Maximizing Web presence at best cost strategy

[Old and In the Way]

I'm starting a new business that will be marketing a unique product/franchise concept. It involves alt/renewable energy. I want to start with a simple logo/intro screen that will eventually (1-2 years) scale up to POS/Google mapping /Bulletin board/and hosted sub-pages (up to 10000, 1 page files). I need cheap to start, but what's the pros and cons of setting up my own page server vs. hosted? I have a pretty good host now that I do business with, but his server option is still pretty expensive.

[DaveJ]

1. Setting up your own server should be unnecessary.

It's my understanding that even Facebook had 3rd party hosted servers, until they became a multi-million dollar company (based on the movie I watched anyway.).

It's very unlikely to be cost effective to create your own web server.

If you are paying too much for hosting, there are lots of cheap options. I posted recently on how I've been more satisfied with the large hosting companies (Networksolutions, Godaddy (Some people dislike GD for some reason), etc), compared to the mom and pop shops. Larger companies seem to know how to maximize resources to provide the best technology at the lowest prices. Their servers should be able to scale to fit your needs, so you don't need to ask someone in their underwear sitting in their living room, when you are having trouble.

But I'm no expert. I asked a similar question recently and the responses were kind of vague. I get the impression, when you are talking about handling traffic, that it's sort of a wait and see what happens scenario. As I said, I trust larger companies to have the resources at hand, when they are needed.

[Old and In the Way]

2. that's pretty much what I think.

Start small and scale up if justified.

[Rabid_Rabbit]

3. Start small

and ho with a host. The last thing you need is to worry about the up time of your website when you are starting out.
If you need more access to the server look in to VPS hosting.

AS you grow you will have to decide if you need your own solution or if you can work with any of the available Contents Management Systems that are available.

Good Luck

[Expertsfromindia]

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