I must admit offer of free hosting does have major appeal however, rarely is something of value given away for nothing. At first glance, free hosting sounds like a good deal! Upon closer inspection, you'll find close to 100% of them not suitable for a business website at all.

Before getting one of free hosting packages, person needs to have a specific idea what website is going to be used for. Is it personal or for business?

If it's a personal website that's going to be used to post family newsletter, photographs and so on, it's a perfectly good use of one. On other hand, if it's a website built for commercial purposes, free hosting packages are of limited utility to a business operation.

Most of well documented opposition to free websites invariably mentions use of very long URL's as one of main examples but there are more fundamental reasons you shouldn't ever use a free website as your main business website.

Most business websites will need advanced mail handling and script hosting capabilities not offered by free web hosting accounts. As your business grows and you realize need for above, your step onto next business level is severely hampered.

These are services most Internet businesses need that are not provided by free hosting packages:

CGI Scripting PHP Scripting Autoresponders MySQL Databases

In 2005, web hosting will be even bigger.

It has been estimated that 38 million people will put their very first websites online in this next year. And, by 2008, internet sales industry will top 120 billion dollar mark.

What does this mean for you?

Finding right web host for your application will be easier. Quality web hosting companies will separate themselves from rest of industry, and unprofessional web hosting companies will suffer. Support will become number one factor for people when choosing a web host. Traditional advertising will become less and less effective, as most people will choose a web host based on colleague’s recommendations.

This is going to create a great opportunity for web hosting affiliates, and resellers. By simply referring people to hosting services, many people will be able to make full time income. They are doing it right now.