Sometimes when you’re building a website or testing an idea online, you don’t need a lot from a web server. Whether it’s that or for another reason, free web hosting can be a very useful tool online – if you know what to look for and what to avoid. Here are some steps to find free web hosting, including what you should avoid.

There are a lot of free web hosting offers all over the Internet, but if you’ve ever dealt with any of them, you’ll know that not all of them are as good as they sound. If you’re new to the idea of free web hosting and are wondering if it’s something that can help you with your online efforts, keep reading. These steps will save you time when it comes to free web hosting.

Know the Types of Web Hosting
There are a lot of different types of free web hosting services for you to choose from on the Web. Each offer their own pros and cons and come with their own set of issues that you should weigh before making a decision. The more you know about the different tiers of free web hosts that exist on the Internet, the better your chances of avoiding something that isn’t good for you.

When it comes to free web hosting online, there are basically three tiers – the lower tier, the middle tier, and the upper tier. Imagine a pyramid with a lot of the lower tier free web hosts, a few middle tier free web hosts, and very few upper tier free web hosting companies. When you first begin looking for free web hosting, you might not notice a difference between all the companies offering the service, but the difference is there.

Until you can judge on your own by looking quickly at a site, you’ll want to pay close attention to all the small details on a free web hosting site. The terms of service you would have to agree to might be long, but it’s a good idea to go over them carefully and slowly, making sure you’re not agreeing to give the free web hosting all rights to any content you might host on the site, or anything else negative for that matter.

The old adage, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” is more relevant than ever when it comes to the Internet. While there are a lot of great companies out there doing amazing things on the Internet, there are a lot of companies or websites that offer far more than they can actually deliver. Before you put your trust in a free web host, you should know as much about the company as you can.

Using the Internet to search for mentions or references to a particular free web host is easy and doesn’t take that much time. The information you gather can be priceless, though, especially if you start to notice a lot of people complaining about the free web host. All companies get some kind of bad reviews at one time or another – if a company seems to be getting a lot of them, though, there may be something wrong. It should at least send up a red flag in your mind.

The last thing to remember is that even with some of the upper-tier free web hosts, you’re not going to get the same degree of access or control as if you had your own web server. For some people this isn’t an issue. It’s something to think about, though. Even if you find a great free web host, it might not be a match for what you’re trying to do online.

Know Your Hosting Needs
Even if you’re setting up a simple website that doesn’t require a database or a scripting language like PHP or ASP, you may have other needs, like storage space or certain bandwidth requirements. Before you go looking for your best free web hosting options, you should write down a list of your needs when it comes to a web server. Having a list of needs and wants handy will help you when you start to look at different free hosting options.

Here are some things you’ll want to keep an eye open for:

• MySQL – does the free web host offer a database? Are there restrictions?
• Terms of Service – Do you retain all rights to content you place on the free web host?
• Advertising – Will the free web host put ads on your website? Will you have the ability to sell your own ad space on the free web host? It’s better to know things like this upfront before you invest a lot of time.
• Scripting – Does the free web host offer access to PHP or another scripting language like ASP?
• Bandwidth – Are there limitations to how much bandwidth can be used each month? Will you be charged if you go over or will they turn the website off? If you’re hosting a lot of images or something else that could get really popular, this is really important.
• Space – How much space does the free web host offer? Will it be enough to hold your website?
• Service – Will you receive any kind of customer service with the free web hosting plan? What happens if your website does down? Are there uptime guarantees?

There are a lot of things you need to know before you begin your free web host search. The items above cover most of the big questions, but your case might be different. You should try to look at all your needs before you go any further with finding the best free web hosting.

Begin the Hosting Search
Once you know what to avoid in a web host and have a list of needs, it’s time to start searching. One way is to use Google, Yahoo or another search engine to randomly come across free web hosts. This way can be successful, but it takes a bit of time to go from site to site, digesting all the information.
Another way to go about it is to use free web host directories, which usually have a ranked list of free web hosts, including information on what each of them offers. You’ll want to not rely to heavily on any one directory, but by looking at two or three free web host lists, you can begin to get a feel for some of the bigger names – the middle-tier or upper-tier free web hosts we talked about earlier.
Free Web Hosting Directories:

• FreeHostsFinder – http://www.freehostsfinder.com/ – This site isn’t flashy and doesn’t have a lot of graphics, but that’s a good thing. They have a great list detailing the latest stats for most of the free web hosting packages out there – at least those from the middle and upper tiers of free web hosts.
• Hosttraff – http://www.hosttraff.com/ – This is a great directory of free web hosts broke down by features – Mysql, No Ads, etc. Very simple design, but easy to get around and research free web hosts.

There are a lot of other great free web hosting directories out there, but these two should give you an idea of what to look for in a good directory. Once you find the directories, you’ll want to spend time browsing them, becoming familiar with the big names in free web hosting.

Keep a List
Looking over a few different free web hosts directories, you should put together a list of five or ten companies who might be a good match for what you want to do online. You can either write this down in a notebook or keep a document on your computer with the information cut and pasted from the websites you visit.

You don’t want to write down every single free web host out there – only the ones you think are a good match. The goal is to whittle down the list of possibilities so that you can make a better choice. If you have too many options, it’s going to be harder to make a final decision. Be very judgmental at this stage.

Make the Choice
After you have your short list, it’s time to make a decision. Matching the companies against your list of needs should already be done, so this decision is more about price and level of service. If it comes down to one or two free web hosting companies, it might be a good idea to jump back online and search for the final choices to see if any of them have more negative feedback than the others.
Once you’ve researched, listed and broke down the list, it’s time to make a choice. By this time you should know a lot about free web hosting – what’s available, for example – and also have a good idea of what free web hosting company you want to work with. This is sometimes the hardest choice, though.

The good news is that it doesn’t cost any money. So, if it doesn’t work out, you’re not out any money. Hunting down and uploading files to a free web host does take time, though. If you’ve followed the steps above, though, you should be able to easily avoid a lot of the less than desirable free web hosts out there.

Things to Avoid at All Costs
As with most things in life, you should trust your gut instinct when dealing with a new free web hosting company online. If your gut or mind tells you something is too good to be true – it probably is. You’d be wise to read any fine print in any terms of service that you agree to when signing up for free web hosting. If the terms of service seem too restrictive or send up any red flags, you should avoid that free web hosting company at all costs.

Another thing to avoid is thinking that a free web host will be able to handle a feature rich and popular website. Free web hosts have their role in a lot of online business plans, but they shouldn’t be the biggest part of any plan. You should avoid setting your expectations too high with what a free web host can provide.

One last thing to address that is very important. Look up or ask the web hosts on your short list about their policy regarding SPAM. Check with what others say about their policy. If they either don’t have one, or they allow it, it is best to avoid them completely as this will very likely reflect back on your website. If they have a weak, or ineffective SPAM policy, it could even affect your website by being banned from search engines and having email dropped. This is a very important part of your due diligence.

In Conclusion…
Free web hosting is a great way to get acquainted with web hosting. As long as you take these simple steps in evaluating the web hosts before making your decision, you are likely to enjoy a very beneficial working relationship.

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