Everybody signs up - But nobody makes a site!!

[gamlin]

Hey guys,

Is anyone else having this frustrating problem where you get like 50-100 sign ups a day and only 1 out of 100 people actually make a website?? Why the hell do these people bother signing up if they are not going to do anything?

It's all random people too from all over the world, not some dude making a million accounts.

What is the reason behind this??

[Dynash]

Perhaps you need to do account moderation.
Are you using LayeredPanel by any chance?
Do you not having safe_mode disabled and mail enabled, ads? If so, then that's your answer.

[hamster]

Some of them just wanna test your free hosting service.

[fnixws]

Some sign up and dont touch it for days, but do eventually.
Others sign up and never touch it.

I give empty accounts about a week before i start deleting them.

[katiekitty]

u have to expect this if u r running a free hosting.
if they feel that the service u provide have all the features they need, then they will continue to use ur service.

the reason they signup is bcoz they wan to test the service and see if it meets wat they need or not

[gamlin]

It literally seems like only 1 in 100 people actually upload. I don't see how so many people could sign up and do absolutely nothing...Is everyone else getting this kind of ratio? Yes, I am running layered panel.. how do I disable safe mode and check on mail .. ads are very small text links at top and the bottom of page.

[hamster]

I've noticed too, LayeredPanel hosts tend to get more empty signups... I get roughly about a 2 out of 10 people opening a website ratio :)

[Dynash]

You can enable and disable safe_mode and sendmail in their accounts, I guess you probably already have it set on default to be on and off.
It could be the adverts too that put people off. Or even then, spam bots.
I've seen it before, we'd get hundreds of signups per day, but they'd never be touched, or even logged in to. Turned out to be bots.

[katiekitty]

i get a lot of signup like this as well
2 out of 10 do really upload their stuff, others remain empty...

[Schmarvin]

I used to set my panel to remove accounts if they didn't have at least 1MB of bandwidth usage every 7 days. :D

[Junhosting]

Loled ,

Basically click check active & inactive account . When I'm bored , i usually check users website ( not browse file )

[labyrinth]

If you use Layered Panel that would be spam heaven of bots account. Human won't be mental disease that much to do of hundred accounts[sign up click ptc would be worth than wasting time on sign up].

Layered Panel usually set disable send mail/safe mode on won't still affect these bots because their mission only sign up install their auto spamming advertising webpages like drugs, x. They won't ever annoyed force ads like humans. Humans have heart and mood. Bots these days aren't that stupid these age they can install website themselves, sign up forums,spam over blogs-guestbooks,webhosting themsleves.[Specially instant activation.]

Some hostee drive themselves into "p4host" or "Forum applications" because of these reason.

You can read the referer here they said same to me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_web_hosting

Note:
For empty account can be both low level spam bots and account testers

[shakir]

Hey guys,

Is anyone else having this frustrating problem where you get like 50-100 sign ups a day and only 1 out of 100 people actually make a website?? Why the hell do these people bother signing up if they are not going to do anything?

It's all random people too from all over the world, not some dude making a million accounts.

What is the reason behind this??

Bcz its free so many wants to test it or some other do it for a fun . But in payed hosting all wil be with site

[.Andy]

Its perfectly normal. We get about 60 signups a day and were only using 34 gigs space with almost 800 accounts (about 1/2 of them are susspended for not using them though)

[TSO]

A lot of folks do this. Don't get mad. They are just wanting to check out your service and see how it runs. And a few of them are setting up the account and will upload a Website to it at a later date. Remember, you're offering something for free, so you will get more signups that amount to nothing.

[labyrinth]

Agreed, If measure this 2 which 1 do you worry to delete the most?

1. Those host warez, proxy, illegal porn, file hosting those that cause stress server and have the chance for datacenter suspend your host.
2. Those novice, account tester and those sign up and slowly create their webpages. These affect nothing danger that just annoy your eyes. :tired2:

I think you should worry above one than 2nd.:shame:

[advancem]

i think this client just signup up 2 or 3 then he will compare where the better one ano pick, then the others they have left...thats why i prefer not give hosting just public, i give one they needed with ym or pm..

[BrandonTheG]

Develop an inactivity script. So you can deem an account inactive for x amount of time, suspend it for x amount of time, then terminate it.

[Razerst]

They want to have the account before it is out of stock.

If they have time, maybe they will use it.

Normally,it is because of they want to test it.

[labyrinth]

They left other host and choose only one for use the best.
While those abuser choose all account that they sign up for file, warez hosting in free hosting account. [worst than account tester.]

Test before try it's basic for customers to do it's not their fault. If that host really good they'll came back to use. If you don't give time for them to decide that's mean you tell them that your host really that bad.

But because they're not customer I'm not surprise why hostee dislike them because they didn't pay hostee anything.

[DevilsHost]

If you have a rule like I have where users must upload a site within x ammount of time or they get suspended this may discourage some people. If your having bot trouble i recommend you enable captcha.

Generally 99% of people who have signed up with me have uploaded a site, youll always get the odd one or two who dont however I think if I had automated signups it would be a lot more people who dont upload a site, perhaps the automated signups are part of your problem.

Open a forum and do manual sign ups and manual account creation, your not likely to get so many spam signups that way. Just terminate any unused accounts for now, this is well within your rights as a free host.

[TaoPhoenix]

Is an email reminder of any value?
Back when I did surveys I'd sign up for some 10 services, and invariably forget about 3 of them when it came time to load a page.

