Many consumers have found success in developing fee-free web pages through a free online hosting service. Some will even purchase a domain name and link their free site to a more identifiable name.
The majority of these sites are enhanced with a link to a free forum board and other free online tools. It is also important to note than most of these sites are for personal use and are generally inadequate for ecommerce.
For some individuals these sites are often sufficient to get them going. However, for ecommerce this approach will not likely provide the flexibility and growth you need.
Why do they offer it for free?
For service providers who offer a few web pages free of charge they are hopeful they can recoup the cost for those pages by placing advertising on the page that is relevant to the keywords they encounter. If you are a netrepreneur this is not helpful. Having links to online companies that provide the same products or services that you do is not conducive to sales and actually minimizes trust in your company. Besides if you own the site you can link to Google Adsense or other PPC companies and receive residual income if you feel advertising...