Website Hosting with Custom Domain for Less Than $1 per Month

Problem:

As mentioned in my other article, you can host your website completely free with Dropbox, Google Sites, or Blogger. But the problem with doing things this way is that your URL can be so hard for friends, clients, or even yourself to read or remember that it's basically useless.

Solution:

You can get your own website at your own Domain hosted online all for about $1 per month if you choose the right domain name. To do this, you can get a free blog with blogger, edit the blogger XML template file (this article will be written shortly), and then purchase a domain for about $10 per year.

This will get you a single-page website at your own domain. The downside is that for a multiple-page website, you will have to jump through hoops to make it work. But this single-page-site solution is great for beginners who are learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

If you are teaching yourself web design or web development, or if you are a teacher or professor with your own class full of students, this method could be a great low cost option.

How To:

Step 1: Create a Blogger Account

Get a Blogger account. If you have a Gmail account, you might be able to skip this step.

Step 2: Create a Blog

After signing into Blogger, click "New Blog." Create a new blog with a good title and a unique sub-domain and click "Create Blog!"

Step 3: Create Posts or Edit the Blogger XML Template

Don't create any posts if you don't want your website to look like a blog. If you do intend for this to be a blog, then create as many posts as you want. If you want to make this into a single page website, you have to edit the Blogger XML template (this article will be written shortly).

Step 4: Find your "Blogger Address" in Settings

After signing into to Blogger and selecting your blog by clicking on its name (if you haven't already done this) click "Settings" on the left side. Under the "Publishing" heading, you should see your "Blog Address" with a little edit link beside it to the right. Below this, you should see a link that reads "+ Add a custom domain..." Click it.

Step 5: Buy a New Domain or Use an Existing One

Now, you can buy a new domain or use an existing one. There are more steps to actually set this up, which I won't cover but Blogger will give you instructions from here on out. If you have questions, post them here as comments.