There are many web host providers that offer a low initial cost as an incentive to use their services. Ultimately their charges will rise after the introductory period expires.
For just the cost of the annual domain registration fee, you can create simple websites using Google Domains and Google Sites and/or Blogger. To use this approach, you will need to register for a Google account.
Google’s domain name prices are in line with the industry standard, but its Domain Management interface is much nicer than most of its competitors.
Check for the availability of your name on Google Domain, Sites and Blogger before buying the domain. A tip is to create the site or blog with the name that relates to your Domain. This will allow 2 ways to access your site, eg widgets.com or widgets.blogspot.com.
- Start by buying the Domain name of your choice.
- Log into Google Sites and create your site. You don’t need to finish the design at this stage. If you only want to blog, you can instead go into Blogger and create your blog. If you’re going to have a website with a Blog component, then create both sites so you can embed the blog into your Google Site (example site below).
- Go back to Google Domain, select the Domain and click on Manage to start the process of linking the Domain to the website you just created. Full deals of the process can be found here for Google Sites and here for Blogger.
Now that you have your website up and running. An important aspect you need to address is email.
You can set up email forwarding in Google Domains to multiple destinations and/or just one catchall address, such as your Gmail account.
If using Gmail, you will want the email you send for your domain to use the domain name in the return address. You will need to create an app-specific password in the Security section of your Google Account for use in the email alias process.
Once you have completed the above, you now have a website that you can start promoting, with all the backend processes being handled by Google at no cost.
The sites you can create using Google as the provider are admittedly limited in functionality, but for most uses, the available design options are all that is needed. Samples of sites that can be created are;
www.logic2design.com - Static site with Blog
ssh.103home.com - Static site with linked Airtable database
An advantage of this approach that can be taken into consideration is that if, for some reason, the Domain registration lapses the underlying sites will still be available via the Google Sites and Blogger services.