Can a free website help you with your business?

AmieBotella Level 1

November 28, 2017, 10:15 pm

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Can a free website help you with your business?

Hello everyone. I am just wondering with all the tutorials here on how to set up your online business, may it be on selling, skills and others. There are numerous tools you need to have in order to make your business running. One of these is having a website. I have to ask though, when you use a free website, like with wordpress or wix and others, can you make your online business work by using only free tools like this? I understand that you have to invest to it. But is it a possibility that at the first few months of your business, you utilize using the free websites?

When you're an online seller, will people buy from you? When you're a writer, will people see your works, and will they trust you too? When you offer services, is it good to use the free website to have a link to promote yourself?

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PedroP

PedroP

You could try Wealthy Affiliate. Their stuff is certainly quality and they do provide all the online help you need to get started. Still, I need to tell you website building is not an easy task. They make it sound easy but you still need lots of work hours to be put in to or at least hire someone to do it for you.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

I would have tried that option of affiliate marketing, but sadly it's not yet eligible in this part of the world. Building a website might not be easy, but it's worth it once we put our time into it.

7 years ago

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jaymish

jaymish

HI@Barida I don't agree, you can do affiliate marketing from anywhere in the world. Remember you are promoting someone else's products, not your own. It doesn't really matter where you are in the world, so long as the company or affiliate programme accepts you then you can be an affiliate. The last time I checked most companies accept you from anywhere.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

Actually, his location and where he is in the world does matter because I believe some programs, Wealthy Affiliate included blocks certain countries. I presume Barida is actually from a country where Wealthy Affiliate blocks users which is why he cannot use it. It's a shame really but there's not much you can do about it really.

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

You need money to get started with the wealthy affiliate. The OP is talking about a free website and not a website where you have to put money. The OP is talking about free website that we can get from wordpress, blogspot, weebly, wix, simplesite etc. You can make money with Wealthy Affiliate. However, you have to subscribe to their program and it is very costly.

7 years ago

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peachpurple

peachpurple

is it possible to register for wealthy affiliate but not subscribe their program, just use the basic, FOC?

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

Can we actually earn from the wealthy affiliate as a free member? I am not talking about referral earnings, earning you generate when someone registers under you and subscribes the program?

7 years ago

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overcast

overcast

Basic stuff is free. And you can find the basic stuff on the youtube, Just find the curriculum online and then find similar tutorials. Wealthy affiliate is not worth subscribing to to be honest. People making money recommending it. But honestly 47$ per month is waste of time and resource on that.

7 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

I would have to agree wealthy affiliate is a scam, any site which ask for money before you could use their system to earn is a scam site.

7 years ago

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augusta

augusta

Youcan certainly starts with a free blog and get going, yes, you would still succeed with the free site.All that you need is passion and consistency.It not just about creating a blog or site it about seeing to its functionality.Create a site on a free domain using all the free tools but let it be responsive, mobile friendly and functional.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

Starting with a blog is one sure way to test how effective we can be with owning a bigger website. Blogging is one of the best way to see how we manage our online audience.

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

When I started writing online I created a free blog with wordpress, blogspot and weebly. However, I never moved beyond publishing 2-3 posts. I am not in favor with a free blog/website because you can get self hosted blog for as little as $20 per year. You will have to renew hosting and domain the next year, but if you work hard you can earn enough to run your blog in one year

7 years ago

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potentialwriter

potentialwriter

A free website can help you with your business to some extent, but this sometimes affects your business because customers don't believe in free hosted websites. Customers count such websites as scam websites, believing that you can't afford to pay for a domain. They believe you haven't earned a penny online and, thus, cannot transact business with you. Getting a custom domain will help your business a lot and will increase your credibility score in the sight of the customers.

7 years ago

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AmieBotella

AmieBotella

This is what I am thinking. Especially when your online business is about selling. But is this the general norm?

7 years ago

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Baburra

Baburra

I agree with you. I think some types of businesses might be able to pull something like this off, but in general most businesses will not be trusted by the public if they use a free site or a free domain. You make a good point that the potential customers won't really trust you not only because of the image of the free domain but also because they will relate that to your business not being trustworthy enough because it hasn't earned yet.

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

If you have a free website for your business, the customers might be dubious about your business. They would ask, how cannot I trust this business when it cannot afford to have a self-hosted website. However, if you cater to a handful of people, having a free business website does not affect your business. I have many friends who are doing a good business with their free weebly website.

