Free web space sounds like a good thing if you haven't found a place to host your website and don't have the budget for paid hosting. With nothing to pay for and no credit card information to enter, going for a free web hosting provider seems like the next step to take after you know how to make a website. But if your website has high ambitions when it comes to creating content and generating traffic, you should choose a reputable hosting provider because changing hosting providers can be a hassle even if you are going to transfer from a free hosting provider to another free service. Changing a hosting provider usually means that your site address must change unless you already purchased a domain. Still lots of other things need to be done such as transferring the files from the old site to the new. You can avoid this by looking for the following things before signing up for a free web space account.
Social Networking Profile
Facebook and Twitter are two of the most popular social networking sites simply because many reputable businesses including Google and Microsoft have official pages set up in these social networking profiles. Any free web hosting provider that is serious in connecting with clients will exert some effort in making an official social networking profile. These profiles serve as convenient ways for clients to get support or check for new developments.
User Base
If the free web hosting provider is really offering good services, there should be a number of other webmasters that currently have websites hosted by the provider. All you have to do is find these websites by using the domain name of the hosting provider as a keyword when searching using a search engine. Some websites place a link back to their provider simply because they want to spread the word.
Upgrade Path
A free provider is an excellent start if you don't expect a huge amount of visitors right away. But as you put content into your website and market it, more people might be checking out your site and all your visitors can suffer as a result because sites hosted in free servers are generally slow because the server is shared with other websites. Before you register in the hosting provider, look at the paid hosting plans that are available and find out their benefits. This way, you can easily upgrade your free plan to a paid plan without the need for transferring or reconfiguring your site.
Of course, the most obvious thing that you have to check is whether or not the free host is really capable of hosting your site. Be sure to check the features of the free plan as well as the terms of agreement so you know that you are not wasting time in registering and uploading your site.
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