By Kilen Matthews Back Home
There are two types of people who should be interested in a free web page: Those who can write HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language - the language of web pages) and… everyone else. Free web pages abound on the Internet and many come with tools that make them easy to use and maintain - even for nonprogrammers.
There are - believe it or not - dozens of Free Webpage Providers (FWPs) out there vying to give you a free web site. However, TINSTAAFL - "There is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch" applies. We'll look at some of the hidden "costs" of free web sites and give you the tools to get your own soapbox on the Internet.
You may already have one…
Check with your Internet Service Provider (ISP). You may already have space reserved for your own personal web page on the server of your ISP. Many ISPs in Egypt offer this to their subscribers.
But the local ISP-provided web pages can have a few bothersome limitations: they are not "forever" (if you change ISPs you lose your web page) and they may be limited in size (500 K is about the average space that they give you for free).
The good news is both can get a free web page account almost immediately and even novices who can fill out a form can have a home page and a URL (http:// address) to add to their business card in just a few minutes.
There are enough quality FWPs out there that you can choose one that does, indeed, show some care for it's users and isn't on top of the greedy list. Don't be afraid, there are some kind and gentle FWPs out there.
So What's the catch: TINSTAAFL…
Indeed, you don't have to hand over any cash to get your free web page set up but TINSTAAFL applies to FWPs, who are usually clever about hiding the "strings attached" to your free web site.
FWP's are in business to make money, just don't expect that you are really getting something worthwhile for nothing. It may not cost you cash but you are helping the FWP in their business - and there's really nothing wrong in that as long as nobody is getting fooled.
The main way FWPs make money is from advertising revenue.
The FWP hopes you will create an excellent web site with interesting content, which will attract visitors to your web site. Those visitors will see and perhaps - the FWP hopes - click on, the paid advertising banners, required links or pop-up windows that accompany your free web site.
The shareware concept of FWPs and the lure of the upgrade.
Another group of FWPs are giving away web space in exchange for a chance to sell you something bigger and better. They offer a basic free web page service and encourage you to upgrade to a premium for-pay service. They offer a way to eliminate those obligatory ads banners and links. FWPs using this approach include Digiweb, Geocities, Hypermart and Tripod.
Selling other stuff: "Pssst! Wanna buy a DVD drive cheap? "
A few FWPs sell hardware and software as a primary business and will send all their free clients periodic email advertising for example, digital cameras and clip-art libraries on CD. Xoom.com does this regularly.
Getting to Know You.
When you sign up for a free web page, you will have to fill out an online questionnaire. Some FWPs ask a lot of questions which usually includes your email address, your snail mail address, age gender, phone numbers, income level, etc.
Note: not all of these things are required. Only answer what you have to and skip the rest if you want to guard your online privacy.
Even if the FWP isn't selling this information, it is a goldmine of information they can use for targeted advertising of their own products and services.
Portal Pull
The latest buzz is about web portals. Wired businesses want users - especially new users - to gather and spend time at a "home base".
Sites like Yahoo and other search engines are examples of portal sites, which offer little content but have an organized collection of content from many other sites. FWPs want to take some of the portal traffic from the search engines.
For example, even AOL is considering giving free web pages to non-AOL customers. Portals and Home Bases are two of the next big wired competitive battlegrounds
Those pesky ads.
Most FWPs require and automatically place advertisements on users' web pages. Some FWPs allow users to place the ads on their pages where they like, but most FWPs insert the ads automatically. Most FWPs are using pop-up windows to display ads, but some insert ad consoles (like GeoCities' GeoGuide) directly on to the page.
Problems with FWP advertising
OK, so you get a free web page, why complain about those ads you have to let take up a bit on the real estate on your web page? There are some problems that can make it unpleasant.
First of all, the last thing you want your web site to do is crash a user's PC, right? Well, some FWPs use JavaScript based pop-up windows, which, if the user's resources are a bit low, could crash his browser.
Problems with popularity
Some FWPs have millions of members and continue to add members virtually by the minute. Technical interruptions and bottlenecks are not uncommon. The FWPs are trying to keep pace with the demand, adding bandwidth, upgrading their servers, etc. but those upgrades mean downtime.
A bad rep…
Since FWP accounts are free and fairly easy to obtain many people get them - or several of them - often under fake identities.
Pornography sites, hacker pages and warez (pirated software and software cracks) often show up on FWPs even when though every FWP bans these activities. The FWPs, which are growing explosively are stretched thin to police the content of each new site with every update.
What this means is that many award sites and search engines refuse to even consider some FWP sites. Some of the large search engines have virtually no Geocities sites in their indexes.
