Start A Business | ASANT Media

Free vs. Paid Hosting

It seems like the debate of the century is free vs. paid hosting. We will also correlate this with a blogspot.com and your own .com. While there are valid arguments for both, I’ll tell you why it is in your best interest to start with paid hosting from the very beginning:

Flexibility
Authority
Professionalism

Flexibility

For the most part, if you start with free hosting such as blogger.com or wordpress.com, then there is no flexibility. You are given a couple themes and have the ability to make some minor tweaks here and there, yet the free hosting doesn’t give you the the options. With the blogger accounts users can’t really create a product that stands out from the rest.

With paid hosting, you can basically do whatever you want. You are given a building and the tools, and its up to you to do with it what you want.

Authority

It is a whole lot easier for people to take you serious and give you a sense of importance if you have a .com. Think about some of the blogs or sites you frequently visit. Which are your favorite? Most likely they will be a .com.

Professionalism

Somewhat similar to authority, with paid hosting comes your own email and much more tools that relate to your .com. This exudes a whole lot more professionalism, then if you contacted a potential sponsor with a blogspot.com.

Why would someone take you serious and invest money or time with you, if you couldn’t even invest some money into yourself?

Argument for free hosting, but why you shouldn’t wait to pay

The most popular argument for free hosting is its FREE! If you don’t think you can make up or don’t want to risk the $85 that it cost for one year of hosting (price from HostMonster), then you probably shouldn’t get in the business to begin with.

With your hosting, HostMonster also gives you a free domain, so that is essentially your start-up cost all right there. It took me just 2 months before I made that back and I haven’t looked back since (knock on wood).

We never really know how long it will take for a certain idea to take off. It could takes a couple weeks, months, or years. Paid hosting will allow your business to grow, while with free hosting you will eventually have to covert. This can lead to many problems such as: loss of information and readers.

Bottom Line: Hosting and a .com only cost so much. Depending on how confident you are, you can always sign up for different time lenths (i.e. 1, 2, 10 years), but if you truely want to succeed online and at a faster rate, then you should opt for paid hosting over free.

Can You Really Make Money Online?

It seems like just about everybody is trying to make money online. Even major companies are shifting to the web 2.0 movement. The internet has really lowered the barrier to entry. Never before have we seen such a low cost of starting your own business. Everybody is doing it, but everybody is not seeing the same results. Why not?

It takes a lot of time

If you ask any successful online mogul, they will probably tell you making money online is the easiest thing ever, and it really is. What they usually forget to mention is that it takes way more work than you ever thought. I mean lets really think about it. If you want to eventually make full-time type of money, then you will have to at least put in full-time type of hours. The only problem is that not everybody has the luxury of quitting their day job to start online full-time.

Takes a lot of work

When it comes to running a lucrative online venture, it takes a special type of person. You really need to have that desire. If you come into the game expecting to easily make some cash, then you are probably not going to last that long. The amount of work one needs to put in just to make a couple cents regularly is far more than most think. If you don’t have the passion or drive to see past all that and keep on pushing, then, again, those people don’t last very long.

Need the entrepreneurial spirit

The problem originates from the very low barrier to entry. The cost is so low, that people with no entrepreneurial know-how or traits are entering the field. Just because it is online, every start-up has to be treated like a normal physical business. You have to be creative and able to think on your feet. If you expect to copy and paste what successful people did, I can guarantee you won’t see the same results.

But it really is easy, you can make money, and is it work?

Just like any start-up, online businesses can be very rewarding. You can make more money than you imagine, you can just work a couple hours a day from wherever you want, and you can get tons of free stuff, but it all starts with the work you put in.

Most businesses fail because people weren’t willing to take the time. They don’t realize that the growth is exponential. A couple dollars a month can turn into a couple hundred a month into a thousand, and so on, but none of this can happen without the grunt work. The saying if you build it they will come is not true. Owners have to put the time in building the business, marketing the business, and adapting the business.

As you become more successful, it will be easier to start new ventures because you have all the right tools and contacts in place. You know what works and what doesn’t.

In the end, it really is a fun experience and it is easy once you know what you are doing. Start a business on something you enjoy. Sure it takes a lot of work, but if you enjoy it, then it is better than some typical 9-5 job. Be willing to constantly learn new things and create your own path to riches.

Bottom line: If you want to see a stable income and little work, then the making money online isn’t for you. The right person can drive themselves even when they are only making a couple dollars for weeks of work. While they may be driven by the profits, they don’t expense the quality for some shortcut.

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