Why not Free Web Hosting

Why Not Free Web Hosting
I have to start off by saying that my experience with free web hosting does not necessarily apply to all Free Web Hosts. When I first developed my web site (http://www.lindasfloridaphotos.com) I purchased a program to design and publish a web site, with that purchase I also got free web hosting, which I used to publish my web site. Being an old DOS computer expert I was not up on the latest changes in the use of computers, especially Web Sites. I really didn't know much about how they functioned, what was important to make a web site recognizable and acceptable to be found and accepted by those that publish web sites on search engines. I'm still not as well versed in the world of Web sites, and how web sites are manipulated to be recognized by the Guru's that can control the ability for them to get the exposure that you would like or expect.
I did find that you can have your web site analyzed for acceptability, hopefully to be granted greater exposure on the internet. Mine was not acceptable as all of the pages could not be found during the analysis and there were many other errors that were reported, which at the time I did not understand. Now I was in a real quandary, what do I do now? After considerable hours spent on the computer I found a web site that will index your web site and give you a report on their findings. It was very similar to the analysis that I had performed but it gave me more information about the problems with my web pages and suggestions as to how I might resolve them. In following their suggestions I found that the free web host had erroneous information posted (seemingly intentional) that identified my site which inhibited the proper indexing and finding all of the pages on my site. To regress for a moment, at the time I was concerned about preserving my Domain name and as I didn't intend to use the free host when my time expired because they were asking a ridiculous price for hosting. I asked some questions about my domain name. I found that in order to renew my domain name I would have to do it with the existing (free) host and I didn't want to do that. So I found a host whose cost for hosting was at least reasonable and I purchased their services. Because I already had a host for my site it had to be redirected to the new host, which by the way created even more problems for accomplishing the indexing of my site. I also found that the redirecting of my site did not include moving my domain name. I won't even attempt to try to explain what I had to go through to accomplish that change. In any event all of these things created the problems that caused my web site to be not "acceptable".
Once I got everything in its proper place, I re-indexed my site and everything worked out correctly. The only thing that remains now is, with the problems on my site resolved, will my site be found more acceptable for greater exposure on the internet. To get a web site produced and to get users of the internet to access your site is difficult and is or could be costly. Everybody gets paid for you to get your web site designed, published and viewed but it's not necessarily the same for you if you're trying to sell a product. If you check out the forums that are related to the internet and web sites you will find that most people are asking the question, "How do I get more hits on my web site?". Good luck.
Paul L. Viverito http://www.lindasfloridaphotos.com