Free Clan Web Site Hosting

The answer is in the word itself: Clan. A clan is a group of like-minded individuals – often people who play online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft – who want to have interaction with each other on a specific subject. And on the internet, why should you be able to get free clan web site hosting for just your specific group?

What Your Clan Needs

Here are some of the essential elements of any community site, not just free clan website hosting:

Social Networking

The whole point of having a website for the clan is interaction- the members need to be able to talk to each other. Several different tools can be used to facilitate this:

• Blogs and news – While this is often used as a soap box for the website creator, savvy hosts let their key members have their own blogs and produce content that way.
• Forums – Also known as "message boards," these have threaded discussions for members to talk about just about anything. Usually moderators are necessary to keep conversations from getting out of hand.
• Shout box – A more immediate version of the message board, this is the online equivalent of leaving a note on the fridge for your friends to see.
• Comments – The ability to comment on the blog posts, pictures, and other content is almost essential to forming any kind of community. It is usually a good idea to make sure the free clan web site hosting lets you insist on registration before commenting, though, to reduce spam.
• Messaging – While instant messaging applications are ubiquitous, being able to see what other clan members are online and instantly message them from within the website can make member interaction that much easier.

Member-Oriented Features

Even a spiffy free clan website hosting the most interesting and entertaining games and graphics is only as strong as its members. Make sure the choice of hosts enables you to both manage and offer features to your members. These tools would be things like:

• Shopping cart – Being able to offer the goods your members want, often at a discount, and turn a profit on a free clan web hosting site is a very good thing.
• Calendar and events – Let your members know when things are happening. A bonus would be if the calendar has RSS capability.
• Security and access control – In any community, there are bad apples that need to be regulated or kept out of certain areas of the site.
• Private communities– Even a tight-knit clan needs to have places for sub-groups to form and work, and this can be very attractive to members.
• Donations – While the site may be free, it's nice to have recompense for your hard work – taking donations is a way to let members say "thanks."
• Downloads – While content is nice, being able to take something home – desktops, sound files, whatever – can make the difference between a great site and an average one.

Site Management

Make no mistake: managing a clan website, even a free one, will be work. These are the tools you need at a minimum to keep things going:

• Easy setup – Even if you are an experienced designer, getting started quickly lets you focus on the content of the site.
• Themes – One method of making your site look professional is the availability of themes to get your site decorated fast. If you are a part of a group with a certain game in mind, like Neverwinter Nights, the odds are there is a theme you can put on your site right away if you pick the right host.
• Unlimited pages – With data storage as cheap as it is, even free clan web site hosting should offer no limit on your content.
• Statistics and SEO – if you are interested in promoting your site, these tools are essential in making it seen by the internet.
• CSS and customization – The other side of themes, CSS allows infinite customization of your site, but has a bit of a learning curve.
• Support – Perhaps the most important of all the features, a good support framework – whether through the site host or through a large user base and FAQ – will help you navigate through the many things that come up when hosting a communal site.

Free Clan Website Hosting Sources

Now that you know what you need, where can you find it? While there are hundreds of places claiming to give free site hosting, the following three offer most of what is listed above and are truly free, unlike software advertisers like [Free Trial: http://www.esitesbuilder.com/en/build-create-clan-website/index.html eSiteBuilder], which offer free "trials" of software that is hosted on your own server.

1. Clan Site Manager is perhaps the most comprehensive free host for clans and other groups.
2. Complete Clan has an established user base and is used by groups other than gamers, such as iPhone enthusiasts and software developer groups.
3. Clan Sites – Advertises free sub-domains along with their host of other features.

With some research and thought, your clan can be represented by a professional site with little or no cost to you.