UndergroundScene Forums - View Single Post - Creating an online presence for your band / label PARTS 1,2

kj · 12th February 2005, 08:01 PM

Part 2 - looking for some virtual real estate to host your site

Now that you have got yourself a suitable domain name, the next thing that you will want to look for is a place to host your site; some virtual real estate on the world wide web. For the sake of this article and for relevance i'll approach it from the view point of a new band looking for somewhere to put their new website.

There are various considerations that you need to think about when it comes to looking and buying your hosting account. Some companies offer domain name and hosting combo packages but i think its best to look around and usually you can get a good deal from different companies.

Important considerations

disc space: if you are going to be including your mp3s and media downloads on your web site , disc space is going to be an important issue. You dont want to buy too much but then you dont want to buy too little and restrict the growth of your website. You'll need space not only for your site pages, but all the content that is going on it. Usually for a small band site with 20 mp3s max and a gallery section, you'll be wanting a minimum of 100mb disc space.
bandwidth allocation: bandwidth is basically the web equivalent of credit for mobile phones. The more you use the phone the more credit you need to buy for it. Websites work in a similar fashion. The more bandwidth consumed by the downloading of your pages and files to visitor's computers, the more bandwidth you are going to need. Bandwidth intensive files include large images and mp3 and movie files. You'll be wanting a host that offers between 2 gb is probably going to be enough, but alot of companies offer the ability to buy extra bandwidth if it is ever needed. Be careful though, bandwidth is usually the most expensive part of running a website.
mp3 hosting: most hosts will allow you to host media files such as mp3s and movie files. however, a way to cut bandwidth costs is to have your mp3s uploaded to a dedicated mp3 hosting service and link to them that way. It just depends on how professional you want to portray your site and band and how integrated you want your site. Obviously you have more control over your files if they are on your own machine, but dedicated mp3 hosting sites offer a variety of statistics to do with the popularity of your mp3 files, and this can sometimes be pretty helpful.
PHP (Hypertext Pre-Processor / pretty handy pages): this is a server side programming language. basically what that means is that it performs functions and processes on the web server / host and then creates the output html code that displays your pages. The good thing about php is that you can learn the basics really easily and create some dynamic web pages. for example, php pages will allow you to create a simple guest book on your site, let people send you emails directly through the site rather than their own email programs, record visitor statistics to your site, download statics, enabling you to update your pages through the browser anywhere in the world and a whole lot more. More importantly its a free language and falls under Open Source licensing. PHP can also be used to link to databases, spread sheets, pdf files and a whole load of other things. An alternative to PHP is Microsoft;s ASP / ASP.net language, but this is something i wont go into as its not one that i recommend coming from a background where i have programmed in both in past professions.
mySQL / SQL (structured query language): this is the language that lets you access / manipluate / add information in databases and other data sources. Combined with PHP you can create an incredibly dynamic and powerful website which is important if you want people to keep coming back. mySQL is another open source language and is a basic version of the more power SQL programming language. Dont let the word 'programming' scare you, its not as difficult to learn as the word suggests. The SQL language was created in a way that when read back closely resembled English language syntax and sentence structure.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access: This allows you to upload files directly to the server that is hosting your web page through FTP programs such as CuteFTP, CoffeeCupFTP or Dreamweaver MX 2004. Some hosts allow you only to upload your site to their server a few pages at a time through a browser interface which can be incredibly time consuming and frustrating. FTP access will allow you to upload your site to your hosts server all at once, and you can even schedule regular uploads of recently modified files to your server (very handy indeed when used correctly). It'll also allow you to move files around, edit files directly on the server, rename files and delete files along with many more. FTP access for me would be a very useful thing to have.
reputation: lastly, you should try talking to others who have been through this process to find out their views and opinions on their current hosts, and also what they went through and why they chose the host they did. look for a hosting company with a good reputation and one that is fairly popular. Also you want someone who is known for providing good support and a quality servive with a guaranteed 99.8% uptime.

Careful planning and research will land you with a good hosting service that should help the growth of your website rather than hinder it... something that UGS has learned in the past. Everyone has to start somewhere.

