On The Internet, Free For Life - Isn’t

1&1 Internet Inc. lifetime free Internet hosting account is about to expire. For most of you who have no idea who 1&1 are or that there even was such a thing as a lifetime free Internet hosting account, not to worry, this isn’t life shattering news. The reason why I mention it is because it is relevant for Pacific IT since my blog had been run on this free account for over 2 years.

And there’s another reason…

It makes me think about the whole Web 2.0 thing and the word free.

Now, before I receive nasty messages from 1&1, let me make one thing clear. They haven’t done anything wrong. In their TOS they clearly pointed out this was a promotional package which could expire at any time, at their discretion. Therefore, if a decision was made by some big honcho that a number of new accounts had been achieved, the time would be right to have everyone ante up. I guess that time has arrived.

The lessons here boys and girls are twofold. The first is, “free lifetime” on the Internet DOES NOT exist. No matter what. Yes, Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail are still the top examples of accounts which are still running strong without sneaking in a bill (though Hotmail and Yahoo tried to cash in years ago by providing POP accounts only to paid customers). Otherwise, the question always boils down to “until when?”. The second is dependence on “free accounts”. When establishing a strategy for your business, make sure the “free” can easily transfer to a “fee” without disruption. My major concern about my transfer was the loss of the MySQL account attached to the blog. If the account is “reset” during the transfer or after an expiry - “poof” go ALL YOUR BLOG ENTRIES EVER! Take note!

I’m still happy with 1&1 and still highly recommend them as your provider and host. I just needed a little wake-up about the true meaning, and vulnerability, of the word free.

This article was written exclusively for Profy.com by Technology Evangelist, Presenter and Consultant Robert Sanzalone.