Methods of giving out web hosting

A few methods of giving out Free Webhosting to people by Webhosts
Instant Activation

Due to the risks of illegal, inappropriate and abusive websites, many free web host services have switched from instant activation to mail confirmation or other means of verifying the account details prior to actually providing service to the user. Some services which have opted to stay with instant activation usually provide lower storage limits and bandwidth allowance among other limitations such as features available due to the risks associated with instant activation.

Free web hosts which provide instant activation are usually the primary targets of link spamming sites, phishing sites and other malicious activity due in part to the ease of account creation.
Post for Hosting

Some free hosts require posting in a forum. Forum-based free hosting requires users to either reach a certain amount of posts before getting a free hosting account, or be an active contributor in the forum. Forum-based free hosting often work on a system of points where posts give points to a user and can be used as credits toward getting a hosting account or more resources. Typically, the forum where users have to post contains advertising as the hosts way of making a profit.
Forum applications

This method is popular, as the hosts can decide which applications to deny and allow. This is common when a popular forum has free hosting as an add-on service, rather than the other way around.