12th February 2005, 08:01 PM	#2 (permalink)
kj gimp Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Scotland Posts: 13,982 Band: A band of merry men	Part 2 Part 2 - looking for some virtual real estate to host your site Now that you have got yourself a suitable domain name, the next thing that you will want to look for is a place to host your site; some virtual real estate on the world wide web. For the sake of this article and for relevance i'll approach it from the view point of a new band looking for somewhere to put their new website. There are various considerations that you need to think about when it comes to looking and buying your hosting account. Some companies offer domain name and hosting combo packages but i think its best to look around and usually you can get a good deal from different companies. Important considerations disc space: if you are going to be including your mp3s and media downloads on your web site , disc space is going to be an important issue. You dont want to buy too much but then you dont want to buy too little and restrict the growth of your website. You'll need space not only for your site pages, but all the content that is going on it. Usually for a small band site with 20 mp3s max and a gallery section, you'll be wanting a minimum of 100mb disc space. bandwidth allocation: bandwidth is basically the web equivalent of credit for mobile phones. The more you use the phone the more credit you need to buy for it. Websites work in a similar fashion. The more bandwidth consumed by the downloading of your pages and files to visitor's computers, the more bandwidth you are going to need. Bandwidth intensive files include large images and mp3 and movie files. You'll be wanting a host that offers between 2 gb is probably going to be enough, but alot of companies offer the ability to buy extra bandwidth if it is ever needed. Be careful though, bandwidth is usually the most expensive part of running a website. mp3 hosting: most hosts will allow you to host media files such as mp3s and movie files. however, a way to cut bandwidth costs is to have your mp3s uploaded to a dedicated mp3 hosting service and link to them that way. It just depends on how professional you want to portray your site and band and how integrated you want your site. Obviously you have more control over your files if they are on your own machine, but dedicated mp3 hosting sites offer a variety of statistics to do with the popularity of your mp3 files, and this can sometimes be pretty helpful. PHP (Hypertext Pre-Processor / pretty handy pages): this is a server side programming language. basically what that means is that it performs functions and processes on the web server / host and then creates the output html code that displays your pages. The good thing about php is that you can learn the basics really easily and create some dynamic web pages. for example, php pages will allow you to create a simple guest book on your site, let people send you emails directly through the site rather than their own email programs, record visitor statistics to your site, download statics, enabling you to update your pages through the browser anywhere in the world and a whole lot more. More importantly its a free language and falls under Open Source licensing. PHP can also be used to link to databases, spread sheets, pdf files and a whole load of other things. An alternative to PHP is Microsoft;s ASP / ASP.net language, but this is something i wont go into as its not one that i recommend coming from a background where i have programmed in both in past professions. mySQL / SQL (structured query language): this is the language that lets you access / manipluate / add information in databases and other data sources. Combined with PHP you can create an incredibly dynamic and powerful website which is important if you want people to keep coming back. mySQL is another open source language and is a basic version of the more power SQL programming language. Dont let the word 'programming' scare you, its not as difficult to learn as the word suggests. The SQL language was created in a way that when read back closely resembled English language syntax and sentence structure. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access: This allows you to upload files directly to the server that is hosting your web page through FTP programs such as CuteFTP, CoffeeCupFTP or Dreamweaver MX 2004. Some hosts allow you only to upload your site to their server a few pages at a time through a browser interface which can be incredibly time consuming and frustrating. FTP access will allow you to upload your site to your hosts server all at once, and you can even schedule regular uploads of recently modified files to your server (very handy indeed when used correctly). It'll also allow you to move files around, edit files directly on the server, rename files and delete files along with many more. FTP access for me would be a very useful thing to have. reputation: lastly, you should try talking to others who have been through this process to find out their views and opinions on their current hosts, and also what they went through and why they chose the host they did. look for a hosting company with a good reputation and one that is fairly popular. Also you want someone who is known for providing good support and a quality servive with a guaranteed 99.8% uptime. Careful planning and research will land you with a good hosting service that should help the growth of your website rather than hinder it... something that UGS has learned in the past. Everyone has to start somewhere. __________________ This community cannot survive without your continued support. galleries \|\| links directory \|\| profiles \|\| wiki Last edited by kj : 12th February 2005 at 08:07 PM.