Doodlekit: Easy web page creation and hosting

There are plenty of services out there that let you create a blog or web sit and host it online for free. But if you want to create pages with features like forums, shopping carts, or forms, you probably have to shell out some money.

Doodlekit is a new service that offers all of those features and more for free. The service is aimed at web design novices but has features that could make it attractive to more advanced users as well. For example, you can create an attractive web site by choosing a template and color scheme. But you can also edit your CSS sheet and make other changes to your page's structure.

Click the add-ons button, and you have the option of building a form, discussion forum, PayPal shopping cart, file uploader, or advertising into your pages. You'll need a paid account to access some of those features.

The basic free accounts include advertising, but you don't get to share any of the revenue generated. If you want to make money from your site you'll need to upgrade to a paid account. Subscribers also get the ability to create a larger number of sub-pages, more online storage space, higher bandwidth limits, and more advanced features. Paid accounts range from $15 to $50 a month.

Tags: doodlekit, web-page-creation