Free Website

Web creation

Domain Registration

Build a website

Web Host

Custom Search

Custom Search

This article may sound a little harsh to some. It's not meant to be as I am just stating the facts from my own personal experiences. I'm sure there are some good free hosts out there, it's just that my experiences with them have been pretty negative overall.I don't think many people realize the number of disadvantages that go along with creating free websites. Hopefully this article will shed some light on the subject.
   Don't make the same mistake I did. After this nightmare, I vowed to never go the "free route" again. Creating your site from scratch with its own dot com name is affordable and definitely worth the small investment. Parking your site at a free host is often like building a house on sand. It may be quick and and it may seem easy at first, but I can almost guarantee you it won't last long.

Disadvantages of Free Web Hosts

•  Limited web page space

• Can't add interactive features (chat rooms, message boards, games, online ordering etc.)

• Search engines often ignore them A HUGE disadvantage!

• Your visitors may doubt your credibility

• May have banners and/or pop ads on your homepage and/or all of your pages

• Long and hard-to-remember web address (instead of yourdomain.com)

• No guarantees of site availability and longevity

• No branded emails addresses (you@yourdomain.com)

• Poor help and support options (if any)

• May not be free forever

• Advantages of Owning Your Own Dot Com Name

• Easy to remember website address (yourdomain.com)

• No banners or popups

• Easier to get listed in search engines (Google, Yahoo etc.)

• You have more control over the look and feel of your website.

• Multiple branded email addresses (you@yourdomain.com)

• Plenty of web page space for site expansion

• No worries of site being removed unexpectedly

• Looks more professional

• More flexibility for design and functionality

• Help is readily available

• Many beginners gravitate toward the free holsters because they feel that registering a

       domain name is too expensive and/or too difficult

   I realize the website building process may be intimidating for you if you've never created a site before. You may be worried about spending your money on something that is unfamiliar and difficult. I can totally understand that. Let me assure you that building a dot com site is not expensive at all. The average website costs between $5 and $10 per month to maintain. This site costs me absolutely nothing to maintain because I earn all of my hosting fees back (and then some) by belonging to Google's free Adsense program.

   They pay you to display text ads on your web pages and you earn a commission every time one of the ads gets clicked. And if you have a free site, you'll have a hard time getting accepted into this free program. Second, most of the hosting solutions I will recommend later offer some kind of software or web building tool to create your pages so you don't have to know HTML or any programming to successfully build your site.

Search Engines Will Ignore You!

   This is probably the biggest disadvantage - especially if you are trying to make money and attract free traffic to your site. There's no proof that you can never get listed with Google or Yahoo with a free website, but it's evident that the cards are stacked against you. Search engines are an excellent source of free traffic so you definitely do not want to miss out on the great, targeted traffic you can receive. Years ago it was super easy to get listed no matter what kind of site you had (free or paid). But now with all the spam techniques going around (particularly with free sites) the search engines have gotten very selective about who they add.

Here are the reasons I believe it's hard to get listed in search engines with a free site:

1. Too small and "unimportant." Most free sites are generally small (under 5 pages) and offer very little information about a focused theme or concept. They also tend to have more links to external sites than they do to their own internal pages.
Search engines are looking for meaty sites that offer information on a particular theme with a good amount of content -- at least 20 pages.

2. No upkeep. A lot of people that build free websites often abandon them within a few weeks or months which causes a lot of broken links, missing images, etc. The search engines are getting smarter and for all we know they may have red flags in their algorithm (the formula that determines page rankings). So when they see that a site is hosted on a free web host's server, they may rank them lower...if at all. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if the search engines had a script that says something like: "If site X is hosted at this-free-domain. COM then "ignore". I have no proof of this, but due to the fact so many people email me with this same search engine problem, it can't be a coincidence that people using free web hosts have trouble getting ranked. Do a search for just about anything on Google now. I bet you'll see very few (if any) sites built with a free web host.

3. No links pointing to the site. Because of reasons 1 and 2, most other webmasters and important web directories won't link to a site built on a free host. They may not look as professional and people don't want to give a free link to a poorly developed site with pop-ups and banners all over the place. Plus, they also know that free sites generally have short life spans for various reasons. Search engines use formulas and can see that no one is linking back to your site so they may ignore it. These days, the kinds of websites linking to you is so very important for achieving a good search engine rank. The bottom line: Free websites get very little respect out here on the Internet. Free Websites & Ecommerce Don't Mix. It amazes me how many people tell me that they want to start a business website but don't want to spend any money. I personally don't know of a single successful website owner that built their business website on AOL or Geocities' website builder.

If you were starting an offline business, you'd plan on investing some money right? Well, doing business on the web is no different despite many beliefs. If you don't plan to invest anything to start a business then I'd have to question your drive.

There are NO SHORTCUTS to success.