I am hoping somebody will read this and offer some sound advice to me, as the whole situation is making a 20-year-old guy go bald with stress :) LOL

Basically, I have been trying to form my "dot.com" venture for the past three years, although as a student and low-wage part-timer, I have no serious capital to invest in dedicated servers. Therefore, I have been stuck on free servers (Geocities, FreeOnline, Crosswinds) and unsuitable hosting resellers (Dommel, KingwoodNet & BurstNet), and inevitably my site has been shutdown six times, each time because it has grown too big for bandwidth limits of the virtual hosting plans I subscribe to.

The basic concept of my "dot.com" is an electronic fashion magazine (in the style of Vogue or Elle). Because of its nature, I obviously feature a lot of catwalk/modelling photos etc - but there's only so high JPEG-compression can go. Obviously these files are the culprits in me breaking the bandwidth limits, but without the pictures, the site is devoid of its core-content.

With the most recent version, I managed to pull-in approximately 150,000 visits per-month. Bandwidth used was around 10gb-a-month (how I kept this low I'll never guess), but crucially, I housed the-then 15mb of picture files remotely on a free host in the UK, whom has now unfortunately shutdown.

So now I am working on the new site and have set-up a "Plan 6" account at Tera-Byte, which I am so far thrilled with. This means I have 40gb of bandwidth to play with. I feel that the latest site design is superior to anything I have ever done before, and although I am not usually the confident type, I have a feeling this could seriously soar in popularity this time around, and be more than just another vanity project.

And here's the rub: I have to store at least 20mb of picture files somewhere to get the basic site online. But I definitely do not want to put them on the account at Tera-Byte, as the rush of visitors will surely compromise my account within a week of opening.

If I could just get the site open and running stable for a month or so, I might be able to finally use a noteworthy banner advertising provider and start generating enough revenue off of the ads in order to pay for dedicated hosting.

So what is a guy to do? To run a high-visitor site that carries a lot of content and uses a lot of bandwidth, you need to spend a serious amount of cash on dedicated servers. But to make a lot of revenue to pay for dedicated servers, you need to have a good site that lots of people will visit in order for the respectable banner providers to work with you. The "Catch-22" of the web age :(

I really need some realistic help and/or advice, as opposed to the simple answers of "give up" or "go dedicated". I love the site I have been running for the last three years, so giving up is the last thing I want to do. I would love nothing more than to go dedicated, but genuinely cannot afford it on my paltry income.

I would take a gamble and stick the picture files on a freebie host again, but have exhausted most of the major ones, and am not sure who to use. I know Tera-Byte run their own (Spaceports), but going with that seems a bit too risky, because if I set the bandwidth alarm bells off again, it could reflect back to my paid hosting account as well.

CAN ANYBODY PLEASE HELP?!?

What is the toal amount of transfer this site will do? If it is just 10gig, then I don't think you'd be having problems.

Chicken's right. You've got 40 GB to play with right now, and on 10 GB a month, if you're generating 150,000 targeted visitors per month, you should be able to easily find a banner sponsor. I WISH I had your problem. :)

yeah, nice problem you got there. I'd go with a dedicated server fom tera-byte's 4webspace.com site. You get 10.2GB space and 100GB transfer for only $99/month.

No, I guess I did not make myself clear. The last version of the site (Around 5mb in size - vastly smaller in terms of textual content to the new one) consumed 10gb of bandwidth a month, but that was without including the 15mb of off-site picture files. The new version I am working on will definitely pull-in more visitors, but with the increased size and expansion into PHP/mySQL, I anticipate using at least 15-20gb a month - and that is still WITHOUT the 20mb of graphics files being hosted there.

If it was all together, I guess the site would be approximately 30mb in size - growing by at least a 1mb-2mb each month with new content and picture additions etc. If each visitor used just 500k of bandwidth per day (wholly likely to be more in reality), that would limit me to 80,000 visits per-month by my calculation.

Hence, I'd exceed my bandwidth in approximately 15 days. Thus, my problem. I have a feeling that I might just get away with it for the first month, but do not want to take the gamble if I cannot secure the advertising.

Who is the best, most reliable banner advertiser to plump for? DoubleClick? EngageMedia (formerly FlyCast)? I need one that can offer targeted adverts, related to fashion and beauty, and somebody of reputation. Do you think its possible they would be willing to broker a deal before the site is open, if I could let them preview what I have completed so far?

Originally posted by cisites
yeah, nice problem you got there. I'd go with a dedicated server fom tera-byte's 4webspace.com site. You get 10.2GB space and 100GB transfer for only $99/month.

