LolasLiger said:
I have just started using
http://www.weebly.com/ in the last few days for a website (RL interest so I am reluctant to link the site in public).
So far I have found it pretty good for a basic site, especially one that is free. Though I have stuck to the weebly url (i.e. xxxx.weebly.com), they give you the option of buying a domain name through them or using a preregistered one (GoDaddy is probably the best and cheapest place to register domain names).
You can choose from a multitude of themes, and then edit them to your own liking. The drag and drop options means that you don't need html/css knowledge, though it gives you the option to use it if you wish.
There is even an option to password/restrict certain pages.
There are limitations to how much you can store for free, but one way of getting around that is using free hosting and using the html option to hotlink. My photos are hosted on photobucket and then thumbnailed on the site.
The free template sites are all pretty much the same, they aren't good, but they're something someone can use if they aren't going to have something done for them properly.
In regards to registering domain names, if you care about animals this may effect whether you'd do business with Godaddy. Last year a lot of people were sickened when the CEO of Godaddy posted pictures of himself standing over an elephant he'd shot and killed. People were appalled at his actions and people started moving their domains away from Godaddy. No idea how many people did in total, but at the time, one webhost offered to donate $1.00 to save the elephants charity, for each site that left godaddy for them, and they ended up donating over 20k pretty quick... The guy seems to compete with himself for worst PR moves, as recently he has supported SOPA (basically he supported removing a lot of freedom from the internet users) until there was huge public backlash and he/godaddy flipflopped and said they would not support it... And on top of that, quite a few people have found that after checking to see if the domain they want is available (through godaddy) but not registering it right then, coming back in a couple days, they'd find the domain was registered - by Godaddy - and now was for sale as a "premium domain" at a jacked up price. Great company, really great...
Godaddy is known because they are one of the only hosts that advertise on TV, but they aren't good. Instead of using an industry standard control panel, like cPanel, they use their own proprietary system, which is slower and can be a big pain in the ass if you want to migrate your site from them to elsewhere.
December 29th was declared "leave godaddy day".