The Best Place To Start Your Website

IsMyWebsite is right for you if:

You've got a problem. Every successful website is successful for one reason, and only one reason - it's the very best at solving a particular problem. Take a look at the top websites on Alexa. Every single one of those sites there solves at least one problem.

If you don't have a problem yet, find one. Maybe it's a problem you've had, something you thought would be cool, or maybe your friends need a specific problem solved.

There's no better solution. If a better solution already exists, you may be able to convince a few friends to try your solution, but the general public at large has no reason to use yours. An effective marketing campaign is effective largely because it convinces that your solution is better.

If your problem has already been solved by someone else, then you will need to create either (a) a better solution, or (b) a different problem. (Search Google extensively to find a solution to your problem.)

The right attitude. None of the top websites on the internet are there because their webmasters gave up, declared failure, or stopped believing in their idea. You need the ability to keep working on your idea for months, perhaps even years, if that's what it takes.

If your idea is not one which you're willing to spend months or even years to get where you want, then don't fret. A better idea will come along, probably when you least expect it.

A simple pitch. People are busy. The average person has time to read just one sentence of your website. If you can't tell them in that short one sentence how your website will help them solve a problem they have, they're out of there.

This is why you need a concise, quick idea, that can easily be explained.

A certain level of skill. This you can learn, of course, and our community is probably one of the best places to pick up knowledge. However, learning to code a website will be filled with times of frustration and this is something every serious webmaster has to go through.

Thus, you either need to know your stuff, or be willing to suffer through some degree of frustration.

With IsMyWebsite, You Don't Have To Worry About

These frustrations are why we created our service.

Failure advertisements. The average free hosting website considers it a good strategy to plaster some large banner across the top of your website. Not only does that advertisement detract from your website experience, it also displays something completely irrelevant to the visitor. Other services use popups or even more obtrusive advertising. Time and time again, such advertising tactics have been proven to annoy and frustrate visitors, literally turning them against the advertised product, and against the website advertising the product. It's a lose-lose situation.

During the early stages of your website development, it will be quite possible to maintain your hosting merely through the advertising which is on our own website and forums. We also pay for your feedback, which greatly helps us improve this service. Later on, as your website expands, you can pick and choose from the top advertising networks, which will display advertising related to your website. You can customize to create advertising which integrates well with your website. Extra revenue beyond the hosting costs translates to a virtual currency you can spend on domains, upgrades, and much much more. We believe this situation is a win-win.

Limitations. Your package keeps growing as your website does. Therefore, you can easily expand in an unlimited, continual fashion, even beyond shared hosting. Some of our largest clients are now hosted on VPS and we are even looking towards dedicated servers. This is all paid for through advertising.

Lies and scams. Some will disagree, of course, though I will say what I honestly and truly feel after having worked with dozens of people who have personally experienced the heartache of 'unlimited' hosting. Once day you get a nice email, explaining to you that you've outgrown shared hosting, and it's time to fork over a lot more money for something massive. And believe me, that's a good situation. In less lucky cases, sites have been suspended, even outright terminated, sometimes without notice. Clauses in the terms of service protect the host and allow them to do this without punishment. This is a fairly standard practice among nearly all the major hosting players.

Another common scam is the $5 affiliate scam. In this scam, the free hosting company will declare that they will pay $5 for every person who you send to sign up for their services. You are shown a nice control panel, where you can see the balance piling up. When the payout period arrives, you are told that it is delayed by another 30 days. Once those 30 days are up, your account no longer works, and you're out all the time and energy you spent trying to recruit those people to that service.

Other services will delete accounts without notice, removing all your hard work on your website. They hoped you will create a paid account, and since you didn't you are no use to them.

Yet another common behaviour is to create a directory of top hosting services, and place their own paid service at the top. Except, they give their paid service another name, so you think it's a different service. Then, when you are upset with their services and really want to try another, you end up signing up for their paid service, which is in many cases equally as bad as the free service. They get your money, and you get poor service and more headache.

Most of the large popular web hosts got where they are based on an affiliate revenue strategy. Although not necessarily a lie or a scam, most of the 'top 10 web host' websites you see are actually 'top 10 highest affiliate payout' websites. Check into the 'affiliate' section of those sites to see how much that webmaster is getting paid when you sign up. In many cases, they are making hundreds of dollars a day giving advice which may or may not be the best for the webmaster.

I can find more lies and scams in the hosting industry, and so can you. It's important to be aware of all the ways in which your website and reputation can be damaged by the lies and scams of other web hosts.

Spam email gallore. Everyone loves spam, right? Wait, you don't like spam email? Too bad. That service you gave your email to when you signed up, just sold it for a fraction of a penny to some spammers.

It's true though. There is a growing underground market for your personal information. Lots of people are willing to pay to be able to send you typo-filled, poorly designed, sales pitches, or just links to attack sites. Be sure to check out the privacy policy of any website which you sign up with. You can also create forwarder email accounts, which forward email to your main account. Once you're done with using that service, you just delete the account.

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