Creating a Site or a Subsite in SharePoint 2013 can be confusing since the link is not directly provided in Site Actions or now called "Settings" (Wheel) Menu.Adding the required link back in the "Settings" menu would require you to Create a Custom feature in Visual Studio and activate that in the desired Site Collection.In this post we will discuss a step-by-step process on How to Create a Custom Action (or simply a Link) and add to the "Settings" menu.

Please note that the Out-of-Box Option to create a Subsite is available in Site Contents menu.See detail How to Create a SubSite in SharePoint 2013.
To Create a Custom Action for "Settings" menu you would need the following -

• Visual Studio 2012
• Visual Studio 2012 tools for SharePoint

Once you have Installed these lets look at the Steps.

Step 1 - Create a New Empty project.




Step 2 - Add a Url of your SharePoint site and select deploy as Farm solution.


Step 3 - Once the project is Created Add a new item "Empty Element".

Create an Empty Element.


Paste the following in the Elements file.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<CustomAction
Id="CreateSite"
GroupId="SiteActions"
Location="Microsoft.SharePoint.StandardMenu"
Sequence="2000"
Title="Create Site"
Description="Create Site Link" >
<UrlAction Url="~site/_layouts/15/newsbweb.aspx"/>
</CustomAction>
</Elements>
Step 4 - Verify if the element file is added to the Feature.


Step 5 - Next Run the Project.

Press OK if you get the below screen.

SharePoint will open the site with the URL you provided. Verify that the Settings menu has a Create Site link.