Hi everyone,

I am a newbie when it comes to dedicated hosting and don't know what exactly is involved in it.

So I want to ask some people who know their stuff if this offer - http://www.freededicatedservers.com/ - seems reasonable?

Do you think they will get enough revenue from banner ads to offer everyone a dedicated server? Or is this just too good to be true?

Crap!
I would not believe it.

What absolute rubbish. They're co-lo'ed/using Alabanza servers for crying out loud!

A check of WHOIS also reveals admin contacts using Hotmail address.

Using 'popular banners'? Unless they're getting click-through rates of 15% or more there's no way they can afford it except through philanthropy. Remember how much Ala servers cost, and current click through rates around the Net (0.03%, and banners only on the first page. Yeaaaaaaaaaaahhhh)

Blooming dodgy and to be avoided at all costs.

Yeah right! :)

They are not using Alabanza for their free servers they are using Virtualis - the offer HiRize and CartSnap, both Virtualis products.

I e-mailed then to get more details.

Well I am new here and I took a peek and it smells fishy to me.

As regards ad banners, my observations of comments by others (and their replies to my direct questions), indicate that the great majority of ad banners are near worthless for generating revenue unless they are targeted (based on the site on which they appear). An example would be banners for fishing gear appearing on a site about fishing. The targeted nature would make those ad banners more profitable.

That might help in assessing the value and truth in such offers as presented.

Just in case, I sent an enquiry to the address advertised for 'ad free' paid versions of the same gear.

I really was interested, not just trying to catch them out.

This is what came straight back to my mailbox, by autoresponder, I suspect (duh!)

Cut and paste...
*******************

Thankyou for your recent email regarding Abuse of a site hosted by FreeDedicatedServers.com


We will look into this report as soon as possible and remove the site from our servers if the site is in violation of our User Policy. (Spamming is strictly prohibited by our rules).


In other cases we remove sites only in very extreme circumstances and suggest any person with a complaint against any webmaster report activities to the appropriate authorities in their country. As a host, we cannot be a judge of the sincerity or legality of the activities of any webmaster.


Abuse Department

*********************

What a pity... Oh well, back to the drawing board.

That's what I got when I sent an e-mail to the 'sales' e-mail, so I sent the same thing to 'webmaster'. Didn't get that response, so hopefully I'll have a real response soon.

Hell, it's free isn't it? What have you got to loose?

Haven't had a chance to check out their site properly yet, but do they support unmetered domains (unlimited name-based hosting)?

Originally posted by Dylan
Hell, it's free isn't it? What have you got to loose?


Your time :)

Make sure you read all the small quotes before signing in... in case some 'payment' stuff is hidden somewhere

Originally posted by Dylan
What have you got to loose?

Possibly your sanity?

How can you loose your sanity? You'd have to be nuts to believe these people....

I agree, it is funny to read though.

Dedicated servers aren't expensive these days, so yes it's possible for them to give it to you for free.

Especially seeing that you need to get over 5000 unique hits to your main page a day (not many people will qualify), the banner advertising will pay for the cost of the server in one day.

Honestly it might be possible but with that kind of a business model they are obv. skimping somewhere, I wouldnt expect first class service.

It sounds to me like a good way of getting two weeks of free advertizing on a busy site at no costs whatsoever.
After all, they could refuse to host your site after the 14 days trial.

Read http://www.freededicatedservers.com/faq.htm

I read that Marshall, and I agree. While everything may even be on the up and up after the 14 dyas, they should offer to compensate you for this. Just allowing them to place a banner on your site for two weeks seems a bit (errrr... what would you call it?). Ohhh well. I'm sure someone will do it. Hopefully it will work out for them...

I wrote them a question asking them if they would count the total main page views from multiple sites that we would store on a server by them, explaining to them that we wold put about 25 sites that well exceeded their 5,000 page views for the front page.

Have heard nothing back from them in over 5 days. Was just curious anyway.