7 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

I completely agree with you on this, anything free comes with a steep downside. The free website might help in a way but not as good as paid sites when comparing the two. A friend of mine actually have an online store and she she used the free site option on one site jiji.com but her advert never got any traffic and she never made one sale until she paid for ad and it just took 3 days to sell off her products.

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

I have many writer friends who use free weebly yet generate more revenue than my self-hosted website. These people are using their free website to market their services and products. I also have a few friends who have online store made on free website, interestingly, they sell products ad services and make money.
How are they doing this?
These people have a good reputation in the society and use their reputation to market their website among the people who know them personally.

7 years ago

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manmad

manmad

A lot of people start their business with just a simple blog with a free domain you can find on a lot of sites. It isn't really that hard, you can make a stylish site for free that's going to attract the attention of a lot of viewers, however it's going to be harder to bring constant viewers to your site without investing. On another note, it is good to have a paid domain, which doesn't cost too much, just because it's going to look more professional and most likely more simple to memorize.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

Having a paid domain that look professional might be good, but we've got to understand that for beginners, having a free domain is not a bad idea.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

I agree. A proper domain can just make your website look 100 times better because it gives your site a bit of a professional look and feel. Free domains can be quite tricky because sometimes your users won't care but other times users won't join sites that have free domains. Like you said, when your a beginner, it might not matter much though.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

I don't see anything wrong with using a free website to run a business as long as the owner takes some time to take good care of how things happen as well as solving some bugs that might occur on the site. It's how standard and stable the site is that really matters and not whether it is free or not.

7 years ago

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wiseagent

wiseagent

The truth is that there is no problem with free websites. The real problem is people who despise them as a form of help. I also think it's a very childish attitude (in very personal my point of view). Any help is welcome.

7 years ago

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overcast

overcast

The thing is high paying clients want the site of the worker better than their. That's how they are going to trust the people who work for them. And another thing is that they need top level domain for the website. So it can be really good on that context. Apart from that you can see that free website can surely help you in many ways.

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

Generally speaking, people love dot com website. If your website is dot come they will get a first impression. You can buy various extensions, these extensions are equally treated by search engines, however, people do not. I have an xyz website. My readers say it is not good extension as this has been used by spammers. In order to build trust with your website. you need a dot com.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

If your content is good enough then enough by just using free tools you can have a decent start. But if you are looking to develop your site properly and have it as a business then you will need to invest some money into it, because, after a while, people will not visit if you have a free domain. In terms of software, no one cares if it is a free software or a paid one. But things like domain and hosting matter quite a bit.

7 years ago

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wiseagent

wiseagent

Yes. Why not?

Of course the help may not be the help you really need but I think if the help is genuine it will be extremely helpful in any way. Honestly, I don't think any kind of help should be despised because it can be considered small when compared to others who are involved in the same process / niche.

7 years ago

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anjanetteclyde1

anjanetteclyde1

There is no problem for me if you will start a business with a free website. If you have the right intention, strategy, system and product or service for the audience, free website will be helpful to advertise. Take for example blogging. However, at some point, free website won't be a very reliable access engine of a business. This may give an impression of scam or something that is not legit among internet sites. And since it is a free website, you might get as well the worse feedback of your business coming from non-targeted audience. It may eradicate the business.

7 years ago

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overcast

overcast

I think to some extent it can help. For say if you are into freelance writing. You can have the free website online on most hosting. And there you can mention about your projects. And it can give you some leads, though a lot of it can't be achieved. And it may be even harder. I think if you want to go professional then you should avoid making use of the free website though. Get your own domain and hosting. And you'd be better set on that way. I don't know how many of you can make use of the paid hosting from start but it's cheap now to get all of that.

7 years ago

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mildredtabitha

mildredtabitha

I believe a free website can help you with your business especially when you are just starting. You do not need to invest in everything to be successful. But when the need arises and you feel you are better of paying for hosting services or other means of promoting your website, then you can go ahead and invest.

7 years ago

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overcast

overcast

True. Initially you don't need strong presence. But once you get first client, to get another, you'd need your own website in paid hosting. Because free domains and the stuff may not be looking professional. But yeah during first few initial clients this should not have much issue. But it should be properly managed from what I have seen.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

Yeah, this is exactly what I said as well. When you start initially, you don't need to invest in things like software, themes, domains or even hosting because you're just starting out. But once you are starting to grow then it might be wise to start investing a bit and get proper hosting and a domain etc.

