Image courtesy: hostdime.com

Many people around the globe are willing to create a website and eager to host it. Some people go for free hosting services like Geocities offered by Yahoo. Some buy a hosting package and host it. Most of us first try to host a website in a free hosting service and after monitoring the success of the website, we shift for a paid hosting service. In this post I would like to explain you about the free web hosting services.

The most important thing you must remember is that there are no charity oriented services in the internet. There are many free services. But these free service providers don’t offer a free service if they don’t receive an income from the service by some other way. Therefore you must not think that even though they are free, they don’t have commercial purposes. For an example, when you host a website in Geocities, you will see advertisements in your web pages added by Yahoo. Some free web hosting services don’t put advertisements in your web page. But they show an advertisement page, before your web site appears.

Another thing is that you won’t get a desired URL for your web address. For an example if you host with Geocities, you will get a URL like www.geocities.com/<your website name>. And you won’t get a domain name you like. There are space restrictions also. If you are hosting a commercial or professional website, I don’t recommend a free web hosting service. If you are hosting a website for an experimental purpose or just for fun, it is ok to host in free web hosting service.

I have posted an article on selecting a domain name, which covers a large area on this. Here is the link of that post and please read it before you proceed with this article.

Picking a domain name is very important for your commercial website and you must do it very carefully as it contributes to your progress when your website grows. You must have some basic knowledge on branding and then choose a domain name which is highly brandable. Simply it means that it should give an impression about the product or service that you are going to market. It is better if you can have a short and memorable name if possible. Because it will be a successful approach if you plan to design a long running website. It is also a good approach if you can find a domain name which has your best key words. (I will explain you about key words in the coming posts). Always make sure that you have selected and reserved a domain name before you start on the development of the website and it is more convenient and time saving if you buy the domain name from your web hosting service as many services provide a free domain name if you buy a hosting package. Ex. Godaddy.com, dreamhost.com (where this website is hosted). This will also save time and money on domain transferring.

When registering your domain name, make sure that you register it with an ICANN certified registrar. Always try to buy a .com domain. If not possible try for a .net or .org domain. And there are many new domains like .biz, .tv, .asia available too. Non .com domain is better than a less memorable, less branding and longer .com domain. If you plan your business for a specific country like France, always try to reserve a domain name specific to that country like .com.fr or .fr .

After you choose a domain name and reserved it, Host it with a reliable web hosting company like dreamhost.com or godaddy.com. There are many hosting service providers for cheap prices but most of them are not reliable. You don’t have to worry about the price as long as you plan to start a commercial and longer running website as the payment amount for your hosting will be very small compared to the profits you gain from the website if you market it correctly. And always remember that to launch your website when it is fully completed. I see many “under construction” launched sites. This will definitely not make a positive attitude with your future customers. And if you plan to make a dynamic website (which shows dynamic content specific to a customer after some processing), make sure that your web hosting service provides the technology support in your hosting package. For an example, if you are using PHP as the programming language for your dynamic website, your hosting service must provide PHP support in your hosting package. This is also same for the database if you are using them (ex. MySQL, Oracle).

I hope that you learned some important tips on how to select a domain name, reserve it and host it, from this post. In the next article, I will explain how to plan your website design and the areas that you must concern in developing your website.