Free Hosting versus Paid Hosting

If you are new to making money online then most likely you don't want to invest any money, and you shouldn't have to until you have the basics down; or at least know which market or niche you want to get into. And even then you might be wondering whether it's worth the price, and if you will be able to earn your money back.

Most likely you have come across websites like BlinkWeb or Yola that allow you to create your own website for free. And you are wondering...why not take advantage of them? Why would anyone want to spend money in order to make money if they don't have to?

However, many internet marketers will tell you that you cannot make serious money if you just stick with a free hosting account. And I agree, but at the same time, free websites are a great way for you to learn how to market online, and they can also be used to help you to drive traffic to your main website.

So let's take a closer look as to what each has to offer and some of the advantages and disadvantages.

Free hosting is a great way to get started and to familiarize yourself with making money online. If you make mistakes you can always start over again without losing any money that you would have spent on hosting or a domain.

Websites like BlinkWeb and Yola allow you to put your website together without having to know any HTML, CSS or any other computer languages. This is simply done with a drop and drag method.

A common mistake that a lot of marketers make is that they choose not purchase their own domain name, as you can get a free subdomain with the free websites. This can seriously hinder your ability to establish your online credibility, as a subdomain just does not look professional, especially if you are trying to sell products.

The reason behind this is when people see the address of your subdomain www.yourdomain.whatever.com they won't want to click on it; they would rather click on www.yourdomain.com, simply because it looks more professional.

You do have the option to get your own domain which you can get for around $10.00. But you can also choose a free subdomain if you like, it will just be harder to establish your credibility. If you go with a subdomain, then your best bet is to just use that website to help drive traffic to your real site once you get that going. This way your time will not be wasted, as you can still use your site for back linking and traffic generation.

Some of the downfalls of free hosting are that your site will have unexpected downtime. Especially if the site has a promotion, their servers become too busy and they will have downtime. This could really hurt you as people won't regard your site as legitimate when it's not there when they want it to be.

Another downfall is that the design templates which you are able to choose from are limited and might not always be appropriate for the market or niche that you are in.

Last but not least…and this is the #1 reason in my opinion why free hosting will not be able to make you money in the long run. You have limited bandwidth with free hosting. This means you are only allowed so many visitors a month without going over your limit. Once you've reached your limit you do have the option to upgrade to a paid account, but you still won't have the freedom to design the site the way you might wish.

Paid hosting is definitely the way to go once the basics are down. You should know the basics of html, and css before purchasing your own hosting plan. To learn html, css and other computer languages simply visit www.w3schools.com. There you will find everything you need to know about html, css, and more; and the best thing about it is that it is all free!

It may seem overwhelming to learn html, but the truth is that it's only like another language and it doesn't take any brains to learn it. If I can do it anyone can!

If you don't have time or don't want to learn computer languages you can always hire someone to design your site for you. Also, there are programs like Dreamweaver, which will help you to create professional looking websites.

The cost for hosting is under $100.00, or more per year, depending on what kind of hosting plan you choose to purchase. It may or may not seem like a lot, but it gives you the freedom to do what you want. You are the designer and can integrate ads into your content or do what ever you wish.

With your own hosting you can set up your RSS feeds which will help to generate more traffic.

Overall you will appear to be more professional which will help you to gain the trust of people and your business will be able to grow much faster.

Some of the best web-hosting providers are Hostgator and HostMonster.