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I am going to show some resources where you can build websites from scratch but expect a considerably steep learning curve before jumping on.

But this will pay off nicely with the flexibility

you have in deciding the look and feel of your site way beyond out-of-the-can site builder systems.

The good news is that you don't have to start from ground zero as there are many systems that are ready to propel you from a good starting point. These systems are typically called Content Management System (CMS).

Drupal

This is my personal favorite for CMS. It is available free-of-charge from Drupal website:

Typically website contents are prepared locally on your computer. Therefore there's a need to trasfer those files onto the server at your web hosting site.

For this, there's a popular method using a program called FTP (file transfer protocol). Don't worry about it's name, all it does is to transfer whatever file you instructed it to move from your PC to the hosting server.

In some case you might also want to download files from the hosting server as during site backups.

Your files need to reside there so that your visitors can access them whenever they come to your site www.example.com.

Here is a list of commonly used ftp programs:

If you don't mind the challenge, building a website on your own is very satisfying. It's like building a house (virtual one).

(Note: If you prefer having your website built using mix-n-match approach, please see part 1 of this subject)

There a few steps involved as follows:

1. decide on a domain name of choice
2. check if the domain name is available
3. register domain name
4. obtain a web hosting service
5. prepare website content offline
6. upload website

1. Domain name

This is similar to obtaining an address to the premise of a physical business entity. A place where people can go to buy products or services.

Before you register for one, you need to find out if it is not taken yet by doing a simple research. A good site to go for this is:

www.nameboy.com

First, it's not at all difficult to own and build a website. Nothing compares to brick-and-mortar business environement because online business store can easily be built. 

So claim your virtual real estate (VRE) online by creating your very own website.

However, this is one of few places where I don't encourage using free services such as Freewebs, Geocities, Tripod, FortuneCity and many others.

Having urls that end with one of those will give "unprofessional" impression to your website visitors. Also the providers tend to stuff your web pages with ads that may not suit your site target visitors.

One other big minus is that you don't have the liberty to design a site as per your liking, in most cases.

If you simply want to play around with website creation, then try one of the "paid" services as most provide free trials as well. So whenever you decide to go ahead, there's no more learning curve to worry about.