What to Look for in a Free Hosting Provider
The first thing that you must realize when looking for
a free hosting provider is that nothing is truly "free".
There will be some sacrifices?
First of all, if you see free hosting that promises to
be without ads or banners, then it's not truly free.
For example, DotEasy.com, promises "Cost-free, Banner-free"
hosting, but in reality what they are really saying is that
IF you register a domain from them for $25/year (GoDaddy.com
$8.95/year) or if you would like to transfer a domain for
a $35 fee THEN and only then will they give you 100 MB of
free hosting, that's why they can offer $5 dollars for each
referral to DotEasy.com's "free" hosting. Great
deal, right?
Tips on choosing a free hosting provider?
1) Always choose the provider that puts ads on your site
over the one that claims not to. The companies that place
ads on your site tend to be more stable and you always no
your partnership with them, "I make site" + "They
put ads" = Win-Win. But when you choose a host that
claims not to put ads on your site you are giving him all
kinds of freedoms to exploit you to make a quick dollar,
like selling your e-mail address or shrinking your space
to force you to upgrade to a paid package.
2) Always choose a free hosting provider that offers sub
domains in the format of "http//yoursite.theirsite.com"
instead of "http//www.theirsite.com/yousite".
Not only is this more professional but it also helps with
getting returning visitors and Search Engine Optimization,
which every site strides for.
3) Make sure that they can provide you with upgrades (both
for sub domains and domains), because when the day comes
that your sub domain site gets a million hits and starts
making sufficient amounts of money you will not want to
be changing your sites URL and loosing all of your returning
visitors and search engine rankings.
The main point is that free hosting is a partnership between
the provider and the "customer". Everybody wants
to get something in return, whether it is advertising space
or selling other services, so the basic rule of thumb would
be to find a win-win situation but to make sure there is
a way to get out unharmed if the partnership becomes unbalanced
one way or the other.
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