You don't have to spend much money to get a nice looking website. Just follow these steps.

1. Sign up for a Wordpress account.

You can sign up for an Wordpress account here. I'm not a Wordpress agent. Unlike other blogs, WP offers its open source CMS engine to non-blog sites (you may have seen "Powered By Wordpress" ). There are other great CMSs, yet WP is very easy, and perfect for small -medium size business websites. If you are curious about how these open source CMSs make money, here's a good article

2. Get your own domain.

You can get your own domain in most web hosting companies' website. The cost should be around US$10/yr. If you really have $0 budget, you may skip this step and #3. Your URL will be something like: your ID.wordpress.com. It won't look very professional, yet you can always compensate it with your great content. : )

3. Forward & Mask the domain to your wordpress account.

Login to your domain account, and look for "Forward(ing) with Masking" option, and set it to forward to your Wordpress address.

4. Now, get the look you like.

Log into your WP account, and go to Appearance/Add New Themes on the Dashboard, and type in keywords like "business", "corporate", "simple", it will pull up the lists of themes you could use. When you find what you like, you can simply install/activate it. If you found a theme that you like on other WP theme blog websites (there are tons out there!), get "get_theme" plugin so that you can load the theme from your dashboard. Feeing geeky? There is more information on using themes here.

5. You will need a few basic plugins to soup up your website.

Some themes require certain plugins. Read the instruction of each theme, and follow it. You may skip this step until you feel comfortable with using your new stite. When you want to explore more possibilities, go HERE for the list of useful/basic plugins.

6. Create Categories & Pages.

First, get acquainted with the interface of the dashboard. Once you get used to it, you will find it much easier to make changes. Remember this is not your public website, but a control room. To view your published (real) website, click on "Visit Site." Three main components in the content making are Posts, Pages, and Categories. Posts are each entry you make. You can set the categories to aggregate the posts with similar topics on the same page. Pages are like static pages that you create and enter your content, and go back to the same page to edit. More info HERE.

7. For your Contact Us page.

Contact Form7 plugin will give you for a nice contact form. If you don't want to bother with it, just type in "Please email us <a href="mailto:you@youremail.com">you@youremail.com</a>" in HTML page.

8. Go further.

Chances are you are not alone when you run into a problem. There are numourous forums and help sites for your new Wordpress hobby. Google it, or go HERE to learn more on using WP.