Pros and Cons about web hosting.

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Having a web site is no longer an option for your company -- it is a necessity. A web site enables
your business to reach more customers at anytime and anywhere. With more than one billion
people worldwide going online, your business will be missing out on a large portion of the market
without a web presence.
In order to establish a web presence, one of the issues you will need to look into is getting a web
hosting service for your web site. With technological progress and market competition, web
hosting services are becoming more affordable, and better yet, many providers are now offering
web hosting service for free. Yes, that means you don't have to spend even half a cent to get your
business online.
Other than for the obvious fact that it's free, here are a few reasons why you should consider using
free web hosting for your business:
Test ground for your budding web skills - If you are thinking of being your own webmaster and
want to get your feet wet in web building, you probably won't be ready to invest much on web
hosting yet. Free web hosting services will give you the freedom to test out your skills, to see what
does or does not work in your site, and can better visualize the cost and effort needed in creating
and maintaining your company web site. Free web hosting also allows you to try the hosting
provider's service for an initial period; once you're confident that the service provider is reliable
enough for you, you can upgrade your company web site to the service provider's paid package
that is better and with more frills.
Convenience of built-in features - Most free hosting companies, such as Bravenet, Yahoo!
Geocities and Tripod, provide easy-to-use web page builder, and tools such as guestbook, hit
counter, email forms, and others that can enhance your web site. You will be able to build your
company web site in just a few simple steps, while providing you with a more than decent web site
in just minutes. The extra features frees you from having to hire programmers just so that you can
have online applications to capture visitor feedback, setting up of polls and survey, as well as
building up your subscribers for your online newsletter.
High return on investment - You get free web hosting, you design your own web site, and you
have fancy tools added in your site to give it extra functionality, all without having to spend a single
cent. Add these up, compare with the potential new customers that you will be getting, and you
find that your ROI for establishing a web presence for your company would obviously be
significant. You can now reach out to your online market and hopefully your online strategy can

2. effectively increase your revenue.
On the other hand, the downside to using free web hosting is also numerous and comes in the
form of hidden costs to your business:
Lack of flexibility and control - Be sure to read the provider's Terms of Service before registering
for your free web hosting account. Some free hosting providers restrict the use of certain file types,
content, or even languages. In addition, they can also overload your web site with unneeded and
irrelevant advertisements in order to support their services. When bombarded with such
annoyance, visitors to your site are going to take the effort not to visit your web site ever again.
You will also find that some advanced tools needed to operate a fully functional e-commerce
presence are not possible with the use of free hosting, such as shopping carts, secure ordering
system, and online payment gateways. You may have to upgrade or switch to a paid hosting
service provider if you decide to use them, which will require not just the extra effort but also the
extra cash.
High risk of downtime and no guaranteed support - To be honest, there is no such thing as a zero
downtime, whether it be for free or paid web hosting. Downtime refers to the period of time or a
percentage of a time span that a machine or system is offline or not functioning, making your web
site inaccessible (source: Wikipedia). However, the risk of free web hosting having frequent
downtime is more than likely to happen than with paid hosting. Free providers more often than not
won't provide any guarantee to their services due to the cost of maintaining them. Other than the
risk of downtime, free accounts are mostly subjected to low priority bandwidth, thus affecting
access to your site by making your web site load slowly. Responses to support requests can be
slow or next to nothing, and you are solely responsible for backing up your own web site files.
These problems cause visitors looking for information on your company feeling frustrated.
Ultimately, this can jeopardize your reputation, and your current and potential clients would view
your company as an unreliable provider.
Loss of credibility - Internet marketing strategists place unprecedented importance on the use of
domain names for your business. A domain name (or web site address) is one of tools used to
establish your company's online branding and image. Most free web hosting providers offer
subdomains as addresses for your web site. A subdomain is a web site address whereby your
business name is appended onto the free host's domain name, such as http
://yourbusiness.freehost.com or http ://www.freehost.com/yourbusiness. Seldom do you see free
hosting providers that support actual domain hosting (such as http: //www.yourbusiness.com), or
at least not without a catch. A subdomain name as your business web address is harder for your
clients to remember than a domain name. Furthermore, one serious drawback to not having your
own domain name is the fact that subdomains sounds less professional. Without one, your
business may be regarded as disreputable or even illegitimate, and tend to be avoided by web-
savvy customers.
In the end, it's your choice. While some sacrifices needed to be done when using free web
hosting, try to look at your need for web hosting service just as you would your budding business.
Start small, dream big. Weight the pros and cons of free versus paid web hosting. If you have to,
begin with using a free web hosting provider. Once your needs and resources grow, you can then
upgrade to a more advanced web hosting service which you can afford to pay.

3. So don't worry for now, especially if you are a small business or are just starting one. No one will
shoot you in the head for using free web hosting - at least I won't.
WebGrrrl.net ( http://webgrrrl.net ) Lorna Timbah is a graduate from the University of Alabama,
USA, with a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Management, and a minor in Computing Technology
and Applications. Her passion for IT and the Internet helped her land her first job as a Webmaster
(and later as a Web Unit Manager), with the role to manage websites for a state-wide network
known as Sabah.Net. She now blogs and makes money online. Lorna is also a part time tutor with
Open University Malaysia, teaching IT and e-commerce subjects to diploma- and degree-holder
students.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lorna_Timbah
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For more information and Special Web Hosting Discounts, please check the website below.
Thanks.
http://webhost.toufangle.com/
==== ====