A Question…. Banner Free

[Ted S]

Since I started visiting these forums the one request/ question/ requirement I see more than anything else is for an ad free host. People looking for a fast host want it ad free, people asking for a free host with cgi or php or mysql ask for it without banners. In fact, virtually every post makes some mention to being banner or popup free or similar.

Now there’s nothing wrong with asking for an ad free host and every now and then, you might just find such a host. But what I’m wondering is why…. Certainly banners can be annoying but when hosts like 9ug, NBCi, Homestead and many others are shutting down their doors at least to new users, doesn’t it strike you that banner free means already-dead? Hosts with banners, even popups have enough trouble surviving so why would you want a host that makes nothing off your site?

Thanks for your responses as I really can’t understand why so many people would want something that’s obviously unstable from the beginning???

[Max]

Your question is how much of a stable site do you want?

People signing up for banner free sites obviously do not want a stable website.. Why not? The worst thing for a user is to visit a website that is down. They will probably never visit that website again... Neither will they visit if the site is slow...

/Max

[gyrbo]

I have seen a semi-pro website hosted on 50megs.

[Ted S]

Yes and 50megs uses advertising to make money......

[LastActionHero]

Basically people want a banner free host becuase

1. It doesn't work well with the site design
2. If it is pop-ups then they are concerned that their visitors might not visit them because of the pop-ups.

The solution would be to allow user placeable banner ads but that is difficult to implement. But the best solution would be to implement pop-unders which spawn on only one page (main page) and only every 12 hrs or so.

But as it has been seen the ad-revenue based model is disastrous. So only those hosts will survive which have alternate means of income to support their free web hosting services. Something like a premium paid hosting.

[Ted S]

Originally posted by lastactionhero
But as it has been seen the ad-revenue based model is disastrous. So only those hosts will survive which have alternate means of income to support their free web hosting services. Something like a premium paid hosting.

Exactly, numerous hsots with ads have died out because ads are not enough. however, offering hosting without ads is just killing even mroe of the little revenue a host can bring in.

[gyrbo]

Personally, I don't mind a banner. Only not those big 50megs en co banners. Nor popups. User placable banners and footerbanners are OK. Even Small topbanners are good. The reason I dont like the reguolar toppanners is that my older designs are based "on-the-edge" the design just doesn't look right if the page isn't at the top.
If you don't get what I mean, look at this: http://prog-home.50megs.com/

[Ted S]

Very intresting point.... banners certainly can and do get in teh way.... but userplaceable banners are far too often exploited by the user. Obviously it wouldnt fix your layout concerns but what about a top frame? or a top banner box (table with links and no banner images)?

[Mistara]

I try to avoid topframes (or any sort of frame ad), because the majority seem to interfere with bookmarking.

There's few things that I find more annoying than placing a bookmark, checking back a few days later only to discover I saved the address of an ad and not the actual site.

[Ted S]

Originally posted by Mistara
I try to avoid topframes (or any sort of frame ad), because the majority seem to interfere with bookmarking.

There's few things that I find more annoying than placing a bookmark, checking back a few days later only to discover I saved the address of an ad and not the actual site.

Assuming the banner (top or bottom) got past this issue and did not affect bookmarking would you then prefer the frame to a standard web ad or is sitll not to you're liking?

[Mistara]

If I had the option, I'd still choose the regular banner. They tend not to stand out as much, as that's what most users and accustomed to viewing.

But, if there were other things that made the host with the frame attractive, I'd definetly consider it an option.

[Akalon]

I dont see how no-one has considered removing the banner ads themselves. The only reason I wouldn't choose a free host like 50megs is because of the url, using a host like that makes your URL and website seem amateurish.

Go to http://www.bannerkillers----------/ it has many banner cracks for free web hosters.

[Ted S]

Originally posted by Akalon
I dont see how no-one has considered removing the banner ads themselves. The only reason I wouldn't choose a free host like 50megs is because of the url, using a host like that makes your URL and website seem amateurish.

Go to http://www.bannerkillers----------/ it has many banner cracks for free web hosters.

I'm not sure if I should be upset or confused.... doesn't it corss your mind that free hosts are providing you with a service? Banners ararely come ahywnere close to justifying the cost of hosting several thousand people for free yet you have the notion that taking away what little money they make is ok?? Please explain to me just how or why you would do this.

Paying for a host or paying to remove banners costs almost nothing and yet people sitll feel the need to steal.... ugh

[<|R0cKm@nX|>]

Originally posted by Akalon
I dont see how no-one has considered removing the banner ads themselves. The only reason I wouldn't choose a free host like 50megs is because of the url, using a host like that makes your URL and website seem amateurish.

Go to http://www.bannerkillers----------/ it has many banner cracks for free web hosters.

i know about this site too and the codes r really working but once u use it, u will see your account suspended the next day... it happens on my netfirms account :(

[Akalon]

I'd be happy to put a banner for a free hosting company on my site, but if it was an inconvenience or it didn't work well with the design I would remove it, yes.

