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Monday, December 1, 2008

Free Web Site Hosting Considerations



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There are a lot of free web site hosting companies out there touting their services. While the accounts offered by many of these web hosting providers are free to use, there are sometimes hidden costs that can leave you wasting both time and money.

If you want to build web sites that are truly free, you are going to have to carefully evaluate free web site hosting services before signing up. Special considerations to keep in mind when shopping for web hosting providers include:

Reliability
You can build web sites all day long, but no one will ever see them if your web host isn't reliable. To find out how reliable a free website hosting company is, you should ask about expected downtimes, traffic limitations, and customer service procedures. You should also ask what type of message will be displayed if the web site is disabled for any reason.

Bandwidth
The amount of bandwidth you have determines how long it will take for your pages to load. To keep costs low, many web hosting providers offer limited bandwidth. The problem with this is that your pages can take ten seconds or more to load. That's just enough time for a user to get frustrated and seek out another web site. If your free website hosting account comes with limited bandwidth, you need to be prepared for the possibility of missing out on customer sales.

Unwanted Ads
Free website hosting services are notorious for placing unwanted ads on customer web sites. This means that you will have pop-ups and other annoying advertisements on your site that you cannot remove. These ads might become very irritating for you and even more so for your customers, who may choose not to visit as a result.

Other Limitations
If you want to build web sites that include pictures, icons, and large amounts of text, you may want to look for web hosting providers that will allow you to build these kinds of web sites. Some free website hosting services will place limitations on what you can and can't do. For example, you may be barred from using pictures or more than five web pages.

A Couple of Things to Look For There are a couple of things to consider when acquiring a hosting company that offers cheap web site hosting. An affordable web site that is worth investing in has two main attributes: there are no hidden fees and there are enough quality features to keep your web site running smoothly. When comparing hosting companies or looking for cheap web site hosting, it is imperative that you keep these two attributes in mind.

No Hidden Fees
A web site hosting plan you can afford will have free or low cost
set-up fees and reasonable annual or monthly maintenance fees. Hosting companies should make you aware of these fees right away and should also make you aware of any hidden costs that you might not be considering. Unfortunately not every cheap web site hosting company does this. In fact, some of them purposely try to be sneaky and trick you into buying into a seemingly affordable web site hosting package that will become more expensive as time goes on. This is why you should always ask hosting companies detailed questions about what you
will be expected to pay.

Quality Features
Cheap web site hosting companies offer many of the same features that
expensive web site hosting companies do, but not all companies have
plans that are comparable. To make sure you get a plan that keeps your
site up and running smoothly, you will need to consider specific
hosting features like storage space, down time, customer support, and
tech support when making comparisons. If you shop carefully, there is
no reason why you can't get an affordable web site hosting plan with
all of the quality features you require.

This article is provided by Websites That Succeed were you can get free website help.

Cliff Posey, owner of Websites That Succeed provided this info. Get related articles below: Website Tips , Success Online, Website Development or Websites That Work.

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