Articles

Free Websites...Are They Worth the Cost?

By M.L. Benton

Free websites come in all shapes and sizes. Even your internet company will offer you a free webpage with your service. You can get free sites at Geocities, Freewebs, MySpace and the list just goes on and on.

You need to ask yourself, "Who is paying for the site or pages hosted on the server? How is it being supported? Why are they so generous?"

Its marketing with a capital M. They are making money off the free site they give you. And its a multi-billion dollar business. First they sale advertising, this is why you see all the not so attractive banner ads splashed up on the site. Second, they are making a mint on the trackers they add to your site, so every time someone visits they get spyware. Spyware used to be just annoying little bugs, but now they are dangerous. Providing the visitor with worms, trojans, and key strokers, so your personal id, bank accounts, passwords, and any other sensitive info can be hacked. They can cause your hard drive and your programs to run amuck and cause some serious issues.

Now you say my site is ok, I have not heard any complaints. Well usually, no one knows that its coming from your site at first, your site may just have a minor bug commonly used called data minor...its still spyware, no matter how you slice it.

Next question you want to ask is, how serious of a writer am I? Am I writing as a hobby? If you are, your free site is fine so we do not have to go any further. However, if you are serious about being an author, and you are on a free site, then the only one that will take you as a successful serious author...is you.

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When you sign a contract, producing a book is only a small part of being a successful author. Your image is the next product you have to sell and sell successfully. Presence is 50%. A reader will buy a book they know nothing about if the author appears successful with a strong presence. You will have a real hard time selling the best book on the market, if your image does not have the appearance of success. Free sites kill any chance the presence of a successful author.

Next topic that is just as crucial is the domain name. How do you find Nora Roberts, Cathryn Fox, Moonglade Elite Authors? Just by typing, www.thename.com

When you are on a free site this does not happen, your site name or your name is attached as a sub-hosted domain…www.freehosts.com/yourname, for instance and that surely shrinks the successful image doesn’t it?

Now we all know money does not grow on tree’s, but you can get a complete website for as little as 3.99 a month or 35.88 a year complete with mail, forums, chat rooms, guestbook's and full stats, and a domain for 10.00 a year. That is inexpensive and it’s certainly worth an investment in your career. I quote these prices because I use Node1web.com for all of my sites, and trust me I have a lot of them.

As an author, you would not come to me for services of design or promotions if I were on a free site, because I would not be giving the presence of success. After all, how could I sale your image, if I could not sale my own?

Your image is just as important.
 

M.L. Benton
Moonglade Marketing

M.L. Benton specializes in web design, literary marketing and promotion services. Bringing her experience in sales, a flair for extraordinary promotional ideas and her unique talent in design, she has built an extensive clientele and various Moonglade Divisions. She participates in guest speaking spots for various groups and organizations. You can find her at www.moongladedesigns.com and www.moonglademarketing.com.