Free websites at a glance
With tough economic times like we’ve seen in recent years, it’s only natural to want to build a website as cheaply as possible. I see many companies advertising both on the internet and on TV about creating free website builders. But free websites from these places might be a bad idea and I’ll explain why in this review.
There is always a catch to free websites. It may be free initially, but they will try to sell you other products at a later date. Or it can be free for a year and then you will be charged some high fees. If you refuse, all your work is gone. They will also place banners and popups on your website to sell other products to your visitors. These ads will not be related to your business or niche and will be a nuisance to visitors. If you have a business related to gardening, your visitors will not be interested in ads from web hosting companies and Pizza Hut gift cards. Remember, they are the owner, you are just a tenant. As such, they may change their terms or shut you down unexpectedly. I have known a few colleagues to whom this has happened.
For security reasons, you will not be able to customize your site with shopping carts, chat rooms, or especially plugins that give your site special functionality and personality to make it stand out.
Some might say, “I’ll get one for free now, and then I’ll get paid hosting after my business starts to take off.”
That’s still a bad idea. It is difficult to successfully move a website from one host to another. But more importantly, it may not even grow your business. Read on, as this may be the most important point of all.
Who are you?
If you just want a blog telling your friends what you bought at Walmart that day, then the free site is probably fine for you. But if you want to be taken seriously online, you need to establish your own brand and give your potential customers the impression that you take your business seriously. With all the spammers and hackers, trust is a must to establish yourself as a real person. Would you be more inclined to buy from the person whose site is myname.com instead of freesite/myname.com or blogspot/myname.com? You don’t see any of the really successful businesses with a free sitelink. With all the competition, you want to get the best possible advantage, and by branding your own name and website, you show prospects that you take your business seriously and have put the time and money into building it. That’s the kind of person I want to do business with. Real companies invest time and money. Period. Taking shortcuts always slows you down and isn’t worth it. Get it right from the start.
Let’s recap the advantages and disadvantages of free and paid hosting websites:
free websites
- Limited space for your pages and content
- You cannot add interactive features (plugins, shopping carts, forums, chat rooms, etc.)
- Search engines may not send as much traffic
- Visitors may doubt your credibility
- You can have banners and/or pop-up ads on your pages that are not related to your niche
- You are a tenant, not a landlord.
- There are no guarantees of availability and longevity of the site (because you do not own it).
- No branded email addresses ([email protected])
- Poor support options
- It may not be free forever, especially since the company won’t make much money from the banners it puts up on its site for uninterested visitors.
Paid hosting with your own domain name
- Establish your brand on the web (eg yourname.com)
- No banners or pop-ups except the ones YOU want related to YOUR niche and special offers
- More credibility with search engines
- More control over the appearance of your website.
- Unlimited branded email addresses ([email protected], “[email protected]”, etc.). Say goodbye to gmail and hotmail spying
- Plenty of web page space for site expansion, multiple domain names and websites.
- Don’t worry about the site closing unexpectedly.
- More professional looking than blogspot.yourname.com
- Support is available for technical help.
The good news is that most hosting plans cost less than $6 per month, which is the price of a few cups of coffee. A reasonable fee to look professional and gain versatility.
What does a hosted site entail?
All you need to do is register a domain name, then you can start building your site. It usually costs about $10 a year to have a domain name, but the company I use gives you one for free, so the fee is waived. I know it can be a bit technical to build a site, but as a special offer I will install your website for free if you get the hosting account. I can easily set up a site as my personal blog or I can make a business site format. You can also do specialty work on Fiverr.com for as little as $5
So do yourself a favor and give it a try. As I said, the hosting fee is only $5 per month and you are not required to maintain the site or the account and you can get a refund for unused months.
I hope you make the wise choice. Good luck!