It is no different than the likes of downloading warez or pirating copyrighted CD's in which thousands of people do. It is also not very different to the millions of people using file-sharing programs and denying artists some extra money? These are all illegal and in some way or form depriving money from the artists/companies, but at the minor end of the scale would be this, in which free hosters will make little more than $1 off an average website.

[Hellbound]

About a year ago I helped to run a FWP with a couple friends. We started out ad-free, but that lasted about a week.

There were 450 sites, and yes about $1.00 worth of revenue came from each site. But combined with our paid hosting plan, mailing lists, onsite banners, ect. we managed to not only break even, but occasionally turn a profit.

Without those banners we would've been through.

[Max]

Alot of you people who say you would cheat is acting very childish, it is obvious that you are very young and do not understand how things work in real life.

If you do not get a rats --- on the well being of a hosting company, then they will just give a ---- you back to you.. Go ahead and cheat and pull trix, you will only be sorry.. dont you think everyone that run a bannerhost will notice that you cheat them?

There should be an age limit on who should be allowed to sign up with free services..oh.. i forgot several big hosting companies allready implemented that feature...

You are destroying for everyone else if you cheat.. you do not help others by telling them to do it.

Never cheat, just find anything else that suits you and it banner free.. i am sure you will not be happy with the service in the long run..

[Mistara]

Excuse me....I take a bit of offense to that statement.

I started on websites when I was 14, and I'm not much older than that now. I love working with computers and I'd like to make my living this way. I've never cheated a freehost, and don't intend to.

Just because someone acts immature doesn't mean they're a child, and vice versa.

Had it not been for freehosting, there's no way I'd have the kind of experience I do now. I'm young, but I'm trying. Please don't insult an age group as a whole, its just another sterotype.

And, that user probably didn't know when he posted that link, but that kind of link isn't allowed on this MB, and his time with us is short. (I'm assuming its a he anyway.)

[Itwasthatwas]

Originally posted by Mistara


I started on websites when I was 14


14? I started when I was half that age...

[Giancarlo]

I started typing on a computer with a 800 baud modem when I was 4. My knowledge didn't really increase till two years ago, substantially. I am 17, but unfornately what people say about hosts runned by people my age are right, they won't last, the money is inadequate... I tried in a failed project that last three months, the money flow was insufficent with the operating budget and the host went quickly in deficit.

[Ted S]

Warez and freehosting are nothing alike you are truly confusing day and night.

When you steal photoshop from Adobe it is immoral, illegal and not right but you are taking a tinny fraction of a percent from a huge company. That doesn’t make pirating any better but it does mean that the company isn't going broke because a few people cheat it out of the money it thinks it deserves.

Free hosts are an entirely different issue. Free hosts to not develop a product and then force you to buy it. They buy or pay to have a program made, pay to host that program, spend time managing it and much more. So when they decide to make only a few dollars for your site those few dollars matter. Most free hosts do not have the yearly multi-billion dollar income of a software company. Even hosts that offer paid hosting on the side still rarely make a profit simply because free hosting is expensive. Time is money, bandwidth is money and to say that because you don't mind stealing from a company like Adobe you can steal from one made by someone just like you with an income just like you is like saying I can go to your house and take anything I want because well, I'd be just like you.

[Mistara]

Originally posted by Giancarlo
but unfornately what people say about hosts runned by people my age are right, they won't last, the money is inadequate....

They weren't talking about owning and operating a hosts. They were talking about SIGNING UP for a freehost.

[meow]

Most free hosts do not have the yearly multi-billion dollar income of a software company.
Nor do most software developers.
Shouldn't this thread be in the General forum btw?

[Docevl]

A long time ago I used bannerkillers----------. And then, you now what happened? My site got deleted! So don't even bother using those cheats. And now I know not to cheat free hosting companies. It is really wrong! Thats why alot of them are shutting down. I never used them again!

[Max]

My point exactly...

[BC]

I don't know that I am thoroughly convinced that ads are the only way to keep free web hosts afloat.. Are there really no other ways to keep free hosts alive? Any ideas? :confused:

[Ted S]

There are many ways for free hosts to make money, paid hosting on the side, user donations, ads in newsletters, selling another product and much mroe. However, all of these ideas rely on the user or another user bringing income to suppliment the cost of free hosting. The free hsot owner always has to go out and use some other means of income to support their service and banner ads oftne help to bring up the total revenue.

[cowax]

I used bannerkillers when I first found them about 3 years ago, and then used their codes on a couple hosts and Namezero. I only got kicked off of namezero, nothing else. However, I relized about not too long ago that banners pay money. Money that providers need to stay alive. Now, I don't even bother with free hosts anymore other than testing a few cgi scripts on F2S and hypermart. I'm with paid hosting now :)