When I first got on the web in late 1995, I fell in love immediately. Everything about the net fascinated me. Here was this astounding medium where people were sharing information, entertainment and opinion. I instantly recognized the incredible reach and scope one could attain through a simple website and I had to have one of my own.

"Free adult hosting has changed a lot. It isn't what it used to be and perhaps it never was."

I downloaded a free HTML editor (Arachnophilia) and snagged some free graphics (Randy's Icon Bazaar) and I uploaded my very first website to the homepage account I had with my ISP.

That first site was satisfying but it wasn't enough. I wanted more but I was poor at the time. I couldn't afford the extra money I would have to pay to get my own domain and hosting. At that time, it cost about a hundred dollars to register a domain name and hosting prices were insanely expensive. I just wanted some hands-on webmaster training and that's what brought me to discover free hosting.

Originally, I got an account with Geocities. I learned quite a bit during that time because Geocities had community forums where members could discuss web design and share tips and tricks. I also learned the downside to free hosting. It wasn't really free. Free hosts would automatically embed their banners and their links at the top of every single page in your account. As a webmaster, I was willing to sacrifice some of my page space and traffic to my host but as Geocities embedded banners got bigger and bigger, I looked elsewhere for free hosting. I got accounts with Tripod, Angelfire and practically every non-adult free host that ever existed. After a point, I realized that I was tired of making webpages just for the sake of making webpages. I was ready to make money.

Initially, I attempted a web design business. I got a few clients. I even made a few bucks. The work was sporadic at best. I couldn't get clients to understand the need for a website. I taught a web design class during my day job at a learning facility and even my students couldn't see the income potential on the Internet. I knew there had to be a way to make a living with my skills. My brother kept telling me that if I wanted to make web money I should try making porn sites. Eventually I listened and I began my adventure in this wacky business.

Primarily, I needed hosting for my new porn venture. I knew hosting through my ISP was out of the question. I knew Geocities and Tripod forbade sexually explicit content. I looked into paid hosting and domain registration and found that option was way out of my price range.

Then it hit me. If there was such a thing as free hosting for non-porn pages, then surely there must be someone out there providing free hosting for porn sites. I opened up Yahoo and I'm pretty sure I typed in the phrase: "free porn hosting". The link at the top of my results was PornCity. I opened up an account and I have been in adult ever since.

For a very long time, I held faith in the idea of free adult hosting. When I first got into it, one could still make a go with a sex site on a free host. Link lists would still list them. TGPs still accepted gallery submissions from free-hosted accounts. The embedded headers and footers were somewhat unobtrusive initially. At one glorious time, a webmaster could make a decent amount of money without paying a dime for bandwidth.

Those times couldn't last and they didn't last. It turned out to be rather difficult to make money as a free adult host. After a point, a lot of free hosts filled webmaster pages with so much embedded advertising and redirected so much traffic, they rendered free adult hosting practically worthless. Concurrently, the price to register a domain and the costs of paid hosting went down. Way down. Today, anyone with twenty dollars can register a domain and have it up on paid hosting within 48 hours.

So, you might be curious. Why an article on bannerless free adult hosting?

Bannerless free hosting is a valid option for any adult webmaster, rich or poor. Bannerless free hosting is provided by sponsors, not providers that are trying to make money by leeching your traffic. With a sponsor-based host, you advertise the sites and programs of your sponsor. If your surfer visits your sponsor, your referrer ID follows. All you have to do is sign up with a sponsor that offers free bannerless hosting - follow the rules - and you can make money with your sponsor's bandwidth.

Granted, bannerless free hosting is limited. You can't build the sort of site that will get listed on a major porn link directory. Most TGPs won't accept a gallery that comes from a sponsor-hosted page. However, you can create good-looking web pages that appear to be hosted by you.

These free-hosted sites are perfect as outbound links on a Hub. Build a hub site with your own domain on your own paid host account. Then build a whole bunch of bannerless free-hosted sites and add links to them on your main hub. When your surfer clicks a link to your bannerless free host site, they're still in your web. You still have a chance to make them buy.

Free adult hosting has changed a lot. It isn't what it used to be and perhaps it never was.

Fortunately, adult sponsors offer bannerless free hosting to affiliate webmasters. You can't use these free pages as a replacement for paid hosting but you can use them as a cost-effective way to your expand your reach.