:confused: Hi guys. Just found this board today while looking for a host solution. I need a host for a content only site (no e-commerce functions neccessary). I also need one where I can set up sub domains for my advertisers. (www.mysite.theirsite.com)
Also if it is possible I would like my advertisers to be able to control and change their pages. I also need to be able to track statistics on visits and page views etc.. Message boards, possibly chats, and hhhmmmm and a brand new Caddy in my drive. JK(sort of) Anyway, as you can tell. Im not extremely versed in the web hosting jargon and intellect, but I am very cretive and have some great ideas. Just need help parking my new caddy, I mean web page. I have found a host/software program that seems to be a good solution, however setup is 500.00 and monthly fee is 200.00. Im hoping I can find something a little less expensive to get started with. Hope this wasnt too long. Thank you for any suggestions.

Originally posted by phoebe68
:confused: Hi guys. Just found this board today while looking for a host solution. I need a host for a content only site (no e-commerce functions neccessary). I also need one where I can set up sub domains for my advertisers. (www.mysite.theirsite.com)
Also if it is possible I would like my advertisers to be able to control and change their pages. I also need to be able to track statistics on visits and page views etc.. Message boards, possibly chats, and hhhmmmm and a brand new Caddy in my drive. JK(sort of) Anyway, as you can tell. Im not extremely versed in the web hosting jargon and intellect, but I am very cretive and have some great ideas. Just need help parking my new caddy, I mean web page. I have found a host/software program that seems to be a good solution, however setup is 500.00 and monthly fee is 200.00. Im hoping I can find something a little less expensive to get started with. Hope this wasnt too long. Thank you for any suggestions. Hi..

Uhm at the moment it's a little unclear on a couple of things.

1. Subdomains... Normally they're of the "http://theirside.yoursite.com", so would that be ok?

2. You mention being able to track stats for visits, etc... but it's a little unclear whether message boards are included in the "Stats" requirement or not??

3. Assuming Message boards is a seperate requirement would it be reasonable to assume you're maybe thinking about other scripts for installation as well?

4. How many "advertisers" would you be talking about hosting?

Overall assuming the above it sounds like what you need is something like a reseller account where you can chop and change account facilities (email accounts, databases, mailing lists, etc... ) and provide seperately for each under the same MAIN domain.

The only big question that could be an issue is the fact that you're talking about "advertisers"... Are you referring to people who just wish to place their information on your site in the form of web pages or are we talking out and out spammers?

If it's the latter or there's any danger of that happening then you'll have your account pulled faster than you can say "what'd I do?" with around 95% of hosts so it's a big issue to consider.


Bottom line, it sounds like someone has seen you coming with that quote you got because they're quoting you for a dedicated server as far as I can see. If you can provide a bit more info on your specs and some answers on the above, that'll give everyone a clearer indication of what you need... not what they can sell you :)

Hope that helps ;)

I guess I do need to elaborate. I was just trying to keep it short. The subdomain as you mentioned is perfectly fine and exactly what I meant to write, my three year old was puking on my carpet. I was a bit distracted :0. I do not need stats (that I am aware of) for messge boards, just somewhwere for people to share trip reports and ask questions. We are a local community with national area attractions. My advertisers are actual local retail locations who buy advertising spots on my site. Many of whom would like websites and I am trying to make it easy for them to achieve this with the use of subdomains. I want the stats for marketting purposes when trying to gain ad revenue from large accounts who want to see traffic before they spend thier ad dollars on me. I did feel the price was high and that they "saw me coming". That is why I came here. Their package is for software to build my page and they offer the ability to set up websites for my advertisers that the advertisers themselves can access to make changes so that I do not have to spend my marketting time editing pages. Does this help any?

You dont need a reseller account, as long as you can set up ftp users you can give your advertisers their own ftp access to their folder.
How many subdomains do you think you will need?

For now about 10, but I would like to promote my ability to offer these pages. I also would like to have it set up so that when my advertisers' customers visit their site that it is tracked as visits to my site for statistical reasons in attracting larger accounts. Is that possible? Thank you for your reply.:)

What you may need to do for that is instead of having subdomains use folders eg www.yourdomain.com/advertiser
You can set up an ftp user to be able to access that folder 'for updating' . All stats would then show on one stat program.
You would then be able to set up as many as you need.
Regards
JAmes

Thank you very much. That is what I want to do, but my partner wants to spend all my money.

Ok with a clearer idea of what you're looking for I'd suggest looking at a MCHost reseller account.

Basically what you'll be doing is setting up accounts that your advertisers can then create and maintain themselves and that's easy enough to do with the Control Panel.

The prices are available on the MCHost site rather than me quote it all here. It's certainly a LOT lower than you got in your original quote (didn't mean to offend BTW ;))

As for message boards and stats, MCHost allows you to host that sort of thing and if you're really stuck then there's lots of willing volunteers or "for-pay" services for trickier program involvement.


Just a suggestion though for your own info. You're probably better not just going for the ability to setup ftp accounts for individual users as keeping tabs on your advertisers usage (Bandwidth, disk space, etc..) and making sure that they are paying for what they receive from you requires more stats, etc... as you noted.

The MCHost accounts have a lot of the necessary features as standard and getting setup wouldn't be a major issue although you would need to spend a bit of time getting to know how to use the system.

If you'd rather have a LOT more hand holding (at least initially) you could consider looking at someone like MBSHost.com who use the same services but are setup more to be able to assist you.


For the record I don't get any commission on this.. It's just a case of matching your spec' to a service that I know, trust and use in a similar way (ie: for hosting my design clients as an extra service).

Best of luck. :)