Advice on building a website?

[Orion]

I'm going to build my own website, which is going to be a portfolio site of video content. I'm using it to build up and display my portfolio for when I leave uni and as a way to advertise for clubs and companies wanting corporate videos made.

I'm gonna to use word press to build it, but the question is which host do I go with? I heard Blue Host is the best and it has tight integration with word press but I'm in the UK, will that affect anything? I don't mind having a .com address. Otherwise, does anyone know which are the best UK web hosting sites?

Cheers in advance

 

[Blind Bandit]

So here are my recommendations for you.

1. Don't host the video directly on your site! I mean it. Video is going to be resource instentsive (CPU, RAM, IOPS(disk) and bandwidth) and will get expensive quick. Host the video on youtube And link to it on your site. Or else you may end up paying more than you want to in hosting.

2. Wordpress should be good for your site. You can blog about your projects and link to the videos. But be careful to limit the plugins on your Wordpress install. Wordpress is notorious for having badly codded pugins. So take it slow when adding lots of plugins. But you will want to have wordpress super cache installed. It will help keep your site preforming well especially if you start getting more traffic.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/

3. The location of your host you should be where your clients are. And even if its say in the USA it won't hurt visitors that are on the same continent even if they aren't super close to your host. Even if their in the UK for example you shouldn't have any issues. . So consider location as not as important but still relevant.

4. Don't host your domain and your website with the same company. Don't host from your domain register either. They usually aren't the best host.

4. Avoid any unlimited (disk space and bandwidth hosts) like the plague. Their is no such thing as unlimited. These hosts are also often too large to give the kind of service you need. They also limit you in other ways. They just aren't clear about it.

As for the host I would recommend for shared hosting and semi dedicated (high end shared hosting). MDDosting gets my vote.

http://www.mddhosting.com/

Mddhosting's shared hosting plans.

http://www.mddhosting.com/hosting.php

MDD is a smaller quality host who will actually care about you as more than a number. Mike (the owner) is very involved and is honest. And he has always been honest with me. I will be hosting with him if /when I open up a new site. Mike won't try to sell you something you don't need and he will be honest and open if things ever go wrong. And MDD is a good host that isn't afraid to spend money on infrastructure to make sure the clients gets good service.


Here is a coupon for shared hosting from them.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1046138&highlight=MDDhosting

Also whatever you do no matter who you host with. Check web hosting talking for reviews and coupons. You don't want to go into this blind and then be required to change hosts again.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/

For VPS or Dedicated I know a few good places also. But right now shared should work fine for you.

 

[Orion]

Thanks BB!

1. Don't host the video directly on your site! I mean it. Video is going to be resource instentsive (CPU, RAM, IO(disk) and bandwidth) and will get expensive quick. Host the video on youtube And link to it on your site. Or else you may end up paying more than you want to in hosting.

Yeah I'll defo be using youtube and linking to them.

2. Wordpress should be good for your site. You can blog about your projects and link to the videos. But be careful to limit the plugins on your Wordpress install. Wordpress is notorious for having badly codded pugins. So take it slow when adding lots of plugins. But you will want to have wordpress super cache installed. It will help keep your site preforming well especially if you start getting more traffic.

I'll also be keeping it simple!

3. The location of your host you should be where your clients are. And even if its say in the USA it won't hurt visitors that are on the same continent even if they aren't super close to your host. Even if their in the UK for example you shouldn't have any issues. . So consider location as not as important but still relevant.

4. Don't host your domain and your website with the same company. Don't host from your domain register either. They usually aren't the best host.

4. Avoid any unlimited (disk space and bandwidth hosts) like the plague. Their is no such thing as unlimited. These hosts are also often to large to give the kind of service you need. They also limit you in other ways. They just aren't clear about it.

As for the host I would recommend for shared hosting and semi dedicated (high end shared hosting). MDDosting gets my vote.

http://www.mddhosting.com/

Mddhosting's shared hosting plans.

http://www.mddhosting.com/hosting.php

MDD is a smaller quality host who will actually care about you as more than a number. Mike (the owner) is very involved and is honest. And he has always been honest with me. I will be hosting with him if /when I open up a new site. Mike won't try to sell you something you don't need and he will be honest and open if things ever go wrong. And MDD is a good host that isn't afraid to spend money on infrastructure to make sure the clients gets good service.


