These days, getting a free website is easy. With just a few mouse clicks, you can create a site for your small online business or one that allows you to communicate your opinions to the world at large. Before getting that site, however, you first need to answer the question, what do you want to do with your website?

If you would just like to share information with visitors, then a blog is the ideal solution for you. A blog allows you to post articles, pictures, videos as well as links to other web sites, and it requires little technical knowledge. Visitors can also post their comments on the various posts and you can manage these comments, editing and deleting offensive posts.

A blog is the way to go if you would like to build a reputation as an expert on a particular subject in order to launch a career as a freelance consultant. A hosted blog service allows you to set up a blog in a matter of minutes. You can use the site’s pre-designed templates to create an attractive blog design and write and upload blog entries using its text editors. An alternative is to use get free articles from content generating sources other than yourself.

You can also create a blog that is accessible only to family and friends by using an online diary service or tumblelog. Tumblelogs are essentially online scrapbooks or journals where you can upload pictures, video clips, text entries as well as links to other sites. They can also be used to social network through an online community.

On the other hand, if you’re setting up a website to do business, you will want to go with a free hosting service to set up your site. A free web host allows you to put e-commerce features on the site such as a shopping cart, multiple e-mail accounts and online payment solutions.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of disadvantages to using free web hosting. For one, many hosts will put their own advertising on your site as a way of defraying their hosting costs. Your URL will look something like this mybusinessname.webhost.com, which many clients might interpret as unprofessional. And if you exceed the amount of bandwidth you are allocated by the web host and your site receives a lot of traffic, many of your visitors might not be able to enter it. If these limitations don’t bother you, go ahead and set up your site on a free web host. Once your online venture starts to become a success, you can easily upgrade to a paid web host provider.

If you’re interested in using a free web host to set up your site, here are some things to look out for when picking the host to use.

One, what is the amount of web space the host will give you? Consider what your needs are and whether you intend to embed a lot of pictures, sound files and video clips. You should also consider if the web space allocation will give your site room to grow in the future.

Two, does the web host allow FTP access, so you can upload pages you’ve designed yourself once you’ve learned how?

Third, what are the limitations of the host with regard to maximum file size and types of files that you can upload?

Four, is the web host reliable and fast? Many sites on free web hosts are often down or load slowly, which may cost you customers, since they will likely visit another site if they can’t access yours.

Five, is the bandwidth allocated to you by the free web host enough for your need? For a starter e-commerce site, an allocation of 1 to 3 GB should be sufficient.

To reiterate, it is very easy to get a free website; what’s hard is designing and operating a memorable one that will inspire many return visits.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 6:53 am and is filed under Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.