Make money online
When FREE is NOT FREE
I was answering in a webmaster forums to a topic created by a prospective forum owner who wanted to know about ways to get FREE forum hosting. I replied with some information and this made me think about an article for us here too.
Weird as it might seem, this entire project was started in the winter of 2004 ON A FREE subdomain. My first article (that’s no longer available, since I changed my opinions) was about FREE hosting and why we shouldn’t bother with a paid solution.
Back then the free hosting was a good idea, it did have some pros for this: you can start your career and not worry about succeeding, you can experiment at will for free etc. The cons in time showed their ugly face though: most of the time you will work hard, want to move and then lose PR and traffic, there are all kinds of limitations, most of the time free hosting is not quality etc.
Now I have realized something more: FREE is NOT FREE.
Before we discuss about what you “pay” for free hosting, let’s see how much you’d pay for a normal host: your .com (or another extension) domain is not more than 10-12 USD/year. A hosting plan for a small starting site (you don’t need more than 200 MB space and 2 GB bandwidth) would be 3-5 USD/month. There can be some discounted prices too, that would lower your total costs even more. Let’s say that with the hosting and domain name we’d discuss about 4 USD (on average) per month. It’s not really the end of the world.
And now many would say: OK, but I get these for free. Let’s see how you still “pay” for these.
1. you post on some forums to get free hosting. There are plans of posting count you have to achieve and you’ll be alloted some space and bandwidth. Some of these programs might work, but it’s most likely that such sites fail in time. You need to search for some reviews on the quality and tenure. On paidforumposts.info we pay our editors 0.20 USD/message. If you post more than 20 messages a month, you’re already working more than the 4 USD/month value you’d pay for a normal hosting (plus a domain, which free hosting won’t provide)
2. you show ads from their campaigns. Some free hosts cover their server costs with Adsense campaigns or from other advertisers. Some might advertise themselves on your site. These banners (most of the time big ones) are placed automatically in the header (the most proeminent place). For an already developing site, your header place could monetize way better. Instead of getting 20-50 USD/month from your own private advertisers, you keep your headers occupied for a 4 USD value host.
Anyway you’d take this, in order for someone to offer you free hosting, that someone needs to find ways to monetize this. All these ways involve your time and/or ad space. For a very small site, this might not be such an issue, but the moment you start getting a bit of a traffic the value YOU LOSE is huge as compared to 4 USD/month you “win” by getting a free hosted account. Now tell me this is good business.
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Great post. The meaning of free has changed a lot over the years. There’s always a “catch” — Thanks for sharing!
Jenna’s last blog post..Personalized License Plates
free web hosting may not be the best choice and it has become quite difficult to find decent web hosts at reasonable prices.
You are right when you say that free has changed
Free means problems
Cliff Posey’s last blog post..Web Building Software That Works
many times, free is too good to be true. you’re are very right by saying free has changed… great blog! keep it up!
The word “Free” is used to promote the products. I think the exact word is “exchange”.
I see I am not the only one who doesn’t trust FREE that much anymore. Thank you all for commenting, sometimes this “free” means obligations or as transparent language said: exchange.
There is nothing free in this world. If you getting something for free, that means you have to give something in return. Banners, ads, email addresses…
Gino J’s last blog post..Why getting a job is a bad idea?
Truly I am afraid with that word “Free hosting”. We should pay something to secure our valuable files and business. Although I am on a shared server in these days but even that is not cheap.
Qaswer’s last blog post..Nancy Ajram News:
well, what to say ?
if you pay without peanuts, you’re buying monkeys
it takes money to make money …
cheers,
Michiel
Never a free lunch. You always gotta pay in some way. dam
Dshot’s last blog post..Acetone does it really improve mileage?
You are correct, free IS NOT free. It makes you wonder about all those wonderful “free” services that Google likes to give away. What is their angle?
J P’s last blog post..Testudo Rodinae
Michael, I like your saying. There was a time when people were looking for free hosting but now is the time when people are looking for quality hosting.
There is a lot of free stuff around but they’re made free by the suppliers evil plan
Somehow someway, someone is profiting from a free product.
Bradley Moore’s last blog post..New High Detail for Runescape
It’s amazing just how many people fall for the ‘free’ magic phrase and don’t consider what they pay in other areas. My favorite is sites that advertise ‘free shipping’ but where your total price is higher than on sites where you pay for shipping but the product costs are lower.
I agree and disagree with you.
I agree, because you get what you pay. However, not every hosting requires you to post in forum and force ads. Look around, you will see plenty of hosting that requires no forum hosting or places ads.
Most free hosting providers also have paid hosting and they give free hosting in the hope that free users will later convert to the paid plan. For this reason, they limit the features in the free package. No .htaccess, limited bandwidth, no cpanel etc. It’s the same like demo version softwares. So it’s wrong to say that ALL free hostings are bad. It’s just that you get what you pay. If you want free, you can’t use this and that. Pay us and we will give you all access.
Usually, the thumb rule is to choose a free hosting that also has paid hosting.
Although you are correct, there are still many good free hosting sites (or other services). And I mean totally free. If you want me to name names, theres 000webhost.
I entirely agree, but it is possible to get a good free hosting account. Say you manage to get a free account from a paid-only provider, as a sponsor.
Almost like oversellers, unlimited is not unlimited, either.
Cheers!
Hey, you get what you pay for! I tell my clients, pick 2 out of 3:
You can have it: fast, cheap, effective. You can’t get all 3!
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I agree. When there is a free product, unless it’s open source, there is a catch in it. If not the money, you have to trade off something to the other party.
It’s a pity that many people still fall for it.
Cheers!
Sandwich Man’s last blog post..For the Chicken Sandwich – It’s a New Day!
Nice post, I totally agree. Web hosting is so cheap now that it’s almost stupid to go with a free host. You can find some places where they give you monthly hosting for $1-2 only
Google Wealth Maker’s last blog post..Google Wealth Maker Review
Oh I agree; nothing is ever free, and using a free web host can really sell your company short and even keep you from success! All the sold links and adds may just divert customers and traffic away from your site! The best solution is to find affordable, budget friendly web hosting. You can still get professional service and treatment without breaking the bank or taking out a loan.
Free has never been free…I remember my late grandfather telling me that “there is no free lunch.” As a kid I was devastated, however as an adult, I have grown to understand that free means forking over something, whether it be time or information…it ain’t free!
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I totally agree with you guys that nothing is ever free. There is always a catch.
I have to disagree, you can get free stuff in this world. I do on a daily basis. I understand most things have a small catch but i mean there are a lot of free things around
I like your saying. There was a time when people were looking for free hosting but now is the time when people are looking for quality hosting.
You know getting tons of spam I really have lost the sense of the word “free”. There’re so many proposals of so-called free stuff that I don’t believe for the moment it could be something really free in the Internet…
Some companies offer a free product and promote something that costs above and beyond the free product, and it’s a valid marketing tactic. I do agree though in the case of hosting, free most certainly isn’t free. No web host can afford to give away ad-less, high quality, free hosting, so if somebody is claiming or appearing to do so, it’s either false, or temporary.
For blogs there are a couple of places that offer free hosting and are very decent. (ie. Blogger)