Revenue Domains: Which Hosting Makes The Best Sence For You?
December 9, 2007
Web hosting comes in my sizes and shapes, resellar hosting, shared hosting and semi and dedicated server hosting to name a few. This article was written (and filmed for that matter) to give you some idea of which type hosting package is right for you.
If your going to be developing your own domain names you going to need one or two hosting accounts. Their are numerous options online when it comes to website hosting. This post was created to give those just getting started with domain development some ideas on what types of hosting accounts are available, as well as what type of hosting account makes the most sense for you.
Types Of Hosting Accounts Available -
Shared Web Hosting
Shared website hosting is the most common type of hosting available today. It is perfect for someone who wants to create “a website”, these packages are dirt cheap but are also very limiting. Most shared hosting accounts cost about $4 to $7 monthly, this provides ftp access, usually a control panel and is a great way to get started if your building “a site”. However if you plan on building 5, 10 or even 50 websites shared web hosting would be a bad choice and would cost you more than picking up one of the options below.
Dedicated & Semi Dedicated Web Hosting
Both dedicated servers and semi dedicated servers offer the ability to gain further access to the server that is hosting your site.
Why is that important?
Well you might want to configure and customize your server in way that is just not possible with low end “shared hosting”. Often times shared hosting accounts are somewhat limiting in the ability to run server scripts which you might want to take advantage of if your overseeing dozens or even hundreds of websites. While both semi and dedicated servers offer more power combined with the ability to run a server the way you want you will also have a hosting company to help you with any issues that may arise. Of course both of these options are more costly – costing anywhere from $49 entry level options to hundreds of dollars a month.
Reseller Web Hosting
Resellar hosting offers the best of both worlds, plenty of server space with the ability to host as many domains as you like within your allotted disk space. You also have more freedom to run various types of website scripts and applications. Pricing is also more reasonable, you can find lots of great resellar hosting options starting at $24.95 and up.
For most series webmasters and or domainers who want to hosting lots of domains but don’t want to shell out big money resellar hosting makes the most sense. Further more you can provide hosting to clients and charge for the service of keeping their websites online (of course with this comes customer service issue that you might not want to get involved in).
One Big Advantage Of Either Dedicated Or Resellar Hosting:
The skeleton directory!
No were not talking about a creepy horror movie. Rather the skeleton directory can be accessed by the server admin (you). Which allows you to place files that will be automatically copied into any new domain account that is added to the server. While this does not really sounds like a big deal it makes getting a new website up quick and easy. Instead of uploading all the same type of files to each and every domain you add you can simply add those same files to your skeleton directory once.
Then when you add a new domain to your server all those files will be copied over to the new site. I use this system myself for two types of webistes:
- Wordpress Sites
- Build A Niche Store Websites
This way all I have to do is edit and replace one file for wordpress (wp-config.php for wordpress) and a fresh install of wordpress is set to go. All my favorite plugins, themes, ect. This is just one more little tool or trick I use to save time and get more done 
To Your Success,
Brian J
Hi Brian,
The skeleton directory sounds like a great time saver. I just keep my library of files up on the server in one domain and copy it over to a new domain if I need them.
For me I haven’t tapped out my shared host account. If you are a domainer it is important you get a host that allows you put as many domains into your space as you want and allows you to move domains in and out, host sites without extra”set-up” charges. I had a host that advertised unlimited domains within your space but hit you up for a $9.95 setup charge each time you set up a domain. Make sure you ask when you are looking for a hosting company - they generally don’t offer the info. I currently have about 50 domains hosted in my space for about $10 a month.
Another good point you brought up is about being able to run the site the way you want. My hosting company doesn’t allow the f(open) function a commonly used php command. The reason they say is security, but they said if I wanted to I could set up the operating system in my space to allow that prohibited function they just didn’t want to expose all of their customers to the risk. Since they decribed how it could be a security issue that was good enough for me and I worked with the script developers to use another function that was allowed in its place. It works but it did require some extra work and you need the script developers help. So if you are buying a low cost script from an internet marketer who really doesn’t know the product and has no intention of providing support there’s a good chance it won’t work right out of the box if you are using share hosting.
If you are considering dedicated hosting make sure you ask what their support policies are, some provide it free as part of the package, some provide a limited amount of free hours, and some charge extra for any support. So make sure you ask.
Thanks for the post.
All the best,
Ted Sudol
http://www.hotdotauctions.com
http://www.seedpodmedia.com
http://www.ChristmasOrnaments.be - A domain I purchased from Brian - you should buy one too
A good overview. The video doesn’t work however.
Ahh the video works now, I must have caught it as it was uploading. I used IdoLogic for my reseller hosting.15 dollars a month and I can host pretty much as many domains as I want. If anyone is interested in this hosting my affiliate link is below
(sorry no affiliate links - don’t want to get penalised by google for aff links)
Brian
With regard to Skeleton directory use: I understand how any files that appear in the directory will also appear in new accounts. What I don’t understand is how a wordpress installation will be useful as surely you will need to reconfigure wordpress to point to a different database for each blog?
Hi,
In all of this discussion on types of hosting accounts, space and bandwidth I forgot the most important consideration - uptime. If your host is down or your sites are down because of a hosting problem you are effectively out of business and depending upon the size of your revenue stream you could be losing hundreds or thousands of dollars. Don’t just take the hosting company’s word for it. Look for some independently verifiable statistics. I like to do a google search on the company or on hosting and see what other users say. It’s sometimes very revealing on how widely users experience varies with what the company is telling you. Don’t get put off by one or two disgruntled users - every company will have that - but go by the weight of the majority of users experiences.
Ask the company how their contingency plans and their redundant connectivity to the net. I once had a hosting company shut down for three days because of 1 router failure - they had no redundant equipment and had to wait for a new one to be shipped in. For me it was just a minor inconveniece because I was just buying a mail service from them. But for them they were out of business for three days and lost three days revenue plus any goodwill they had built up.
Ask the company about their management panel - how easy is it to use. Some companies are a bear. With my current hosting company I can manage all of my domains from one account. I briefly used another company based on their low price. They make you log into each of your domains separately to make any changes - they have been promising a unified management panel for a year since the day I signed with them. They now say it is still another 4 months off.
Hope this helps
All the best,
Ted Sudol
http://www.hotdotauctions.com
http://www.seedpodmedia.com
http://www.ChristmasOrnaments.be - a domain I purchased from Brian - buy one too.
PS Make sure you check on whether the company you use charges a setup fee. The current plan for which I pay $120 a year doesn’t (271.6 GB disk space, 5.20TB bandwidth - grows 2GB each week you remain with them) But I noticed on their lower priced plans they do charge a setup fee of $9.95 per domain per year which could quickly add up depending upon the number of domains you have in your space.
WhyPark.com looks good to me as a newbie but there must be issues with it. Have you looked at it?
Hi Jack,
Yes and no, I have known about whypark.com for some time. However my issue with this service is that their is no way they can provide quality “unique” content to each site. For $100 bucks for 100 sites … just no way.
Google does not rank well sites that use content already found online, so I can not see gaining any free traffic from an auto created site with content found else where.
Before creating this comment I was chatting with another domainer on the phone and asked him his experience with the program. He mentioned that the content that whypark.com used was in part actual advertisement to other sites with affiliate links built into the links. However the domain owner does not share in the revenue created from these ads - whypark.com does.
Now I have to say that I have never used the service so this is from my gut feelings and all.
I rather create my “revenue domains” …
- unique content
- my affiliate links
- my adsense
- ect …
Cheers,
Brian J