To Pay Or Not To Pay That Is The Question About Web Hosting

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 all you need is a site where you can display personal or family thing even photos a free site will be all you require. If on the other hand you want to use it to promote an internet business a free site could be a hindrance.

Internet marketing is about driving traffic to your site, gaining their trust and having a laser focused squeeze page. Free web hosting fails here. You can lose the focus on your squeeze page because of the ads that your free web hosting provider has placed on your page. You also need to come across as a professional marketer that can be trusted. Free web hosting will give you the appearance of an amateur. In the end your free site could be costing you sales.

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. Look far more professional. What looks better? yourname@yahoo.com or yourname@yoursitename.com Having your own email addresses will look much more professional. I personally don’t deal with marketers who use free email accounts. I always wonder if they are just a fly-by-night enterprise. Here today and gone tomorrow.

2. You will be able to use PHP and CGI scripts

3. You will also have access to MySql databases

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

5. You will have the use of an easy to use control panel. This will also give you greater control over your site.

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

You can choose to start small and expand. This can be done painlessly as your hosting provider just increases the limits that have been set with the package you chose at first.

So looking back to our question to pay or not to pay. Free web hosting is great for personal and family sites. They are not great for anyone that wants to set up a serious internet business.