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Free Ecommerce Web Hosting (Or Rethinking Your Business Model)

BY: Robert Darrell
Words: 461

Looking for free ecommerce web hosting?

Okay.

Now my second question is... Why?

Why not, you retort?

Well, here are three good reasons why you shouldn't rely on a free web host to set up your online store:

A Real Website
If you want to try to make money online using a service that allows you to setup a virtual storefront without actually having a website, you're going to be depriving yourself of all the amenities of having a real website. Things like a personalized contact page, an 'About Us' page, a privacy policy page and maybe even a blog can really help to build credibility when it comes to selling online. It's a jungle out there. If you want to be a cut above the rest, you can't afford to cut corners.

Downtime is Scary
Free web hosts are not accountable in any way, shape or form to those who avail themselves of their services. If they have downtime, you are basically up poop's creek without a paddle. Picture this scenario: Somebody just finishes making a big purchase and half an hour later your free web host goes down taking your site down with it. And it stays down for the next two days (and yes this happens) leaving your client thinking he just got flimflammed by some kind of online sharky. Hmmmm boy! That's some good customer relations, eh?

Subdomains Make You Look Like a Pro (NOT)
Unless you actually shell out some cold hard cash to get yourself a real domain name, you're going to be stuck with some kind of subdomain when you sign up with a free web host. And if you do this, you might as well put up a neon sign that says, "I don't believe in my business enough to spend a few dollars a month for real web hosting". And if you don't believe in what you're selling then why should anyone else?

DO IT UP RIGHT

Yes that's right. The bottom line is if you can't afford the mere $7-$10 dollars a month it takes to set yourself up with a commercial web hosting service (which should include several installable shopping cart solutions) then perhaps what you really need to do is rethink your business model. By the way, web hosting packages these days are offering up so dang much in the way of disk space, bandwidth, multiple domain hosting and other resources that you can't afford not to pay for web hosting.

Ultimately, free ecommerce web hosting may just turn out to be a free pain in the arse. If you're going to do the internet marketing thing, do it up right and pay the few bucks it takes to get the whole nine yards to create your online presence.