7 years ago

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overcast

overcast

Some of the time if you are into say modelling or some singing stuff. Then getting the real URL and portfolio and professional website is very much necessary. But efforts need to be done on that though. So it all comes down to how you're making the business to convert. Business does not happen overnight.

7 years ago

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AmieBotella

AmieBotella

So I gather from all of the comments here. None of you are really using a free website as of the moment?

7 years ago

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overcast

overcast

I have both free and paid hosting. I have free blogs on website that are connecting backlinks to my sites on paid hosting. This way I don't spend much resources on the free hosting site. And even if it gets deleted then I won't be losing anything. So it kind of beneficial for me to have it on the paid hosting.

7 years ago

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wallet

wallet

Yes, you sure can use a free website and use the link to advertise on social sites as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, etc. The success you are waiting for it depends on the domain your business is, your work, commitment and dedication will bring the fame you want.

7 years ago

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wiseagent

wiseagent

I think that as much as we want to try to establish an exact formula for success, it just doesn't exist. But over time, we are learning how things work and adapting to what needs to be done. Each person having their own vision about the situation.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

A free website is good for STARTERS. While you sort out a serious business plan and a serious direction for your brand or company. But once you've got it all mapped out - you really need to move onto a paid plan if your free host has one available.

7 years ago

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manmad

manmad

That's why you should always try what you can do with the free version of something and to decide if it's worth it, but you shouldn't build your opinion only on that, because a trial version is never as good as the paid one and there is a huge difference.

7 years ago

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Baburra

Baburra

I think free websites are fine but if you keep the free domain provided it can be a little limiting in terms of getting taken seriously by customers. Many customers will understand if you are just a boutique shop trying to sell a few items but if you intend to sell large quantities then potential customers will most likely expect an exclusive domain. However, I have seen a lot of shops find a lot of success with just using social media pages as their main store, so maybe people are a little less demanding these days when it comes to that.

7 years ago

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Blank629

Blank629

To be in online business, you need different things to before you can start. One of those is creating a website. A free website is fine but I suggest that it is better to invest a little amount of money here than using a free website. Because there are features that are not available in free website and some of them is needed in your online business. Try also to make blogs and you can use social medias like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. YouTube is a good way tonin online business.

7 years ago

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Aree

Aree

What's a free website?

Would you consider Blogger to be a free website? You don't have to pay to use it, for sure. Is it good? Of course. Can you use it to develop your blog? Definitely. Can you use it to build up a following? Undoubtedly.

How about Facebook? Is that a free website? You have never been asked to pay to use it. Is it good? Certainly. Can you use it to sell your services or products? Without a doubt. Can you use it to grow into a big-time online business? I don't see why not.

So, in a nutshell, you can certainly use a free website to start, develop and grow your online business.

7 years ago

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overcast

overcast

I think blogger can be a website. I think many people also use it for simple landing page website. And they don't want to spend on domains. And if spent then surely this can be a good earning. I'd say that some of the time such earning from the business would not be easier with free host. But I guess once domain is purchased and good design is used then sure it can bring some business.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

I've never been a fan of blogger personally. The overall design has never been that appealing to me. Social media sites are free sure but I think a 'website' should be something you can go in and edit whenever you want. You should also own it and be able to build its success based on your hard work. In the case of Facebook - sure it's free but unless you pay to boost posts or advertise your page - you won't get very far unless you can spread some strong word of mouth.

I doubt advertising your Facebook page on other social media platforms is going to do much for you. Also you don't own a Facebook page. If you violate the TOS or someone with an ax to grind reports one of your videos or images from being 'offensive' - your whole page is gone in the blink of an eye. You then have to jump through a million hoops to get it back. Whereas on an actual website - you have no one above you to worry about besides you website host - and unless you're using your site as a haven for hackers or hacking, or illegal activity such as guns or drugs - you can pretty much post anything you'd like. Without incident.

Not to mention the revenue hit you take by not being able to run adsense or affiliate ads on Facebook because you don't like - own it or anything. So yeah social media like Facebook is good to spread the gospel but the ultimate crown jewel in your collection should be your own paid-to-host personal website.

