Free host which makes profit?

[Jome]

Is there a free host that actually makes profit? If so, how? Ads?

Is it even possible to make any money on banners, the clickrate on free hosted websites can't be high?

And does FWPs have any future?

I'm wondering this since a friend of mine have plans starting a FWP and it would be great with some advice since the number one priority is to make it profitable, I'm also a curious person so I'd like to know this myself.

Thanks,

Jome

[sHaWn]

Most free hosts use banners that pay the owner when they show it. So the click-rate really isn't an issue.

For small hosts, they may use click ads then clickthough rate is an issue.

[Ted S]

Running a sucessful free host is very very hard to do in todays market.

To get users you must have all the desired features, good speed and good support. Offering these things is not easy nor is it cheap.

Anyone who thinks they can just slap together a server, find a co-location place and be making hundreds in a week is dead wrong. A good cpm rate in today's market for a large site is $2 (untargeted). A free host makes about half that if they are extremely well connected and normally a free sot makes about a 25 cent cpm rate.

That means to get a mere $200 to pay hosting billls you would need 800,000 impressions (my math may be a bit off). Thats for a few hundred dollas and doesnt cover hardware costs, software costs, you time, or anything else.

In short, unless your friend has some cash to get started hes better off not even trying.