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web site host that doesn't place any advertisements on your site then 50webs (www.50webs.com) offers a great advertisement free account. However their service is better suited to people who have their own web design software and know a bit about design. 50webs is great for people who want to completely customize their web site from scratch.

A free web host is less practical when it comes to the address (URL) of your site. If you want a URL people will remember then you'll need to check what the URL of you free web site will be once you create it. Many are long, difficult to remember and usually include the web host's own URL (e.g. www.myfreewebsitehost.com/user s/yourwebsite). Not easy to tell your friends or fit on your business card.

The best way to get around this is to pay for your domain name so you can at least have a URL like www.myname.com (much easier to remember). Once you have your domain name you can then point it to your free site. In a practical sense it's not the web site that is the most important aspect of having a web site it's actually the ease with which people can remember how to get to it. That said, you don't want people to have a bad experience on your site otherwise they probably won't come back even if they remember your URL.

Something else you'll need to confront is the amount of traffic your site will receive and bandwidth (the measure of how much data that can be exchanged between your site and it's visitors - usually allocated by the month) it will consume. Does your free web site host put a limit on your sites bandwidth and, if so, what is that limit? Many free sites do limit their bandwidth and offer greater or unlimited bandwidths on their paid services.

For the most part you may not have to worry about bandwidth to begin with however if your site becomes frequently inaccessible due to constant maximizing of bandwidth usage a free site may no longer be practical for you.

In summary a free web site is practical for beginners and/or anyone starting a new web site that doesn't require too many advanced features or want a database driven site.

Most web hosts that offer free sites also offer paid versions with more features. Hence it is possible to stay with your free web site host and graduate to a paid web site as you begin to grow and expand.

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