The Web Leaders: Would you accept an offer to have your business website created for free (basic website, ofc, in terms of functionality and structure)?

Assuming my company wasn't an intensive website operation ie a job board, I would accept the offer since keeping expenses down is a must for start-ups.

Why not ? But expect same level of nagging during acceptance, b/c there is no difference for most people between free or paid.

I would need to see where the company was going to be making money off of the transaction. This could be explained through an ongoing hosting relationship with a contract set to expire after a set period of time allowing you to recoup your outlay. I would need to know who owns the IP of the website design itself. Although you would likely lose a legal fight over the branding and design of a website, you could still severely impact my business by denying access to my site. I would need to be shown assurances that I can transfer the site to alternate hosting after the end of the contract period with your company. I would need to be in a situation whereby I cannot complete website design and deployment with my own resources, such as when I'm in an early stage design or non computer business field. In this situation, 'free offer' sounds like a scam or an excuse to do really bad web design. I'd rather see a reasonable charge for what I know to be expensive (people, time, design skills) and a discount on what I know to be cheap (basic web hosting).

I'm just commenting to counter the negative answers here. Hellz to the yes, I would accept your offer. I mean, providing I like the designs on your site, of course. To me, it's clear what you'd get out of it -- self-promotion and leads (I'm assuming it's a contest of some sort, so your intention is for people to share it via social media; e.g. 'OMG. Someone is giving away free web designs!!1!1! #freebie'), and maybe work for your portfolio -- and so I wouldn't think it was a scam at all. I also agree with Christopher Reiss -- "a linkback on the site is perfectly reasonable to require."

No. I'd be too paranoid about being locked in somehow, or back doors of some kind.

Thanks for the A2A. Would I accept such an offer? No, I would not. I can do it myself ;) I'm sure there are people that would accept such an offer. I would presume they have a certain profile. Is that the target you're after (i.e., probably small, and probably lower budget)? Nothing wrong with that, it's just an observation. I'm a proponent of "dress for the job your want, not the one your have." That is, if you ultimately want to build sites of a certain size and quality then that's what your portfolio should reflect or at least be headed in that direction. Or perhaps you want to be known as the free website outfit? For example, instead of giving away one of the sites you've described every month (or quarter?) I would do a free site - every quarter or six months - but do it as a "raffle" or a "tell us why you deserve a free site from us" contest. This way you can do a better site *and* you can generate leads and press coverage from the names you get that don't win. You could even do two or three runners up that get a discount from your services.