a free mini site?

If you haven't already heard, there is a place online that allows anyone to build a quick, simple website. For free. (I'll get to the strings attached in a minute, but they're minimal). Very similar to a blog, except that you can add pages, and basic navigation. i.e. it can be a website or a one-long-page blog. You can even add PayPal buttons. It's called weebly.com

I tested it out, and I think it's perfect for micro-businesses or small organizations (sewing groups, book clubs, neighborhood watch, etc). There are plenty of layouts to choose from. Keep in mind you can change the photos. The only drawbacks I could find were:

a) it's for very small, basic sites only. No secondary navigation.
b) No databases (= no ecommerce, other than a single item button)
c) one or 2 column layouts only (which is fine for 95% of sites)
d) limited choice of fonts
e) there's a credit link at the foot of each page to weebly, small or large depending on the template you choose. You can't delete it.

If you can live within that, it's an amazing deal, especially for a freelancer or small organization. Even the hosting is free! But if you want to host it elsewhere, you can design your site at weebly.com and then download the code as a zip file and upload it to another webhost's server.

How can all this be free? No doubt the creators are pitching it to Google, etc in the hopes of getting rich. The consumer, however, has nothing to lose.

But let's say you want a small site with a lot of photos, music or video. Like, a wedding or baby album. You might be better off using Apple's iWeb, which is part of iLife. It's $79, or free with any Mac.