Why you should avoid free websites and sticky hosting deals
When you search for free websites or free hosting on Google you’ll get 191,000,000 or more links to websites that offer this so called deal. So, basically to get free hosting is not a problem this days. Only question you need to be ask your self is: Do I need free web hosting and my own domain or free web hosting with common domain will be just fine for me. Well all depends what you want!
For family site, with the latest news, photos of the kids I suggest that you use free web hosting like Blogger, but if you can avoid that kind of writing. Reason for that is explained in Avoid 6 common mistakes when you write your blog post.
However if you are seriously considering becoming an Internet entrepreneur, find yourself a reputable web design company and an affordable hosting plan. Start up costs for an Internet business is usually less than a hundred dollars.
Naturally custom built websites would be substantially more expensive but, unless you require the addition of unique features in order to manage your business, your most cost effective choice would be a professionally designed website.
When you selecting your web design you have to keep three major factors in your mind. The deciding factors when selecting your web design should be the ease of navigation and the suitability of the page layout to your content. Customers come to your site searching for a product, service, or information. If your site does not provide easy access to the content they want, they not going to hang around just to admire the design elements of your website. By selecting a layout suitable for the content you intend to place on your web pages, whether its product images and descriptions or informational content.
The third factor is the basic web design. Many experts, believe customers are sub-consciously motivated by colors, (red encourages them to take action, blue promotes a sense of trust, yellow and orange, a sense of well being or contentment, etc), the basic design elements of your website such as the background colors, images, bullets, flash etc, are really a matter of personal preference.
Your free provider offers templates you may use to create your website. However, before you go to the trouble, read the fine print. Those templates are the property of the free provider. You may only use them as long as you use the free provider’s services. If you decide to move your site to another hosting provider in future, that lovely site you worked so hard to design isn’t going anywhere. On the other hand, once you purchase a professionally designed website, it’s yours. You can move it to wathever web hosting company you want.
A good support staff is an extremely valuable if not totally indispensable resource for a new website owner. Unfortunately it is also a resource that very few free website providers offer.
How to determine whether a web design company has a good support staff before you purchase your website? Simply email the seller these two simple questions.
If you don’t get a response to your questions within 24 to 48 hours, look elsewhere for your website. If the only answers you receive are an offer to setup the links for you for a small fee and a list of expensive software products also look elsewhere for your website.
A good support staff will respond to your request within 24 to 48 hours. A good support staff will offer to setup links on your site for you for a small fee and provide you with a list of links to free software you can use to manage your site. The list will probably include some optional software products you may find useful for the management of your site. The key words here are free and optional. An excellent support staff will tell you up front whether a product is optional or not.
A domain is an extremely valuable asset; you should most definitely have one of your very own. Without a domain of your own, you may as well save yourself the time and trouble of trying to start an online business at all. The average cost of a .com domain is approx $7.95 per year. You’ll find that some web design companies will include your domain with your professionally designed website at no extra charge.
If you are planning to use a free provider, then don’t bother purchasing a domain for your new site unless you intend to shell out the provider’s membership fee. Most free providers provide you with two membership options—free or paid. If you choose the free membership option, the provider will set up your URL for you website like this: FREE PROVIDER DOMAIN/YOUR USER ID. You’ll be lucky to get your site indexed by the search engines and directories with that kind of name. You see, many search engines and directories will not accept your website submissions if your URL contains a forward slash. Some major search engines and directories categorically refuse to accept submissions for websites hosted with free providers at all. Google rarely indexes sites hosted by free providers, and even more rarely gives the site a ranking greater than 0/10.
The majority of free providers offer limited amounts of web space, bandwidth and features. Better check the number of web pages you’re allowed to setup under your free account while you’re at it, because some providers set a ridiculously low limit. If you exceed whatever limits your free provider allows, you’ll have to pay their membership fee and/or purchase one of their hosting plans.
Paid hosting providers offer you a choice of plans tailored to fit your needs. If your needs change, you simply upgrade to the next plan. Although prices vary, hosting plans range from 8.95 to 14.95 per month, based on the amount of space, bandwidth and features you want. I’ve found some free providers who offer small quantities of additional memory for as much as 5 bucks each. Choose that option and you may find yourself paying twice as much for hosting as a paid provider charges for the best hosting plan they offer.
If you are determined to succeed in the online marketplace, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and trouble if you start out right. Before you leap on that free website, free hosting offer, do your research. Read the fine print and see if the deal they are offering will meet your needs now and calculate the cost that you could incur if you have to exceed the allotment of services they provide for free in the future. If you want your own domain, then add the cost of the provider’s membership too. Tally the costs of “free provider’s services”, then set it aside and shop around a bit. Visit a web design company offering professionally designed websites for less than a hundred dollars and see what they have to offer. Take a look at the hosting plans available with all the features you need. Now, compare the costs of both options. Keep in mind that, as with any business, you will eventually have to invest a little money if you truly want to succeed.
You can make money on the Internet, but you are going to have to invest some time and money in order to achieve your goals. The secret to being a successful entrepreneur is investing your time and money wisely.
This post is written by using my own wisdom and few articles from the web. Reason for this post is that I am planing to purchase my own hosting in near future.
