It’s common knowledge that web hosting is one of the most important investments you’ll have to make if you are serious about building a presence on the Internet, but the truth is that the best free web hosting solutions out there will be enough for you if you’re just starting out, or if you’re not really planning to start a website that will have millions of daily visitors. Additionally, the best free web hosting solutions usually give you an out, or the option to migrate to a better paid service if your needs start to grow beyond a free host’s capabilities.

The Importance of Investing in a Domain Name

There’s no getting around this. If you have long term plans for your online presence, or if you don’t want to waste your time trying to build a following and a traffic stream everytime you move to a different host. With your own domain name, you can simply point it to any free web host (or at least use a url redirect) and you’ll never have to worry about policy changes or a free host going out of business.

Additionally, not having your own domain name could make you miss out on a lot of earning opportunities simply because you depended on a subdomain url. For instance, very few ad services allow subdomains in their services, and the ones who do are not usually worth your time. The big ones like Google, Tribal Fusion, and Media.net only allow sites that have their own domain in their service.

How to Find the Best Free Web Hosting

Finding the best free web hosting should always start with one thing: find out what they’re getting in return. There is no such thing as a free lunch, so you should be suspicious of sites that offer free hosting without getting anything in return. There are exceptions, of course, as paid hosting sites like Prestige and Hostgator sometimes offer free hosting to sites that they deem worthy (such as not for profit organizations and charities) but you should at least do a little bit of investigation.

Majority of free hosts usually offer it in return for ads that will show up on your site. You’ll have to look at this several ways: first is whether it’s the kind of ads that you’re willing to support. Some people don’t mind adult content being advertised, but if your site is meant to be read by kids, you should be finding another host. Next is the type of ads – some ads are too obtrusive that putting them on your site is a self-defeating exercise, as you’re likely to turn away visitors due to the annoying and offensive ads.

Lastly, you’ll have to look at their policies. One of the downsides to a free host is that you’re literally at their mercy. Paid hosts are afraid of losing the business of paying customers, so they’re usually very lenient and don’t have restrictive policies. Free hosts, on the other hand, are not scared of losing a freeloader and are actually more than willing to impose restrictive rules – find out if the nature of your site complies with their TOS or if you’re willing to compromise. Most of the policies have something to do with forbidding piracy and adult content, so if your site is neither of the two you should have no problems finding the best free web hosting solution out there.

Tags: hosting tips

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 11th, 2013 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Hosting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.