In this article you will discover the pitfalls to avoid when looking for a free domain name and web site hosting.

Whenever someone offers me something for free, my first instinct is to think "What's the catch?"

When it comes to web hosting there is no such thing as "free". While you may find a deal that offers web hosting without having to pay out of your pocket, you can rest assured you will be paying in one way or another.

Let's take a quick look at the different types of "free" hosting you can choose from.

Totally Free Hosting

There are some companies that let you build small websites without any setup fees or recurring charges. That sounds nice but there are significant disadvantages to using these free services.

First, you don't have your own domain name. You'll usually be given a subdomain that will look something like this:

www.yourname.freehostsite.com

Instead of:

www.yourname.com

A subdomain doesn't look very professional. It may be fine for a small hobby site, but if you're hoping to make money off your site you'll want to present a more professional and trustworthy image.

You can expect to see ads plastered all over your free web site. And they won't make you a penny. All revenue generated by the ads will go right to the web host.

Free web hosts severely limit your disk space and bandwith, so if your site becomes popular and gets lots of traffic it could be shut down. In fact, most free web hosts reserve the right to delete your site for any reason and without warning. You could see all your hard work disappear in the blink of an eye with no explanation.

Free web sites tend to go down a lot and the hosts are in no rush to get them back up and running. And you can forget about technical support. If you run into any problems you're on your own.

Free Domain Name And Web Site Hosting

A better deal is to find a hosting provider that offers one or more free domain names when you pay for one of its hosting packages.

Web site hosting is cheap these days. You can host a single site for as little as $3 a month, and most web hosts offer plans that allow unlimited domains for less than $10 per month.

For a tiny investment you can host your own professional site that includes:

• no tacky ads
• top notch tech support
• all the disk space and bandwith you can use
• advanced scripts and software
• guaranteed uptime