Shared Hosting -- This usually refers to buying a bit of space on a server. You are sharing server with tens, maybe even hundreds of other people.

Reseller -- This is really for people who have multiple domains or who want to host other people. Depending on size of you reseller package, you may be sharing server with lots of other people.

Virtual Private server -- This is for people who need root access to server to install their own software. Basically a chunk of server is blocked off for each VPS user. There are usually not that many people sharing a server with VPS plans.

Dedicated server -- This is where you get whole server to yourself and share it with no one. This is for large or intensive CPU or RAM sites.

Shared Hosting

What exactly is free hosting? In exchange for free hosting, company can place ads your website. The ads can be placed on top of main page, top of every page, or on sides. The ads are usually not targeted. It is possible that they won’t match demographics of your web visitors. In addition, they are not customized to match content on your web page.

This is a very expensive exchange program if your goal is to build up an online business. The area above fold, everything that is visible without scrolling, is most effective advertising area on entire site. This is area you should use for your affiliate links, Google Adsense, paid links and expanded site navigation.

Some free web hosting contracts go a step further and ask for your participation in their email marketing campaigns. You will receive emails that require a click through to a merchant site, and/or fill out endless surveys. This can be very time consuming and annoying.

Before you sign any free hosting contract ask to see sample sites. You want to get a feel for types of ads that are being shown on other website. What do you want to look for? 1.Do you see pop-up ads? What about banners? 2.How large are ads? 3.Are they just off topic or are they inappropriate? 4.Where are ads? Are they on every single page or on selected pages?

Even if ads are not on every page, watch out. It could mean that hosting service has figured out which pages bring in most revenue and they can afford to ignore everything else. Guess what? If it brings in lots of revenue for them, it could probably bring in lots of revenue for you.

There’s free and then there’s FREE If space is free, what about domain name? If your new site will look like http://yoursite.freewebhost.com you’re getting a subdomain for your site. It’s not really your unique domain name. They are simply loaning you a space for your stuff.

This is not a unique domain name that you can use to brand your business. You can’t use it anywhere except with this particular web hosting company. Ditto if new domain names is http://www.freewebhost.com/yoursite/.