Well, I currently pay around $30-a-month for virtual hosting at Tera-Byte, and that's a bit too much of a stretch as it is. If I could only get enough income from banners to fund the $99/month, then I would be fine. But to do that, I need to get the site open for a little while and generate some healthy statistics to entice the "big name" banner companies. As I said before, Catch-22 :(

Hmmm... and besides which, mySQL and PHP are now major requirements for my site, and to add those to the 4webspace.com deal means an extra one-time fee of $540! Not so attractive after all :(

[Edited by Mark153 on 12-14-2000 at 11:32 AM]

You can quite easily install and configure php and mysql yourself, http://www.php.net and http://www.mysql.com have the binaries/source need to install, free for download, follow the instruction or use other guides on installing available on the web, failing all else you can post to the forum for help.. Set a side an hour or so to install. The charges on the site are for them to install it for you, they are not charging for the software, since this is not allowed. PHP and mySQL have a freeware sort-of license.

There are many companies that will help you create revenue from you're site, with you're amount of traffic any of the Pay-Per-Click banner agencies will be at your feet, also check out clickxchange.com and comission-junction.com. Best bet is to search google.com. If you can borrow the intial month or so fees to pay for the server then do so, by then you'll have easily made that money back from advertising revenue.

Originally posted by Mark153

Hmmm... and besides which, mySQL and PHP are now major requirements for my site, and to add those to the 4webspace.com deal means an extra one-time fee of $540! Not so attractive after all :([/B]

Hi Mark,
I certainly dont want to cut into 4webspace.com's business but since it seems you may be strapped on cash, you can still install both MySQL and PHP on the 4webspace.com raq's yourself. I have done this myself, Mysql first, and took all of 2 minutes, you simply paste the url for the cobalt .pkg file into a textbox form within the admin panel of "install software" and press submit, the server then fetches the file from the url that you pasted and intalls MySQL onto your server. Total time, 2 minutes tops. Much easier than trying to install mysql through telnet and srpms. [REMEMBER: The install software function on a raq is for installing .pkg files not any other software, so only install those pkg files that come from cobalt and are meant for the raq3 if your on a raq3 or raq4 if your on a raq4, and sometimes those two are the same thing as is the case of the mysql, and webalizer stats program]

Php is a bit more difficult but not hard by any means, you simply download php 4.01 from the php site, upload it to a user directory, then follow the instructions. Someone was kind enough to send me instructions in plain english to install PHP, my only mistake on it, was the first time around I tried to install PHP as "admin" instead of "root" so it failed, I did the process again as root, and now my server has php installed.

----------------------------
Here are the instructions someone sent me, and it worked like a charm, use at your own risk and hold me harmless from any foul results that may occur:
Logged in as 'root' perform the following commands

cd /home/sites/home/users/admin
#or wherever you uploaded the php tar.gz file to.

tar -xvzf php-4.0.3pl1.tar.gz

cd php-4.0.3pl1
./configure --with-mysql --with-apxs

make

make install

pico -w /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
(Change the line:
LoadModule php4_module lib/apache/libphp4.so
to
LoadModule php4_module /usr/lib/apache/libphp4.so)

pico -w /etc/httpd/conf/srm.conf


Find the following line in srm.conf
#AddType application/x-httpd-php .phtml
After this line, add the line
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .php4 .phtml
This associates the .php file extension with PHP4

(If you want index.php to be served by default you need also to add this as
well in the section UserDir web of the same file)

# DirectoryIndex: Name of the file or files to use as a pre-written HTML
# directory index. Separate multiple entries with spaces.

DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.shtml home.html home.htm index.php
index.php4 index.p$
# while I was in there I also added default.html default.htm default.shtml home.html home.htm home.shtml as more "Index" pages to accomodate those users that for some reason like to name their index pages to those names.

Still logged in as 'root' perform the following commands to stop and restart
the HTTP server
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd stop
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd start
-------------------------------------------


Like I say, Im not trying to cut into 4webspace.com's business or income, and from what they have explained to me, those prices to install those items are because they will need to support those items should you have any difficulties, so if you do go with them and install it yourself, your probably going to be on your own as far as supporting mysql and php.

If you do manage to go with them, and your running both mysql and php and have a large database, get the memory upgrade. We upgraded to 256 and it's running along like a dream, dont even try to run it on 32mb with the setup that you have stated, as I think you'll be running on swap space more than not and from what I've heard, thats definately not a good thing on a raq.

Hope you can sort it all out.

Bbox

If only PHP were easier. I've tried and tired again, but can't get it. I've tried 3 times and now have lose files all over my server now. Except for PHP, I love everything about having my own dedicated server though.

