Cheap Web Hosting Scams and Tricks
This isn't a page devoted to knocking the competition. It's an amusements page. The lengths some hosting companies will go to get sales is truly amazing.
These are just some of our favorites:
- Absolutely Free Hosting for 12 Months Yup, it is free. Trouble is, the setup charge is $39, not much disk space is provided, support is almost non-existent and there are charges for every normal thing you might want to do. Are people really this gullible?
- One Time Setup Fee - Never Pay Again This one is interesting. Hosting has an attrition rate of about 20% per year. This means, in theory, that enough accounts will drop out and be replaced by new ones that it's sustainable. But that''s a big gamble. On the other hand, collecting for overpriced domain name renewals will help out. The disk space and transfer allowances are on the low side. So, for $50 and swallowing some half truths people get hosting. Doesn't this scare enough people (it should) that it doesn't work as a marketing gimmick? Apparently not.
- Six Months Free Hosting! Wow! Um, you have to pay up front for a year at $9.99 / Month. So what it really costs is $5 per month. Don't people shop around and figure this out?
- Free Hosting and Win a (Whatever) We couldn't check up on this one. You have to enter (and maybe register) a domain name to get past the first page. Whatever it is, do people really get drawn in this easily?
- Just Plain Free Hosting We didn't bother past the first page on this one. All you see on the first page is $35 / Year for a mediocre feature list. Apparently they've buried the "free" hosting someplace. Do people tolerate this kind of stuff and then buy?
- Another Just Plain Free Hosting No set up fees. You get to register a free domain name with a dot-wierd extention (in other words useless). Transfer fees and name registration fees are $35 per year. Lots of little hidden charges that add up. Don't people do their homework?
- Yet Another "Free" One This one's not too bad. They're up front that they're going to load up your pages with ads. Are peole really so cheap that they would go to all the trouble of writing web pages and then let them get defaced? Apparently so.
If you see an interesting trick while you're shopping around, or have a comment on this page send it along to us. Maybe we'll post it here.
Contact Doc
Donald O'Connor Professional Web Designer - Programmer - Consultant