Here is a coupon for shared hosting from them.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1046138&highlight=MDDhosting

Also whatever you do no matter who you host with. Check web hosting talking for reviews and coupons. You don't want to go into this blind and then be required to change hosts again.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/

For VPS or Dedicated I know a few good places also. But right now shared should work fine for you.

Okay, this shows how little I know about getting up a website... I'll be researching for the next few days :madgrin:

 

[Blind Bandit]

Thanks BB!



Yeah I'll defo be using youtube and linking to them.



I'll also be keeping it simple!



Okay, this shows how little I know about getting up a website... I'll be researching for the next few days :madgrin:

Don't worry research is the fun part (I'm such a nerd).

But seriously just take your time and think things through. I'm sure you will be just fine.

If your getting stuck post here and I will see if I can help.

 

[donkeybals]

I agree for the most part with [MENTION=630]Blind Bandit[/MENTION]. Only thing though is I've signed up with hostgator who offer unlimited storage space and I had a great experience with them! No problems, and they have 24 customer service to help you. I had the business account, unlimited domains, unlimited storage etc. It was $15 a month for their business account, it got too costly for me but still an excellent service.

One thing you can also consider is free hosting. And a free domain. Best things in life are fuh reeeeeeeeeeeeee. Sucks though cause I don't think you can get a free .com, the only one I could find .co.cc and hosting I don't think you get customer service. I just created a blog for this lol. I've been meaning to start a technology blog anyway.

http://techznology.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-get-free-hosting-and-free-domain.html

I did my best to show you how to get it. Like the layout? It's a generic template. Just an additional option. Good luck!!

 

[Blind Bandit]

I agree for the most part with @Blind Bandit. Only thing though is I've signed up with hostgator who offer unlimited storage space and I had a great experience with them! No problems, and they have 24 customer service to help you. I had the business account, unlimited domains, unlimited storage etc. It was $15 a month for their business account, it got too costly for me but still an excellent service.

One thing you can also consider is free hosting. And a free domain. Best things in life are fuh reeeeeeeeeeeeee. Sucks though cause I don't think you can get a free .com, the only one I could find .co.cc and hosting I don't think you get customer service. I just created a blog for this lol. I've been meaning to start a technology blog anyway.

http://techznology.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-get-free-hosting-and-free-domain.html

I did my best to show you how to get it. Like the layout? It's a generic template. Just an additional option. Good luck!!

Hostgator is a big host. But I'm glad to hear their working out for you.

Don't go with free hosting its a waste of time and doesn't look professional. If anyone sees you can't put some money for shared hosting and your own domain they often won't give you a fair shake.

But if you looked at the host I mentioned (MDDhosting)

These are some of the features they offer. Check out the following post for more information.


http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1046138&highlight=MDDhosting

--------------------------------------------------------------
Included Features on every Shared Hosting Plan
--------------------------------------------------------------
Servers and Software:
* Dual Xeon 5620 Westmere - 8 Cores + HT (That's 16 Logical Cores!)
* RAID-10 15K RPM SAS Performance Disk Space
* 12 GB DDR3 Triple Channel RAM
* 1000 Megabit Networking Connections
* cPanel + Softaculous (One-Click Install Hundreds of Scripts!)
* CloudLinux for maximum performance and reliability
* Ksplice Rebootless System Upgrades
* Powered by LiteSpeed
* PHP 5.2 and PHP 5.3!
* MySQL 5.1+
* Ruby on Rails (Ruby 1.8.7+ & Rails 2.3.8+)
* Python 2.4.3+
* Perl 5.8.8+
* ImageMagick 6.4.8+
* cURL Library
* GD Graphics Library
* Server Side Includes (SSI)
* CGI-BIN Support
* phpMyAdmin

Basic Features:
* 50 MySQL Concurrent Connections
* Unlimited Domains
* Unlimited MySQL Databases
* Unlimited Subdomains
* Guaranteed Disk Space and Transfer

Email Features:
* Unlimited Email Accounts
* Unlimited Autoresponders
* Unlimited Forwarders
* POP3 Access
* IMAP Access
* SMTP Access
* Webmail Access

Advanced Features:
* SSL Secured Control Panel Access
* SSL Secured Webmail Access
* Fantastico DeLuxe
* E-Commerce Compatible
* Magento Commerce Compatible
* Private SSL Available
* Shared SSL
* DNS Zone Editor (Simple & Advanced)
* SSH Access
* Password Protected Directories
* FrontPage Extensions
* Streaming Audio/Video
* Automatic Daily Off-Server Backups (R1Soft CDP)

Guarantees and Support:
* 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
* 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
* 24/7-365 Support

As I was saying people can do better than Hostgator , Godady, 1&1, Monster Host, Blue Host, IX Host, Just host and so on. I would avoid any of those I listed.