Spam, Spam, Spam , Spam …
Unsolicited email often accompanies free web pages which commonly also provide a free email address.
Some Spammers - the people who send out large amounts on unsolicited junk e-mail - often use the free email addresses that come with FWP account so that they are more difficult to recognize and stop. Like pornography and warez, Spam is forbidden by all FWps. But the Spammers will send out the junk mail until they are caught and the account is shut down. then they will sign up for a free account on another FWP.
So where do you get one?
With so many choices, there's no need to be satisfied with just a 500K web site. FWPs offering from 2-25 MB of space are everywhere, hosting in no less than a dozen countries around the world.. We'll just take a look at a few FWP's that are fairly reliable and take various approaches take different approaches to site maintenance and advertising.
Each FWP will give you an account with a password. Never give out your password, even to someone who claims to work for the company. A real employee of a FWP will never ask for a user's password.
FWP #1 A web page in 5 minutes: Angelfire.
www.angelfire.com is an advertisersupported free web page host and free email provider. Angelfire provides an adequate 5 MB of space and is great for beginners because it features a fill-in-the-blank web page option. Instead of learning HTML coding, you can use the built in web site editor to maintain your site.
Angelfire web page editor is completely menudriven. When you first sign up you simply pick out your background, text and link colors and filling in entries to make lists and sets of links to other web sites all without knowing a drop of programming or HTML.
If you know HTML, you can code your web pages as you like. Angelfire provides a basic menu that lets you upload files - including pictures - from your hard right from inside your browser.
Images are screened for good taste. You can get away with anything for about 24 hours, but if you upload and activate any 'adult' or offensive materials they will be deleted from your account by the Angelfire site reviewers.
Angelfire does not permit you to sell advertising on your own web site
but they don’t actually force any ads on user web pages. Their web-based
email system does use banner ads extensively.
FWP #2: The Community Metaphor: Fortune City
www.fortunecity.com is a nice example of a themed community. A noncommercial site with loads of features, it is set in a community metaphor where you apply for 'residence' in the community, you move into a 'house' and 'furnish' it with your web page. The Fortune City community is split into 25 themed districts ranging from Music to Movies, Sport to Science Fiction.
When you join Fortune City, you receive 20MB of free web space and a free email address.
Once you have moved in you will be able to set up your web site in minutes. You have the choice of using the "Home Builder" (similar to Angelfire's web page editor) or you can upload your own files and graphics using our the Fortune City File Manager or you can use any File Transfer Program (FTP) program (See section below on using FTP).
Fortune City encourages "mingling" in the community and has "chat zones" set up for neighbors to meet each other online.
Fortune City is a bit more invasive than Angelfire with it's advertising, automatically installing a banner advertisement on every page you build. If you remove the banner ads you risk having your account cancelled.
Fortune City is booming. They claim over half a million visitors to the community every day.
You can expect to see more and more web 'communities' like FortuneCity start to become really popular. They are perfectly integrated with the original individualistic and sharing culture of the Internet. This is a very powerful, easy to use and exciting Internet application. Don't join a community like this unless you plan to participate.
FTP - uploading your web page updates.
What is FTP?
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP allows you to transfer files form your hard disk to your web page host service (uploading) or transfer the pages from a web host to your hard disk (downloading).
How to use FTP software.
This section is only of interest to this who want to code their own web pages rather than use the built in web page construction systems provided by the FWP.
You can write your HTML web pages, test them on your hard disk by opening them with your browser and after you have them the way you want, upload them to your web host using an FTP client.
Windows 95 comes with a simple FTP program called, obviously enough, FTP.EXE.
FTP.EXE runs in an MS-DOS window and works fine but isn't the most user friendly program.
There are several freeware FTP programs that use the Windows graphical interface. One of the most popular is WS-FTP LE, a free but reduced version of the popular WS_FTP package.
WS-FTPLE.zip can be downloaded from many sites, such as http://www.tucows.com
Once you download and install WS_FTPLE it is straightforward to use. Connect to the Internet, start WS_FTPLE, It uses an Explore-like interface and allow drab-and-drop action.
Enter the name of your web host under "Host", your account name and password and click on the "connect" button. After you connect you'll see a windows with your hard disk files and another window with your web pages on the server.
Just drag and drop files in either direction to upload or download.
Where to find the latest on Free Webpage Providers:
There is a great web site that keep up to date lists of FWPs and their offerings. As of last month there were over 170 FWPs listed! bookmark it: http://www.digiweb.com/~maxlee/FWPReview/fwp/
Comments? Do you have gripes or kudos for a FWP? Send them in to us at fwps@y2kegypt.com and we'll print the best ones.
