Many people want to start a website, with no other motivation than to help others, they are not interested in making a profit. However, contributing to the biggest information resource in the history of man can be costly, very costly. This is unfortunate, as it deters many very intelligent people from adding to the content of the internet, and it is a worse place for it. However, there are a number of ways to contribute without losing any money from your own wallet. This article aims to show you how you can cover the costs of web hosting for your not-for-profit website.

The first and most obvious way is to use free hosting. This form of hosting involves setting up and account with a provider and then they will give you a limited amount of space for free, in return you will allow them to place adverts on your pages. The advertisements can be rather distracting for your visitors and many would-be webmasters do not want their content to be associated with the products and/or services that are being advertise. An alternative form of free hosting is to set up a web log or blog as they are now commonly known. However, this also has many of the same problems as other forms of free hosting, such as you do not receive your own short domain name and it can be difficult for potential visitors to find you.

Another way to do it is to pay for hosting yourself but then use an advertising program such as Google Adsense on your site. Yes, this still involves adverts but it does mean that you can choose the look and placement of the advertisements on your site. Adsense is easy to use and the adverts delivered are set to match your target audience. The only downside here is that there is no guarantee you will make enough with Adsense to cover the costs of hosting. However, on the plus side, you could make a small profit.