It all started with a message board with women telling other women that they didn't have to sell their articles for such a low price. From there, people started talking about how these content sites make their money. After that, I was hit with the bug. The website-of-my-own bug led me a number of web hosting companies. I was looking too cut out the middle man.
So, I found a web hosting company, Freewebs.com, that took paypal and I purchased one month of web hosting. Today, I just finished my first web site. I didn't create it myself. Instead I used a template from another site called bravenet.com. It took me all of two days to customize my template, find a hosting company, put together some job leads, create original content (what a joy creating for myself), and it wasn't that hard.
How am I going to generate money to replace the middle man? Well, I really don't know that I will. However, I hope to draw enough advertising and affiliates to at least cover the cost of the website. The important thing isn't how I am going to make money.
The important thing here is that a generally unexperienced web businesswoman put together a site for a money making purpose in less than two days. If I can do it, anyone can. But, back to the abstract at hand. I wouldn't necessarily recommend freewebs.com to those of you looking to take on the same venture. It doesn't have a lot of tools compared to other sites and it isn't as cheap.
So, why did I use freewebs. I used this company for the simple fact that I could purchase one month rather than having to purchase 6 months to a year at a time. I also chose this site because it took paypal and that was really the only free cash I had.
Good luck everyone on your adventure into web site ownership. If you get the chance, stop by my website at - http://www.freewebs.com/freelancewriting/