Niche Site Blogger

How to host your niche sites

No matter what tool you use to build your niche site, you need to host it somewhere, somehow right? The beauty is that hosting companies are abundant giving you lots of choices. The ugly is that hosting companies are abundant giving you lots of choices. Basically there are almost too many choices out there. So what should you look for if you are going to go the niche site route?

Hosting plans

If you plan on really doing niche sites, then you should build not one, not two, buy lots of them. To host all of these sites, you want a nice simple and manageable means of doing so. With that in mind, there are three ways to go: Single plans, domain pointing and multi-plans. Each has their pros and cons and it really comes down to what you are comfortable with and how many sites you really see yourself getting into.

Single Plans

With the single plan approach, you buy a new site plan from your chosen hosting company for each site you put up. Pretty simple and straight forward. This is no different than any other site for all practical purposes.

Pros:

• Simple to get started
• Only buy plans as you put up sites
• Enormous variety of choices in hosting companies
• You can spread your accounts out of multiple hosting companies if you like

Cons:

• If you plan on having more than about 3 sites (and you are aren’t you?), it will cost you more in the long run
• Managing multiple single accounts can quickly become an issue

Domain Pointing

If you are not familiar with how hosting companies work and how web servers can be configured then domain pointing can be a confusing subject. What it means is that you have one main account that allows you to set up multiple sites. Each site is located in a sub directory of the main site. The web server and DNS servers are configured such that when it sees the pointed site, it directs it to the directory in question. Your site visitors never know the difference as the URL that they see does not change. One way to think about domain pointing is to look at your Program Files folder on Windows. Each application you have is in its own directory right? That is basically what happens in domain pointing. That is over simplifying it a bit, but you get the idea.

Pros:

• Lower cost. You pay for one account and can set up however many domains your provider lets you under that account.
• Ease of maintenance. You only have to work with one control panel to manage all of your sites. This is a huge plus when you have lots of sites.

Cons:

• Less options per site than with a separate plan for each site. For most niche site needs this isn’t an issue, but more advanced users want full flexibility.
• Limited number of sites per plan. This may not be an issue for most needs as this number can be 40, 50 or more.

Multiple Site Plans

If you want full flexibility and almost unlimited domains, you need a multiple site plan. Hosting companies sell these as reseller plans and they are wonderful for the niche site entrepreneur. The idea behind reseller plans is that a large company allows another company to resell sites on their hardware. There is nothing wrong with this and all the big players do it. The benefit to you is that you can take advantage of what that allows, meaning each site truly a separate account with its own control panel, directory structures, etc.

When you get a reseller plan, you buy a certain disk quota and traffic quota. Other than that you are pretty much free to do what you like.

Pros:

• One main account, referred to as a WebHost Manager, that allows you to create new sites, control traffic quotas per site, disk space usage and whole host (no pun intended) of other options.
• Most companies allow you to set up as many sites as you like as long as you don’t exceed the overall reseller plan limits.
• You can pretty much be assured that you are dealing with a large company and therefore a reliable one. This isn’t always the case, but it does help.

Cons:

• Higher initial cost. However the cost per site goes down as you add more sites.
• Can be a bit more daunting for the new user.

There is another hybrid option from Site5.com (whom I host with) called a MultiSite plan. Think of it as a limited reseller plan. You can see details by clicking here.

What I use

Personally I like the flexibility of a reseller account. Also, I host some other sites for others so the reseller plan works great for me. As mentioned, I host with Site5, but I encourage you to do some research on your own. One place to go to is WebHostingTalk.com and see what other are saying about various companies. When looking there, make sure you read more than one person’s comments.

I’ve gone with other companies and had mixed results, both in pricing, options and service. Site5 just happens to have good service for me and a really good price. Naturally I have to mention that they are offering a domain pointer plan that is as low as 5$ a month if you buy a two plan. It allows 55 websites, five terabytes of bandwidth (i.e. a LOT). If I didn’t need the flexibility of a reseller plan I would have bought it myself (and I’m not just saying that!). Again do your research; Site5.com is just my personal recommendation.

If you missed any part of this series, start here.