7 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

When you're just starting off, it is perfectly fine to go with a free website. After all, first you want to test the waters before jumping in. However, if you find that things are moving along, whether it is slowly or quickly, then it is best to take further steps in developing your business.

The fact is that using something free is going to appear unprofessional. There is going to be a visual difference between a website someone is paying for, and a website someone just grabbed for free. This is going to make a big difference in the eyes of content and product consumers.

Remember, you can only get as much as you give.

7 years ago

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Tronia

Tronia

Honestly, if you're serious about wanting your business to grow and succeed even in the online territory, the free website won't be good enough. You will most often need to switch over to the paid kind - the best is simply buying a domain that is relevant to your business and then finding an affordable hosting service. At first, you don't need to take an expensive hosting plan though, just the very basic one will be enough.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

I think the one important purpose a free website serves is as a test of your host. If you're going to attach yourself to a web host for the long term? You want to see how they do business. How they treat their customers (paying or free) - and how they handle any server maintenance, technical issues - and how their software runs. Site speed, downtime - that sort of thing. I always say when you start up a website - remain on the free plan for at least a year to a year and a half. If things go smoothly for that period of time - then it's time to switch to one of their paid plans based on how much space and resources you need.

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

Do you already have a business and want to set up a free website for your business, or do you want to a free website and do your business? If you have a business and want to have a website for your business, having a free website is not a good idea. It does not look professional when your website has wordpress, blogspot, weebly etc. subdomains.
However, if you want to do business with a free website you can do it, there is not major problems. I have many friends who are selling writing, editing, designing, advertising services through their free weebly blogs.

7 years ago

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gelotologist

gelotologist

For me, having a free website really helps you but not at all times especially with the features that a free can give versus the paid domain can also give. But all in all, having a free website is not really bad, it usually depends on the seller on how they can distribute or processed the products that they're going to send to the buyers.

7 years ago

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Aree

Aree

A free website suffers from the same negative ambience as a free domain name. Not too long ago, you can actually get a free domain name. However, everyone soon knows about it. So when they see you, at that time, with a domain name ending in dot tk or dot co, their first impression is that you cannot be serious about your business since you don't even want to invest just $10 to get your own domain name.

However, free websites are not so easily discernible. I remember starting my very first blog on a free website. It was a post to host offer. Surprisingly, the host was very stable. So visitors to my site did not experience any negative situations normally associated with free websites, like slow page load and intermittent uptime.

7 years ago

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vhinz

vhinz

Yes a free website can help you with your business. You can create content about your business or post the products you are promoting. It is fine to start using free website to promote your business if you are on tight budget. But if you can afford to have your own website, it is still the best choice you can make. When you create a website on free accounts, your website will just be a subdomain, what you can do is limited, and you have to follow whatever the policies are. It means that you don't have the total control of your website.

7 years ago

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TimothyAlex

TimothyAlex

A free website can help your business if you are an effective inbound marketer that can build a large social audience. From my experience, free sites don't rank well no matter what you do. It is not really a penalty but it seems Google sees them somehow differently. But, if you can build an audience on social media and a large number of subscribers, you are golden.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I have actually had a lot of luck with free websites, but I think this is because I really concentrate and focus on producing good content. Most of the people who frequent my blogs are writers and readers of literature, so they know how little upcoming or underground writers make, much less the fact that I am a teacher (not paid very well so far for that, I must admit). However, I will say that I have taken the free stuff as far as it can go, and I am looking into other venues to invest in now that I am making a little bit of cash that I can put back into my "business", such as it is.

7 years ago

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AmieBotella

AmieBotella

So it's basically, really for starting up, right? Until your business picks up and then go from there when it can sustain itself by generating a little cashflow. But you think it is helpful at the beginning and it won't hurt you as you progress?

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

Pretty much. A free website is great for starters. Once your business picks up you'll almost certainly need to move to a paid plan. Because your spike in traffic will take up more resources from your host.

7 years ago

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potentialwriter

potentialwriter

A free website can really help you with your business, though you may not decide to use this for a very long time. It has some disadvantages, though can still be used to run your business in the early stages. Upgrading to a custom domain may do your business a lot of benefits because that is, definitely, an element of credibility for any online business. When it comes to driving targeted customers to your business, these people would really want to see whether they can trust your brand or not.

