hey, y'all~~
a web-head buddy who must be tired of my whining :bawling: referred me here.
(*snip life story*) I'm ready to put my candle business back together and I'm sure that a website is the way to go. Of course, I have big ideas and a small budget.

more than just another online dog-and-pony (catalog-and-shopping cart) joint, I want to do a live demonstration show from my workshop to promote sales of how-to films. I want to have on-demand streaming or downloadable short films folks can watch in between the scheduled live shows. I want to have ambient music in the background, with a jukebox-like way for the visitor to choose what they'll listen to. I want Flash games (like "make your own virtual candle") and greeting cards and and and.....
oh, plus the online catalog-and-shopping cart thing.
and a few vanity pages (for pics of my dog and pony), etc.
and I have this ever-expanding OldTime Radio collection I'd like to share-- downloadable .mp3's, maybe an FTP site, some on-demand streaming shows-- so far I only have about 80gigs of OTR and another 20gigs of classic TV shows, but when you share you get more.

now, I can put together and get help making all these magical things happen, but my inquiries into hosting has gotten me quite a range of responses... from "you can't do that" to "what?? why??" to "sure, for $500 a month.":eek:

I know that somewhere between the freebie Geocities-type sites and the $500/month virtual server is something that will work and be affordable.
any suggestions or referrals would be most appreciated.

You are going to need a LOT of server for all of that! Just the OTR and the Classic TV is 100 gigs of transfer. I wish you well in finding a host. Dedicated is the way to go for this, though, I think!

The old saying is right. Nothing is for free. and more costs more.

The host that told you 500 is telling you the truth. and its not a bad deal as far as all that transfer you will be doing.. Drop out the movies and the MP3's and you can drop you cost very very large.

Hope that helps.

yd

drop out the movies and the MP3's and he MAY just be able to get a shared account...he would still need a LOT of transfer with the live demonstrations and such...but it could be done CONSIDERABLY less than500 a month without the OTR and the Movies.

Waxxman, how many "live demonstrations" do you plan on doing per month?

I have to agree with the others. Have a really multimedia site is excellent on the sales side, but it's costly. Streaming media has improved recently though if your site hits the popularity stakes, then your wallet will suffer, though the theory is that you will make more sales.

Designing a site like this is a gamble. There is one solution around the streaming media, and that is pay to view on most of the vids except a couple of samples (teasers). It will deter people from playing the media for the sake of it, but capture the truely interested audience. As a promo tool, you couldn't really do this though... your only choice is to reduce the amount of available vids and audio files to just 3 or 4.. (again it depends on popularity).

A dedicated server is a must for such a requirement as you won't want your data stream interrupted by other sites. Using streaming video to promote will be useless if the view is "jittered". Generally people have a short attention span on the web!

For $500 a month I would initially point you towards tera-byte. You should be able to get a good dedicated server with plenty of the necessary bandwidth.

wow, real pros giving straight-talk answers to a li'l nobody like me... I like this place! :D

no sweat to skip the OldTime Radio and classic TV stuff-- the newsgroups are great for that, anyway. once I got to dreamin' an' wantin' I guess I lost my head.

but the "object of the game" for the candle biz is to emphasize the production and sale of the How-To films, as I've learned that a one-man manufacturing business simply cannot compete with large production companies.
so the Live Demonstration Show is really the big deal for me-- I hope to do a 90 min. show once a week, and there's no way to guess how many or few visitors I'd get or how many would sit through the whole show. I'd imagine numbers would start out small and grow in time.
the Live Show would have to have sound, as narration is key to the presentation. There should also be a real-time chat feature, so my assistant can answer questions while I'm working and I can follow up with more live chat after the Demo.

this angle on the candle site is what'll distinguish me from all other candle sites-- NObody is doing this! :idea: I haven't discussed this plan openly and would hate to see another candlemaker who has the resources do it before I get to, so please don't blow my gig!

I am shopping for a hosting co. where I might start out small and grow into this grand concept. I'm checking out shopping carts and programs to monitor traffic, etc. there are so many and pricing seems competitive enough, it must be about reliability. I'm a helluva candlemaker and not a bad marketer, but don't want to have to become a webmaster just to have a site that works and does cool things.

serious "Thank You" to those so interested for your thoughts and guidance.

I want to thank you all for your time and input to my query :agree:
I've gone ahead and signed up with F5hosting.com-- I'm jumping in with their Really Big Plan ("Platinum" I think) and gonna see how much of my crazy idea I can put together.
candlemakers are not generally known for their hi-tech comprehension :homer: and I'm no exception to that. after the fast and nearly painless online purchase, I required HELP on three things and got it immediately each time I asked :D
it's more disk space and bandwidth and other perks than I've ever had before, so I'll see how far I can get with that... I'll probably Customer Service the poor guy to death :rolleyes:
anyways, this is a cool place and I expect y'all haven't heard the last of me. thanks again, all!

I don't know about 15gigs transfer. One 90 minute live broadcast would probably take alot of that 15gigs away if you had many visitors. I suggest you look for another plan with more bandwidth. I'm sure you can find them cheaper too. Weinbar's Platinum account offers 20gigs of bandwidth for almost half what you pay now. You might want to check them out.