If you plan on running a video site, and you have high goals for it, you’re going to need some decent hosting. Video sites take up a LOT of space, and if they become popular and get a lot of vistors, they also use up a lot of bandwidth. So, cheap hosting usually won’t be enough for video sites.
If you are just starting out with your site, I recommend you start with cheap web hosting, and then update later when it’s necessary. It’s not worth it to buy a VPS or dedicated server this early, as you don’t know where your site will be over the next few months. So, just keep it simple and affordable for now, and get some cheap web hosting. If you plan on having lots of videos, maybe look for a larger shared plan – somewhere in between cheap web hosting and a VPS.
Once traffic begins to pick up on your site, make sure you’re monitoring bandwidth levels. Generally speaking you should never be using more than 75% or so of your allotted bandwidth. Any more than that and your site might start loading slow, and too much more and you could cause a server crash, or your host might shut down your account. So just keep an eye on things and upgrade as soon as it’s necessary.
When you do upgrade, you should get either a nice VPS or a dedicated server. At this point it really depends on your budget. Obviously a dedicated server will serve you beter, but they are also much more expensive. If you can’t afford much, look for a fairly cheap VPS to host on. You can usually get a decent one for about $50/month.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Oct 28, 2009.