7 years ago

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tenthztar

tenthztar

There are alot of drawbacks when starting your website for free. First is that there is a bandwidth limit every month which is crucial if you have an uprising business. Second is the limited website storage which is another concern considering that you have a catalog. third is restrictions is restrictions in setting up your website. There are a lot more so if you want to start a website you have to learn the basics.

7 years ago

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potentialwriter

potentialwriter

A free website can help a lot especially if you created the site using a WordPress theme. WordPress has the greatest search engine optimization technology when it comes to optimizing a website, whether free or self hosted. You can start great this way if you actually have a focus with your business and are ready to step up with your brand.

When money starts coming, you may decide to upgrade your website to a customized one so that your credibility score increases automatically.

7 years ago

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Dlankulit

Dlankulit

I'd say yes it definitely can help your online business. You can use it for trial and testing purposes, and for introducing your business. But of course free websites has limited features. It is still better when you have a paid website so you can maximize and have full control on its features.

7 years ago

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Rumu

Rumu

Yes. A free website can always help you with your business, especially if you are just kicking off. Its also an advantage, at least that way you can get to the service provider before going for paid products.

7 years ago

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tiffiecute

tiffiecute

Using a free website for your business is as good as using a paid version. It's all about how intensively and extensively you market your product to sell. Social media sites are far better to showcase your business like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Tweeter. You may have a paid website of your own but it has been full of cobwebs for some time since you have a poor grasp of customers, and even just visitors.

7 years ago

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potentialwriter

potentialwriter

A free website can help your business grow really, but that must be used only for a little time. When the business starts booming gradually, it's great to make a move by upgrading your website from free to customized one. This helps you move forward with the business and increases your site credibility and traffic in no time.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

I agree with you on this. It is when the business starts to boom that the site owner should try to get the needed upgrade on the site and now at a point where we can't really say that the business has gotten to a bigger level.

7 years ago

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Adesuwa08

Adesuwa08

Your question is whether can a free website help with your business, I don't think so, and what kind of business are you talking about ? Is is it the one were you sell goods and products, all you just own a website to show case your skills and make it a friendly site to visit. I think you owning an account in WordPress can help your business grow, as far as you get to pay the fees required of it, word press is a good site for business owners too.

Also why I asked if the blog was about buying and selling, well you know I have to ask because there are a whole lot of businesses around even on net which doesn't involve buying and selling, you having a free website have so many disadvantages like you sharing the link on other social media forums some times it is very difficult to discover, because your blog is just too limited to you just sharing your link , but if you pay for your site you will get to have free ads for your site there your site will get to be discovered without taking long processes. Having a free website for your business won't help you progress, as some one who has been in things like this it is best you pay for your website especially the one which is business oriented.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

In as much ad having a free website can't be compared to a paid site, there is need for us to realise that the free website might be for a start and not necessarily for longterm goals.

7 years ago

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Adesuwa08

Adesuwa08

Yeah you right, lets not forget our humble beginning, not many people gets to start a blog with payment immediately.

I can still remember that I have a website with wix ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚, I will go and revisit the site again just to see how far and continue with it, but free websites deserves all the credits it was most of us starting point.

7 years ago

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felabruno

felabruno

I think you can have a website for a very small amount of money. Hosting shouldn't be too expensive. The other things don't have to cost anything, you can find free templates or learn to code. If you don't want to get a hosting you can make a blog about your products for free.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

Hosting is cheap for the most part. But the reason people start off and remain on free hosting sometimes is because well, it's free. Most people will milk a free opportunity for all it's worth and as long as possible. It's just human nature. In the long run though - shelling out $3.00 to $5.00 a month for hosting will be critical to your business.

7 years ago

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Pixie06

Pixie06

In the beginning, you can make use of those free website to make your products known to the world. I still don't have my own website. I have advertised my business on various social networks. So far I have had more success with Facebook and Twitter. I am planning to set up my own website soon as my business has been growing.

7 years ago

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Dlankulit

Dlankulit

Right, utilizing those free websites indeed can help in your business' success. It's still about your marketing strategy that will have a big impact. And when you have your own site, which you have full control, associating it with your established free accounts are much better.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

That's great. I hope you have been using your social networks to build up buzz and excitement about the launch of your new site.

