“Moscow was not built in one day” - one important principle we have to keep in mind when it comes down to traffic generation as well as traffic conversion (being from Russia, that’s what I usually say:).
We all keep talking about the importance of branding yourself and NOT your company or product.
One very intricate (and imperative!) part of the branding process is creating your own website traffic conversion as opposed to marketing your company’s replicated site.
Well, many of you told me “Easier said than done, Ana. I don’t have time or expertise to build my own website from scratch.”
Duly noted. My response – you don’t have to.
I’ve put together a list of the best (and free) website builders that can help you get your website running in no time.
If you find this list useful or would like to suggest more sites our readers will benefit from, I’d love for you to leave a comment at the bottom of the post and retweet please.
1. http://www.jimdo.com
It’s really easy to create a free website with Jimdo: just sign-up, follow the link to your own page, integrate pictures, videos and texts in seconds, change the design with a click, add as many pages as you want…and you are done - your website traffic conversion funnel is ready.
2. http://www.webnode.com
From TechCrunch Review:
“Free to use, WebNode aims to monetize through paid-for extra storage space, extra bandwidth options and e-mail accounts. It’s a very clean and easy to use page creator, which is much easier than blogs. It’s more for building websites than social networks or blogs. Weirdly they are on a trend.”
3. http://getshopped.com/
Their services are perfect for any new or existing business that wants to sell products or services online.
4. http://www.webstarts.com/
Drag and drop photos, videos, text, and more. Create a unique professional online presence. Choose from dozens of pre-designed layouts or make your own. Get your very own domain name (YourOwn.com). Register a new domain or use your existing one. Your domain name will automatically be online in minutes.
5. http://www.350.com/
Creating your website using 350pages is easy, fun and flexible - each object is fully customizable - headings, button bars, logos, dividers, text, images and photo galleries - customize the style, color, fonts, backgrounds and even make them transparent.
6. http://www.wix.com/
Wix galleries are filled to the brim with professionally designed templates for photography, business, music, art and fashion. All you need to do is make your choice and add your content and you’re already halfway to creating your own Flash website for free.
7. http://www.yola.com/
Yola free websites are ideal for small businesses. They offer100+ templates that are fully customizable to suit your business, free hosting for your website, no banner or pop-up ads, and more.
8. http://sites.google.com/
• Single-click page creation
• Customizable look and feel
• Dozens of pre-built templates
• Settings for accessing and sharing information
• And it’s free
9. http://www.moonfruit.com/
Drag and drop editing software; Facebook, Twitter integration; promote your site with message center, invite tools; add your own stuff: images, video, MP3s; add 3rd party content: Youtube, Myspace video, Google maps.
10. http://www.dotemplate.com/
DoTemplate is a catalog of free Web templates you can easily customize before download.
11. Bonus – http://www.weebly.com/
What can you do with Weebly?
• Create a free website & blog
• Easy drag and drop interface
• No technical skills required
• Dozens of professional designs
• Free domain hosting
Now that you have these resources, there is no excuse why you can’t create your own site and be in charge of your own website traffic conversion!
Now before you run off to build a website, SHOW ME SOME BLOG COMMENT LOVE!
Your are right: you don’t have to comment or retweet, but would it help if I told you it would be much appreciated? 
PS For more no-nonsense traffic generation and conversion tips from Ana, fill out this short spam-free form:
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You should add Office Live Small Business to your list. It's a template-based service designed specifically with the small business in mind. You can choose your own domain name. It's ad free, and it works with Google AdSense.
Learn more about it at http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/en-us/.
Cheers,
KIM
MSFT Office Live Outreach Team
Thanks for the suggestion, Kim; looks like a great option.
Cheers,
Ana
Happy to share it! Hope you find it useful.
Cheers,
KIM
MSFT Office Live Outreach Team
Thanks, Ana…for this valuable information.
You ROCK!
Thank, Dr. By the way, I love the name of your blog, very creative.
Ana
Just used Google sites to create a website… Great tool, although I build them much faster with an html editor and personal templates…
I wonder if Google gives their own sites more authority?
Wordpress is pretty fast too…
Hey, Tod: I am with you - I personally prefer html editors (Nvu in my case) to create my web pages. Of course, many people are intimidated by sheer phrase “html editor” (although it's not rocket science; my business page http://www.yournetbizwealthcreation.com was the first page I EVER designed, and it turned out OK).
As far as Google Sites is concerned… good question… I wonder…
Coolest list, thanks alot for posting this
this kind of contributions really help small people like me
thank you very much again, and you have a really nice blog
You do have some great designs and logos on your site, and they are free! I will keep it in mind for my designing needs.
Thanks for stopping by!