Building A Free Website At UcoZ.com

Signing Up

1.  First go to Ucoz.com (link will open in a new window, so you may continue to view this step-by-step tutorial) and in the middle of the page, click on the "SIGN UP NOW" link. You will then be able to fill out the registration page. You will be able to choose from 15 different domains. If your desirable website name is not available with one domain, use the drop-down box to try it with another domain. You will get a green checkmark if your chosen name is available. You will also need to enter a valid working email address to confirm your account. Put a check in the box to accept the terms of service and click the "Register" button.

2.  You will now be able to log in to your control panel. Enter your password and the supplied security code and and click the "Login" button.

Initial Signup

3.  You will now be able to start working on your free website! First choose a site name that will be displayed near the top of your page. (you can always change this later). You will also select your site design layout (template) by clicking on "Select design". There are over 200 cool templates, so feel free to browse and pick a design you like. Remember, you can always change templates later. When happy with your template choice, click the "Continue" button.

4.  You will now choose the "modules" (site add-ons) to install on your free website. Check the boxes of the desired modules. (you may always add and subtract modules later). When you have chosen your modules, click the "Continue" button. Some modules require administration rights, so you will need to choose a "User-administrator's login" (username) and "User administrator's password". The user name can be the same as the username used at registration, but the password must be different. You will also choose an FTP password for use in publishing your site if you choose to publish your site with an FTP program. When finished, click the "Continue" button. (print the following page with all your password information!) Put a check in the box "I have remembered and saved security data of my account" and click the "Finish initial setup" button.

Site Editing

You are now on the main control panel page. You will see that UcoZ has a very elaborate website building system. Do not be afraid if you are a beginner, you will learn as you go and editing the site is actually very easy. And remember you can always get help by clicking the "help" link in the upper tool bar and read the FAQ and Community Forums. You can also submit a support ticket.

5.  To get started editing your main page, click "page editor" in the left column. Then click on "Pages management". You will see the titles of the pages on your site. The first page your visitors will see when they come to your site will be the "Main page". To edit the "Main page", click the eye ball icon to the far right of the chosen page. This is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) visual web page editor. All you have to do is type in your page content in the space provided. If you are not familiar with editing a web page, I recommend adding a table to the page by first clicking the "insert table" icon in the top toolbar. Choose at least a 2 X 2 cell table, this will give your page room to separate your content by putting content in each cell. When you are done editing the page, make sure you click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page.

Adding New Pages

6.  To add new pages to your free website, on the "Page Editor" page, click the "Add new page" link at the top right. You will be taken right to a page editor. You will name the page at the top, and add your content in the space provided. When you are done editing the page, make sure you click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page.

Adding Images To Your Page

7.  Putting images on your page is simple from the page editor. Under the web page content box you will see the first item is "Images". To the right of that, you will see you can browse your computer to the desired photo(s). To add more than one photo, click the "+" and browse for more photos. After uploading you will see the image title to the right. It will look like $IMAGE1$. Click on that text, when it is highlighted, you can drag the image up into the text content box to the desired location.

Adding New Modules To Your Site

8. You may want to add modules to your site that you did not install during your initial setup. In the left column, you will see your installed modules. At the bottom of that column, you will see "Active" and "Inactive" boxes. Click the "Inactive" box to see your available modules. Click on the desired module, then click the "Install this module" button. You will then be able to customize the module, and a link to the new module will automatically be placed on your website.

Accessing The Main Part Of Your Template

9. You may want to make changes to your "Global" template, but be careful as you can distort the template. This would be mostly used to change the "Title" on the page. As soon as you log in (or under the "General" tab, click "Main Page"), click on "Custom Design". Under "Page Editor", click "Site pages". Then under the text box, click the "Visual HTML editor". You may also restore the default template from here in the upper right.

In Conclusion...

10. You will want to experiment with all the great features available to you in this great site builder. The top toolbar icons will assist you in inserting content in your web pages. Ucoz.com has the most elaborate web 2.0 site builder and modules of any free web host, so there is no way I could explain every cool feature. If you get frustrated, try the help forums or FAQ.

  11.  The most important part to any free website is to submit it to the search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo. That way your visitors will be able to find your site. To submit your site to hundreds of search engines for free, CLICK HERE. (use an email account you do not mind getting filled with confirmation emails).