What do you want in a free host?

[azoundria]

Hello everyone. I am developing IsMyWebsite as a partnership with EvenHosting and am trying to get some input. Firstly some ideas I have:

Your account starts as a Noob account. After 3 weeks of activity and a good site built up, you are advanced to a Basic account. From there you can advance to an Advanced account, and finally a lucky few should make it to a Pro account. At every stage your site will be reviewed by experienced volunteers. Using this approach, I can give more system resources to those deserving of it, and help weed out the less deserving sites.

My second idea was to allow individuals to have almost full control over the placement and colouring of their ads. I realize this has a lot of potential for abuse, so anyone deliberately hiding or inappropriately displaying ads will be shut down the moment it is noticed without warning.

Other features I was planning:
• Sub domain(yoursite.ismywebsite.com)
• PHP support(limited in Noob account)
• HTML editor
• File Upload
• FTP(for Basic, Advanced, and Pro accounts)
• Auto-forwarder Email Address(yoursite@ismywebsite.com)
• MySQL support
• Noob 10MB storage space, Basic 100 MB, Advanced 1000 MB, Pro 10000 MB
• Noob 100 MB monthly transfer, Basic 1 GB, Advanced 10 GB, 100 GB Pro
• Forum for webmasters
• Link Exchange Program
• Custom Error Page(after Noob)
• Statistical ****ysis

Is there anything I should add? Any thoughts?

[azoundria]

Anyone have any thoughts? BTW I have added a mail list on ismywebsite.com for anyone interested in recieving an email on launch day.

[MattGe]

All your ideas are very good and there is nothing to add here. I think at you there will be a useful and popular service.

[azoundria]

Nothing to add? well at the least if everything is perfect add you email to my launch-date mailing list at http://www.ismywebsite.com/

Seems to me other forums found quite a lot to post about. Do you think the storage I'm offering is reasonable? Are there other tools you would want to use for your site? etc...

[alemcherry]

Anything is reasonable if it is free. I suspect the viability of your project, sorry to be harsh. 99% of the free hosting companies close down in few months. Wish you Better luck

[azoundria]

It's a partnership with EvenHosting which is an already established paid hosting. They have all the necessary tools I need and many paying clients already. They get half the profits and more customers out of the deal and I get free hosting and more site traffic.

Also I have created a great design for the site hosted temporarily on Geocities while I transfer it to home and onto the site this weekend. So far all positive reviews. Any thoughts on it? http://www.geocities.com/ismywebsite

[azoundria]

New design uploaded. Any thoughts on it?

[azoundria]

Ok I have uploaded a few sections of the site. Here is some things you can comment on, if you have no other ideas:

1) How do I compare to other free hosts?

2) What do you think of the IsMyWebsite process?

3) Do you think people are likely to sign up for email notification when I launch?

[Rabacca]

Don't you think that this is enough? The ou can add features depending on the situation.

[azoundria]

It's easier on both ends to provide maximized features. I don't have to add features to everyone's accounts and they don't have to ask or wait for them.

Also, prospective webmasters will compare packages based on features specifically listed on the website. These are guaranteed features - whereas additional features are at the discretion of site administration (not always the nicest people).

Hopefully those are satisfactory reasons for you. Thanks for your input.