The Cost of
using Free Web Hosting
Starting a small
e-commerce business? Looking to create a website
to promote that business? Need to find a web
host service to host your website? One option
to consider is the multitude of free web hosting
services found on the Internet. Like anything
else that is free, it may seem like the perfect
solution. However, nothing in life is truly
free, so be cautious and search out the best
one.
There is a
downside to using free web hosting in that many
do not offer any technical or other support at
all. Most offer web site building tools and HTML
editors, but you are basically on your own when
it comes to creating your site. Some require
that you accept their “terms of service” which
may contain language that has you giving away
all right to the very site you worked so hard to
create.
Because they host
your web pages for free, they feel that they
have a right to own them. One such site that
utilizes this practice is Yahoo. By posting a
site on Yahoo, you give up any legal rights of
ownership. So beware of this when using a free
hosting site and always read the terms and
conditions very carefully.
Free Hosting Sites
The following are
a few samples of Internet sites that offer free
web hosting services.
·
Yahoo.com - No setup fee with 35 emails
allowed. 350mb-disk space for your web pages and
35gb for transferring files.
·
Catalog.com – You need to register or transfer a
domain to get free web hosting here. Not sure of
what features are offered.
·
Doteasy.com – Offers no setup fee, 20mb-disk
space and 1gb file transfer capability. This is
a site that does offer free technical support.
If you want more capabilities, you need to
upgrade and pay for their Ultra Host package.
·
Fortunecity.com – No setup fee. Free ad
supported plan with 25mb-disk space and 3gb-file
transfer capability. No email is offered but
free sub domain is. Contains banner ads.
·
No-frills.net
– No setup fee. Free domain name for your
website is offered. HTML editor and various web
page creation tools are available. No email but
free technical support is offered.
·
50megs.com – No setup fee. Offers 50megs of disk
space. Not sure of transfer capabilities. Has
web site building tools, webrings, but no
technical support is offered.
These are just a
very small sample of what is available on the
net by way of free web hosting services. Most if
not all are ad driven which means that those
annoying ads and popups appear everywhere and
all the time.
If you are an
e-commerce business looking for web customers,
you may want to go with a service that you have
to pay for because these ads and popups take
away from the professional look and presence
that an e-commerce business should have.
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