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Making The Choice Between Free And Paid Web Hosting

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Written by Lucas Heijn

Friday, 02 May 2008

by LucasHeijn

I can say that there is one big advantage with free web hosting. It doesn't cost you anything. So it doesn't seem much of a question. Or is it? As with all our decisions in life there are pro's and con's. Sometimes we don't find out the disadvantages until after we have made our decision.

Why do these providers give you a free site? Your free site will attract visitors. You will invite visitors; your visitors in turn will invite still others and so on. Your free web hosting provider will place ads on your site. Some of your visitors may click in the ad links provided. This brings income for your free web host provider.

If all you need is a site where you can display personal or family thing even photos a free site will be all you require. If on the other hand you want to use it to promote an internet business a free site could be a hindrance.

Internet marketing is about driving traffic to your site, gaining their trust and having a laser focused squeeze page. Free web hosting fails here. You can lose the focus on your squeeze page because of the ads that your free web hosting provider has placed on your page. You also need to come across as a professional marketer that can be trusted. Free web hosting will give you the appearance of an amateur. In the end your free site could be costing you sales.

If you are promoting a product you will always be better off with a paid site. You will need to choose the hosting package that will suit your needs. Some of the benefits of a paid site are:

1. Look far more professional. What looks better? This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Having your own email addresses will look much more professional. I personally don't deal with marketers who use free email accounts. I always wonder if they are just a fly-by-night enterprise. Here today and gone tomorrow.

2. You will be able to set up scripts to run on your site. Both CGI and PHP.

3. You will have access to MySql databases. Most scripts today require a database. You may wish to use a blog script such as Wordpress. With a paid web hosting account you will be able to.

4. You will have greater resources available such as plenty of disk space.

5. You will also have your own personal control panel. This will allow you to work behind the scenes on your site creating email accounts, setting up databases and much much more, all with ease.

There are many reasons to choose a paid web host provider. These are just a few.

You can start out small and grow. Your web hosting provider should be able to increase the limits to your account painlessly. So when the package you chose first becomes too restrictive you can get the limits increased. By this time you will already be making an income.

So looking back to our question to pay or not to pay. Free web hosting is great for personal and family sites. They are not great for anyone that wants to set up a serious internet business.

About the Author:

Selecting the right web hosting provider is an crucial step for your internet business. Some web hosts also provide other free tools you would need to run your business. One most crucial tool is the follow-up autoresponder

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