7 years ago

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narutos3nn1n

narutos3nn1n

It certainly can but you'll have limited options on selling a particular products and services. Not mentioning if you were not really tech savvy or knowledgeable enough to customize certain parts of your site and how you want it to deliver information for your potential clients. Also driving visitors to your site is another thing to explore on, finding the right places in the right moment will be quite difficult too for an emerging online business that caters your specific products.

7 years ago

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AmieBotella

AmieBotella

Yes you are right. Sometimes it's difficult to invest when you have limited resources but you want to make it right at the same time. I guess the best thing is to not rush things and study the entire business before you even jump to start it a a bigger scale of things online.

7 years ago

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kaka135

kaka135

I have some friends who are able to sell their products over Blogger, which is a free blogging platform, but her business is done over word-of-mouth marketing, hence the website might not be really important for her. I would suggest you get a domain for your website, even though you can't get a paid hosting yet, you can host it at free hosting site in the first few months. Getting a domain is still much cheaper than a hosting. I think it is more presentable to have your own domain, as it makes others more confidence in your business. I would think those who have their own websites are more serious in their business and they might not just close down in short time.

I think it might be slightly different for writers. I see some authors do not have their own websites, but have a page under a publisher. Those might be famous authors, hence a website is not so important for them to market their contents.

7 years ago

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AmieBotella

AmieBotella

Yes, what you've pointed out here are really good points. It's slightly different when you're a writer and when you are a seller. A writer can really make use of free platforms to present himself on the market without the connotation that you're not serious with your business but an online seller cannot. Thank you for pointing this out. And with this thread, I've learned a lot of the perspectives of each individual about their take on sellers and writers on having their own paid websites.

7 years ago

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StarJ

StarJ

I tried to use a free website coming from a free web provider. Atleast to save money because doing it cost me big amount. There's a need to pay for a hosting and domain. But if you ask if we can earn using a free website to promote your own business, it depends on how you maximize your website. But I never had idea for those who used it earned money. And one thing that I don't like in a free website is, since it is not a paid website, the name of the company who provides the website will appear on your site.

7 years ago

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AmieBotella

AmieBotella

That's just the down of it all. Same her, I haven't known a person who profits from a free website other than it's used as a personal blog or bio data of a person selling himself as a writer or somebody. I suppose when your business depends heavily online, you need to put up a website that is not from a free web.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

I've known people who've profited from a free website. But it's a very small return, mostly because free websites come with all kinds of conditions. Like a 'this free website sponsored by' marker somewhere on the page. Which isn't very professional looking to visitors. Also again, because it's a free website - you're using limited resources. Which means when your traffic limit or bandwidth limit for the day is used up, your host will shut your page down until your limit resets itself. Not much room to profit at all when factoring in these factors.

7 years ago

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Gracciiaa

Gracciiaa

While a paid site gives you more flexibility and control in handling your website's features, a free website such as one on Blogger, Tumblr, or Wordpress is just as good. Search engines do not give more preference to paid sites than free sites and as such, settling for one shouldn't undermine your business.

Like you stated, this is for the first few months of your online business and I believe you won't be dealing with large volumes of data that requires a dedicated server to be hosted on. Additionally, each of these free sites come with Premium themes which makes it difficult to tell apart from paid sites not unless you take a look at the page's source code.

Now, what you should be more concerned about is the quality of content on the website as this is the priority of search engines such as Bing and Google who are constantly out to present searchers with the best results. The same is the case for your visitors, hence, how and when (frequency) they'll return to your new site is determined by its ability to offer what they seek.

That being the case, Are the products offered on the site reviewed well? Are there images of good quality to represent them? And have on page SEO strategies been put in place for individual pages on this free website? If your answer to these questions is yes, then you might just settle for a free site after all. But if it is no, then a paid site will not do you any good either.

Inline with quality content, another factor of great concern should be the site's popularity on social media, as its popularity also determines its trust level. This answers your question as to whether the site will be trusted. A pages trust on the net is based on how long it has been in existence, its page and domain authority, as well as its visibility in social media.

Equally,

If the free site is easy to use and navigate, then your potential buyers will have little or no problem with it. At this point, they will most likely not know the difference between either and will be more concerned about the genuinity of the product, level of service delivery, and user ratings/reviews.

