You can start a free petition online and not have to pay for the creation or the hosting. Online petitions have the potential of collecting massive numbers of signatures and support for your cause. Through a petition you can bring an issue you feel is important to the attention of readers from all over the world.

Sometimes a petition online (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/create-online-petition) can be started just for fun, but for the most part they deal with serious issues affecting small and large groups of people. They can deal with the environment, animal life and habitats and government laws and regulations.

There are many situations in which you feel the only way you can get changes made is to start a petition. By using the free petition tools and resources available online you have access to forms in which you just type in the information. You don't need to purchase software for formatting the petition because the site does this for you. You don't have to pay for hosting either because this is free as well.

An online petition is not the only kind of free petition. A conventional petition is also free. It does require more work on your part because you have to physically collect all the signatures you need, which does take time.

It may involve knocking on doors and asking people to sign your petition or setting up a table in an area where you have access to a large number of people, such as in a shopping mall. In this type of petition, people show their support by signing their name and giving their street address.

In an online free petition (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/browse-petitions), supporters cannot give a written signature, but typing their name in the appropriate space is considered an electronic signature. The email address is the same as a street address in this type of petition. There is only one signature permitted per email address, but in a conventional petition you can have many signatures with the same street address.

While the potential for fraud does exist in an online petition, the sites usually can detect whether or not an email address is valid. Even so, you can be diligent in this regard and check the email addresses associated with the petition to make sure that everything is above board before you submit it.

When you start a free petition of the conventional type, you have an opportunity to speak to the potential supporters and explain your cause more clearly than is stated in the opening statement of the petition.

You do not have the opportunity to do this with an online petition and you do not provide any contact information for any readers who may wish to have clarification. Therefore it is essential that you state the reasons for the petition process as clearly and concisely as possible. You cannot leave any doubts in the minds of the readers as to the goal of the petition and how the changes you propose can be beneficial.

A free petition hosted online gives you access to a massive numbers of supporters. You have to promote the petition though by making it known to those in your contact list. Once you create a petition online you will receive a link to where it is hosted. You can then forward this link to all your contacts and ask them to do the same. In this way the petition gets noticed by all who have an interest in the same issues as you do.