How to Offer Free E-mail and Web Space from Your Site
Home > Promote > Marketing
> Visitor Retention
by
Peter Cooper
Setting
Up a Free Web Space System
With free Web space, you need
to run it all from your own servers. You can't rely on third-party services to
provide these features, since the Web space will be present directly within your
domain and be on your server. So, an important thing to consider is bandwidth
limitations and charges and how well your server will be able to cope. If you
have 10mb of Web space on your friend's Linux server, it probably won't be enough,
which is why free web space sites are far less common than free e-mail ones.
However,
there's still a lot of options. If you run an ISP yourself, you shouldn't have
any problems with servers, and could use the service to your benefit to advertise
your professional services. If you run a site for Web novices, you could offer
a smaller amount of space but back it up with an easy-to-use system and documentation.
If there's a way you can target your free Web space to a niche or specific group
of people, then do it (as ChickPages.com
have), because you're fighting against a lot of general competition such as Geocities.
Also
of importance is the amount of money you want to spend. There are several high-end
systems which give you everything you want in a box, such as Free
Homepage System or Community
Weaver which even offers your members guestbook systems and messageboards
for their own sites!
With the demands free Web space could
make your wallet, free systems are always appreciated! Several do exist, although
you'll lack the technical backup received with larger systems, and often lose
many features that Geocities users take for granted. As with e-mail though, if
you want to install everything yourself, make sure you're up to the job. Free
systems include LEAPs
File Manager and Easy
Homepage Generator. You can examine a further list at CGI-Resources'
Homepage Communities List.
The differences between the systems
rests entirely on the features provided. Some systems won't let users have full
control over what goes on their pages and requires them to use built-in page creators,
whereas other systems have 'file managers' to let users upload whatever they wish.
The approach you want will dictate which package you eventually decide to use.
In
conclusion, offering free Web space isn't the easiest thing in the world. It can
cost big money, take up a lot of time, but the financial rewards can be good if
you can find suitable advertisers. However, if you simply want to take a step
into the world of offering free services, then e-mail is the best place to start
without having your wallet hit too hard.
