Back in the day, the only things you could really put on your website were hand-coded pages, images, and maybe the occasional file download. Today, however, huge amounts of software exist that can make your website work however you want it to – and, thanks to the efforts of volunteers, almost all of them are available for free.

At the moment, lots of people are into blogging. When you install a blog on your website, it allows you to write ‘entries’ instead of pages – a little like writing a diary. These entries then appear on your website automatically, latest first, without you having to touch any HTML.

A similar concept is wiki software, like the software that drives Wikipedia. If you put a wiki on your page, anyone can edit your website, meaning that they can add their own information to what you’ve already written, quickly and easily. However, you need to be careful of vandalism, as it is also very easy for anyone to delete all your pages and replace them with ‘you suck’ – the best wiki software can detect this and revert it instantly.

If you want to put your photos on the web, then you can use a piece of photo gallery software. There are all sorts available, but the chances are that your web host has already installed one for you anyway that is compatible with their system, so you might as well use that one. Gallery software allows you to upload and display pictures without having to manually make pages to put them on – good if you take a lot of photos.

Popular websites can also include forums, where the site’s readers can talk amongst themselves. If you run a website for a hobby with many enthusiasts or something else that you think people are very likely to want to discuss, setting up a forum can be a very worthwhile use of your time.