I would also recommend no one use a "Top 10 web hosts" site to find good hosting. Those are all paid sites to get a certain ranking.


You just have to look. I know several good hosts. But as I've actually talked to the owner at MDD and I'm most familiar with them I tend to promote them for shared hosting. If needed I can list several more good hosts. That tend to be smaller and / or more customer focused.

You have to actually put some effort to get past the marketing. There is a reason I use web hosting talk to research hosts. You see the good and the bad.

www.webhostingtalk.com

 

[donkeybals]

Hostgator is a big host. But I'm glad to hear their working out for you.

Don't go with free hosting its a waste of time and doesn't look professional. If anyone sees you can't put some money for shared hosting and your own domain they often won't give you a fair shake.

But if you looked at the host I mentioned (MDDhosting)

These are some of the features they offer. Check out the following post for more information.


http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1046138&highlight=MDDhosting

As I was saying people can do better than Hostgator , Godady, 1&1, Monster Host, Blue Host, IX Host, Just host and so on. I would avoid any of those I listed.

I would also recommend no use a "Top 10 web hosts" site to find good hosting. Those are all paid sites to get a certain ranking.


You just have to look. I know several good hosts. But as I've actually talked to the owner at MDD and I'm most fusilier with them I tend to promote them for shared hosting. If needed I can list several more good hosts. That tend to be smaller and / or more customer focused.

You have to actually put some effort to get past the marketing. There is a reason I use web hosting talk to research hosts. You see the good and the bad.

www.webhostingtalk.com

Which ones have you tried?

 

[donkeybals]

Oh and op, if you decide to go with .com domain, be sure to get a promo code!! I got one for .99 cents for the first time I signed up with godaddy. You can just google for them. "godaddy promo code" keywords on google.

 

[Blind Bandit]

Which ones have you tried?

One or two of these free hosts that place ads on your site. I've had a lot of experience with pro boards and various other free forum hosts. Blog spot isn't bad your very limited in what you can do. Plus frankly. www.yourname.blogspot.com or otherwise doesn't look good.

Honestly a free host doesn't make sense when you can get a domain for 11 bucks a year and a good shared host for 7-10 dollars a month. Often even less if you check webhostingtalk.

 

[donkeybals]

There are free web hosts without ads though. Blogspot aka blogger is owned by google. The code is customizable. It's intended to be a blog site not a hosting one.

 

[Blind Bandit]

There are free web hosts without ads though. Blogspot is owned by google. The code is customizable. It's intended to be a blog site not a hosting one.

I'm aware. But as I said having a sub domain you don't own. Is not going to instill confidence in most tech savy people. It sends the message that the user isn't serious about what they are doing and a free service will do. it may not be right but its the way it is.

I mean really would many people have joined our forum, If we where hosted on proboards or some other free host? I know many folks will just walk away from a site if its on free hosting regardless of its content.

 

[donkeybals]

You don't have to have a sub domain!! You can have whatever domain name you want!! Arghhhhhhhhhhh. You are misunderstanding what free hosting is. I'm not afraid to hit a blind bandit. JK JK. . Seriously though, you have preconceived notions that aren't necessarily true.

 

[Blind Bandit]

You don't have to have a sub domain!! You can have whatever domain name you want!! Arghhhhhhhhhhh. You are misunderstanding what free hosting is. I'm not afraid to hit a blind bandit. JK JK. . Seriously though, you have preconceived notions that aren't necessarily true.

I'm not saying free hosting won't work. I'm saying for something important its not appropriate for the needs http://forums.infjs.com/member.php?u=1378Orion has.

And not to be a jerk. But my notions aren't unfounded. I've hosted free long enough to understand the limits.

