If you thought building a website requires knowledge of computer languages, professional training and loads of money, think again. With site-building software becoming simple and easy-to-use and websites tripping over each other to offer you free space, things have changed.

WHY do I need a website?

The website could be about you, your family or your favourite soccer star (pay homage to tomorrow’s star Cristiano Ronaldo today with a site on him!). Tell the world about yourself or store and share files (photographs, music… anything) with friends. A personal site adds weight to your resume too

WHERE do I get the space?

A number of Internet sites offer free space, ranging from 15 to 100 megabytes (MB), with varying monthly usage bandwidth (amount of space taken up in uploading and downloading files). For instance, anyone with a Yahoo! email account is automatically entitled to 15 MB webspace in Geocities. The rider: monthly bandwidth usage cannot exceed 3 gigabytes (GB).

WHAT’S in it for them?

Advertisements for one. Some, like Geocities, put simple banners while others like Tripod have a pop-up window every time you click a link. Pay to make it ad-free.

Signing up with the provider for an account is the first step. On registering, your provider will assign you the site address — for instance, Yahoo! mail users get an address like www.geocities.com/(the Yahoo! mail id).

HOW do I build one?

Thanks to software like Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver, building a website is as easy as typing text and pasting pictures in MS Word. Most offer their own site-building tools as well. FrontPage comes bundled with almost all the versions of Microsoft Office, while Dreamweaver needs to be bought separately.

• Start with the home page, putting in text, tables, pictures and multimedia files according to your choice — just like putting together a virtual scrapbook. During the creation process, the software allows you to simultaneously view how the page would look to someone visiting your site. If your homepage refers to other pages or files, they need to be linked with ‘hyperlinks’, available in the software.

• If it’s a site on you, put up a snazzy write-up about yourself and a collection of photos of you and your family… perhaps even something about your heroes. Jazz ’em up with fancy animations and Javascripts that help you put up anything from bouncing buttons and dancing cursors to small games. Find hundreds of them for free at www.gifanimations.com and www.javascript.internet.com.

• Once you’re done, save the pages on your computer’s hard disk.

• Next is uploading the site. This process varies according to the webspace provider, but usually an interface is provided, much like sending attachments with email. Upload the pages and other files one by one.

Webspace providers also have their own, web-based site-building tools and readymade templates. No designing required, just add the info.

Your site is up and ready to roll!

Who offers how much

Geocities - http://geocities.yahoo.com/

15MB space, 3GB monthly bandwidth limit. Banner/pop-up ads, browser uploads, on-line editor

Tripod.com - http://www.tripod.lycos.com/

20MB space. Banner/pop-up ads. MS FrontPage, web-based builder and templates provided

FortuneCity - http://www.fortunecity.com/

25MB space with 3GB monthly bandwidth. Banner/pop-ups on each page

FreeWebs.com - http://members.freewebs.com/

100MB space, 500MB monthly bandwidth. No forced ads, online website builder, counters