[hcllov3h]

I kept my free hosting as a private service: anyone had hosting can invite other to register free hosting, and i created for anyone who has sites. Don't have a site, don't have any free hosting.

[cylex]

I kept my free hosting as a private service: anyone had hosting can invite other to register free hosting, and i created for anyone who has sites. Don't have a site, don't have any free hosting.

It's a good idea to offer a free host too :D

Thanks. :)

[Tatzel]

In my time I've registered a few free accounts that I ended up not using. Was usually for one of those reasons :

• Mail sending disabled
• Files size and type limits that play havoc on attempted installation of even such mainstream scripts as phpbb, smf, etc... (Fantastico installs and the like usually work around that but then there's still high potential for things screwing up when trying to add languages or mods, or when needing to update the thing later, nevermind storing or restoring a database backup if ever needed)

Either not specified in TOS/FAQs or well-hidden enough that I couldn't know before trying.
If there wasn't a "delete this account" option in the control panel then I just moved after erasing everything as it proved not to be "the" place. Didn't think twice about it as I was pretty sure the host must have either :
1. Some kind of pruning policy,
2. Some interest in claiming a high user count (for resale).

[ReadingBuddy]

This is a well-known problem in human behavior, as my good friend, a professional psychologist told me. People sign up, thinking that an offer for something for nothing will bring them whatever they are really looking for plus a ticket to the Magic Kingdom and the Holy Grail as well. When they don't get it ALL, then they sulk off. Just look at the number of abandoned web mail boxes at hotmail, gmail, and so on. Don't take it personal. It's not about you, it's about them.

[Eric C]

Ok i'm new to this and this is the first link I clicked. Can someone please explain to me how I can use this 'free' part of the site?

[Jan]

Ok i'm new to this and this is the first link I clicked. Can someone please explain to me how I can use this 'free' part of the site?
Are you looking for a host?

[zone18]

I use to do the same thing. Just to test the service to see if it works for me.

[autk]

you can set to delete the inactivaty account after one week or active the accounts manually.

[dbbrock1]

I have the same thing happen to me as well. I bet half of the people signup, say to themselves 'oh I will start working on it tomorrow night'. Then something comes up and they forget about it.

[TSO]

Plus, don't forget the fact that there are a lot of "host hoppers" (and competitors sniffing around to see what the competition is up to!) out there!

[TaoPhoenix]

Hey guys, combined with the other article-intro thread, what do y'all think about sort of "pseudo-setups" where they are set up in some kind of limbo land that doesn't actually allocate the resources in a locked fashion right on signup? Put in fancy language, they would be "signees" or such. Then only when they actually perform an action that actually requires serious resources, they become "clients".

Then you could change your emotional attitude. Everyone can live in a Capsule Hotel room of Signee Land! Watch them do nothing. Fine by you. (Maybe they even post 1 intro page because they were inspired on day one, same basic deal.)

Then y'all could move into more nuanced discussions like Converting Signees Into Clients.

[xd3vilx]

I have quite a few account that is empty and has been deleted. But this is how free web hosting works. When things are free, people will grab whether they are seriously in need of it or not. That human nature. But in all those black sheeps of course they are white sheeps, are some of my users do have interesting site, it a pleasure to see you are able to help them to host their decent sites. My company mentor who is involve in web development for companies covering web hosting to site development, once told me, you are mad to be involve in free web hosting, it nothing but trouble. I always told him, it the passion that run me. I failed in one of my ventures (DanicHost) and it will not stop me from starting another (Hostitele).

[Sain Cai]

I am one that has been guilty of this in the past. I would often sign up to see the service, but didnt like the control panel or other 'features' that were neglected to be mentioned in a webhosters post (such as huge ads or popup/unders) Some other things that made me abandon a site was file types not supported, like a .tpl file for the phpbb forum, etc.

[TaoPhoenix]

I am one that has been guilty of this in the past. I would often sign up to see the service, but didnt like the control panel or other 'features' that were neglected to be mentioned in a webhosters post (such as huge ads or popup/unders) Some other things that made me abandon a site was file types not supported, like a .tpl file for the phpbb forum, etc.

You're right there Sain Cai, so maybe the next part is an easy "resign from host" button so people who do get a grumpy surprise can remove themselves.

[Sain Cai]

That would help to an extent I think, as I would have easily clicked a delete button (I do remember a couple hosts did have something like that)

There were also a couple hosts that I had back in 2001-2002 that I mailed asking for deletion. I checked a couple last year as I stored in my FTP client, and were still there :tired2:

[engineerroy2008]

Most of the persons are doing like window shopping, and also one more factor to be considered here is the cost of creating a site and managing it

[justjustincase]

I know when I was looking for a free site, I signed up with about 10. When it came to upload my site something would fail.. either some restricted file extension or too large a file. It would be better if they clearly specified what restrictions they have ealier on in the process.

[siriushoward]

I am one of those who hops around free hosts and not uploading a site. Here is a list of things that drove me away.

- mail() sending disabled
- mod_rewrite disabled
- .htaccess disabled(mod_rewrite useless without it)
- file extensions not supported (zip, tpl, etc)
- cannot extract compressed package
- can extract but directory owned by 'nobody' so I can't access it (mod_PHPSU?)
- slow, downtime

I settle with zendfree for a while but now zendfree is having trouble so I'm looking again.

[desbest]

I think it's because people don't trust LayeredPanel hosts. They give out a ridiculous amount of space and have no Cpanel. I would rather make 50 posts on a forum and 10 posts a month.