My wife said I had to write this, and she is (of course) correct!
We as pastors and techies in the church are always trying to get things for cheap or free. There is nothing wrong with that and it is a form of good stewardship. Why pay for it if someone is giving it away? Well, the answer for that question is, "There is no such thing as a free lunch". Simply put, there is always a cost. Someone is always trying to entice you to do something and get money from you, one way or another even if it is not immediately obvious. In the world of the Web, this often translates to advertising dollars.
"Pay-per-click" is one such scheme. Every time you see an ad on the web and click on it, someone makes a quick half-penny or so. Add up all those fractions of a penny, and someone just made a nice paycheck. Not so bad, right? Just keep an eye on 'em!
In our first church I set up our website with a free service provider. The site looked good and was a good place to send people who wanted to know more. The site started with an 'enhanced' account with no banner ads for 3 months, which I promptly forgot about. After the three months, with no payments, it reverted to the 'free, banner-supported' format. One day I got a call from one of our church members who went on the website and wanted to know why we were running banners for casinos and gambling! I have heard even worse stories, from people who ended up running a website with banner ads for porn sites. Not the kind of image you want to portray.
Check your free website provider and see how they determine what banner ads might be run on your site. It might be worth the $3 a month to buy the 'banner-free' option.
Just a word to the wise....
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