Running a web site, on any topic under the sun, does not have to put you in the red and eat up all of your money. There are several alternative paths you can take when it comes to paying for your web hosting account.

Reseller Hosting

With a reseller web hosting account, you can earn a little extra income on the side reselling a web host’s services to your friends, family and clients. With the money made, you can turn around and pay your own hosting bills so you can get out of the red and back into the green.

Affiliate Account

Many web hosts out there today offer affiliate accounts where you place a link on your web site, a person clicks through it and buys hosting from them, and you get credit for the sale. Might not be the easiest way of making money but with the high payouts some web hosts give you might only need to sell to one or two a month.

Put up Advertising

The best way of earning some money to pay for your web site is to put up advertising. Services like Google’s AdSense make the process brain dead simple. Now if you think your going to be earning millions – you are in store for a rude awakening. If you want to pay that $5.99 a month web hosting bill, then you should be covered.

Ask for Donations

You might laugh, but begging for cash can go a long way. How many years have we seen that “Donate via PayPal” button on web sites? People like to support services or web sites that they enjoy. The only hard part about this one is it is also kind of a crap shoot. You never know if people will donate or if they do, how much they will give.

Find a Backer for Your Business

Get somebody else to pay your hosting bill for you. If you have an interesting idea or project you want to get started ask around to see if you can find a sugar-daddy to pay the hosting bills for you. You might have to give something back in return (such as advertising and the occasional plug) but it is a lot better than going in all by yourself.