You too can create a website!
I wrote a short article for the Spring 2018 issue of Japan Harvest magazine that attempts to help non-programmers be comfortable building their own website, instead of thinking they have to pay a programmer or expensive service. This is the auxiliary content to go with the article, especially links to video tutorials (it’s hard to copy a messy YouTube URL from a printed page!). For those of you who found this post without the magazine, here’s a PDF of the article.
WordPress tutorial videos
I selected a few video tutorials I thought covered beginning WordPress pretty well – here are the links:
And as I said in the article, don’t be afraid to experiment and learn as you go—try something, and if you don’t like it, try something else.
Pre-packaged site builders that include hosting
Most of the article discusses how to get an account at a standard hoster and install and use WordPress on it, because that’s what I do for all my websites. But if that still too daunting, there are a number of site builder services that host your site and provide a drag-and-drop interface for building the content. I have not used them, but I know a number of people who have. The most common ones are Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix. Wix is the oldest one and perhaps the most well-known, but it has some limitations – I would recommend the other two first. Here is one expert’s review and comparison of the three: https://www.shivarweb.com/4796/squarespace-vs-weebly-vs-wix/ His analysis fits what I have heard from others.