I'd appreciate some advice about the best ways to do the following -- by "best" I mean cheapest, most convenient, most effective, most reliable.

I am going to create approximately one thousand small websites. Each site will consist of 17 small HTML pages. These pages will be uploaded to the server(s) once a week, so the only thing the server(s) needs to do is download small HTML pages.

Combined bandwidth for all the sites together will be (of course I'm guessing) less than 50 gb per month for the first six months. But it may get higher eventually, and I'd like a convenient upgrade path (I don't want to have to retype DNS information for 1,000 URLS manually).

I want search engines to display results for these pages -- I don't know if that means that each site would be better off with an individual IP address or not.

I'm looking for advice about how to:

(a) register the names (which registrar);

(b) handle DNS info (where to locate it);

(c) choose between the various ways of establishing virtual domains and individual IP addresses;

(d) lease host space (what kind of account?)

Thanks to all in advance for any help.

(a) I recommend GoDaddy and Dotster.

(b) You could host this yourself

(c) Unless your sites will be using SSL or anonymous FTP, you should go for name based hosting

(d) You may actually want to look into getting a dedicated server. Try Tranxactglobal and Rackshack. If you have a bit more cash to spare, you might want to look into Rackspace (not Rackshack), as they offer fully managed hosting solutions.

What I say may be arguable [as there are always several sides to a cube!] but I feel you would get the best deal by:

1. Taking a resellership with directi.com or enom.com for the domain registration or even dabot.com [you will get the domains for 7$ -8$]

2. Get a PIII server with 1GHz of RAM and 2 x 40GB IDE hard disks [I feel an IDE is good enough for static html pages]

3. Have your DNS with your registrar if he can give you [enom does] -this way if you want to change the servers it will be easier

[alternately you can go with everydns.net]

and if your end users need a control panel go for WHM/CPanel

and get a data center with multihomed reliable bandwidth and good support staff

Cheers
Balaji

Thank you both very much for your replies. I haven't decided yet how to handle this... the decision doesn't have to be made for another month.

In the meantime I've registered a few names with various registrars to get a feel for their service and see how easy their interfaces are to use.

Try an OpenSRS reseller-I think they are really good.

You could try a reseller account for all the domains.

How much are you looking at spending for all this?

Interesting. :)

Can you tell us what you are going to be doing with this setup?

Originally posted by CD Burnt
Interesting. :)

Can you tell us what you are going to be doing with this setup?

Good question ;) I'll be waiting to see what he says. 1,000 domain names, that's a lot for one person to buy.

Originally posted by CD Burnt
Can you tell us what you are going to be doing with this setup? Yes, please reveal the entirety of your expensive business plan in this public forum a month before launching. ;)

Originally posted by RobbieBob
I want search engines to display results for these pages -- I don't know if that means that each site would be better off with an individual IP address or not.Normally it wouldn't matter. But -- and sorry if I'm jumping to conclusions, but you've neglected to reveal your whole business plan -- it sounds like what you plan to do will be at best "gray area" as far as search engines are concerned. I say that based on your saying that all the sites will have the same number of pages. So I'd assume that there'll be a sizable amount of duplicate content.

A thousand sites with duplicate content operated by the same entity would fit most search engines' definitions of "spam."

Originally posted by RobbieBob
...
I'm looking for advice about how to:

(a) register the names (which registrar);
...

For that quantity of domain names I would probably go to DotRegistrar.com; they're the cheapest place I know of for bulk domains.

I think he's going to make a thousand sites with unique contents for the search engines - it's gonna take a long time.

No No no.. think of it.. a 1000 domains that all appear at first glance to be a 17 page personal 'blog style' page... but the site hardly ever gets update... or advertised, outside of the fact that all 1000 sites are submitted to the search engines... and they all link back to one another with various 'link words'...

Automate a 'editor and uploader' that creates and uploads all 17,000 pages once every few weeks... and those 17 pages? Randomly generated gibberish (real words, various combinations) that link to the same site.. one site.. one site that say, is paying you for 'high search engine placement!'

Google Bombing at it's finest. ;) 1000 sites worth, one keypress.

muahahahaha. :dgrin:

ok, now I'm sure this isn't what he has in mind.. and if it is.. damn, someone beat me to implementation. ;)

1000 domains = $10,000 with OpenSRS reselling
1000 domains = $8950 with Godaddy (and you can get a better price). As people previously posted - you may also consider enom.

btw, forgot to mention that you will need 4 network cards built in so you can allocate 255 IPs per card (correct if I am wrong). This means that you will need atleast 2U server case with 2 network adapters built in + 2 PCI slots for 2 additional network cards :)

lol Shannon, good point though :)

2 different white box servers at rackshack?? 500 domains per box? DNS by everydns or through the registrar.

or if you've got the money, go for 3 whitebox servers at rackshack. 2 for the sites, 1 for DNS. $99x3 setup + $99X3 per month for the hosting. 400gbX3 bandwidth.

i think godaddy would be your best bet for registration...

How critical are these sites? If they're "critical" I'd look more at Rackspace, are you capable of running your own server? If not get managed, if so dedicated.

As for registering them, Enom would be good so you can use their DNS.

Originally posted by JayC
Yes, please reveal the entirety of your expensive business plan in this public forum a month before launching. ;)


It's amazing how a little mystery can make a thread grow. ;)

Sorry to leave all that curiosity unsatisfied, but blabbing about this idea in public will probably make it less likely to succeed, so I'm going to keep my mouth shut.

But I will say that all the sites will have unique content. This is totally legit, and there's no search engine spamming involved. I made a mistake earlier when I said that all the sites will have the same number of pages. This has now changed, and the page counts will vary from about ten to over a hundred.

Originally posted by Dixiesys
How critical are these sites? If they're "critical" I'd look more at Rackspace, are you capable of running your own server? If not get managed, if so dedicated.

Thanks Gary.

These sites are critical in the sense that downtime will probably cost more (in lost revenues) than the premium I'd pay for a place like Rackspace, so Rackspace looks good.

I don't have time to learn to manage a server.

If I go with Rackspace, which is better -- Linux or BSD?

Originally posted by apollo
1000 domains = $10,000 with OpenSRS reselling
1000 domains = $8950 with Godaddy (and you can get a better price). As people previously posted - you may also consider enom.

Thanks. I checked some of the other registrars recommended here. Quantity-thousand prices from eNom = 6.95 and from DotRegister = 6.79.

I would go with Linux personally.. It's up to you though.

I hope you have first fully tested your theory on around 20 domains. The search engine algorithms are so complex these days, that they can pick up on what you are doing and drop you from their engine.
And I doubt you would have the time to generate genuine unique content for 1,000 websites.

Originally posted by apollo
btw, forgot to mention that you will need 4 network cards built in so you can allocate 255 IPs per card (correct if I am wrong). This means that you will need atleast 2U server case with 2 network adapters built in + 2 PCI slots for 2 additional network cards :)

Correction, you're wrong. :-)