Conclusively,

A free website can be of immense help to your business most especially if you are just starting out and isn't entirely large. Instead of paying for monthly or yearly hosting renewals, you can still promote your business online. Look at it this way, you'll use a top-level domain name such as .com, .org, or .net without the inclusion of hosting plans thanks to these free platforms. What you'll need next to get your website to the top of SERPs is quality content and strong on-page and off page SEO. While a paid site gives you more flexibility and control in handling your website's features, a free website such as one on Blogger, Tumblr, or Wordpress is just as good. Search engines do not give more preference to paid sites than free sites and as such, settling for one shouldn't undermine your business. Like you stated, this is for the first few months of your online business and I believe you won't be dealing with large volumes of data that requires a dedicated server to be hosted on. Additionally, each of these free sites come with Premium themes which makes it difficult to tell apart from paid sites not unless you take a look at the page's source code. Now, what you should be more concerned about is the quality of content on the website as this is the priority of search engines such as Bing and Google who are constantly out to present searchers with the best results. The same is the case for your visitors, hence, how and when (frequency) they'll return to your new site is determined by its ability to offer what they seek. That being the case, Are the products offered on the site reviewed well? Are there images of good quality to represent them? And have on page SEO strategies been put in place for individual pages on this free website? If your answer to these questions is yes, then you might just settle for a free site after all. But if it is no, then a paid site will not do you any good either. Inline with quality content, another factor of great concern should be the site's popularity on social media, as its popularity also determines its trust level. This answers your question as to whether the site will be trusted. A pages trust on the net is based on how long it has been in existence, its page and domain authority, as well as its visibility in social media. Equally, If the free site is easy to use and navigate, then your potential buyers will have little or no problem with it. At this point, they will most likely not know the difference between either and will be more concerned about the genuinity of the product, level of service delivery, and user ratings/reviews. Conclusively, A free website can be of immense help to your business most especially if you are just starting out and isn't entirely large. Instead of paying for monthly or yearly hosting renewals, you can still promote your business online. Look at it this way, you'll use a top-level domain name such as .com, .org, or .net without the inclusion of hosting plans thanks to these free platforms. What you'll need next to get your website to the top of SERPs is quality content and strong on-page and off page SEO.

7 years ago

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Larryl332

Larryl332

If there is one lesson that I have come across again and again it is that there is usually a free option or alternative to most everything out there these days. Of course the real question is whether or not that means it is good which is not always the case, although I have been surprised at times so it is always worth a shot to explore what is out there.

7 years ago

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jaybee19

jaybee19

Personally, I think free websites can help run businesses. I actually know a lot of new offline/online businesses that use free web hosting platforms for their company/business' website and they're doing fine. However, there are a lot of consequences associated with the word 'free'. Like for example, with free web hosting you have to include the platform company's name e.g. .wix.com or .wordpress.com on your link. Also, there are significant tools that aren't available for free web hosting but are available on paid web hosting. Lastly, when it comes to support, free web hosting platforms tend to be a little bit slower when it comes to solving website glitches which I've heard that are uncommon for paid web hosting. However, if you still don't have the budget to fund a paid website then go ahead first with free web hosting. There may be significant differences, but still it's helpful and can help your business to grow and become successful.

7 years ago

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JiLLian87

JiLLian87

I've read a lot of ideas online that you can create your own website for free. As for me, I'm planning to create a free website soon because I wanted to be a blogger. You may want to take advantage of a free website and once you have enough funds then you might want to buy your own.

7 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

I agree, you can make use of the available free website just to see how things go and as a jump-off point as you start blogging for example, and if things go well you can start moving on a better site which you can call your own.

7 years ago

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fishbate

fishbate

A free website is great for startups, specially if you lack resources but full of determination. Also its more systematic way to analyze your site features. You may wanna change some features and settings of the site along the way and a free website could be a good thing knowing that you are not spending. Although free sites usually comes with limited features, allowing the site to grow first before going to premium is a great way to save some money.

7 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

I'm positive it can. Free websites give your readers access to what you've written. They don't have to pay for it. I believe that giving free quality content will make them more likely to purchase what you're selling. It shows them that you're dedicated to your work.

