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Why do providers offer free hosting?

G

gotlinks

New Member
What is it? are you bored, or just nuts...

why do hosting providers offer free hosting that
includes no ads, no posts... whats the point?

Servers Cost money, Space, Bandwidth,
Time, Resources - all cost $$$

So what is it? did someone not pay enough attention
to some of you when growing up? Do you have a Sickness
for attention? Why would you want to offer all this for free.

and some of these free providers are offering just unrealistic
resources for free, so they would indeed need dedicated
servers to keep up with demand, and again all this
costs big $$$ - in the end users take advantage of this free
service, they complain, they want you to install their scripts,
and to be honest, free is never really enough for them.

Ive seen users make some of the most unrealistic posts in my life
from wanting huge accounts, down to basicly wanting someone
to give them a dedicated server.


So whats the deal?
 
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Clearly you don't know how a free host can be monetized...Ads on the main hosting site, paid upgrades, donations...There are a lot of ways to monetize a free host.

There are plenty of ways to successfully monetize a free hosting website. Not everybody knows how to do this though, and that's why you see so many free hosts struggling or shutting down.
 
Clearly you don't know how a free host can be monetized...Ads on the main hosting site, paid upgrades, donations...There are a lot of ways to monetize a free host.

There are plenty of ways to successfully monetize a free hosting website. Not everybody knows how to do this though, and that's why you see so many free hosts struggling or shutting down.
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rightly said
 
NoCatch said:
Clearly you don't know how a free host can be monetized...Ads on the main hosting site, paid upgrades, donations...There are a lot of ways to monetize a free host.

There are plenty of ways to successfully monetize a free hosting website. Not everybody knows how to do this though, and that's why you see so many free hosts struggling or shutting down.
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Yes, I see the google ads on your site, I also see the unrealistic overselling upgrades that you offer as well.

I realisticly could offer small free accounts, this would keep the server reliable, but offering a huge amount of what my server could hold is just unwise, and hoping they do not use all the ressources, then I would have to kill their account because i gave them more then what should have been given...
 
Those "unrealistic overselling upgrades" that you see me offer are plans coming from, arguably, the most successful shared hosting provider in the history of the internet. Those are plans that HostGator has been using for a very long time now with great success. I have used HostGator for my owned shared hosting in the past and have had nothing but good experiences. I've asked HostGator before if they oversell...They claim they don't, but I highly doubt that given their packages...However, one thing's for sure - if they oversell, they surely are good at it.

All that aside, we're talking about monetizing a free host. Those paid upgrades that you see on No Catch are accounts with HostGator, not me (No Catch). I get paid regardless of what happens with the person I refer to HostGator, and that's why HostGator commissions tend to work well for free hosts.

As far as free hosts offering lots of resources...I'm actually on the very low end of the spectrum. Most free hosts tend to offer 1gb/10gb but I'm just doing 250mb/2,500mb...That's not to say that I couldn't get away with 1gb/10gb, but I just know that I can provide better service by offering fewer resources.
 
There are a few free hosters that just simply do it for the passion some do it because it can easily turn over a decent return if managed properly. The whole argument of overselling, well thats kinda like beating a dead horse..its been gone over a few hundred times that i can recall.
 
XSIS-HOST said:
There are a few free hosters that just simply do it for the passion some do it because it can easily turn over a decent return if managed properly. The whole argument of overselling, well thats kinda like beating a dead horse..its been gone over a few hundred times that i can recall.
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Well said. We've been doing free hosting now for about 8 Month. We've seen many come and go but we've stayed. One reason for this is planning finances and planning the plans after the plans. After 8 Month, we're coming close to getting even.
 
Crazy???

Maybe somedays we are for putting up with some of the stunts that people with free hosting try to do, like we are new to the game. We do it at Hosting4Unow for the simple fact that not everyone can afford web space. Especially young people that want a small game forums or their own blog. The ones we get alot are young clan members that pay for game servers teamspeak and everything else and there are no more resources for webspace. We all have our reasons thats what makes us all unique in why we do it. We don't have to do it, We want to do it.
 
gotlinks said:
What is it? are you bored, or just nuts...

why do hosting providers offer free hosting that
includes no ads, no posts... whats the point?

Servers Cost money, Space, Bandwidth,
Time, Resources - all cost $$$

So what is it? did someone not pay enough attention
to some of you when growing up? Do you have a Sickness
for attention? Why would you want to offer all this for free.

and some of these free providers are offering just unrealistic
resources for free, so they would indeed need dedicated
servers to keep up with demand, and again all this
costs big $$$ - in the end users take advantage of this free
service, they complain, they want you to install their scripts,
and to be honest, free is never really enough for them.

Ive seen users make some of the most unrealistic posts in my life
from wanting huge accounts, down to basicly wanting someone
to give them a dedicated server.


So whats the deal?
Click to expand...

I agree with gotlinks. Free hosting doesn't exist. hosting with ads yes. hosting with posts I agree but hosting without ads I can't agree with that. I administrate a web site called myspheres they used to provide free hosting without ads , but they changed to ads as well. Free hosting without ads doesn't make any money . even front page ads or donation trust me when users get used to getting things for free. they will not donate if they don't have to. they will not even advertise your site name . because they will get a domain name like -------- or therename.co.nr or something to hide your site as well. so Free hosting without ads in my opinion doesn't exist. In this world nothing is free.

later
 
In reference to trilex47's post, free hosting without ads can in fact, exist. To be successful, however, requires a detailed and careful plan. The host should also have another source of income and makes sure, no matter what, he will not make a loss. It's definitely possible, but the main problem lies in whether anyone is willing to do that.
 
Kwek said:
In reference to trilex47's post, free hosting without ads can in fact, exist. To be successful, however, requires a detailed and careful plan. The host should also have another source of income and makes sure, no matter what, he will not make a loss. It's definitely possible, but the main problem lies in whether anyone is willing to do that.
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Ofcourse it can exist. The owner just has to have financial backing.
 
trilex47, not everyone is driven by money. Some of use really do this out of the goodness of our hearts. :)
 
everybody wants to profit from what they do, what TSO is saying is that if he doesn't make a lot of money from his free web host (or if he loses money) it's okay because he has other motivation behind starting it.
 
Troy1 said:
everybody wants to profit from what they do, what TSO is saying is that if he doesn't make a lot of money from his free web host (or if he loses money) it's okay because he has other motivation behind starting it.
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ok one simple question how are going to stay online long enough to provide your member with free hosting if you lose money.. so you are going to keep paying about 100 to 500 $ per month for server and you are going to let that money go to waste. that doesn't make any sense I know if your rich yea sure, but if you are just working for someone else making money but wasting that much cash its just bad in my opinion.
 
trilex47 said:
ok one simple question how are going to stay online long enough to provide your member with free hosting if you lose money.. so you are going to keep paying about 100 to 500 $ per month for server and you are going to let that money go to waste. that doesn't make any sense I know if your rich yea sure, but if you are just working for someone else making money but wasting that much cash its just bad in my opinion.
Click to expand...

And luckily, that's all it is: an opinion. :)
 
You almost have it right. I won't comment on the current situation, but several of the free hosts I ran in the past (including Q151) were hosted on my own server, cost about $300 per month to maintain, and made about $10 a month from ads.

Again, I have paid hosting ventures that are successful, and so I do not need any income from my free hosting endeavors, and I can afford to support a money-losing operation.
 
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