While social media networks like Facebook are a lot of fun, they’re restrictive. What if you just want a simple itty bitty website to promote your latest book, or your freelance offerings?
You don’t have time to buy a domain name, get hosting and so on — nor do you want to spend money — you just want an URL you can promote FAST.
Currently I’m building a complete new website here after nuking my original “name” website, online since 1998. Starting afresh is a lot of fun, and yes — it’s work, but I’m a little geeky, so I love it.
I’ve had questions from readers who want to publish something online fast. And free.
Let’s look at how you can do that.
Marketing for free: create a simple, one-page website with Google Docs
The fastest, quickest way I know of is to use Google Docs. From How to Share a Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides File as a Web Page:
Sharing a Google file as a web page is a great way to publish information to the Internet for a large audience. Anything you share is entirely public, and—if you use the right search string—it can be found via any search engine as a lightweight page on the web.
When you share a file to the web, Drive creates a copy of it with a unique URL. This allows you to make edits and publish changes when you want to, and it also prevents viewers from seeing any source material.
Of course, the one-page website you publish with Google Docs will be a little plain. What if you want a little more style?
You can have it, with an offering from Carrd.
A marketing dream: elegant one-page websites with Carrd
Carrd offers free one-page responsive websites. You can start with one of their templates, or you can start with a blank page, your choice.
Carrd lets you create up to three free websites with one account. If you want more, Carrd’s upgrade has a low annual fee which lets you add stuff to you site, including:
- Forms — including subscriber forms;
- Custom domains with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) — SSL has now become an online publishing standard;
- Widgets, so you can embed payment processor widgets from PayPal, Stripe, and others…
If you’re starting up a business as a side hustle, then websites like Carrd help you to kickoff your new business super-fast.
Want a free online store? Here you go
Want a one-page online store? With Pagexl you can create a one-page website using your smartphone to use as an online store. You can create two websites for free with Pagexl.
How long to create a one-page website?
Give yourself ten minutes. Or half an hour.
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Copywriter and marketing pro Angela Booth maintains a busy copywriting and ghostwriting practice. Fascinated by online marketing, she wrote one of the first business books for internet marketing, published by Allen & Unwin. She’s been an enthusiastic blogger since the late 1990s.
