by Lucas Heijn

I can say that there is one big advantage with free web hosting. It doesn’t cost you anything. So it doesn’t seem much of a question. Or is it? As with all our decisions in life there are pro’s and con’s. Sometimes we don’t find out the disadvantages until after we have made our decision.

Free web hosting sounds attractive. How does a free web hosting provider get any money? They are a business so they are there to make money. They do this by advertising. You see you get a free site. You then drive traffic to the site. This traffic now become potential customers of your web hosting provider. So your web host has given you a free site in return for free traffic.

If you want to run an internet business from your site, these ads can conflict with your product or service. Your free service may now become a hindrance.

In setting up a commercial site you will need more resources and freedom to use your site. You see you will need MySql databases. You may want to run PHP or CGI scripts. You may produce a squeeze page and try to get your customers to focus on your product. But there are other products being advertised as well, products from your web host. There could also be an issue with looking professional and being a trusted business.

If you need to run a web site as a commercial enterprise you will be far better off choosing paid web hosting. You will also need to choose the hosting package that will best suit your needs. Look at some of the benefits of a paid site.

1. Can create your own email accounts. This means that emails can look like this: yourname@yoursite.com. This is much better than yourname@yahoo.com or some other free email service. This will give you a more professional look.

2. You will be able to set up scripts to run on your site. Both CGI and PHP.

3. You will have access to MySql databases. Most scripts today require a database. You may wish to use a blog script such as Wordpress. With a paid web hosting account you will be able to.

4. You will have a much larger amount of disk space available to you.

5. You will have access to a powerful and easy to use control panel which will allow you to do things behind the scenes such as set up emails, databases and many other things.

These were just a few of the reasons why you need to choose a paid web hosting provider there are many more.

You don’t need to choose the largest package. You can start out small and grow your account as your business grows. Your web host should be able to painlessly increase your limits.

Summing it all up: Free web hosting is great for family and personal sites also for picture sites. If you need to sell on the internet you will be far better served by choosing paid web hosting.

About the Author:
Selecting the right web hosting service is an important decision for your internet business. Some web hosts also provide other free services you would need to run your business. One most important tool is the follow-up autoresponder

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