Create free AWS account:
http://aws.amazon.com/free/

Note: you need to provide credit card details, so you will be charged if your server does crazy things for long periods of time.

Sign in with or create your Amazon account

Enter credit card details

Verify by telephone

Choose 'Basic (Free)'

Activate MFA (Multi Factor Authorisation)

Services > Compute & Networking > EC2

Click Launch Instance button

Classic Wizard > Continue

AWS Marketplace tab > Search for: CentOS with updates

Select CentOS 6 (x86_64) - with Updates

Region: EU West (Ireland)
EC2 Instance Type: Standard Micro (t1.micro)
Security group: Create new based on seller settings

Key Pair: 
Go to console via link
Create Key Pair
Name: CentOSAWSKey
Key is downloaded (in Chrome automatically to the downloads folder)
Back to the CentOS page
Reload page: Key Pair is now: CentOSAWSKey

If you change Region you need to create a new key

Accept Terms & Launch with 1 Click

Wait 1-2 minutes, then follow the link to the console (Instances)

Choose Actions > Connect > Connect with standalone SSH client

Copy the line from the example box (ssh -i CentOSAWSKey.pem root@ec2-...)

OSX: 
Open Terminal
cp ~/Downloads/CentOSAWSKey.pem ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/CentOSAWSKey.pem
ssh -i ~/.ssh/CentOSAWSKey.pem root@ec2-....amazonaws.com
'yes' you want to continue

You are now on your server

Do a system update:
su -c 'yum update'
(answer y to questions)

yum install git
(answer y to question)

yum install nano
(answer y to question)

install nvm:
curl https://raw.github.com/creationix/nvm/master/install.sh | sh

restart ssh:
exit
ssh -i ~/.ssh/CentOSAWSKey.pem root@ec2-....amazonaws.com

install node:
nvm install v0.10.12
(you can see available node version with: nvm ls-remote)

confirm node is working: node -v

Back to AWS console: https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2

Network & Security > Security Groups
Choose the group named CentOS 6...
Select HTTP from dropdown, click Add Rule
Repeat for HTTPS or other ports you need open
Apply Rule Changes (should work instantly)

There is an additional firewall in CentOS, can be disabled (not recommended) with:
/etc/init.d/iptables save
/etc/init.d/iptables stop
chkconfig iptables off
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/turn-on-turn-off-firewall-in-linux/

create a simple node server:

mkdir /usr/local/www
cd /usr/local/www
nano test.js

paste this in:

var http = require('http');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
  res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
  res.end('Hello World\n');
}).listen(80);
console.log('Server running on port 80');

press ctrl+x, answer yes and press enter to save the file

node test.js

find your 'Public DNS' name in the AWS console under instances.

go to browser, and enter the public dns name:
http://ec2-....amazonaws.com/

This should display 'Hello World'

Other ways to get files on your server:
git
scp

Handy tool to auto restart node when file changes
nodemon test.js

connecting your own domain name to your ec2 instance:
open aws console
Elastic IPs
Allocate New Address
EIP used in EC2
Yes, Allocate
Associate Address
choose your instance
Yes, Associate
Your instance now has an IP you can put in your DNS record