new member asking questions about webhosting

April 14th, 2008, 5:30 pm

First of all, I am new to this forum though I registered a month ago.

What I try to ask basically is this:
I am planning to create a website of my own, currently only the forum part(still in my local machine).

Should I start hosting my site under a free webhosting site? (I understand this will not provide me with top domain)
or
Should I start by paying for webhosting?(which will guarantees a top domain name)

I am a college student and don't have much budget =,= if I were to pay for it.
I am currently looking into http://www.zymic.com, a free webhosting site.
Free webhosting without ads, the only problem though is that they disallowed much of extensions of file, the worst being mp3 and exe. copyright and all stuffs.......

another question:
What kind of contents will attract visitors more? (No porns please)

[SpooF]

April 14th, 2008, 9:31 pm

I use to be part of the Zymic community and they are a great community for artists. I haven't used their free hosting, but I would expect it to be rather nice. You can start off with zymic if you like, just to get your feet wet. However its encouraged to get paid hosting if you really want to run a web page. Their are plenty of cheap hosts out their if your budget is small. Godaddy has a nice little package, about $4 a month.

The best content is what ever your most interested in. Their are most likely others that have the same taste as you, and if you advertise right they will find you.

BTW, Welcome to Ozzu!

April 15th, 2008, 7:39 am

Use SEO methods.

April 15th, 2008, 8:42 am

DanKo wrote:

Use SEO methods.

Not knowing what you were talking about I went to google and found nothing relevant, so I just typed it in .com.
It's a portal page/link farm.

I'm sorry, but how does optimizing your page for search engines allow you to host your website?

[joebert]

April 15th, 2008, 11:57 am

My primary concern with free hosting in the beginning would be whether or not I was able to move the database in the event I wanted to change hosts.

Some hosts use free hosting as a hook in hopes you'll upgrade to an account you pay for. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this IMO, but I've seen quite a few new people get caught off guard with these terms and end up having to start over or pony up some sort of severance fee over the years.

Just something to keep in mind whie you're looking.

April 15th, 2008, 12:17 pm

Okay, I think I'll get my site to work nice and smoothly first on my local machine, then transfer the contents and host a top domain site.
$4 dollars or so is not too much for a month ^^.

What worries me now is all these copyrighted contents that I should and sholudn't host to stay away from troubles.

Pictures/Wallpapers //theorically, should be safe,
Music //Not sure which are and which aren't safe

Not going for movie nor softwares.

and I, too, don't understand what he meant by SEO method

[joebert]

April 15th, 2008, 12:23 pm

Hosts are usually pretty knowledgeable about what can and can't be made available, I believe they're responsible for these things in the long run is why.

Be sure to pay attention to the TOS your host has you confirm you've read when signing up, you should find a pretty definitive list of no-nos in there.

April 15th, 2008, 12:26 pm

joebert wrote:

My primary concern with free hosting in the beginning would be whether or not I was able to move the database in the event I wanted to change hosts.

Some hosts use free hosting as a hook in hopes you'll upgrade to an account you pay for. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this IMO, but I've seen quite a few new people get caught off guard with these terms and end up having to start over or pony up some sort of severance fee over the years.

Just something to keep in mind whie you're looking.

The one I am looking at seems pretty fine with these issues, they use phpmyadmin, web db management, and mysql for database. phpmyadmin has an option for backing up the db
and the site looks much more profession than others I have been to before.

April 15th, 2008, 12:31 pm

Yes, I tend to pay attension to TOS of things I concerned
TOSs are always so long, few pages down the way.

I do not think I will be able to host any paying sites any soon.
have to get it as I wanted first on my local machine. . . .

April 15th, 2008, 3:09 pm

It all depends on your needs. Free hosting is a good way to start if you are on budget, but you won't have any flexibility. There are cheap and reliable hosting out there that starts from $4 to 6.95
Just do a search on Google, I am sure you will find one. Look for a host that wil give you at least 30 day free trial to see how good their service is.
I am not not knowledgeable about site contents. I guess you will have to do trial and error. Try and see what attracts surfers.

April 15th, 2008, 9:15 pm

ya, I guess I should start off looking at those that start off free or cheap ~

then consider others later

^^ thanks for replying
I'll look around and ask for more advices

April 18th, 2008, 2:31 am

joebert wrote:

My primary concern with free hosting in the beginning would be whether or not I was able to move the database in the event I wanted to change hosts.

What prevents you from running your own backups?
Also check the host's TOS, even if the services are free, the host will have his policy.
But you may also look for the cheapest deals around from paid hosts who offer basic plans, like lunarpages.com or mmhosting.com, they offer discount deal as well, so you may even reduce the price if you decide to go for any of them.

April 21st, 2008, 1:41 am

DanKo wrote:

Use SEO methods.

im new in the web world.. wud u like to explain me about SEO...please

April 29th, 2008, 11:13 am

SEO = Search Engine Optimalisation: making your site search engine friendly.

All the info you can find here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_Engine_Optimization