Free Hosting versus Paid Hosting

If you're new to making money online then most likely you don't want to invest any money, and you shouldn't have to until you have the basics down; or at least know which market or niche you want to get into. And even then you might be wondering whether it's worth the price and if you'll get your money back from the site. But the real question is why anyone would want to pay for web hosting when they can get free hosting from sites like Weebly, Blinkweb or Synthasite.

Many claim that it cannot work if you don't have your own domain name or hosting account. I have read several e-books which state that one of the biggest reasons why people don't succeed online is because they don't get their own domain and hosting account.

It is also said that when people see the address www.yourdomain.whatever.com they won't want to click on it; they would rather click on www.yourdomain.com, simply because it looks more professional.

I agree that it is harder and takes longer to make money with free hosting than if you were to buy your own hosting right off the bat. But at the same time there are also many advantages to free hosting if you're new and still learning. I recommend you start off with free hosting because that way you won't be so overwhelmed by everything which is involved with your own hosting account.

You should also set up a blog at Blogger, Wordpress, or WordpressDirect. This is something which you would want to do regardless of whether you decide you use free web-hosting or purchase your own domain and hosting account. Having a blog is a great way to get more traffic to your site once you set it up.

So let's take a closer look at to what each has to offer and some of the advantages and disadvantages.

Free hosting is a great way to get started and to familiarize yourself with making money online. If you make mistakes you can always start over again without loosing any money.

Also these sites will allow you to put your site together by using a drag and drop method in which you don't need to know any html, css or any other computer languages.

You have the option to get your own domain which you can get for less than $10.00. I highly recommend that you do a thorough market research and then get your own domain name as soon as possible. Getting the right domain name will help to generate good traffic. If you purchase the domain name even if you decide to go with free hosting you won't have to start all over again with a new name; plus the traffic and back-links which you have already built won't be lost.

If you choose not to get your own domain you can use the site later to get more traffic to your real site for when it's up and running simply by linking to it. This way your hard work won't go to waste either.

Some of the downfalls of free hosting are that your site will have unexpected downtime. Especially if the site has a promotion, their servers become too busy and they will have downtime. This could really hurt you as people won't regard your site as legitimate when it's not there when they want it to be.

Next the design templates which you are able to choose from are limited and these might not be appropriate for the market or niche which you are in.

Last but not least…and this is the #1 reason in my opinion why free hosting will not be able to make you money in the long run. You have limited bandwidth with free hosting. This means you are only allowed so many visitors a month without going over your limit. Once you've reached your limit you do have the option to upgrade to a paid account, but you still won't have the freedom to design the site the way you might wish.

Some of the sites which will host your site for free are Weebly, Blinkweb and Synthasite.

Paid hosting is definitely the way to go once the basics are down. You should know the basics of html, and css before purchasing your own hosting plan.

To learn html, css and other computer languages simply visit w3schools. There you will find everything you need to know about html, css, and more; and the best thing about it is that it is all free!

It may seem overwhelming to learn html, but the truth is that it's only like another language and it doesn't take any brains to learn it. If I can do it anyone can!

If you don't have time or don't want to learn computer languages you can always hire someone to design your site for you. Also there are programs which will help you to do this.

The cost for hosting is under $100.00 per year or more depending on what kind of hosting plan you choose to purchase. It may or may not seem like a lot, but it gives you the freedom to do what you want. You are the designer and can integrate ads into your content or do what ever you wish.

With your own hosting you can set up your RSS feeds which will help to generate more traffic.

Overall you will appear to be more professional which will help you to gain the trust of people and your business will be able to grow much faster.

Some of the web-hosting providers are GoDaddy, Hostgator and HostMonster.