Wordpress

Websites that are free to the public may not always be 100% free. In the case of blogging website Wordpress, and probably many alike, it isnt specifically "hidden" charges that'll get you when you think this is a completely free service. The article I read, How Does WordPress Make Money?, shows directly from the creator of the sites mouth, just how monetary gain can be achieved through a "free" service.

One aspect that many will be familiar with is Ad's. In this case, Google AdSense. "the revenue generated from serving Google AdSense ads on WordPress.com hosted blog may still be significant as do around a billion page views per month." Basically, every time you click on an ad or go to that site through the ad, money is being exchanged one way or another.

Automatic Kismet is a great spam protection plug in that comes with any wordpress blog, and it is free! Except, if your blog makes more than $500 dollars a month, then you are required to pay the $5 dollar monthly fee to keep your blog up.

Also, if you have a free blog and need more space, you have to upgrade to a premium account or if you want to use a custom domain instead of the wordpress sub domain, you would need to upgrade to a premium account.

So, websites like Wordpress arent tricking their users in anyway to make the money they do, it just comes in the way of company tactics.