Let's start the best free web host!

[Dave]

Edit: Any designer who wants to be my partner on this venture then please send me a PM.

Hello,

I want to start up a free web hosting service. This hosting service will be request based and packages will only be offered to people who show creativity and enthusiasm with their websites. I do not want to start a post to host service, I do not want to force ads onto users sites and I do not want to force them to place a reciprocal link back to my hosting service.

Are you crazy?. No, I believe that through this approach I can build up trust and an excellent userbase. To earn revenue I will place advertisements on my free hosting service forum and ask for donations. Another approach I will take is that user's are not allowed to have their own advertisements on their websites. Instead, users can OPTIONALLY place my ads onto their sites and earn 50% revenue from it. So free hosting and earn money? Can't go wrong there.

The service will have support for the user's and contain articles to help them with their website development and design.

I want this to be the best free host there is so please feel free to offer your suggestions and ideas. What do you want to see in a free host?

So come on, let's revolutionize free web hosting.

Many thanks,

Dave :imho:

 

[flamewalker]

I like the revenue sharing idea however to cover your costs you may find you need to fine tune it to significantly more... like 75/25.

You will want to set up some solid guidelines for acceptance as well so someone can look and say "do I qualify", and have a pretty good idea at minimum whether they qualify.

 

[Dave]

I like the revenue sharing idea however to cover your costs you may find you need to fine tune it to significantly more... like 75/25.

You will want to set up some solid guidelines for acceptance as well so someone can look and say "do I qualify", and have a pretty good idea at minimum whether they qualify.

Hey thanks! I agree that 50/50 maybe a bit too much so I will see about reducing the share of that like you suggested. I agree that solid guidelines are an absolute must.

 

[Barrucadu]

What a coincidence - i'm just about to start a free image host, then noticed this.

Anyway, sounds a great idea.

 

[lee101]

Yet another coincidence, working on a free web host myself! But my idea was to charge for addon's to an account, so everything is free, but if you want a domain added, for example, then you pay a $1 fee for a lifetime

 

[James]

phpmypanel - a great hosting panel. also its pretty easy to build up a hosting rep.
goodluck with your ventures

 

[dojo]

Few ideas:

1. if they donate, it's not free anymore. I am telling you from my experience on another such service people WILL NOT donate. Don't rely on this.

2. if you don't allow them to set ads, many won't even bother with your service. Some do work a lot on their sites and want to have some revenue. If others let them put an ad and you condition this, they will chose the other one.

3. Be restrictive with the space and bandwidth. don't fall into the trap of making huge plans. They'll lead you to bankruptcy and also encourage some to abuse the system. I saw this happen to dhost.info 3 years ago when they were the best free host possible. Now they barely survive and have to put ads. A site doesn't need more than 100 MB space and 3 GB space. My forums use less .. and I have tens of thousands of posts in there.

4. Start small and be careful with the costs. This can really get out of controll.

5. BEST OF LUCK. I cannot offer you other help than these tips that come from my experience and others. I wish you the best of luck and I am pleased to see people still try to offer good service for free

 

[dezinerite]

About the donation - I think there would be people willing to donate, but you the offer must be really good. I do donate to some "free" sites - donating does mean it's free because people only pay voluntarily.

 

[flamewalker]

Actually many sites are well over 100mb... it all depends on what you want to do. But if your site is over that, you should know by now it won't be free