I often see people asking for Free Hosting.
While I can understand that not everyone can pay, I just thought I'd offer a few words.
Firstly, the webhosting market is flooded. No - make that deluged. Once upon a time there was an easy profit to be made. Now webhosts has to fight just to make a profit. There are too many hosts and competition has driven the cost down so low you could get a full year's hosting for the price of a night out.
So my point is this - the people who wander about various forums, looking for free webhosting, are completely missing the point. This is a buyer's market.
That means there's plenty of room for negotiation with a lot of companies.
Don't get me wrong - there are a lot of established hosts who will stick to their guns. But there are also a lot of newer hosts out there who you can easily haggle with. Ask what they'll offer for a certain price, rather than work from their price lists.
You don't even have to be forceful - even a polite inquiry can work wonders (I know that from experience
).
So what's the catch?
The catch is simply this - because the market is so flooded with webhosts, there's a high failure rate. Many new hosts here today will not be here next year. So your site may not be safe in the long term.
Some people will ride free hosting for kicks. These sites are disposable short term ventures that likely have no real web presence - certainly not in the longer term.
So my final point is this - if you feel too cash strapped to start your site professionally, or else you simply want to test drive webhosting itself with something simple and temporary, then talk to any of a range of new webhosts, and politely haggle.
Who knows - any one of them could become a very successful long term business, and you could establish some excellent contacts and learn some important points.
And if it bombs - you've likely lost the cost of a 6-pack. But I bet you also learn some value lessons.
Free hosting is for jokers, and most webhosting companies know that except for some excellent exceptions (local charities, for example), this will be the general rule - and jokers aren't worth doing business with.
But if you're simply looking to explore the business, the market is in your favour. It's up to you to empower yourself with that knowledge.
Just 2c.
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