Wix Tutorial – How to Create a Free Wix Website – Expert Review

hello everyone and welcome to website planet today I’ll be showing you how to create your own stunning website and no more than 15 minutes using Wix com Wix is a powerful website builder where you can create your own professional looking website using only a template and a drag-and-drop system it’s that easy this video tutorial will show you how to create a free basic photography website don’t worry the principles involved in creating a
website with Wix are the same whether it’s a photographer’s gallery or an online store blog or business first navigate to our Wix page by clicking the link below and opening the Wix page in a new tab in your browser once you reach twixes elegant and simple screen click on the start now button in the middle of the page the page that opens is the signup page where you can sign up either by entering and confirming your email address and password or
by using your Facebook or Google account linking your social media accounts with Wix allows for a quicker signup process in the future in either case you’re not committing to anything and you will not be asked for any credit card details after you’ve created your account and remember there is no email verification necessary a new page will open asking you to answer a few questions about yourself you can skip this part by clicking skip in the
lower right hand corner and proceed with creating your first web site you will arrive to the templates section our starting point where you can choose from nearly 200 templates these are arranged in over 15 categories with each category having several sub categories there are three filters available that you can display the newest templates the most popular ones and the blank templates where you can create a website from scratch or build upon the
bare minimum design alternatively you can search at the top of the left sidebar for a keyword or phrase if you want to be more specific as mentioned we are building a photographer’s web site so we’re going to select photography this will present you with three subcategories in the left sidebar I’m going to choose the selection for commercial and editorial on the right you’ll now see a selection of different templates you can view or edit by
scrolling down you’ll see that there are two pages or templates to browse through in this case I will select the online photos template as an example that best suits my needs hover your mouse over the template two buttons will appear edit and view in the lower-left there is an info link that shows what the template is best suited for as well as a short description clicking the view button opens a working version of the website in a new browser
you can edit the chosen website by clicking on edit this site on the pop-up screen or at the top right of the screen I’m going to choose the pop-up to get a better look at the website the upper left corner offers a preview of the website in both desktop and mobile versions if you want to look at different templates simply click on the previous tab you can keep several tabs open to compare the different templates once you preview the templates
you like it’s time to do some modifications of your own although there are quite a few appealing templates I’m sticking with my original choice so I’m going to close all the tabs except the online photos template and use it as a basis for my website click the edit this site button on the top right to open the html5 editor in a new browser Wix is own quick walkthrough will pop up the first time you edit a template as you’re already following our
instructions you can close it plus we go much deeper into details so there’s that the first thing I’m going to do is save my website at the top right of the screen click Save on the top menu there are two options here regarding the domain of your website you can either use a free Wix domain or connect the website to your own personal domain if you have one for now let’s stick with Wix type in the desired name and click Save and continue in my
case the site will be called the Odessa files I don’t want to publish my site right now so I’ll get back to this in a few minutes before I start to modify the website to my liking let’s have a look at the interface on the left that there are seven buttons menus and pages allows you to add a new page or modify existing ones this will also appear in the drop down menu at the top left corner of the website right above the buttons dragging and
dropping will change the order in the menu and you can also nest menu items so that they form a drop-down in the websites navigation bar you will notice each page has a more option icon where you can perform some basic tweaks like renaming or duplicating a page as well as go through some advanced settings and SEO options clicking on the background button allows you to change the background color image and/or video the plus button will give you
options to add many new elements to your pages including text images buttons videos and lots more next is the app market which allows you to add both free and premium features and services to your website such as comments forms chats social tools and others you can also upload your own media files like images videos and even music via the uploads button as well as add a booking service to your website to manage your schedule lastly you can create
a Wix blog to express yourself and further grow your online community at the top menu bar next to the previously mentioned pages drop-down you’ll find buttons for editing the desktop and mobile versions of the website by clicking on the smartphone icon you’ll be greeted with a pop-up that quickly goes through the basics of the mobile editor the central part of the menu bar is occupied by the usual options you’ll find on a top menu bar such as
website related options various settings tools a Help section as well as developer options and the upgrade sections which I’ll get to later on the far right there are buttons for zooming out which also acts as an in page preview undoing and redoing in action as well as saving previewing and publishing the website so let’s get started the first thing on the menu is to change the heading of the site to do this simply click on the text box in the
heading and click on edit text or double click the text box as you can see the formatting toolbar opens where you can change the many elements of the selected text including the usual text formatting options like style font and size but also add shadow effects for a more eye-catching header I’ll leave the settings as they are and I’ll type the name of my website the odesa files I can also add animations to my header by clicking this button hover
over each option to get a preview of the animation which you can further customize next I’m going to modify the menu as it suits me first I’m going to change portraits to portfolio and fashion to London then I’m going to delete the clients showcase page and add a new gallery called Bruges to change the name of a page click on the menus and pages icon on the Left select the page that you wish to edit then click the more options icon to the right
and choose rename change the name and click done in this case I’ve changed the name to portfolio I’ll also add a description to the gallery so that my visitors know exactly what they’re looking at as a self-respecting photographer you want to delete the existing images and add your own to do this click on any of the images as they are actually one big block and click change images delete the images by clicking on the trash bin icon that will
appear in the bottom right of the image once you hover over it or by selecting an image and pressing delete on your keyboard now click on the orange add buttons icon to upload your images by clicking on upload media in the top left corner you’ll be presented with a variety of sources to upload from I’ll upload some images from my own computer for each image you can edit and add tags as well as edit the image in the photo editor by clicking crop
