Thursday, December 25, 2008

Look Before you Leap into Free Web Hosting

By Theodore Metagastar

Free web hosting is a reality that many have taken advantage of over the past several years. There are many professional looking websites that offer some flexibility in the appearance of your website, and learning to work within these hosting sites is easy.

Why do you want a website? Is it for connecting with your friends, and making new friends? Social networking is a big industry these days, with many sites such as Facebook and MySpace. You can easily invite and connect with your people.

Having an online photo album is another good reason to start a website. There are many photo posting resources available these days, such as Flicker.

One consideration when choosing a free web space is the options available. There will likely be limits as to the templates and backgrounds available, as well as add on features.

If you are interested in displaying Adsense advertisements and possibly generate a little revenue to support your website then you might consider Blogspot. This site is owned by Google, and they do allow Adsense ad blocks to be shown on these sites.

There are pros and cons to having your website on a free web space. One of the disadvantages is that you do not get to have your own domain name. The name of your site will always include the hosting service as a part of the domain. One example is a blogspot site such as http://atravel-adventure.blogspot.com. . This site has their own unique part of the domain, but the primary domain is blogspot.

If you are dead set on having your own domain name, one likehttp://afreewebspace.com, , you will need to arrange for a hosting service, which steps you out of the free hosting level into paid hosting. The great thing about paid hosting is that you can host multiple sites and will have greater latitude in what features you can have for your site. Your own site can be set up with basic html pages, or use a content management system, which we will discuss in our next article.

Check out some of the free web space hosting sites to compare services available. Even if you outgrow your free web space hosting over time you can always link it to a new site, such as your own domain, and flow the traffic you have built to the new location.

One of the advantages of having a free web space is storage of your photo and ideas. Having an offsite storage place for your memories can save a lot of heartache in the event of a computer crash.

Free web space hosting is here to stay. Isnt it time you start your own website?

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