As with most anything on the web, there are lots of ways to create your own website. Many are free; some require payment. Each offers slightly different features, but the principles are usually the same.

This lesson will use the online service Freewebs to create a completely free website.

First, go to Freewebs.com. There you'll see the home page.

Click on the big "Start Now" button, which will take you to the Signup page. Enter in a username, password, email address, and the rest of the fields on the form.

The bottom of the page will contain a list of templates; choose whichever one looks nicest to you.

Once you're done, you'll be sent to the Site Builder, which will show your website. Click the "Content Box" button in the middle of the page to add text to the page. Click the "Add New Page" button at the top of page to create a new page of your website.

Use the yellow buttons on the left side of the page to add new content, and the grey buttons below them to format that content (italicize text, align text, etc.). When you're done, click the yellow "Save" button at the top of the window (you'll be prompted to either save the changes as a draft, or publish the changes to your live site on the internet).

When you're done creating your website, click the Exit button. You'll be prompted to publish any changes, then will be taken to your Site Manager.

From the Site Manager, you can change your template, change pages, add pages, delete pages, and otherwise manipulate your site. This is the first page you'll see when you log in from now on.

Your website is now http://www.freewebs.com/ followed by the username you entered when you signed up (if you used upper-case letters in your username, they're lower-case in your web address). For example, my username on Freewebs is "brentnewhall", so my site is http://www.freewebs.com/brentnewhall/