Webhosting Your Adsense Empire
By: John Elder posted in Adsense
Hello good people!
Today I want to talk about webhosting. There aren’t many things that go into an adsense empire…you don’t need offices, or a staff, or really much of anything…
But you do need a web host to actually host your websites.
And choosing a web host can be one of the most difficult things for people just starting out because it can be a little technical and overwhelming. Luckily these days, web hosting is a lot simpler than even a few years ago….
Basically you have 2 options…
Cheap or Expensive…
For Cheap, I recommend Hostgator
For Expensive, I recommend Servint
Let’s break down both of these options.
Hostgator
Hostgator offers reseller account options that will cost you around $25 per month and allow you to host as many sites as you like. Of course, “as many sites as you like” is a relative sort of term. You will run up against limits…
Hostgator does shared hosting, which means your web sites will be crammed onto a web server with hundreds or even thousands of other web sites…which can cause your sites to run SLOW, load SLOW, and hurt you in a number of ways. Google likes web sites that load quickly, and you won’t get that with Hostgator.
The upside? For less than $30 bucks a month you can quickly and easily get 100 sites up and running without too much difficulty or problems. For those of you just testing the waters, and easing into things…there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Hostgator.
The downside? This isn’t what I’d call a professional option. If you have plans to own thousands of sites, Hostgator simply isn’t for you. You might as well start out with Servint.
Servint
I’ve used many professional web hosting providers over the last 15 years, and Servint is by far the best. I’ve been with them exclusively for quite some time now and have nothing but praise for them.
They have many plans to choose from that range from quality VPS (virtual private servers) that start around $50 a month…all the way up to dedicated servers that range in the hundreds of dollars per month.
For the kind of site that I build, you can quite easily cram 500 sites on a $50/month VPS plan before hitting bandwith limits.
If you’re just starting out, I recommend their basic VPS plan… then as your empire grows you can upgrade to more expensive VPS plans, until you have enough sites to warrant a full dedicated server plan.
Keep this in mind…
Those recommendations are based on my own sites, and remember, I hand code my sites using simple HTML. If you use wordpress to run your sites, you probably need to start off with a dedicated server right off the bat.
Why? Because wordpress is a massive resource hog. You’ll burn through a basic VPS account with 100 sites or less if they’re all using wordpress.
So keep that in mind.
Hosting is important…
You’re going to have problems with webhosting. A hacker might get into your account and reek havoc. A spammer might target your sites. A million other things can and will go wrong. You need a webhost with good tech support and someone who understands the type of business we’re in and can accommodate you when things go wrong.
That’s why I love Servint. Their entry level tech team is pretty good, and when they can’t figure something out you can simply ask them to escalate your ticket up to their second tier of engineers who really know what they’re doing. In either case, your problem will be solved very quickly. And time is money to us.
The downside? Servint is a professional webhosting option…as such, there can be a bit of a learning curve with setting up your account. But don’t worry, they have lots of teaching resources (guides, a forum, videos) that will set you straight, and you can always contact tech support if you need help.
The bottom line?
A good professional webhosting solution is a powerful tool in your marketing kit. Take the time to learn how to manage your own VPS or dedicated server and you’ll have a skill for life that will continue to pay dividends forever.
And also…I use them. So if you ever need help, if you’re not sure how to do something, you can always contact me through this website. Since I’m probably familiar with what you’re doing, I can quickly and easily tell you how to do whatever it is…
For instance, if you can’t get your phpZon widget setup correctly, you can ask me. And I can go…”did you upload the files into your root directory at….” and you’ll go, “no I uploaded them to…” and I’ll go “ah! there’s the problem, they need to go in your root folder”….and, well, you get the idea.
Using the same webhosting services makes it easier for us to communicate.
And it makes it easier to….Keep on building!
-John
The Marketing Fool!
Noo
02. Dec, 2011
What about using Google as a host? They do it free, which seems like a good idea if you have many, many sites.
Of course,if you use Google as your free host you have to use the Blogger platform, not WordPress. But there are many pluses to the Blogger platform. For one, it’s easy.
The Marketing Fool
02. Dec, 2011
Hi Noo, thanks for the comment!
I would never use free hosting solutions like blogger for many reasons. For one, you have zero control. You can’t do any of the onpage seo things that I do in order to rank my sites, and you can’t easily scale it.
I would use them only if I didn’t have any money at all and needed to start small and cheap. But as soon as I made any money at all, I’d use it to buy webhosting and set things up in a way that gave me complete control.
Hostgator has hosting packages that cost like $20-30 a month, or baby packages for under $10. If you can’t scrape together that much money then you should really think about getting a real job and saving up some money…
All businesses have startup costs…Adsense businesses have some of the rock bottom lowest startup costs out of any business in the history of the world…so there’s no excuses not to do it right…
Thanks again for the great question, and for reading!
Noo
02. Dec, 2011
No, you have it wrong. Blogger ‘custom domains’ are NOT blogspot domains. If you have a ‘custom domain’ it is ‘mydomain.com’ NOT ‘mydomain.blogspot.com’ At the moment I have a couple dozen of these domains and pay not a penny for hosting. I have control over content. They are NOT subject to the kind of arbitrary cancellation blogspot blogs are famous for.
The Marketing Fool
02. Dec, 2011
I’m not familiar with them, can you use php on those sites? Do you get .htaccess control of the server? Can you log into the server as root? I still wouldn’t let Google have that much control over my business….
Noo
02. Dec, 2011
You got me. I dunno the answers to your questions.
Can you use php? I dunno. You can input your post content either as text (including visuals) or as html. Does that mean you can input php?
Far as I know, no htaccess access. But I’ve never tried. You certainly don’t have htaccess as you would with WordPress. Same goes for logging into server as root.
Maybe you trump me because of that kind of access. I’ll hafta do more research.
BTW I like what I’m reading on your blog so far. I especially like your disdain for backlinking, which I agree is overblown most places. One of the problems with spending time backlinking is that most of the things people do to backlink get pennies on the dollar. For example, commenting gets very little Google love because most comments are on websites with low, low PR. You can spend all afternoon writing a dozen comments, but it ain’t worth diddly.
The Marketing Fool
02. Dec, 2011
Yeah I doubt you can use php based on your description. My method would fail without php and .htaccess.
When you get right down to it though, i spend $50 a month on webhosting, which allows me to easily host over 300 websites and gives me complete control. Since I’ve started this blog I’ve made about $18,000 in income and spent like $300 on webhosting. Why NOT do it my way? Why obsess over not paying that $300 in hosting when it brings in so much money using a tried and true method? *shrugs*
You’re preaching to the choir about backlinking! I stopped doing any backlinking work a long time ago and have never regretted it. To tell you the truth, I think you can actually do more harm with artificial backlinking methods, though I have no hard data on that…just a gut feeling.
Noo
02. Dec, 2011
OK, you’re winning this argument. It looks like going the hosting route makes the most sense.
But I don’t know php, barely know about htaccess, and don’t know logging into server as root. Can you suggest tutorials?
Accordong to chats on Warrior Forum, incorrect backlinking can do damage. Don’t let a friend backlink sober.
The Marketing Fool
02. Dec, 2011
No I don’t know any tutorials off hand…you can do a google search for php turorials and find hundreds.
The best thing is to work with your web host. They will have tutorials aimed at their specific platform. The best thing is to just dive in and start doing it. You’ll screw up royally at first. Then send email to your hosts tech support and they’ll help you out. You learn and figure it out. Post questions here on specific things if you get stuck. Muddle through it till you get it *shrugs*
Seems how I usually do things at least 😉