeping my costs down.

My point: Yes, in the long-term, you will want to consider self-hosting options, but the free website is a reasonable option for the writer just starting out, even if you stick with the custom sub-domain URL. Only the writer-platform snobs will berate you for keeping your costs down.

Options for Free Website Hosting

To find the right option for you, you need to look at the ease of use, the connectivity of the site with your other social media, the ability to upgrade or go self-hosted in the future, and the overall look and feel of the resulting website. Take a look at other websites using the different providers and see which one gives you the best feeling.

At the time this post was written, the free options that produced usable websites for writers included the following.

• WordPress (wordpress.com)
• Weebly (weebly.com)
• Wix (wix.com)
• Tilda Publishing (tilda.cc)
• Infinity Free (infinityfree.com)

Be careful of providers that say they offer free websites for a trial period. The costs associated can be more than you were expecting. SquareSpace, a common host provider among writers, is free for only 14 days. After that, you need to pay.

The Option I Recommend

Personally, of all the free website-building options, I would recommend WordPress (wordpress.com).

Before anyone accuses me of being paid to make an advertisement, I should stress that my recommendation is based on my own personal experience and research.

On the free WordPress.com site, you can map a custom domain onto the site for approximately US$30 per year, depending on the domain suffix, and this includes privacy protection where available. And WordPress sites are highly portable, allowing you to easily move hosting providers (becoming self-hosted in the future), taking all of your content with you. The same can’t be said for sites like Weebly or Wix. This ability to grow is a highly attractive feature.

The themes available for free WordPress websites count in the thousands, with many of them being highly customizable.

The first version of my personal website used a free WordPress.com account with a custom domain mapped onto it, and that was back in 2014. WordPress.com has improved its systems significantly since then, making it more customizable and user-friendly.

When to Choose to Go Self-Hosted

Free websites are a good option for simple websites with minimal traffic. However, there comes a point when free just doesn’t cut it anymore.

You should consider self-hosted website services if any of the following apply to you.

1) You are a professional service provider (e.g., an editor, a graphic designer, a marketing consultant).

2) You have a lot of pages, files, and content.

3) You want good security or responsive customer support.

4) You are trying to develop your brand for monetization.

5) You are expecting a high amount of traffic to your website.

6) You want full control over your website, including any ads that get listed.

Sites that are NOT Websites

During my encounters with new writers, many of them will tell me that they have a blog, but not a full-fledged website. When I ask where I can find their blog to take a look, they give me a URL that leads to a social media site.

Except for Tumblr, Medium, and Substack, social media sites should never be thought of as an option for a website or a blog. This includes Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other similar social media sites.

Social media sites are intended for networking and reaching out to a fraction of your audience. In most cases, social media sites require readers to have their own account on that site to read your posts.

So… Do you have a website?

I know that just the simple mention of the word website can send some writers into a panic. I get it. I was once there too. But help really is at your fingertips.

Are you feeling incredibly uncertain about your website? Do you need a little help to get it up and running, or to take control? I offer mentoring to writers building their online platforms.

I am NOT a web designer, though I know a lot about website design. I can guide you through what you need to do, so you can manage your website for yourself. I want to empower you to take control over your own online platform.

However, if you are struggling with the financial side of things, there is a cheaper option. Working with websites, including the lowdown on web design, is one of the many topics found in Hidden Traps of the Internet: Building and Protecting Your Online Platform by Judy L Mohr.