Many of you are out there spending big bucks on building, hosting, and promoting your web sites or blogs. Why do people do this? I don't know.

When I first started out, I didn't have the money to be shelling it out everywhere - especially when I didn't really know what I was doing yet, and everything I put out there was an experiment, or just for practice. This is why I built free web sites, instead of taking a risk of losing a bunch of money on my failures.

And I still build my own web sites for free!

Most people think you can't make money on the internet with free web sites, but that's not true. There are plenty of people making lots of money on their free hosted blogs and web sites!

The idea that free web sites hosted on free web hosts were somehow "shady" or "not to be trusted", has pretty much fallen by the wayside. In my opinion, it was never true anyway. You have to give all the same identifying information for your free web sites as you do on paid ones. So owners of free hosted websites are really just as accountable as those who are paying. Web services providers will still try to sell you that line of baloney about free web sites being less trustworthy, though, to keep you paying through the nose.

But they don't fool me and don't you be suckered into it, either!

When I first started building web sites, there was no way I could afford to pay for expensive web hosting, programmers, templates, graphics, and web designers. I struggled to keep up with the internet marketing gurus who had plenty to spend on high-priced fancy techno gadgets, scripts, and graphic stuff I couldn't afford.

How could I compete with all that?

I developed extraordinary researching abilities to discover free ways to build my own free websites, so I could get my free web sites to look as good as their expensive ones.

I had to learn html on my own, and how to make my own templates and graphics through free web design tutorials.

Pretty tough for someone who had never seen html before, and had no idea what was involved. But I figured it all out, for the most part. At least I know my way around a little bit, or can pretend I do, anyway.

I found the free html tutorials, free graphics tutorials, free web editing software, free graphics software, and technical information I needed to start building free web sites. And I set myself to learning everything I didn't know about building free web sites and free web site promotion.

Through a lot of research and trial and error, and with some major OMG moments when some crappy web hosts and software screwed up all my hard work, I learned where to get the best free web hosting, and which free web hosting providers had the best services and best free web tools. Which ones give you the most free web space and bandwidth with the least forced ads.

Things have gotten a lot better and easier for people who build free websites since I first struggled trying to build them on a zero budget. Now we have free hosting providers who will give lots more storage and bandwidth, and who will host your databases and will allow you to add Wordpress, Joomla, PhpBB forums, Social Networking scripts, Python, Rails, E-Commerce scripts, and a myriad of other free scripts and databases onto your free web hosting account, almost as easily as the click of a button.

I spend a lot of time digging around on the internet looking at other peoples' web sites and promotion strategies, so I can learn what gadgets, techniques, and strategies they are using to get the success they are enjoying. Whenever I see something really smart, cool, or innovative, I immediately try to figure out how to implement it myself for free on my own free websites.

Over the years, I have learned the hard way which are the best free web hosts, where to get the best free templates, who has the best free graphics for your web site, how to use free online graphics tools and free graphics software to make your logos and free web graphics, where to go to get free web design tutorials when I get stuck, who the best free affiliate networks are, and how to use free SEO tutorials, free SEO software, and free online SEO tools to promote your websites for free.

I have decided to share my free website building secrets with you - such as how to build a free website by yourself, how to get the best free web hosting, free website building and free graphics tutorials, how to optimize your site for the search engines, what to do to make money with your free web site or blog, and how to get free targeted traffic.

In short: every bit of knowledge and all the tools you need to start building free websites and making money for free.

So, if you want to learn how to build websites for free, get free website building tutorials, free software, free web tools, free graphics, and learn how to make money for free with your blog or website, then hang around here for a while and see what kind of treasures I have collected.

For more free web site building tools and tips, subscribe to the feed at my Web Sites Free For Beginners blog, or sign up for the MagicStarNetWorks Newsletter.

In the meantime, start asking yourself: Why you are paying out all that money for hosting and promotion, when you could be doing your web sites for free ?

Here's to a long and prosperous future of building free web sites and making money for free!