There are at least three ways to interpret that question:

1. You want to build a site, using free hosting, and place AdSense on it.

2. You want to offer free hosting, and then place AdSense ads on your members' sites.

3. You want to offer free hosting, and then place AdSense on the internal control panel pages, to be viewed by your members only - not viewed by their visitors.

I think you'll need to be more specific.

You will find those threads good reading:

[webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]

Sorry, I was thinking about ways to monetize a free hosting service.

Displaying ads on other peoples content could be risky. What happens when someone creates a site that is in direct contravention of the AdSense TOS and has your ads on it?

TJ

Thats a good point, unless one builds a word filter that shows alt ads if offensive content is shown.

that only deals with ONE way...there are hundreds of ways to be in contravention of the ToS.

I wouldn't do it. I recall reading a post here a while back about somebody that did this. It was just a matter of time before people started posting stuff on gambling and porn.

Porn, Phising, Spamming, Copy-Right Materials, etc. I think your hosting company may turn the server off much earlier before Google can even send you the termination email.

not to mention your site owners clicking on their own ads, some thinking it will help you, others thinking it will help them.

etc, etc.

don't go there....

But how about offering free webhosting around certain topics/themes?

Just a thought :-)

There are many successful free hosting companies with AdSense on their pages.

It is only a matter of the resources you can afford to keep thing in line and the traffic volume you can generate that can get you special favors from Google.

I was thinking that the way to go with free hosting was to offer is around a specific theme, eg, crafts, diy projects, custom cars,etc.

But that still wouldn't address the risk of people clicking the ads either maliciously or thinking that they are doing you a "favour".

The pitfalls outweigh the benefits in my opinion. It sounds like an easy way to get a lot of content, but is an inherent risk of violating the TOS.

I'd steer clear of this concept unless you can program this so you "approve" all content before it is added and/or edited.

This still doesn't solve the problem of people clicking on ads thinking they are doing you a "favor" though.