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Hosting Packages

I've been spending some time looking around at the various hosting packages that are available to the semi-casual web developer, and I'm amazed at the range of services that you can get, and the associated costs of some of them.

My current host has been excellent over the last three years, and I have no desire to move the site elsewhere, but I always like to have a look and see whats available at what cost to try and work out whether a move would be cost effective.

My only real issue with my current host is the bandwidth allowance, which I exceed to one degree or another each month.

If you are looking to purchase some web hosting, look closely at what you are actually getting, and consider the growth and expansion of your site over the following two or three years.

If you are creating a blog, work out how many posts a day you going to write. Each post will have its own page, so then work out how big a page is likely to be, and multiply it by the number of posts, multiplied by the number of days a week you will post, multiplied by the number of weeks you are likely to run the blog for.

Volume of Data

For example, on ScoobyBlog I aim to post three times a day, 7 days a week. If each page is roughly 40k, that means in an average week I have created roughly 840k of content. Multiply that by a projected lifespan of 3 years, thats 3276 posts, and 131,040k (131mb) in content. If you were to follow the same guidelines, you would therefore need to ensure that your hosting package has sufficient space for you to store all that inforamtion.

• 3 posts * 7 days * 156 weeks = 3276 posts


• 3276 posts * 40k per page = 131,040kb = 132mb

Bandwidth

So you've worked out your expected volume of content, now you need to work out what bandwidth usage you are going to need. This is an unknown quantity to start with, as the number of likely visitors to your site is going to be one, you. If you site starts to become popular, this number will begin to increase, and you will most likely build a community of regualr visitors. Work out how many visitors you would like, on average, each day, including repeat visitors. Be realistic, don't expect to become instantly popular overnight, and receive thousands of visitors flocking to read your words of wisdom.

Lets assume you are aiming for a nice steady 100 visitors a day. In the early days of your sites development, the bandwidth consumption is going to be fairly low, as you won't have much content written, so visitors will be restricted to only a few dozen articles and posts. As your site ages, content is going to grow, so bandwidth consumption is going to go up - the more you write the more there is for new visitors to read.

• One visitor reading everything you write, each day of the sites existance, will consume 132mb of bandwidth over three years (assuming they don't read the same article twice)


• A second visitor joining 1 year after you started writing your blog will also consume 132mb of bandwidth, assuming the visitor reads everything you have previously written, plus everything you write in the future. Now you bandwidth usage has jumped, with month 1 of year 2 being much higher than the bandwidth consumed in month 1 year 1. Now multiply this effect by the increase over time of your visitors. The trend for bandwidth consumption is going to jump upwards assuming your site continues to attract new visitors. A visitor joing your site on the last day of year 3, and managing (somehow) to read everything on your site will consume 132mb in one day, as opposed to your very first visitor who consumed the same bandwidth but over three years.
  

It difficult to estimate how much bandwidth your site is going to consume, because you don't know how popular its going to be. Make sure that whatever hosting package you go for, it provides a reasonable amount of transfer allowance a month, allows you to increase that allowance should you need to, and most importantly, doesn't shut your site down once your bandwidth allowance is reached. There is nothing worse than to find your site is no longer available halfway through a month because your hosting company has a strict bandwidth usage policy.

I would also avoid companies that appear to be offering incredibly cheap packages, unless they have been recommended to you by someone you know. Larger, reputable companines with solid infrastructure are not likely to disappear in the middle of the night.

Avoid hosting packages that require you to have a banner at the top of the site advertising their company. Not only does this look cheap, it also means the site will be built around frames, instantly putting you at a disadvantage with the search engines.

Ensure the hosting company has a good backup policy and good uptime. You want to know that your information is safe, and a server failure will not mean your 3 years of posting is lost. Most companies offer near 100% uptime, these days you should expect nothing less.

With forward planning and some careful outlining of your growth plans, purchasing a hosting package that suits your current and future needs can be straight forward and painless.