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THERE AIN'T NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH.
-- Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Hardly anything in life is truly free. All services provided by businesses have strings attached. While the price of a product or service may be "free", the business still profits in some fashion. Why else would they offer the service? The pursuit for the Almighty Dollar drives all businesses, including Free Webpage Providers (FWPs).

The Myth of Free Webpages. Most FWPs are careful to hide the string attached to their service. "Join now! 11 MB free!" is their chant. What they should say is, "Join now! Write content for us! Attract visitors and advertisers! Make us money! Let us put watermarks, pop-ups, ad banners, and more gimmicks on your site! Become an unpaid employee while we make lots of money!"

Not all FWPs are created equal. Some services are more greedy than others. Some care about money more than their users. Some, on the other hand, do care about users. The purpose of this site is to compare and contrast the most popular FWPs and see whether their services are truly "free". Too many people sign up for FWPs before considering the strings attached. The goal of TANSTAAFL is to expose the strings, gimmicks, unethical behavior, and other less than pleasant elements that make up the most popular FWPs; while also showcasing some of the better FWPs.

Your webmaster can't make up his mind! (September 23, 1998). Succumbing to the dreaded Webmaster Tinkering syndrome, I've rearranged this site again. The GeoCities Support Group has been closed and folded into the Specific FWPs: GeoCities page. This rest of the site is, as expected, still under construction. I plan to add pages for other FWPs soon and provide a comprehensive Comparison page. Real Soon Now.

• The Motivation Behind FWPs
  Why do businesses provide free webpages? What do they have to gain from it?

• Common Problems with FWPs
  A look at all the strings attached to free webpages

• FWP Comparisons
  An in-depth analysis of the major FWPs, comparing many different factors

• Specific FWPs
  Anaysis of each Free Webpage Provider
  • GeoCities
  • Crosswinds

• Free Webpage Provider Review (Max Lee)
  A frequently updated index of all FWPs large and small. Includes a mailing list and a message board.

• Freewebspace.net (Peo)
  Similar to the FWPReview, this site has an index of FWPs along with a discussion area, reviews, and polls.

• Yahoo's Free Web Pages Category

• Webmaster Resource Center

This website is © Copyright 1998 by James S. Baughn (mailto:webmaster@i-want-a-website.com). Trademarks are the property of their respective holders. (Most words that begin with "Geo" are not trademarks of GeoCities.) Some excerpts and images from external sources are used as part of the "Fair Use" doctrine for criticism and comment.

Disclaimer. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Some is based on rumors or speculation. If you encounter any harm from as a result of visiting this site, I am NOT responsible. (Hopefully this won't ever happen, but I have to cover myself. Besides, fancy legal jargon adds a certain air of professionality to any site.)

This site is best viewed with any browser. (Unless you are viewing the GeoCities mirror of this site, in which case I recommend you turn off Java, JavaScript, and CSS to prevent seeing any Watermarks or pop-ups.) This site is hosted by DreamHost. The server runs the Linux OS and the Apache webserver (one of the few things in life that is free).