But anyways if you want to continue the free vs paid hosting make another thread. As we are getting off topic.

 

[donkeybals]

Yeah, I agree then. It's something fun to play around with etc. But you can use it for serious stuff too, but I wouldn't throw the trust card on it per say reliability could be question mark with free hosting. But there is a lot of power in free stuff imo if you know how to use it right.

 

[Deathjam]

i echo what Blind bandit has said, if you are hosting anything serious, stay well clear of free hosts, as for "unlimited x" hosts, it really depends on how much traffic you expect to get, if your expecting high traffic from the start, then avoid.

Websites don't just use diskspace and bandwidth which these hosts offer in "unlimited" quantities, they also use cpu and RAM, which you will generally find host put much harsher limits on(limits are usually very vaguely specified in their terms). This means you will mostly hit these limits long before you are allowed to get anywhere close to using the unlimited resources.

But they are ok if you have not much traffic, you can always change hosts at a later date

As far as US or UK host it depends on where your users(most of them anyway) are based and how much latency they should expect, example:

i'm in the UK, but because at the time over 70% of the traffic for this site was US based, i went with a US host, but one with a datacentre on the eastcost

ping times(depending on your home connection) from the UK to a UK host seam to be between 30ms-55ms
UK to US host

bluehost* and infjs.com compared

C:\Users\Phil>ping box15.bluehost.com

Pinging box15.bluehost.com [69.89.17.15] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 69.89.17.15: bytes=32 time=202ms TTL=48
Reply from 69.89.17.15: bytes=32 time=204ms TTL=48
Reply from 69.89.17.15: bytes=32 time=206ms TTL=48
Reply from 69.89.17.15: bytes=32 time=202ms TTL=48

Ping statistics for 69.89.17.15:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 202ms, Maximum = 206ms, Average = 203ms

C:\Users\Phil>ping infjs.com

Pinging infjs.com [97.107.136.39] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 97.107.136.39: bytes=32 time=113ms TTL=53
Reply from 97.107.136.39: bytes=32 time=110ms TTL=53
Reply from 97.107.136.39: bytes=32 time=113ms TTL=53
Reply from 97.107.136.39: bytes=32 time=110ms TTL=53

Ping statistics for 97.107.136.39:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 110ms, Maximum = 113ms, Average = 111ms

*bluehost.com wont resolve, box##.bluehost.com seems to be what their servers host on.

But as you will be hosting the videos on youtube thus the major data usage is removed from your host the +~50-150ms latency from US to UK shouldn't really effect that much

 

[This]

I think it largely depends on how much user interaction you need to have with the site. I have three business sites running off weebly. (Cost me a little extra to get .weebly.com out of the title but not bad.) Basically these sites are just display sites though, so it really depends on how you want those visiting the site to interact with it imo.
It will allow you to upload pictures directly to the site and embed video and such from other sites.

 

[Orion]

Most of the people viewing will be potential clients and mutual film makers, so it's geared towards the UK. But it's simply a site to click on and view my stuff by people interested in a video, so it's gonna have a very small load in terms of visits.

I think I'll go with blue host, as many of the big film making blogs I read daily, recommend that host. Cheers for the info guys! I will post if I have any more issues or questions.

 

[Blind Bandit]

Most of the people viewing will be potential clients and mutual film makers, so it's geared towards the UK. But it's simply a site to click on and view my stuff by people interested in a video, so it's gonna have a very small load in terms of visits.

I think I'll go with blue host, as many of the big film making blogs I read daily, recommend that host. Cheers for the info guys! I will post if I have any more issues or questions.

Hmmm good luck.

That was a waste of time...

 

[Agapooka]

I use a free host: www.byethost.com

I build my websites from scratch, so it has everything I need.

If you want a free domain-type name, I'd suggest uni.cc

My (sub)domain is "www.agapooka.uni.cc"

Don't bother checking how my site looks. I disabled it, because I'm slowly working on it. XD

As for free hosting, nobody can know you are using a free host if there are no ads and if the server is up and... if they don't do something to get a 404 error.

I'd recommend it only to get you on your feet and as a testing ground. You should use a reliable, dedicated hosting service with a company like the one BB described if your audience is serious and it is imperative that you make a good impression every time


Cheers,

Agapooka

 

[donkeybals]

Good luck!!