Creating an EC2 instance is straightforward but there are a few things to keep in mind.

When you create an instance you have to choose its AMI (Amazon Machine Image). The AMI is the operating system and other software of your EC2 instance. When selecting make sure to pay attention to what is eligible for the free tier

After selecting your AMI you can go into your configure your instance and choose options for the network, public IP, etc. Then you choose your storage option, create tags, and configure the security group. In your security group configuration, you can create rules for your instance's traffic.