How to Buy Space on a Server

Learn what you should expect to pay. Different websites have different needs. High-volume sites such as Facebook require tens of millions of dollars each year to function, and a successful e-commerce site might pay $5,000 annually. In contrast, the server needs of a typical website are so relatively small that $100 or less per year is reasonable and common. To discover more about reasonable server costs for your website in particular, call or email business owners operating in an industry or market similar to yours and ask how much they pay.
Determine necessary features. Even the most basic web hosting packages offer a large collection of features, but not all may provide the features specifically required by your website. Do you need a Linux or Windows operating system? What about core functions, such as the ability to host domains and sub-domains, email and FTP accounts, and relational databases? In terms of programming needs, do you require CGI, PHP, Perl, Ruby on Rails, Python or JSP? How about the ability to simply create guestbooks, forums, chatrooms, password-protected directories or email forms? If you expect to sell products online, shopping cart software and secure server technology must also be considered. Create a spreadsheet and list all of the features that your web server must provide.
Read customer reviews. Setting up space on a web server is quick and simple, but changing to another is time-consuming and often difficult. Avoid this possibility by reading reviews provided by current and former customers on sites such as webhostingreviews.com. These sites provide real-world insight into a hosting provider's up-time and reliability, server and connection speed, technical support and knowledge, customer service, billing practices, and their overall ability to deliver value.
Buy server space. Purchasing your web server space is the easiest part of the process. Visit your selected provider's website, find the plan you wish to buy and begin your order. After providing the name of your website, you will be asked to provide your contact information and payment details. In most cases you can also select your payment term: monthly, yearly, or multi-yearly (Many hosting providers offer discounts for services paid in advance). After submitting payment, you will receive a confirmation email from your provider. Your server space will generally be available for use within an hour after purchase.
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How to Build a Website Like Craigslist (4 Steps)

Consider using an open-source blogging software such as WordPress. These software platforms allow for the incorporation of widgets designed by third-party developers. Some of these plugins will allow for the posting of user content such as classified advertising. While the approach may not be very versatile, it is probably the simplest way to accomplish the task of accepting and posting web-based classifieds.
Research the opportunities offered by popular content management systems. If you don't have experience programing with a server-side scripting language or if you are not familiar with relational database programs then you will probably want to use a pre-programmed content management system which can be customized to your needs. Two of the leading content management programs which you should consider using are Joomla and Drupal. Neither of these programs charge for their use; however, you should spend the time to become familiar with each product prior to investing the time and energy to customize their system.
Develop the user-facing framework for your users. You will need to have a working knowledge of XHTML and CSS. These two coding systems can be written in a basic text editor and will allow you to design the structure which will appear on your users' browser screens. If you need assistance with these two languages then you should take advantage of any number of XHTML and CSS online tutorials which will explain the features available.
Deploy the server-side back-end scripting language and database program. You will need to process dynamic data which will need to be updated depending on user input. To do this it will be necessary to use a server-side scripting language such as PHP, Java, Pearl, Python or Microsoft's ASP.NET language. These scripts will take the data entered by the user and place it in the database. They will also retrieve the data upon request and present in in the XHTML and CSS framework which was mentioned above. You will also need to set up a relational database to securely house the data.
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