host location, storage/bandwidth, SiteBuildIt.com...

Atrius · 29th June 2008

I'm new to the forum and to all things related to hosting, etc. I have a few questions:

1. I was wondering whether my choice in web host is limited to the particular country where I reside, or whether I can choose a web host from any country? If the latter is true, are there any disadvantages to this?

2. Also, I would like to set up a website and from what I understand of my investigations so far, there exist two possibilities. The first is to download all the necessary software and do it all by myself which will also involve finding a good host that meets my needs and also optimising the website for Google. The other way would be to subscribe to an online company which provides all of these services in one package at a determined price. Which would be better?

3. Has anyone ever come across a site called SiteBuildIt.com, or also known as SiteSell.com? Would this be a good option and are they or do they do what they claim? If it is a good option, are there any other sites similar to SiteSell? Therefore, would it be more practical to subscribe to a company like SiteSell where I can get all my hosting, web design and SEO needs all under one roof or would I be better off going it on my own?

4. With regard to my hosting needs, how much storage and bandwidth should I get in order to run a small real estate website?

Thanks!

Jamie- · 29th June 2008

Hi,

In response to your questions;

1) You can use a webhost in any country you want - however, it's best to host in the country of your target audience, allowing better visibility across search engines for that country (arguably) and allowing faster page loads for your visitors.

2) This depends on yourself, do you feel you could do it yourself? how much does it mean to you - is it the front of a business, and a clients first port of call, or is it a hobby. You can buy templates and modify them, or you can hire a web designer to create you a site and use your own webhosting.

Of course many web designers provide hosting for a time, but they are generally resellers of resellers, and as such, getting support can be problematic.

SEO is a tough one, it's hard to get right, and the people who know it inside out usually charge a lot for this service - it again depends how serious your site is to be - will people be referred to it by yourself/others, or are you relying solely on search engine traffic.

3) I've never heard anything about either, do a few searches for reviews on them - but as with anything online, take them with a pinch of salt - people aren't always who they say they are.

If its a small site, a few pages and a few images, anything from 50 - 100mb storage, and a couple of gb bandwidth; make sure your host allows you to expand as and when you need it, the last thing you want is to have to move webhosts when your site is at its peak!

If it's going to be content rich, and include large media files etc, obviously you'll need more space. If you're getting the site done prior to purchasing hosting, you'll be able to check how big it is, and base your needs on that.

Hope this helps

freethought · 29th June 2008

It's best to go with a host in the country your clients are in for speed/latency reasons. That said, for normal web sites the extra 100ms from trans-atlantic traffic usually isn't a problem

Are you looking for shared web hosting where you just have space on a company's server and upload your pages or are you looking for your own server? For a small real estate web-site I would guess that a shared package is going to do you just fine unless you have some custom back-end software you need to run.
Not sure if pointing you to the link in my signature is going to break forum rules but I'm going to be cheeky and do it anyway

check out the shared packages.

Jamie- · 29th June 2008

It does break the rules, its self promotion outside the advertising forum

btw, there is no link in your signature :P

freethought · 29th June 2008

Bloody hell, you're right! Better fix that before I look too much like a complete tool...

Niel's allowed self promotion in other similar threads so I'm sighting precedent!

Jamie- · 29th June 2008

Just so you now, you're link doesn't work

You're starting to look a little spanner shaped

othellotech · 29th June 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atrius

1. I was wondering whether my choice in web host is limited to the particular country where I reside, or whether I can choose a web host from any country? If the latter is true, are there any disadvantages to this?

The average attention span of a goldfish is 30 seconds - making it about 4 times more likely to wait for a webpage to load than the average web-surfer.

In order to stop your visitors immediately closing their browser windows, you need it to be fast - and that *generally* means picking a decent host with equipment in the country of your main viewers.

We are you selling to will determine where you should host it - everyone* is not a valid answer, in marketing terms everyone == no-one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atrius

2. [snip]

Doing it yourself, or getting someone in to do it, or outsourcing it - the choice depends on yoru budget and skill level.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atrius

3. Has anyone ever come across a site called SiteBuildIt.com, or also known as SiteSell.com? Would this be a good option and are they or do they do what they claim?

I'm very aware of SBI, have tried it out - its an "interesting" way of selling hosting, but at the end of the day thats all it is - Ken makes a *LOT* of money out of it, so much so that he's neglected his real talent of writing for the last few years - the ebook on dynamic pricing is very interesting work ...

Its a mashup of an online webdesigner, and a CMS with soem arketing tools, jack-of-all-trades, aimed at complete newcomers to the interent - it does what it says on the tin, and for the completely clueless its a *lot* better than some sh!te knocked out in Serif Web Pro or a-n-other desktop publishing rubbish.

No *serious* ecommerce site uses it though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atrius

4. With regard to my hosting needs, how much storage and bandwidth should I get in order to run a small real estate website?

How many visitors ? How maby pictures ? What size ?
It's impossible to guess on your needs, but experience and a bit of grep shows me that the majority of websites use less than 120Mb of diskspace and minimal amounts of transfer.

freethought · 29th June 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamie-

Just so you now, you're link doesn't work

You're starting to look a little spanner shaped

Bah, forgot the closing quotation mark (stupid fingers!)

Excuse me, I have to go embed a monkey wrench in my head!

[inx]Olly · 29th June 2008

We all make mistakes. Spanner head a lil harsh Jamie!

Atrius · 30th June 2008

Thanks everyone for all your replies. It's been really very useful. From all the information offered, I can see that shared hosting is probably the option for me. Still have more research to do though. Thanks.

goscombtech · 1st July 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by freethought

the extra 100ms from trans-atlantic traffic

Ouch... you need some better routes!

Atrius · 1st July 2008

Does anyone know if Joomla is Mac compatible?

JamieBeeston · 1st July 2008

We have lots of clients using Joomla, with them running Macs and haven't had any -ve reports.

J

othellotech · 2nd July 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atrius

Does anyone know if Joomla is Mac compatible?

From the admin/user side - yes.

freethought · 2nd July 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by goscombtech

Ouch... you need some better routes!

I'm talking about home connections as that's where people tend to access web sites from. Not many people live in datacentres.
On my NTL connection transatlantic traffic adds about 100ms and I've seen similar things on DSL connections.