Ask HN: Anybody interested in free blog hosting?
my idea is I want to offer a free tier that is as good as Wix or Wordpress's premium tier.
Because Wix/Wordpress free tier is very limited.
* We will allow you to connect custom domain! No subdomain like asdf.wordpress.com or asdf.wixsite.com or asdf.my.canva.site
* No sticky ad banner! (just one small ad in the footer, like Powered by PageZest, free website hosting)
is there anybody interested? So far, believe it or not, I've only had one email signup (https://pagezest.com/free-web-hosting/), and I've been really surprised at the lukewarm reception for this idea.
Seems like a hard sell. Technical people probably are good to use github/cloudflare/whatever pages, while nontechnical people are fine with real estate on social media platforms. It would be difficult for you to match the SLA of either without considerable resources, or for the people in-between that Just want a battle-tested CMS/brand to deliver business to customers with minimal interesting stuff or fuss.
Maybe consider promoting this free tier in/to university students? Worked for UNIX. I could see a lot of college kids wanting something more advanced than a twitter feed to create a web portfolio, willing to use something new, but without the investment of learning Jekyll for someone that's, say, a MechE or ChemE student.