Hi Entreri

welcome to the board
I quit doing any AVS sites almost 2 years ago because they are dying IMO.
As for hosting you need to pay for a good host or you will regret it very quickly. There are too many problems with free hosting and sponsor hosting. Even if YOU do not see them they still exist and by the time you figure it out you will have lost some serious monies. Not to mention that 99% of the TGP's and LL with the good traffic won't list you on either a free host or sponsor host.
Feel free to use them, this is only a warning against starting off on the wrong foot.