and rotate in the right sidebar select all images and click add to gallery on the right-hand side you can change the title of the image add a description or link you can also drag and drop images into a new order click on done when you finish rearranging for this gallery page I still need to change the main image to do this click on it and click change image you can now upload a new image or use one that is already uploaded before I proceed any
further let me mention that wick supports an autosave option so every time you make a significant change to your website your progress is saved I will now repeat this exercise to create a page for my photographs of London change the title of the fashion page to London delete the existing images and upload my new shots change the order and titles and captions and then change the gallery image title and description to delete a page go back to the
menus and pages button and select the page you want to delete click the more options icon in the right and select delete I want to delete the page client showcase and replace it with the gallery page for bruge to add a new page return once more to the menus and pages and click the blue add page button at the bottom of the menu as you can see this will load a blank template I could have just duplicated the London page and changed the relevant
details that would certainly be quicker and in line with the rest of the website by following the uniform design however for the sake of this tutorial let’s just try something different click on add button select gallery and choose grid this will insert a pre-formatted 3 by 6 grid gallery complete with default images and position it as the centre of the page since there is no header let’s insert one click on a door once more select text and
choose add heading 2 as with the gallery the header will be positioned centrally so you might want to move it to the top left corner right next to the gridlines so it doesn’t interfere with the images purple gridlines will appear to indicate perfect alignment with the top and side gridlines now that I have a title and a gallery I can repeat this exercise from above to remove the existing images and add my own I can reposition my new page simply
by sliding it into position in the site menu from menus and pages unlike my previous galleries this particular gallery has no description so let’s add one I will once again insert a text box only this time I will select the middle paragraph only change the text and reposition the description text box beneath the gallery title for a natural flow of browsing since I’ve added a new page this time I modified the contact page you can find it under
about in this particular template I can modify and edit in exactly the same way as the other pages obviously you want to delete the image and add your own as well as your contact information if you click on the contact form and select manage fields you can add and remove fields as you wish name and email fields are mandatory for obvious reasons so you can remove other fields and add a custom one if you click on the gear button next to manage
fields you can further customize your contact form by changing the text of the send button or setting up messages that appear once someone submits a form or missus to fill in the required information you can also edit the layout and design to further customize how your form looks I can also add many other elements to any page from the plus icon for example you can add more social media buttons video audio documents as well as various buttons
menu sub menu and much much more all of these can simply be dragged around on screen into position and edited to suit now that we’ve got a basic layout let’s take a look at modifying the overall look of the website return to the home page first I’m going to add a logo to each page click the plus icon select image and then pick up the upload option that best suits you you can either upload your own image or import it from your social media
accounts if you have your logo there drag and drop the logo into place then right-click on the image at the bottom of the menu you’ll see the show on all pages option click on it to make sure your logo is displayed on every page of your website as the slideshow images are the focal point of the homepage I’m going to change these images to my own shots just as I did with the gallery pages I can also change the design of the website by clicking
on the background button I can pick a different background where it’s a different color or an image or video Wix offers a selection of high quality images and videos but you can also add your own as with the logo remember to click apply to other pages and tick all pages so that the change is global don’t forget to preview your site frequently both in the desktop and mobile forum to make sure everything is in order when you are fully satisfied
with the look of your website press the publish button and your website will go online with the address you created at the beginning click view site to see your work in action even though I published my site I can come back to it at any time to make additional changes to it just make sure that you click on publish again to update the website you can also create multiple websites each with a different name and template to manage the sites navigate
the site at the top of the screen select exit editor then select the website you wish to add it in the upper right corner of the large Domino template a set of quick actions will appear these will allow you to duplicate the website delete or rename it as well as tweak ownership settings once you select the website you wish to edit you will find your website’s dashboard in the left of the screen your dashboard contains a set of tools to manage
your website and business depending on what apps and services you have on your site as well as displaying recommended apps and helpful tips for your website all of this can be done for free Wix does a great job at customizing various aspects of the website and no expense however if you want to make your site even more customized to your own business like adding your own domain name for example you can upgrade to one of these subscription options
by clicking the upgrade button at the top corner of the screen as you can see there are five different subscription options which you can compare in terms of what features you get with each of the premium plans naturally every free service has some limitations for instance once you publish your free site you will notice that there is a wick subdomain in the address well it’s not terrible this looks less creditable than your own branded domain
which is arguably a much better way to promote your business and create a professional online presence then free Wix websites feature a small banner at the top and bottom of the page promoting Wix and you have to pay for premium apps and features premium plans migrate these shortcomings and offer many additional benefits including extra bandwidth and storage for more high quality content on your website 24/7 online bookings and premium support
more advanced premium plans offer features like email campaigns automatic reminders online courses and classes staff calendars and a full online store functionality upgrading your account from free to premium is easy with the option of monthly annual or biannual subscriptions this would conclude the crash course on how to create a free website with Wix an extremely powerful website creation tool that allows you to have a website live in 50
minutes or so click on the link below and go to the Wix start page for more information please visit website planning comm to read a comprehensive Wix review as well as find information on other website builders that will help you create your own stunning website or online store