Avoid FREE Website Hosting Providers

What about the free space you get with your ISP? There are several reasons to avoid hosting your site under free space when setting up your online business. Keep in mind that nothing is ever really free, and the way that hosting companies can provide free space is because they actually get paid for your space by running ads on your site. Not to mention that the ads that run on your site will likely be in direct competition with your own products and services. Here are some other reasons to get your own domain name and hosting account:

• Domain names and hosting accounts are relatively cheap and practically anyone can afford the $5-$9 dollars per month.
• If you get your own domain, then the web service that you provide and the email addresses you use can be consistent (e.g., www.mysite.com and your_name@mysite.com).
• You can probably obtain a domain name that is shorter and more memorable than a URL under your ISP's domain name (e.g., www.mysite.com vs. www.webpages-r-us.com/mysite/ vs. mysite.webpages-r-us.com).
• You have the freedom to move your web hosting and e-mail from one Internet Service Provider to another whenever you want, and without having to change your URL and email addresses.
• Web sites hosted on Free web services have been known to disappear overnight for various reasons.
• Most knowledgeable web site visitors won't do business with someone who won't take the time to get their own website because it makes you appear unprofessional and not very serious about your business.

Other than setting up a Web site, there are a number of things you can do with your domain once you register it, including sell it, forward it to your main domain name, or leave it parked.

Using the Godaddy domain management features, you can access and update all aspects of your domain from your nameservers, to your MX records, to your privacy settings and contact information.