Business on the Internet changes fast. Companies that offer web services in the modern world need to adapt or run the risk of being left at the bottom of the list. Adapting to new opportunities and applying old opportunities to new situations can help a web hosting company really stand out from all of the rest. Taking a look at the changing world of free web hosting can offer a lot of insight into the current state of affairs and the future of the web hosting industry overall.

Like most other businesses on the Internet, the web hosting industry continues to grow online. In a vast sea of competition, it’s important for website hosting companies to differentiate themselves, to stand out from the many options available. Hosting blogs and online communities for people, corporations, or organizations can increase brand awareness for web hosts that really wish to differentiate themselves from the pack. Free web hosting may have a negative image from previous attempts to use it to supplement paid hosting, however, that doesn’t mean the concept as a whole should be entirely disregarded.

From the ashes of free web hosting solutions that fell apart during and after the great “Internet Bubble” crash in the late 20th century, a new type of free web hosting began to emerge. As more people became interested in the Internet, a large portion of those people wanted to publish something, such as a blog, but had no technical knowledge. That situation is a perfect match for a web hosting company that’s willing to go the extra mile and offer service to help out people who are new to the Internet. As an example, AOL was once a leader in this space.

Hosted Content Solutions
Even though it’s relatively easy for most consumers to upload basic HTML files via FTP or even install a CMS (content management system) of some sort, there are a lot of people who can’t or don’t want to bother with any of the technical details of keeping a website up and running. This type of person may eventually become interested in starting a business and be in need of web hosting, as they become more familiar with the Internet and spend more time online.

While sites like Blogger.com, SquareSpace, b5media and many others provide a service to types of customers who want hosted blogging or community solutions, there are more people who are becoming interested daily. This means that there is a growing demand for hosting companies that are willing to work with people who are new to the Internet and want something simple and basic to get their information online. A web hosting company that offer this type of service wouldn’t be the first to do so, but the area is so new that there’s room for a strong player to emerge and begin to dominate a particular segment or two of the market.

Examples
While some of the examples below are strictly content hosting related, the way they operate should be very important to web hosting companies who want to stay one step ahead of the competition. Free web hosting – or managed blog hosting – has worked out well for quite a few companies already. The following are just a few companies that offer hosting for individuals and small businesses.

Weebly.com – This Company targets people with very little knowledge about how the Internet works who want to put information on the Internet. This is a large group of people that continues to increase as people spend more time online. On every page of every blog there is a link to the Weebly.com website, which provides name placement in front of the many people visiting the free blogs, as well as the search engine bots (free advertising). By offering a free website builder that’s easy to use and customize, Weebly.com has grown and could be a great hosting alternative for an entrepreneur to set up a temporary web site while a more permanent site is being built. It may also be used to try out new business ideas that could become profitable services. In addition, the company includes an affiliate program that offers a 25% commission on sales referrals.

SquareSpace – This Company was started by Anthony Casalena, who became frustrated while looking for a good solution for hosting his personal website. Like any good programmer, when he didn’t find what he needed, he built it. The result was SquareSpace, a software solution that serves millions of pageviews and has created a business around helping people get small, personal websites that are professionally designed online quickly and easily. The service also offers forums for business and marketing, which may offer valuable tools to help create a social network from which to acquire new customers.

b5media – This Company is an extreme variant of hosted web solutions. While they offer pay by the month plans for bloggers and businesses, they also have their own ’stable’ of blogs. They pay writers to fill the blogs with content, allowing them to collect advertising revenue. This is taking the free web hosting model to an extreme, but companies that diversify in today’s market are the ones that will survive. Also, by sharing their revenue, they motivate people to share quality content on their network which in turn helps them rank higher in search engines and get more traffic.

How Free Web Hosting Helps
In today’s global economy, anything a company can do to stand out from the crowd helps them survive. It goes without saying that anything a company can do to create new streams of revenue (or enhance current streams of revenue) will increase the chance of online success. Hosting websites for free or offering managed blogging solutions is hard work, but it has a big pay off when done successfully. A company that can put a good plan in place and stick to it has the opportunity to tap into a growing market of people on the Internet – i.e., those who want a website, but don’t want a to hassle with a steep learning curve to do it.

From increased brand exposure, to paying customers as their sites become popular, hosting blogs for free can help a web hosting company in a lot of different ways. With a little luck and hard work, a side feature to main hosting could become a large portion of the company’s revenue stream. It doesn’t happen all the time, but a lot of companies have been able to grow by offering consumers free, easy to setup websites and hosting them at no charge. It may seem counterintuitive to some, but offering some services for free can increase the paid income for any business.

With so many companies offering the same cookie cutter web hosting offers and packages, those that stand up and offer something a little different – like service and help with getting a professional looking presence online – will stand out from the crowd. Giving away free web hosting and managing blogs and forums can’t guarantee new paid customers, but the likelihood of acquiring new clients is much greater when the company’s brand is so highly visible and integrated into the customer experience.

There are other reasons to offer free web hosting as well. Links, for example, are another benefit. By including a link and copyright notice in the footer of all templates made available, a company can increase their exposure to the search engines. While search engines are becoming smarter all the time, these types of links can still help your company’s main website as long as you’re not abusing the power of your network.

Why It’s Easy
A lot of web hosts already offer ‘one click’ installs for popular blogging and forum software. It’s not too complicated to install and run a server with the ability to host blogs and social network sites for people. With merely a staff consisting of a designer and a technical person to keep the servers going, and the spammers in check, a company could offer free blog hosting to a lot of people. More people might be needed, but in general it doesn’t take a lot of man-hours to keep a blogging network up and running once it’s in place.

Most of the websites taking advantage of the free package won’t get a lot of traffic, which makes them easy to host when it comes to physical resources needed like server space and bandwidth. The brand exposure in most cases outweighs the slight cost of hosting the blogs. This makes it easy and a money maker – a perfect combination for any company in challenging economic times.

Once the concept is setup and deployed, there’s a little maintenance involved, something that one or two talented people can handle. Things do get complicated if numbers begin to increase, with more people signing up for the free web hosting service, but with the increase in traffic, ad revenue and brand recognition, spending money to keep this kind of service going won’t be a problem for most companies.

Viral Marketing
Another benefit of offering hosted blog and forum solutions is the chance that one of the blogs on the network will “get big” and go viral. The success of viral campaigns is never guaranteed and the really big ones are rare, but when they work, they can bring a lot of attention to a company and their brand. This type of marketing goes beyond the usual marketing and may be strange to some companies. But in order to evolve, businesses need to learn from the past and pay attention to what’s happning now in order to succeed in the future. Viral marketing can be a great side effect of hosting blogs for people who want to populate the Internet with content.

Social Media
With a large number of people using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace and sharing content on sites like Twitter.com and Digg.com, social media presence is not only helpful but necessary. Not only do such sites allow for promotion of products and special offers that companies may offer, but they also provide a way to manage public relations and come in handy in cases of crisis management. Social media websites are also great resources to mine new business ideas, prospects and clients.

The Way of the Web Host
The way of many most web hosts has been to blindly follow a few steps behind the large players in the industry. Companies that break this mold by boldly blazing their own trail toward the future stand a better chance of not only surviving but thriving in the years ahead. Taking a chance by getting into the world of free web hosting with hosted blog solutions and managed community hosting can make a substantial positive impact for any web hosting company to better succeed in today’s market.

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