About the Author
adil chaudry
Madskilladil's Blog on "Debt Management" problems such as "interest" and "other charges" that we have to deal with in this moneylife ---------- Madskilladil's alternative Blog on "Addiction, the definitions, the types, and the root cause"
Do you develop websites in your spare time? Do you pay for hosting and domain names just because you want to build websites as a hobby? I do, and I currently have about 10 websites, but the hosting and hire cost of domain names is now amounting $200 per year, so my hobby is now becoming costly to me but there is a brilliant solution!
Initially when you build a website with free hosting, there is always a catch, and that catch usually is that you have various advertisements on your pages, adverts that are permanently embedded onto each and every page of your site. There is also another catch, and that is your website address, as with all free hosting sites, the name you choose for your site will be followed by the host company's name in the address, for example, www.mysitename.hostcompanyname.com.
For some people this doesn't matter, but for me personally, I didn't like this at all, and so I decided to pay for hosting. By paying for hosting what you actually pay for is blank pages, pages with which you are free to do whatever you like. I also paid for a domain name, so that my website address did not have to contain the host company's name in the string, so it was just www.mysitename.com.
If you are hosting say one or two sites, with their own domain names, then its fine and the cost of this hobby will be approximately $50 per year. But, if you do as I did, and that is to go crazy on websites, and start to build multiple sites all with their own unique names, then you are going to escalate your fixed costs markedly. I currently pay more than $200 per year just for hosting and domain names alone.
Google Adsense is the logical answer to all the problems of your website costs.
By signing up for a Google Adsense account, and using their html in your web pages, the program delivers targeted advertising to your page in a format that suits you. You can choose the exact sizes (from a pre-set selection) and colours (from a palette) for the adverts, and place these as you like on any part of any page that you have created. I have found the Google Adsense system to be very good, because on all of my websites, the system has delivered advertising that is related to the content of my website, more so, it delivers advertising exactly related to what is on the current page being viewed, and so blends in with your theme or topic of discussion as opposed to looking ugly and vulgar to your viewers or readers.
Even if you can make $2.00 per month from advertising placed appropriately on your website, well, that does cover the cost of the hosting and domain name doesn't it?
Hobbies are good, they give us enjoyment, they help pass time, they can develop your skills, may even develop the mind, but hobbies that pay for themselves, or even start to make you a profit, well, those hobbies are just great!
Published by adil chaudry on April 1, 2006 09:55 AM
