Personally, I am against the idea, though I wanted to ask other hosts their views conerning sponsorship. I am talking about giving someone a free service, in return for them advertising for your service.

I don't like sponsorship, as there are no guarantees that other people will sign up as a result of that one client, the 'sponsored customer' may spread your name badly, and it may just encourage more people to ask you for 'free' (sponsored) hosting.

Lewis

Sponsorship I think basically of two types , commercial or non profit org. Normally I will help the non profit org as a kind of returning something back to society. Commercial sponsorship you need to check the customer's site , whether the content or viewership is what you need.

Ya, I personally have a free hjosting service running which is totally non-profit and people see it as a good thing

You should specify the terms of free sponsorship. Make sure that the sponsored person/business knows the terms and conditions. That way you can limit your risk of opening a can of worms down the road.

I sponsored a site a while back, put a nice tower ad on the site, mostly because the site was getting around 4000 unique hits/week, and it was basically my target.... Not a single sale... And TONS went into it... God the guy was whiney >_<

sponsorship works on televisions and on big functions.

Providing for someone who expects something for nothing is just asking for trouble. Unless it's a premier client (e.g. well known brand) that will give you increased exposure and credbility. However, a client like that probably realizes there's no free lunch..

If the client has enough hits and a good advertisment space, sure.

sponsorship can be very good. We started off with 3dgamers.com colo'd with us for about 2 years.

I guess it all depends on how you look at it.

Hmm - mixed views so far, though thank you for all of your replies.

I often tell people wanting 'sponsorship', that our referral scheme (a week free for every customer referred) is approximiately the same, though with results guaranteed. They then complain that it 'sounds like too much work', whereupon I argue that they want something for nothing, after which they look elsewhere.

It often appears that the kind of people who want 'sponsorship' are usually the kind of people that you wouldn't want as customers (despite the fact that they can't pay), if that makes sense.

Lewis

After working on free hosting sites for a few years I have come to a conclusion.

Revenue generated from an average of 25 to 50 sites would equal to about 1 commercially hosted site....

Because 9.9 out of 10 people who wants a free hosting site either runs in the first month or tries to take out your server with some funny processes that thaey try to run... ...

The rate of them complaining aout things are also much higher that commercial clients.... Once they don't get what they want they will start spreading "bad things" about your host and some even try to take it down... ...

Even had someone sending emails to my users saying that my company "sucked" and is closing down....

LOL :)

Sponsorship can be bad, however at the same time it can be good -

The important thing though is to choose the people who you give free hosting to very carefully. You should not just give it to anyone who comes up and asks for it; as then you are asking for trouble.

Two major things to take into account: Who you give free hosting to, and also the type of people that visit the site in question - This way you can possibly guess as to how many clients you may get.

Some good places to offer free hosting to would be churches (If a child asks their parents for hosting, the parents may be more willing to go with the same web host as their parish), get-together centres (Here not only would there be ad banners on the web site, however you'd also be allowed to freely put up advertisements in the actual centre itself meaning you could get even more exposure).

I also find that sponsoring things that have nothing to do with your industry are a good way of getting a small amount of brand awareness, we sponsor a football legaue near to our office and we have got a few clients from it. Any sponsorship is good, imo

Originally posted by boonchuan
Sponsorship I think basically of two types , commercial or non profit org.

Actually there are 3.
1) Commercial.
2) Non-Profit
3) Sites belonging to family members that you couldn't collect on if you tried ;)

Seriously though. We host a few "sponsored" sites but must say we have no set method in deciding to host or not host them.

We host pages for local youth groups (hockey, baseball etc), teen centers (out reach programs), downloads for a deseriving GPL project, etc.

The decision to host shouldn't be because you want the Free advertising, but because you feel the request is deseriving.

Obviously, you don't want more "free sites" than paying customers.
Just my 2 cents.

Wow, interesting responses from some of you. We have 5 "sponsored" accounts.... that's it. That's all we take... if someone leaves, we open a spot for someone else. We have never had an issue with any of them, in fact, they are the lowest maintenance accounts we have. Some, after the first week, we haven't heard from at all, and have to send out an email every so often to see if they are still breathing :) Only one has been with us for less than a year, 2 of them are in their 2nd year, and the other 2 have been with us for over 3 years.

We have received a number of clients from these sponsored accounts, through word of mouth and a small link, either 155x34 banner or text link. I think sponsorship is a great thing, but I think you have to choose carefully who you offer this to or accept for it. You can't do it expecting to become rich from it, or even to expect any signups from it. Do it because it's a worthwhile cause, or something you enjoy as well, and it will be a good experience. Looking at it solely as a source of revenue can sink you, unless you put paid popups/popunders, paid banner ads, and so on, on it. We choose not to do that with our sponsored sites. After all, would you want to see that on your site?

With the number of free hosts and free hosting services out there, is there really a need for sponsoring a site? Yes, if you can provide a quality service to them, believe in what they are doing, or for personal enjoyment, do it. If it brings you clients, that's a bonus!

Speaking of family, my sister pays for her hosting with us... :) business is business after all.

Originally posted by RH Robert
Speaking of family, my sister pays for her hosting with us... :) business is business after all.

LOL, very true.. some people just don't seem to get it.