7 years ago

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aecel

aecel

I have a friend who owned a website and he needed to shut it down last year because he's not making a profit on his website. I asked him if it's advisable to avail those who offer free website and he said it's not good because you're not gonna make a profit. How ironic because he even bought a domain, invest on his blog and he didn't make a profit of it then he said it's not advisable to get a free website. I think if you have a budget to create your own website then go for it just make sure study hard on how to make a profit so you're gonna avoid making losses. Then if you really don't have a budget there's nothing wrong trying availing the free website, it's free anyway you have nothing to lose. If you already save enough money to fund your own website then go for it to have bigger opportunity to earn more profit.

7 years ago

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albino

albino

In my own opinion most of the free websites is still effective but it depends on your content if you are a writer or depends on your product if you are a seller. But most of free websites also has many attached ads so that they can also earn from you and publish their own business through your website. But for me I prefer to use free websites to save money because what we need to do is to publish our website content or product publicly in order to earn money from viewers who search or purchased our product and it is just the same whether you use free or websites with a cost, but I think what makes the two different is the lay out and advanced tools or gadgets but all of them will publish your website publicly and it is the most important purpose why we use websites.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

A free site is basically to display your work and build up a base of interested parties. Once that's done, it's in your best interest to move to paid hosting eventually.

7 years ago

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albino

albino

Thanks for that, but can you explain to me what really are the advantage of web hosting or paid hosting websites to free websites? And if you know some websites with affordable cost that really helps your work become famous I will be glad to hear it from you. Thanks again.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

I think host1plus and hostinger are two good webhosts for paid sites at a great price. As for the PAID vs. FREE debate:

FREE WEBSITES: Good storage space, normally good up-time and features. However, they might come with forced ads, also some servers are taken down weekly to check for illegal activity or bandwidth abuses. If your site grows, you could also run out of space eventually.

PAID WEBSITES: Depending on how much you're willing to pay, you'll get excellent amounts of storage space. Elite up-time, and server maintenance is really the only downtime you'll have. Most server work if necessary is done around 3 or 5 am. Low traffic times for most sites. You can also host your own ads.

7 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

Well if it's free, it can't hurt and it will help you promote your services especially when you're just starting and just looking to make a name for yourself. You can always spend later if the free website doesn't help you in your goals, but it's important to make use of every available resource when you are starting.

7 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

A free website can help like if you want to create your own blog, using free blogging sites would save you a lot of money in creating your own. But it also has its drawbacks, the usual case is its only free for a limited time or load and if you have reached the max load limit then you have to upgrade to a paid one which normally cost more.

7 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

Creating a free website can definitely help you in your business, that's if, you would be creating a blogsite. But if you would be creating a store, I would suggest to use Facebook Groups.

7 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

If you're in a budget I would suggest to use a free site or better, why not use Facebook. You can convert or tweak a Facebook Page or Group for your needs, it could be made into a Blog, Online Store, even a Video Streaming Site, it's free and you don't have to worry about traffic because it has more than a billion users.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

In my experience free sites are helpful at first but the problem is, the hosting sites that give of promo free sites will screw you big-time when your site grows. So for me either pay for one or use a social media platform like Facebook or YouTube.

6 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

I used to be a co-blogger and our blog was in Blogger. It is a free website that is respectable I can say that we have regular readers when the blog was active and being a free site is not an issue. I guess it just depends on the type of the free website because when the advertisement is excessive on the web page the readers tend to be annoyed. In those cases the site that is free becomes obvious and can be a turn off to some readers.

6 years ago

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chrisbarett

chrisbarett

To have a business website open you a lot of opportunities that will improve considerably your company, doesn't matter if it's small or big.
First, by creating your website you will have more customers through e
commerce. Second you gain much more profit. I don't know if it is good
or bad idea to create free website for your business and I don't know if
it's totally free, but I paid money to one of my cousins to make a
website for my company and he did it pretty well. Besides that I needed a
web host and I found these guys
https://www.digitizd.com/hosting/bluehost-review/. I am not a pro in
computers, but in my view they did a great job.

5 years ago

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milaniagreen

milaniagreen

If your current web host doesn't provide what you need, it might be time to upgrade to a better one. Transferring your site to a new web host doesn't have to be as tedious as moving to a new home, automate the backup process. It can be pretty easy if you take the right steps

3 years ago

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lindsaymonaco85

lindsaymonaco85

For those of you who are looking to start an eCommerce business, your website should be your main priority. But you don't want to spend your whole marketing budget on website building either. Luckily, there are many options to help you create professional small business websites at a low cost, or even completely free.

3 years ago

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