Personal Web Hosting ? Free Or Cheap?

After you have spent some time and creativity on designing your personal web site now it's time to publish it on the World Wide Web for all to see it.

When coming to web hosting, many face the dilemma of choosing between free or paid web hosting. Although the costs associated with paid web hosting is rather small, it's still money.

An easy and money free solution might seem to be registering it with a free web-hosting provider. They come in large numbers today and the 10-20 Megs of free personal space they usually offer sounds tempting. Not to mention that some of them even offer POP3 for your e-mail address on their web site or FTP access to your files on the web site.

So it looks like all this is building up to become quite an alternative to spending dear money for almost the same thing. I mean paid web hosting for an individual's web site sound a little pretentious, doesn't it?

Sure paid web hosting gives some more space, quite a few more features and all that, but do you need them anyway? You probably just need a web server that can feed .HTML and maybe some simple java scripts to your visitor. It's not like you are ever going to need an SQL database, support for .ASP or .PHP. You just want your own web site, not an e-commerce solution or you are ever going to need more than one e-mail address for your own use.

A more careful look at the matter is likely to make the right decision easier to take. As a matter of fact, depending on the objectives trusted to your personal web site, the decision between free or cheap almost dictates itself. You should also keep in mind that you actually trusting your virtual image to the web host.

In exchange for the hosting you won't be asked for money, but there could be banners, hot links, frames, popup windows or other forms of online advertising that will interfere with the content of your web site, possibly having a bad effect on its look and almost certainly annoying your visitors. Another minus is that your traffic is not likely to attain very high values due to the long domain name. People are not going to return to your web site simply because they forgot its URL. Therefore if people haven't added your site to their bookmarks, and if your web site is not easily reachable through search engine search or fro other linked sites, it is very likely that your traffic scores would not be very impressive.

A personal web site could be very useful asset in promoting your professional image to potential or actual employers and business contacts. Regardless we are considering the URL or e-mail address, what would an employer for example think when handed a business card with an e-mail address like yourname@freeserver.com. Would you feel comfortable going to a job interview and leaving your resume referring to your online portfolio available at www.yourname.yetanotherfreehost.com? All your effort and skill displayed by your web content would be almost surely hurt by as little as your URL. Not fair, but likely.

A part of the image of successful professionals nowadays is a good personal website. It is well known that success generates success. The look of a personal URL and e-mail such us www.yourname.biz or contact@yourname.com would definitely benefit to your image as a professional. As you were diligent enough to have a personal website, the matter of trusting it to a free web host or investing an additional and usual small amount of money might be the difference of being associated with a success story of your career or with the cliché of a quite all right fellow that is barely struggling and would make compromises even when it comes to its image.

Any problems with the web host, possible downtime, and narrow bandwidth will chase your visitors away and will be associated to your web site.

On the other hand, if your are just stating your experience with the World Wide Web, or if your are setting up a web site with only close friends and relatives as intended audience, a free web host might just do it for you. These are just a few of the examples of having a good reason to publish your web site on a free hosting provider.

Free web hosts helped thousands of people to familiarize themselves with the Internet experience, as first cradles for their web presence. This is one of the reasons free web hosts have contributed to the overall popularity of the Internet. As comfortable as cradles are, you can't spend your whole life in the cradle!

So, if you are planning to have a web site to represent you online and you want to be taken seriously, to actually enhance your personal image, make right. Make your web site a living proof of your thoroughness and start with your URL.

About The Author

Calin Indre is editor at HostPinPin (http://www.hostpinpin.com), a Cheap Web Hosting Directory. HostPinPin.com is a resource for webmasters and consumers looking to find a web hosting company. Providing web hosting articles, tips, web hosting reviews, compare web hosting plans and more.

This article may be reprinted or published without the authors consent as long as the "About" and "weblinks" are kept intact.

---

The #1 Factor New Webmasters Forget to Consider when Choosing a Web Hosting Plan

The ProblemToo often new webmasters sign-up with the first good... Read More

Niche Hosting

There is story of David and Goliath where Goliath would... Read More

Web Hosting: Shared or Dedicated - Which Should You Choose?

Before you begin your search for a web host you... Read More

Hosting Options for an Ecommerce Web Site

Deciding how to host your ecommerce Web site and what... Read More

How to Choose a Right Web Hosting Service?

Indeed, choosing a right web hosting service for your website... Read More

Great Web Hosting - What to Look For!

Web hosting can best be described as a modern-day marriage:... Read More

Elements of Web Hosting

When you first start out trying to get a site... Read More

Tips About Low Cost Web Hosting Services

Here are some things you should know before finding a... Read More

Shared Web Hosting Service Explained!

The next concern for you after designing and developing web... Read More

Questions To Ask a Hosting Company Before You Start

There are several types of hosting. Among them are:Free hosting... Read More

Useful Tips When Applying For A Web Host Provider

Once you have considered the design for your website and... Read More

Windows Hosting versus Linux Hosting ? Which is right for you?

There are literally hundreds of thousands of web hosting companies... Read More

Choosing a Hosting Service: A Checklist for Business Owners

For a website to appear on the Internet, you require... Read More

Choosing the Right Web Host

Whatever type of website you want to host, choosing the... Read More

Managed Hosting Services - Who Benefits from It?

Managed Hosting Services are used primarily by companies that either... Read More

Web Hosting - How To Choose The Right Provider For You

Thousands of companies, tens of thousands of different plans and... Read More

The Problem with Free Web Hosting Plans

In my opinion, free web hosting is one of the... Read More

The Top 15 Essential Ingredients of Every WINDOWS HOSTING Plan (Package)

First things First. Why would you like to have Windows... Read More

Overselling Web Hosting: What Does It Mean To You?

Overselling is a big trend in the web-hosting world at... Read More

How Multiple Server Hosting impacts your websites uptime

This article describes the technology behind multiple server hosting and... Read More

Getting The Best Web Hosting For Your Business

After the dot.com bubble burst a few years back I... Read More

Top 10 Web Hosting Blunders and How to Avoid Them

Consider the following web hosting blunders and do not allow... Read More

Cheap Internet Hosting, Business Web Hosting - Choosing The Right Web Host Package

With literally hundreds of web hosting providers competing for your... Read More

Choosing Your Web Hosting Package

General rule of thumb is not to sign up for... Read More

Web Hosting: 4 Factors in Choosing a Hosting Company

When choosing a web hosting company there are a whole... Read More

Back To School Web Hosting

Every year as school starts web hosts see an up... Read More

Web Hosting Solutions In Birmingham

Once you have a website you then need to think... Read More

Steps to Becoming a Web Host Reseller

You've decided to get a reseller web hosting account to... Read More

Changing to a New Host? No More Worries!

John's online business is expanding. His customers are increasing day... Read More

Importance of Educated Choice While Choosing A Web Hosting Provider

There are many attributes that makes a web hosting provider... Read More

Are Free Webhosting Accounts Really Free? - 5 Critical Things to Consider Before Choosing a Free Web

Many free web hosting accounts are free to use, however... Read More

40,000 New Blogs Are Started Daily - How Your Web Hosting Business Can Cash in

The fact that an estimated 40,000 new blogs are being... Read More

Web Hosting and Development

If you've ever browsed the World Wide Web and wondered... Read More