If you are planning on starting a website, it is true that a site can certainly be free to start with. If you expect any returns at all, you will actually get what you put an effort towards. You can get some revenue because you allowed ads on your site, you will be able to affiliate some sales, and you can also attract some customers by having very good content. There will actually be some hidden costs when you start the website, and I am sure that you will want to know what you will have to pay.
After you make the choice for domain and the hosting, it will then be time for you to consider the design of the website. There are myriad options, and there are also free themes, you should make sure that you will consider a good and premium custom design if you want your sire to stand out properly from the crowd. A great custom design can actually cost you anywhere from some hundred dollars to even tens of thousands of dollars. When you find a great web designer, you will see that it was quite a challenge to locate one. You should actually see reviews and more before you hire one.
Once the design is properly set, you will have to start filling the website with good quality content that customers will love to read and content that they will recommend to other people as well. You can then start a blog. You can actually write it yourself, but it would actually be a little cost-efficient if you went ahead and hired a professional writer who is good and who knows what they are doing. They should know how to engage the visitors, and they should also know how to captivate the visitors. Depending completely on the standard, you can actually spend $1 a page to even $100 for people who are more skilled.