Saturday, April 20, 2013

How to host your site for free for 2 years - including a new domain

This would help you, if : 
1.) You want to start a new site
2.) Have an existing site and either want to switch or try a new hosting solution


Background in short


I wanted to try out my new idea but didn't want to blow up a lot of money on either buying a domain or hosting it.

Reason being if it does work out, money wasn't going to be a problem but if it doesn't then I don't have to feel bad about losing the money as well.

Bottom line - wanted the domain & host it for free or as cheap as possible but with a decent hosting solution.


Breakthrough

I saw that CashBackHouse was giving $100 cash back on ipage (hosting solution). I actually got $105 back ( but that is another blog :) )

Checked the reviews for ipage and they seemed decent & fit my bill. My needs were simple this time - php/mysql, phpmyadmin, an out of the box wordpress installation & 24x7 chat support(must-have).


The numbers - hosting service

Cost/month : $3
Cost/year : $36
Cost for 2 years : $72

So after getting my cash back I would still have $28 extra ($100 - $72) !!

Domain

Next I started hunting for a domain.
With the taste of of cash back still fresh in my mind I wanted to find one which would fit in $28 & have some cash back.

Now, $28 is a lot for a domain ! plus anyways I was going to transfer it to ipage, hence didn't really worry about who I got it from ;)

Godaddy was giving the domain for $28.34 for 2 years.
And CashBackHouse was giving 27% cash back.


The numbers  - Domain

Cost for 2 years : $28.24
Cash back (27%) : $7.65
Actual cost after cash back : $20.69

:))

Bottom line : I'd still have $7.31 ($28 - $20.69) even after using the domain & hosting for 2 years !!!!

Thought this might help all in the same boat as me.
With the domains & hosting squared I was free to work on the actual site.
Now I hope it lives not just for the 2 years but well past it..

Cheers


Update 1 : Confirmed that they(CashBackHouse) are still giving the cash back. Also, it seems they have a lot more hosting solutions listed than what I had been offered. 


Update 2 : Now they have domain.com as well, and per my calculations they seem cheaper than godaddy even with 18% cash back. Cool, someone's going to save more than what I did :)