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How Do You Get a Website for Free?
When it comes to getting online for the first time, especially to start your own online business, it can be very difficult, especially if you don’t have any previous knowledge of the web hosting business. At first glance, to get online for free or get a free website might seem like a good idea, but is it? There are a few options available for you and indeed, free web hosting is one of them. In this article we will explore exactly what free web hosting is and how you can benefit from it.
Where Can I Get a Website for Free? Advantages
There are several obvious advantage to getting a website for free:
- It’s free, you have no fees to pay.
- Offers newbies a crash course in the web hosting business and its countless number of features.
- Gives you an online presence.
- Free services can provide anywhere from 5MB to 100Mb of online web space for hosting your web site.
- May come with some cool stuff such as WYSIWYG editors, counters, guest books, blogs, virtual domain names and more.
- The better sites can provide excellent facilities and tutorials. See, How do you get a website for free Conclusion.
Where Can I Get a Website for Free? Disadvantages
- You do not have your own domain name. Should your business prove profitable and you decide to upgrade to your own website with your own domain name. You will lose all the customers and SEO links you have built up with the free website.
- It’s free, so how reliable is it? Will they still be there next week? How many times will your visitors see the dreaded “Error 404: Page Not Found” message.
- Low traffic volume! Some free sites have bandwidth restrictions. This means that after a certain amount of people in a given period visit your site, your pages will no longer load. I’m sure you’ve seen a message such as “This web site has exceeded its bandwidth limit. Please try again tomorrow”.
- There can be hidden costs should you step outside any bandwidth or hosting restrictions. Be sure to read the user agreement.
- Banner ads, Pop-ups and pop-unders over which you have no control may be displayed on your web pages. This is how the free hosting company make their money. The better your website the more money they make.
- Free websites usually have a lot of limitations and restrictions which will stunt the growth of your online business.
Where Can I Get a Website for Free?
The answer to the questions, how do you get a website for free, how do you get web hosting for free, and how do you get a website on the internet really depends upon what type of website you want.
There are basically two types of website to consider when thinking about where can I get a website for free:
- HTML only websites and
- Data driven websites.
What is a HTML Website?
When I ask, what is a HTML website, I am referring to a website consisting of ‘standard’ HTML pages with possibly a little JavaScript and CSS thrown in.
- HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the main mark-up language for displaying web pages. HTML is written in the form of HTML elements consisting of tags enclosed in angle brackets (like <html>), within the web page content. HTML elements form the building blocks of all websites and can have embed elements and scripts such as JavaScript and CSS.
- JavaScript (sometimes abbreviated JS) is scripting language developed by Netscape to enable Web authors to design interactive, dynamic content. It is an open language that anyone can use without purchasing a license.
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) define the appearance and layout of text and other material on a web page. The W3C, maintainer of both the HTML and the CSS standards, encourages the use of CSS over explicitly presentational HTML mark-up. Refer to http://www.w3.org for more information.
What is a Data Driven Website?
When I ask, what is a data driven website, I am referring to a website consisting of web pages capable of interacting with a database. This website is a data driven website. The database management systems (DBMS) used on this site is MySQL. The PHP application controlling the DBMS and web pages is WordPress, a Content Management System (CMS).
- A data driven website is one that acts as an interface to a database, retrieving specific data for presentation to a specific user and allowing for data entry into the database.
No Search Engine Solution!
Before I say anything else I must apologise for being a little downbeat in this paragraph. The reason is simple. Other than my web hosting provider (JustHost), WordPress and Blogger, I haven’t found any decent free web hosting providers. Of the many I’ve tried, all have so many restrictions, banner ads or pup-up that they just make the site look trashy. If you know of any good, free hosting provided then do let me (and everyone else) know. The comment box is below.
- Several of the sites I tried even asked for a credit card to get the free hosting! Why would they want an credit card if the service is free?
- Most of the sites I visited say you get a free website but then charge for hosting your website (so it’s not free).
- With others you get a free website and free hosting with time restrictions (max three month). You then have to pay (premium prices) for a domain name and hosting.
Do You Really Need a Free Website?
By posing the question, do you really need a free website, I’m really asking if it’s a website you need or is it a place to post your information. If you just want to post information, such as articles you’ve written, there are thousand of free article directories such as http://ezinearticles.com/ and some such as http://hubpages.com/ will even allow you to share in the advertising profits.
How do you get a website for free Conclusion
If you want to get online just to play, for your hobby, your club or just out of general interest then by all means use one of the free recommended routes.
If on the other hand you want to start a business online then buy your own domain name and get a good hosting provider. A domain name will cost you less than $10 per year and a good hosting provider such as JustHost will provide hosting (with FREE domain registration, so saving you $10) for less than $3 per month. If, as a business you cannot afford that, then you shouldn’t be in business.
- You can research your hosting and domain name choices at any of the registrars listed in my article, Where to Register Domain Names.
Recommended for how do you get a website on the internet with Free Website and Free Hosting Solutions
- For a free standard HTML website with free hosting I would recommend your Internet Service Provider. Every web hosting provider I’ve ever used (in the UK at least) provides a minimum of 15Mb of free web space. I suppose, technically they’re not free as you pay for your internet service but lets face it, you’d pay for that anyway.
- For a CMS website with free hosting I would recommend starting with either WordPress.com or Blogger.com, both provide excellent service, facilities and tutorials.
Recommended for how do you get a website on the internet with Free Website and Paid Hosting Solution
- Well I’m obviously going to recommend exactly what I’m doing with this website. That’s the free WordPress.org CMS website software with JustHost as the hosting provider.
Well, I hope you found something useful and enjoyed this article, How do you get a website for free. Don’t forget to let me have your thoughts in the comment box below. See you soon.
