Getting it sorted

cantthinkofnick · 25th March 2007

I have read through these posts and now understand (!) the issues of reseller or shared hosting. My situation is that I am an amateur designer and made my own family tree site. The I offered to do one for a school as a learning exercise on design including good practice, accessibility, html/css and all that. During that time I picked up a little nursery website job which I made a nominal charge for. This site is constructed but waiting a customer consultation. The customer wants me to get it hosted so I've told them I will visit them and help them register a domain name and then get a host and we'll upload the site from their PC. By the way, they want to make minor changes.

My son being a professional environmentalist wants a website so now I have 3 sites needing posting!

I have just started the development of a local charity site which has got to be fully accessible for older people. I suspect this has nothing to do with the host - tell me if I'm wrong?

Now I have a dilema. Do I get separate hosts and expose them to technical stuff they don't want or get them to buy Contribute? This leads me to the following issues:

1. I am now trying to learn CMS techniques and considering Joomla! or Dupal for non blog type sites to get content management. I will want to host say 2 CMS type sites.

2. Currently I do all my work on a XPPro laptop with IIS5 and Dreamweaver used to ftp the school site when I'm at home.

3. I am trying to setup a Linux webserver and will want to develop new sites on that one and ftp to the online site when ready. Not sure if this is an issue here.

4. If I use individual hostings then I have to get the customer involved in registering (Morally and legally I suspect that it is not possible to register on their behalf especially if its their direct debit that pays! - they have to type that in!).

5. It seems to me that I'm down to a reseller, but do not want to pay say Fasthosts £30 +vat per month for what is 50% a hobby and possibly growing to a side earner for small businesses.

6. I want a host for several unique domain names with subdomain capability. In case a user wants to do some herself, they need some CMS controlled access facility - just simple content and maybe image changes. Definitely not able to change the structure of the pages.

7. I would rather by domain names from the same host but control them separately.

8. Never understood why I need 500 mailboxes (or whatever), why?

9. Non of these sites will be heavy traffic.

10. The host must support all technologies for site construction although I do not envisage video streaming.

I know you may say 'Ok you've got it sorted so go ahead', but I'm a novice here and want to draw out from you experts other aspects I should be considering now.

I have noticed some of the responders (obvious I suppose!) are web hosters and it seems to me there are smaller business webhosters out there who may be what I want. I would probably only host on a UK site and may want to pay fees directly sterling with cheque/DD options.

Sorry its a long story, useful suggestions of any sort welcome. Thanks for your time.

Roger

othellotech · 26th March 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by cantthinkofnick

I have just started the development of a local charity site which has got to be fully accessible for older people. I suspect this has nothing to do with the host - tell me if I'm wrong?

Correct, teh accessibility issues are client-side not server-side.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cantthinkofnick

Now I have a dilema. Do I get separate hosts and expose them to technical stuff they don't want or get them to buy Contribute

The question is do you want to are you able to provide the 1st line support to these customers. With shared hosting they'd be able to go to the host with any issues. With reseller hosting they shoudl come to you for resolution, and you can escalate it to the host if necessary.

If you dont want to, are unable to, or unwilling to act in that "layer" then they'll each need their own hosting account. All on the same host if you feel comfortable wit the company, and you as designer can still do all the "technical stuff" but at least then if email stops working and you're on holiday they can still get the help they need direct.

>I am now trying to learn CMS techniques and considering Joomla! or Dupal

Good, have fun

>Currently I do all my work on a XPPro laptop with IIS5 and Dreamweaver

make backups for when the japtop is stolen, breaks etc. - cd's are good for that, preferably keep them in a friends garage in case the house blows up etc.

>I am trying to setup a Linux webserver and will want to develop new sites on that one

where and on what you develop the sites should be irrelevant as long as you have used a supported technology for the deployment.

>4. If I use individual hostings then I have to get the customer involved in registering
>(Morally and legally I suspect that it is not possible to register on their behalf especially if its their direct debit that pays!

very few hosting business use d/debit, its almost entirely c.card payments
yes you can register something on someone elses behalf, its extremely common for designers to register domains on behalf of their customers.

you might want to look at a decent host with an affiliate program if you are having the clients signup direct for their domains and shared acconts

>It seems to me that I'm down to a reseller,
>but do not want to pay say Fasthosts £30 +vat per month

i wouldnt recommend fasthosts and thought their reseller account was £50/month, and you dont need reseller hosing with only half a dozen sites.
that said, if the "side business" isnt generating £600/year for the actual hosting, maybe you should rethink your rates !

>I want a host for several unique domain names with subdomain capability.

this is a common enough requirement to be pretty much standard

>I would rather by domain names from the same host but control them separately.

i dont understand how you think you will control them separately or why you'd need to

> Never understood why I need 500 mailboxes (or whatever), why?

you generally dont

>The host must support all technologies for site construction

difficult and probably impossible - various different technologies are hardware and setup dependant and mutually exclusive to others - you'd be better off deciding which ones you actually will use rather than looking for a non-existant holy grail.

>I would probably only host on a UK site

good plan

thermaldegree · 26th March 2007

You can get decent reseller hosting for a fraction of £50/mo of course if I said where that would be telling

As you sound more like a designer, I would recommend referring your clients to a hosting company to purchase their own account, rather than becoming a reseller - we've had a few designers who've purchased reseller accounts only to pass their clients on to us as direct shared hosting clients (while they handle the design only), as they ended up passing most queries on to us anyway (or spending more time on the hosting bits than the useful designing)

Using a host's affiliate program to refer your clients could also be a good approach.

cantthinkofnick · 27th March 2007

But If I get a shared hosting with say 3 domain names (+sub domains) then I could effectively have 3 separate websites. Is this so?

If I look at the responders site ofers here I do not see more than one domain allowed for shared hosting although I am sure I've seen that somewhere. Do you allow this?

Point is I'm a bit of a hobbyist and am prepared to absorb some of the cost of a reseller and if I get a real customer then this would be a simple brochure site without (I suppose!) constant requests for the customer except for the odd design change. Maybe a reseller at around £100+vat would suit my needs initialy for 3 domain names.

thermaldegree · 27th March 2007

"Addon domains" are probably what you're looking for - they share the resources of their parent cPanel account. Same cPanel login, but you can setup FTP accounts and e-mail addresses for them as well (something@theaddondomain.com - ie 'proper' accounts)

othellotech · 27th March 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by cantthinkofnick

But If I get a shared hosting with say 3 domain names (+sub domains) then I could effectively have 3 separate websites. Is this so?

The general distinction between a multiple domain shared hosting account and a reseller account is whether the domains/sites have individual control panels and are therefore completely separate.

If you will be giving your clients access to the control panel to manage aspects of their hosting (email adddresses etc) then you will need a shared hosting account for each of them.