The Cost of Using Free Server Space

With the advent of free web hosting has come the inevitable debate regarding the advantages and disadvantages of using such free services. Those who would keep the Web non-commercial and purely informative in nature, an admirable notion, typically applaud this development. But the Internet is largely commercial and will continue to develop in such a manner. Those who have moved their existing business to cyberspace, as well as those who have begun new online ventures, have come to realize the importance of attaining virtual web hosting and a domain name for their businesses.

For those who are not familiar with these distinctions, there are a variety of Web hosting companies that will provide “clients” with a certain amount of free space on their servers. The client’s web site address will then be something to the effect of http://www.freewebhost.com/clientspage.html or some other string of directories and HTML files. However, the business that obtains a domain name and virtual web hosting will have a web site address such as http://www.companyname.com.

While the benefits of the virtual domain hosting and domain name may not initially be clear, an evaluation of some crucial aspects on conducting business on the Web will shed some light on their importance. We should first note that conducting business on the Internet, like doing business anywhere, is at the very least a difficult endeavor. Any advantage that can be gained, no matter how small, will be invaluable. Given that, the advantages that come from purchasing a domain name and having it hosted should be sufficient to convince serious entrepreneurs to invest in them.

The most obvious advantage, and that which is often cited by Internet professionals, is name recognition. It does not take much imagination to realize that a potential client looking for your business online is much more likely to remember www.your-company.com than www.freewebserver.com/yourcompany.htm. For example, if your company’s name is ABC Manufacturing and a potential client attempts to find your business by simply typing a URL into their browser, they will most likely try www.abc.com or www.abcmanufacturing.com. Surprisingly, a large number of Internet users search for businesses in exactly this manner. They are unsure of the web site address, or even if the company has a web site, but quickly typing in the name of the business may often lead them where they wish to go, without sifting through search results.

This brings us to our second point. It is more difficult to have a “free” web site listed in the search engines and directories than those that have simpler (and shorter) domains.

The most notable example of this is the Yahoo! directory. The folks at Yahoo! are very particular about what they will allow in their index of web sites. If they feel that a site is not professionally designed or written, it is a natural disadvantage in the process of having a site included. A site that is hosted on free server space does not instill confidence in the Yahoo! reviewers – for good reason.

“A business that does not have the resources to spend about $300 for a domain and a virtual host generally is not adequately prepared to provide valuable products or services to its clients.”

Actually, this statement may or may not be true, and many have argued that there are perfectly sound and successful businesses that utilize free server space. These are valid points, and there certainly is no rule that says that if your busi

By Matthew Blevins and Michael Wist

To start an online business you need to know where to begin

This tutorial is for folks who do not yet have a web site of their own. It will explain how to put your own custom web site on the web without paying big bucks.

Have you been contemplating having your own web site but keep putting it off for one reason or another? Maybe you’re marketing a few affiliate programs and promoting those affiliate URLs. Well, as you learned from the article in the last issue of my BizWeb E-Gazette, your own custom web site is the first step in promoting ANY business online, even those affiliate programs.

Okay, so what are you waiting for?

If you think that setting up a custom web site is expensive, think again. The total cost can be less than a few hundred bucks and some of your time. Once your site is up, the only ongoing costs are monthly web hosting charges, which can be as low as $20 – $40 per month plus yearly domain fees of just $35. Now that’s cheap!

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on getting your own custom site up…

1. Lay out your basic design.

Do this step on paper first. Draw out what you want your main entry page, or home page to look like. Keep it simple and uncluttered. Be sure it includes a short description of how your site will help your web site visitors. (These are the folks who you’ll be targeting the site to — take some time and figure out who they are before you start!)

Then, draw out a few more pages to link that home page to. A few examples would be a page that describes your company or yourself, a page that offers free information about your area of expertise, and a page with your best product/ service/opportunity that you plan to promote.

2. Once you have a basic layout of what your site will look like, you need to design it on your computer.

There are many ways to do this. You can go out and buy one of those 800 page books on html, the code used to design web pages, or you can go the easy route. The easy route is to purchase a WYSIWYG (stands for What You See Is What You Get) web design program. There are many programs to choose from in today’s market. These programs are the easiest way to design a web site, especially for the first time. Most of these programs cost $100 or less.

Here are a few examples of such programs…

- Microsoft FrontPage: www.microsoft.com/frontpage/

I used this program to design my www.bizweb2000.com site and it is a solid choice for new webmasters.

- Homesite: http://www2.allaire.com/Products/HomeSite/

This popular design program is now the choice of many webmasters, as it produces clean html despite its WYSIWYG interface.

Tip: Read the article below before proceeding with your design: http://www.bizweb2000.com/imc/articles/frontpage.shtml

3. Once your site is laid out on your computer, you’ll need to decide on a domain name for your site.

Registering your own domain name means that web surfers will be able to connect to your web site by entering www.yourname.com. Here are a few tips to help you select your domain name.

a. Avoid using any character that is not a letter or number. Many newbies do not know where to find the “-” or “_” characters, for instance. You want the name to be easy to type.

b. Avoid using the numeral “1″ or “0″ in your domain name. Many people will confuse these with the small letters “l” and “o”. The last thing you want is someone getting frustrated when they are trying to connect to your site.

c. Use a domain name that is easy to remember and has something to do

By Jim Daniels