Hello all, What I'm looking for is some advice on the type of hosting to use and how much it costs you.. Who do you use? Is GoDaddy a viable option? Do they allow adult content? Any help on this is greatly appreciated!
well I use my own servers but to start such site, dont be greedy or stingy but go for quality hosting with right price. Godaddy do allow legal adult however such providers are not good for the enviromment. you may wish to look at knownhost.com, realwebhosts.com and quality hosting providers they are well known for normal hostings. If you plan to go for hosting plans from forums or even sites, check their TOS first and their cpu limit since it will consume resources. Some hosting will say fine but dont trust them yet, check their history, and comments and "loss by transfer" info of the hosting provider. Why? some hosting say allowed but once you use CPU, they cancel your account and no refund saying TOSed.
CPU usage will not be a problem to anybody else but you since you own the whole server and all resources to it. And it will not be a trouble for a medium traffic or high traffic either. But it the traffic is extremely high with 1000s of uniques or more a day, depending on your server specifacation you may have to get a stronger dedi or upgrade ram (In more cases, upgrade dedi to better processor with multicore. If you indeed become famous like imageshack.us, then server clusters may be neccessary. (dont aim for thse huge traffics and get a dedi initially, start small)
I would def. recommed Host Gator!! To bad I can't put my link in here but! They are amazing I have had them for years, they are cheap and great customer service, and they do allow adult (legal adult that is)
Hmm...Thanks a lot for the help kaung. That was really informative! And so is hostgator dedi's the best then for such a site?
no problem. If you want to go straight for dedi, go with FDCservers.net, versaweb.com wdservers.com, or burst.net. I have rebate offers for versaweb I wouldnt recommend hostgator dedi though. First it is very expensive (i am not talking about too expensive because you feel cheap, simply because same or greater server specs can be purchased for lower price at the sites I have mentioned above). and this is the step by step hosting plan to start imagehosting site 1st. shared hosting - only go for quality ones, not oversellers - remember cheapest with very low spec dedi cost $49/m with 2000GB BW average, host offering you shared (not even dedicated where you own ALL resources) with these specs for $5 or $9 or $10 are oversellers and good for low traffic but if you become medium traffic bound to kick you off. Simply Say for given 100GB, why choose such oversellers where you can only use 50% with doubts (50% of 100 = 50) when you can get quality for same price you may be giving but with 50GB guaranteed? later, 2nd. Move to VPS (just go for reliable one and no need to that worry about oversellers in here. 3rd. Cheap dedi. 4th. "Hardcore dedi" 5th. If you can reach to top 10 imagehosting, well 1st congrats. Now go and get cluster or load balanced servers
HostGator shared hosting does not allow image hosting sites, only dedicated servers. I've had experience and have been suspended. Then I switched to DreamHost shared and it looks fine as for now (more than a month). I some days receive more than 1k visitors per day and I have no problems. I would strongly recommend DreamHost as a start. You can use my sig link to signup and get a $50 off your order for 1 year or more.
Thanks for all the replies. I am currently with Host Gator and was told by a support rep that it was fine to host an image hosting site but, he forgot to add in "on a dedicated server"! I looked at DreamHost but having to pay a setup fee of $50 or paying for the year, doesn't really appeal to me in case there are any problems. What about MediaTemples grid server or LunarPages, are either of these any good?
If you pay for one year and you use the coupon link in my signature, you will get 1 year of hosting for total of $69.40 (no setup fees). I don't know about LunarPages, but I suggest you first speak with them if they allow image hosting sites or not.
I've had no problems with them yet, but just to be sure you beeter ask them through the support (about the nude pics). I've asked them if image hosting sites are allowed and when will I have to move to dedi. Here is their reply:
Thanks for the information mrgee, it seems like a good offer. I will see what they say about adult images and then I might go ahead and order. Just out of interest, how much bandwidth and users etc are you using without having to upgrade? *UPDATE I just contacted their sales team (they answered my question within seconds by the way, hopefully their tech support etc is as good!) and they said that adult image hosts are accepted.
I m also looking to start Free Image Host site! Are these sites! still worthful in terms of daily turnovers ???
I prefer ultimatehoster.com they are good and are very efficient. I prefer them. They have thier sales thread on DP too.