Please try again tomorrow.” Some free sites provide sufficient bandwidth,
especially if your site is light on graphics...but many do not.- Will your web site be online at all times? Some servers are better than
others. With a free site, you run the risk of downed servers showing visitors
the dreaded “Error 404: Page Not Found” message when they click over to
your site. Most paid sites have precautions to deal with server failure. - Will you have to become a computer programmer? Before signing up
for any web site service, find out whether they have templates and easy-to-
use site building tools—or whether you have to create your pages in HTML
code. If you plan to use a program like Dreamweaver or FrontPage to create
your site, this won’t matter. But if you’re not, and you don’t know HTML, you
need to make sure you will be able to put things on your web pages with
relative ease. - Will your visitors mind outside advertising and/or popup ads?
Probably. Most free sites use outside advertising on all their pages—this is
how they make money. Banner ads are usually acceptable, but if you have a
page with three or four popups that spring out at unsuspecting visitors, they’ll
be quick to leave and never come back. Find out what type of advertising the
hosting company uses before signing up for a free program.
This is not to say you absolutely should not go with a free site. Particularly when you’re
first starting out, a free site may be just what you need, and you can always upgrade to
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