Originally posted by cisites
If only PHP were easier. I've tried and tired again, but can't get it. I've tried 3 times and now have lose files all over my server now. Except for PHP, I love everything about having my own dedicated server though.
Im not sure whats so difficult about it for you and how by installing php you've lost files all over your server. It was really smooth for us, simply installing Mysql first if your going to install Php with mysql support then uploading the "correct" version of php to our users directory, in our case our admin user directory, then follow the instrcutions. What errors do you get that is stopping you from installing PHP, by posting that, it will help to diagnose any problems that you are having. Don't give up on it, it really is simple if you follow instructions exactly, really easy on a raq. Well was easy for us anyway, but If I had to try and follow the instructions from PHP, I'd be bald from pulling my hair out.

Bbox

Well Brainbox, that does sound like a VERY good hosting option! As I already have had experience in loading local webservers with MySQL and PHP, confidence in doing it this way would not be an issue, and I already think Tera-Byte are a great host, so I won't take much convincing that this is the way forward in the future.........

The only problem that remains now is getting the site online for long enough to get the advertisers in to finance the expansion to cover the bandwidth that I will rapidly be consuming from day one :) LOL (phew! catch my breath!)

So does anyone have some last-minute ideas on a reasonably reliable/fast freebie host (with FTP support) that I could link 20mb of picture files from in the short-term? I just want to be absolutely sure that I don't inadvertently get myself closed down in the same week as I open! (You can just tell I've been through this whole horrible scenario many-a-time before!) :(

I really think you're going to have trouble finding such a place. If your transfer requirements are that high, it will get noticed and then a week later, *poof*

There are those file storage type places, but I don't think this would work for you. I've never used them and really couldn't say.

Originally posted by Chicken
I really think you're going to have trouble finding such a place. If your transfer requirements are that high, it will get noticed and then a week later, *poof*

True... but at least if it went *poof* at a freebie one, I would only loose a "section" of the site for a few hours, and more importantly, not compromise a fairly solid virtual hosting account that I am paying for.

There are those file storage type places, but I don't think this would work for you. I've never used them and really couldn't say.

Yes, I looked into a few of those, but the tricky thing there is one they only you to view the files if you are logged-in, and of course, you cannot FTP a chunk of pics up in one go.

Ah well, guess I will have to take a deep breath, make sure the site is flawless in design and other features, and entice those advertisers in before I actually open for business, so I can start earning click-thrus etc from the minute I open.

Out-of-curiosity, is there a piece of JavaScript or a CGI script that you can embed into your site to stop these barstewards with their "site sucker"-type packages? Guess I am overly paranoid, but when my picture archive was over 100mb in size (!) just over a year-ago, these were the things that ensured I got closed down within 48 hours of opening :(

[Edited by Mark153 on 12-15-2000 at 09:38 AM]

You might look for a php script (a busy site with a cgi image stealing preventer would drain the resources as well). I think a php one (if it exists which I'd assume it would), might be better. Hotscripts.com (the only place I seem to send people these days), has plenty of scripts listed, hopefully one that matches your needs.

If I wasn't in such a rush to get off to work, I'd look for you, but I have to run. Good luck!

Thanks for the link Chicken.... what a marvellous site! :)

Firstly, Double-click will unfortunatly not look at your site until you bring in at least 2 million impressions per month before joining them.

Flycast is less pickey but wants 250,000 unique visitors per month (counted in 24 hour periods) they say impressions, but they mean unique visitors as I found out today when they gave me a 30 day mandatory and un-disputable cancelation notice.

I recieve well over 500k impressions with my various websites. Since they rate your site on unique impressions (yet pay on each valid impression, the full 500k) in their demographic I get only 240k uniqes each month.

And it seems since they merged with engage this company has gradually become more and more shifty with their buisness practices.

So, now i'll be losing about $800-$900 per month because of this. Thank you Engage Media!

I am working to put together a team of go-getters and program in PHP/MySQL a complete ad serving and sponsoring service. One that will stay honest and never shaft the little guy.

Anyone interrested, e-mail me anytime.

As for your server problem, What exactly are your resourc needs? I am just about to launch a very large capacity server (well, 240gigs 512mb ram) at VDI and for the first few months and i'll be using the 50gig transfer plan. Of which I doubt i'll be using all of since even with one client at 8 full gigs of usage per month would pay for the next xfer rate bracket of 60 gigs. and so on.

Could you send me some links to your website? Maaybe we could do a strategic partnership based on the content you have and my foot still being in the door of engage media, at least together we should make their minimum requirements. :-/

Let me know :-)

Best Regards,
Jason Turner
http://www.mysitehost.net