A luring ad—definitely. In fact this ad makes many small business owners feel cheated by their present web hosts.

This is how small business owners, who have taken small amount of space (say, 5, 10 or 25mb) calculate and feel that they are paying more :

"If 2000MB (2GB) costs $5.95 per month, then 5MB should cost (5.95 x 5 / 2000) = $0.15 only! But my web host charges me $1! A 700% profit!! Oh...I am losing so much money!!"

So, if a small business site shifts to advertised web host, he should get better value for his money. Right?

Wrong.

Let me explain how :

As a small business owner, how many HTML pages do you have in your web site? 5, 10, 15, 25?

Experts say that you should not have a page of more than 100K including images. Normally file size of a starndard HTML page is around 10-15K.

Remember that, many of images linked to your pages are common. If you have a 400x300 pixel image, file size of that image should not be more than 30K. Buttons are normally between 3-5K.

So, let's take an example of 25 page web site, which has (a) 25 HTML pages, (b) each page has one big image of 400x300 pixel and (c) have 25 buttons.

So, total space usage is :

25 HTMLs x 15K = 375K 25 400x300 pixel images x 30K = 750K 25 buttons x 5K = 125K

Total : 1250K = 1.25MB

Yes, big moment has finally arrived. Your business is now on verge of taking next step forward. It will establish a web presence. This is an important step as from now on your business is able to reach more customers, is able to get more exposure, and hopefully enjoy online recognition.

Space, bandwidth and domain name all come with a cost, but there is a possibility to get them all for free. Resource management principles will probably tell you to choose free solution. Nowadays cost for web hosting services has a very reasonable reason partially because of technological progress, partially because of stiff competition on web hosting market.

Still… why pay for it when you can get it for free?

Free web hosting

Dozens, even hundreds of free web hosting providers offer their services on Internet. Could there be one that meets needs for your business? Hardly, if any.

Please let me state clearly that this article is not intended to attack or discredit hosts or advertisers. It’s only purpose is to assess and understand how can be best met hosting needs of a business. Any business. And yes, in spite of everything stated here, even author of this article has resorted at some point in time to services of free web hosts!

You probably learned too, and at a very small age, that in life everything comes with a price. However, there it is … allover Internet: Free Web Hosting.

Nothing in this world is free. So how comes there even is free web hosting?

The definition of term “free” according to The New Lexicon Webster's Dictionary, states gives following definition for term free: 1.adj. not subject to external restraints or domination; not captive, at liberty; not having to be paid for; unhampered; open to all without restrictions; etc. 2.adv. without expense; without penalty 3.v.t. to release from constraint, set free

Therefore a literally free hosting service would mean no restraints, no expenses and no restrictions for user. Webmasters would design with only limited by their imagination and skills. All space and bandwidth you would possibly ask for at no cost whatsoever. Real-life scenario? Could anyone really think so? Indeed nothing in this world comes without price. Even it is not apparent. And price you must pay for free web hosting comes in many forms, as free web hosting providers must pay too for bandwidth, not to mention other costs.

While some free web hosts require you to have one on their banners on your web site, others place pop up adds, or flashing advertising messages. So it’s free for you as long as you fulfill their set of requirements and meet their conditions. In addition to this, you should consider that host's service is free with let’s say 25 Megs of space; more space means different conditions and you could have to pay for it.

Paid web hosting

If you are billed, it means you own something.

There is now a contractual bind between you and your web-hosting provider, which in turn must offer you his services.

Ownership gives you more control of your online presence. Important as ownership is, it is neither only nor biggest advantage of paying for your hosting solution.

The identity of your business would be clear from your URL down to your web content without banners confusing your customers. Imagine that you deal with What I would say, is ask yourself if you would deal with someone offering a similar service/ product as you are promoting, who was obviously using a free site. If you would, then fine, but if not, don't expect anyone else to deal with you!