I want to develop a fair number of relatively stand-alone information sites. Each will have original material/info/whatever. Some internal/cross links but no overt or extensive duplication of content.

I cannot afford to buy and pay to host lots of domain names, but I could use a 'free'** domain - such as www.costa-tour.ft6.com that then uses a 301 redirect to an index page inside a paid hosted domain folder such as www.frog-property.com/costa-tour/index.htm

[please note that this example does not work completely/properly yet - I do know that]
[** free in this case means no cost to host, but must use a dial-up to upload, and use one their prefigured endings, like .ft6.com - www.freeola.net]

My question is, is there a SEO/Google penalty for doing this? [compared with a pukka separate domain]
Or a better (economic) way? Whaddya think?

Thanks in advance.
Nick :-)

If you aren't serious about making a sucess of the site it wont really matter.
If you are serious then just pay the $10 for a domain name.

Or you could just create sub folders on your paid hosting and link directlly to the subdirectories. Why redirect from a subdomain that isn't the location of the files?

yeees, well to reiterate a little bit . . .

Firstly, its not just a matter of registering a domain for 10€, there's the hosting cost as well, etc etc and I want to create a fair number. Being "serious" is not an issue. I just need to spend as wisely and prudently as I can.

Secondly, if I create www.whateverwebsite.ft6.com then I have a specific web address message for the outside world (even if it does redirect) compared with www.someotherwebsite.com/whateverwebsite/index.htm

And my question is fairly simple, given my own parameters, would Google or some other SEO objective, somewhow penalise the arrangement? All help and friendly suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks

It will take Googl e awhile to find out your crossLinked project but it will eventually, this guys have been cheating out for a few years now, their serps have dropped but it worked for a while: theflightdeck.com/quicklinks/links08.php

Nick,

It is late and I am tired so maybe I mis-read what you wrote.

A 301 redirect says "this item is moved permanetly to this location". The old page will be dropped and the new page added if it is worthy.

Now if you create a site on some type of free host and then move elsewhere this is a good way to do it.

I can't see what you are trying to accomplish.