Title:
Free Web Hosting - Is It Worth It?
Word Count:
921
Summary:
Is free web hosting going to be acceptable for your needs?
Keywords:
hosting, web hosting, free web hosting, internet business, internet
marketing
Article Body:
Copyright 2006 Donovan Baldwin
Please excuse me if you are an experienced internet marketer, but I
remember how little I knew when I first began my career in internet
marketing, so I am going to assume that my reader is totally ignorant on
what is about to follow.
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE SELECTING ANY WEB HOST
As in any business, you need to do some research and have some sort of
business plan before you start committing yourself to contracts and
debts, even if only debts of time and emotion. While there is no
guarantee that any new business will succeed, according to the small
business administration you have a better chance of success if you have
done research and have a business plan BEFORE you become involved in your
new endeavor.
In terms of the web site itself, you will need to have some idea of how
big you expect your website to be. will you be selling product from the
website, or merely hosting links to affiliate programs? Are you going to
have a lot of graphics, or mainly text? How much help will you need from
the web host in setting up your web site? Will you need an email
account? These are just a few questions you might ask yourself.
Questions you might want to get answered about the web hosting service
might include information about how reliable their service is, their
reputation in the internet community, or if your site will be able to
grow as your business grows. Naturally, if you ask the web host
themselves about these sorts of things you will probably just get
positive answers, so find some forum where internet marketers hang out,
read their discussions and ask some questions of them. Most are more
than willing to help, although some may have a web hosting service that
they are trying to promote, so keep your eye open for that.
HOW CAN WEB HOSTING BE FREE?
Ever heard the old term - TANSTAAFL? The letters stand for "There ain't
no such thing as a free lunch." Even an internet marketing acquaintance
who lets you in on a really valuable deal or gives you a "free" gift such
as an information packed internet marketing ebook probably has a profit
or promotion link to it in some way. Nothing personal, it's in the blood.
That's why you can get "free" web hosting. The hosting service normally
will put ads on your free website. They either are affiliated with the
company advertised, they are being paid for the advertising, they are the
company advertised, or they expect to gain in some other way as you go
about building and promoting YOUR new free website. Every time someone
links to your website or a search engine indexes and adds your website to
its list, the web hosting service has just picked up an opportunity to
add new customers.
ADVANTAGES OF FREE WEB HOSTING.
The obvious and major advantage is that it is free. You can start a
website for your internet business without the costs of registering a
domain name or paying for hosting. It can also serve as a training site
or you can use it to test new promotions and products at no cost. For
more advanced internet marketing pros, it can be the cornerstone of a
major internet marketing ploy, but that is outside the scope of this
article. Since the sites ARE free, you can try your business website on
several different services, and you might learn that it is easier to work
with one than another, or that one gets indexed quicker by search
engines. One free service I use sometimes gets my site listed on Google
and other search engines before I have even done any promotion for it.
DISADVANTAGES OF FREE WEB HOSTING.
Probably, the single largest disadvantage in most peoples' eyes will be
the ads that clutter their site or pop-up when the site is visited or the
visitor departs. Not only does this tend to obscure YOUR message from
your visitors' eyes, but it may also cut short the time they spend on
your site. They go elsewhere to a more profession looking site, or they
follow one of the web host's advertisements...which was the reason you
got the site free.
SELECTING YOUR FREE WEB HOSTING SERVICE.
There is no one service which will please everyone. This is where you
will have to go back to your business plan and questions and balance one
site against the other. You can find free web hosting services by
searches on Google and other search engines for "free web hosting", or by
visiting sites such as http://www.hostsearch.com/ .
DOES FREE WEB HOSTING WORK?
I started my internet business with free websites, and many of those free
sites not only are still up and functioning, but are also sending traffic
to my business, and earning money for me. However, as my business
expanded, I found that purchasing my own domain names and building "real"
websites produced even more traffic and business. However, if you are
getting started and don't really know what you are doing and don't have a
lot of money to throw around, free web hosting is probably the way you
will want to go.
SOME FREE WEB HOSTING SITES TO GET YOU STARTED.
Although I use other hosting services as well, two of the ones I use most
commonly are:
http://free-business-hosting.com and http://freeservers.com
Good luck in your internet marketing endeavors.