People on the internet are greedy. They want some
ultimate free host, with "unlimited" storage,
"unlimited" bandwidth, and no ads. That
will never happen, unless it is some private host
that only allows a few users. I hate seeing this greed.
Why should a host give you so much, and you don't
even let them make money? It's a ridiculous idea.
You have to make realistic goals on what your host
might be able to provide you.
The point of the article is to help you determine
the specific requirements for the free host you want
to pick.
Storage & Bandwidth
To determine how much storage and bandwidth you need
for your website, you need to think about what kind
of files you may be storing. The majority of people
who don't have anything but HTML and image files usually
don't need more than 5 Mb. If this is the case, don't
rule out any host because it doesn't have a huge amount
of space. If your website stores several megabytes
of files, your choices may be limited. There are plenty
of websites that give you 20 Mb+, but most will ban
file types such as .MP3.
Ad Types
I have heard a lot of people complain about how annoying
the ads are on their free websites. It's rare these
days to find a host without ads, and when there is
one, it is usually abused and goes down months later.
That happens for a reason, and that reason is that
there is no money to be made when you have no ads.
If people aren't paying for the website, ads are the
way the company pays for their bills and salaries.
But don't lose hope yet, there are options. If you
are a business site, it might look unprofessional
if you have a banner on the top of your page. For
this reason you might choose a host that looks like
it will stay around for a while but has no ads, or
get a host that has pop-ups. Pop-ups are quicker for
the user to click out of, and the visitor only has
to see it a second every time he enters a new page.
The downside of pop-ups occur when visitors change
pages quickly. If your visitors go to many pages each
visit, a pop-up coming back up every time may be very
annoying. In this situation, a banner may be better.
A final issue that has come up dealing with advertising
is whether your host will allow you to host your own
ads. If your website becomes popular, and for some
reason you still don't want to move to paid hosting,
you may want to sell advertising space on your website.
This may be a problem for some hosts, as they don't
necessarily want you to make a profit off of their
free service. You may want to factor this into your
search for a host if you are planning to make a profit
off of a free website. I would recommend that if this
is even a factor, you should pay a small fee for paid
hosting. You receive more benefits, and there are
a lot less hassles.
Scripting Languages Supported
Whether a webmaster is a programmer, or just someone
who wants interactivity with their visitors, factoring
in what programming languages a website supports may
be important. All free web hosts allow HTML, images,
and JavaScript. But to get features such as a message
board, polls, and chatrooms, you have to have more
powerful languages such as PHP, CGI/Perl, and ASP.
The list of free web hosts that support some or all
of these languages is very small. Hosts that allow
this are prone to getting abused, and usually shut
down quickly if they don't take precautions to avoid
abuse. If it isn't absolutely necessary, do not make
this a requirement in finding your host.
Various Other Features
Other things you may need to think about include
length of your URL, and what type of uploading you
have.
If you have a business site that you want to be easily
remembered, http://www.freewebhostwith50megsnoads.com/sites/users/you
might not be a good web host. Length is an obvious
factor, as it is hard to remember a long URL. Another
problem might be the domain hosting you. If you are
a business or a professional site, do you really want
to have the words "FREEHOSTING" or "ALL4FREE"
in your URL? Think about this when finding your host.
Redirection services may seem like a good solution,
but often to pay for this service, they too must have
pop-ups or banner frames.
The method of uploading is important too. If you
are comfortable with FTP programs, you may want to
require your host to have an FTP account provided
to you. This might not be the best tool if you aren't
very technical and have to update your pages a lot.
Try looking for an "Online File Manager"
as a feature.
Conclusion
I hope this article helped you figure out what features
you need to look for when deciding on a free host.
Next article in this series will tell you how to actually
find the host.
