Free website
Friday, October 31st, 2008no cost website host service is a website host service that is no cost, sometimes advertisement -supported. no cost website hosts will sometimes provide a subdomain (yoursite.example.com) or a path (www.example.com/~yourname). In contrast, costly website hosts will sometimes provide a second-level domain along with the host (www.yourname.com). a lot of no cost hosts do allow use of separately-purchased domains . infrequently, a no cost host may also operate as a domain name registrar .
Features and limitations
however a few no cost website hosts offer basic package for no cost. Enhanced packages (with more features) are sometimes available for a cost. This allows users to try the service for an initial trial (see how it performs compared to other hosts), and then upgrade when (and if) needed.
no cost host may have the following limitations:
- Limitation on the size of each hosted file
- Very small bandwidth per month compared to costly host
- Disabling on hotlinking of files
- File type restrictions (for example MP3 , MPEG , ZIP etc.)
- Compulsory placement of the Webhosts’ Banner or Popup ads into all website pages
- No provided uptime guarantee
- No allowance of custom URLS, such as ” http://www.domain.com “. It has to be ” http://www.provider.com/domain ” or ” http://domain.provider.com/ “.
Some no cost host may provide these extra features:
- A website based control panel
- no cost email accounts for the domain or subdomain hosted
- File transfer via FTP
- Scripting languages: PHP , ASP , Perl etc.
- Relational databases such as MySQL
- Scheduled processes, known as cronjobs
- Other features such as guestbooks
- Forums and community resources not typical of costly hosts
- Reward systems which provide extra no cost products and services
- Have no data limitations offering unlimited space’
Monetizing no cost webhosting
The majority of the host companies use no cost host to introduce their services, and as an entry point to their more expensive offerings. Generally they recoup their costs in one of two ways:
- Advertising - Selling online advertising on the customer sites is generally considered a fair trade - the reasoning is that high traffic sites are more expensive to host, but the additional traffic allows for additional ad impressions therefore covering the cost. For the website master, it able to be a good trade if the advertising is of good quality and non-competitive. This is one of the main reasons that businesses do not use no cost host for their website. The majority of no cost host companies use this method.
- Referrals - Using a simple form of viral marketing , these providers rely on the users to spread the offer. The ratio of no cost to costly accounts is known, and by having each no cost user refer a number of friends, the host provider is able to get enough costly accounts to cover the cost.
- Resell host - This is where someone starts up a host corp, attracts lots of visitors, then sells the host corp to someone else once it able to no longer support itself. Once sold, this individual uses the money to start up multiple host ventures and sells each in turn.
Some host companies are using hybrid approaches that mix these tactics.
Methods of giving out website host
A few methods of giving out no cost Webhosting to people by Webhosts
Instant Activation
Due to the risks of illegal, inappropriate, and abusive website, hosts with instant activation sometimes give very little storage space and monthly bandwidth. Other restrictions will likely also be in effect. The webhosts sometimes either require the users’ website pages to display their banner ads, textlink ads, or popups; or else the users’ files to be uploaded through a website-based file manager that display ads to the user uploading files.
hosts with instant activation are often abused, such as link spamming .
Post for host
Some no cost hosts require posting in a forum . Forum-based no cost host requires users to either reach a certain amount of posts before getting a no cost host account, or be an active contributor in the forum. Forum-based no cost host often work on a system of points where posts give points to a user and able to be used as credits toward getting a host account or more resources. Typically, the forum where users have to post contains advertising as the hosts way of making a profit.
Forum applications
This method is popular, as the hosts able to decide which applications to deny and allow. This is common when a popular forum has no cost host as an add-on service, rather than the other way around.
File host on webhosts
Most no cost website hosts discourage using their services for file or image host however, with no website page , since advertising is displayed on the website page. Because of this, hotlinking is sometimes disallowed on no cost hosts. Some no cost webhosts will also disallow files over a certain size (for example, 5 MB ). however, there are no cost file host services which allow large files as well as hotlinking.
Co-branding and resellers
Some services offer co-branding services. These let you brand fixed plans with your self corp. Other services, offer WHM or panel reselling. This allows the client to develop his or her self website host plans and business.
