Hosting Package for Membership Site

[phorizt]

I'm in the process of choosing a hosting package and would like suggestions on which one I should go with.

What I plan on doing is having a subscription/membership website. I will of course need restricted access to parts of the site, a way for people to pay to grant access etc. I also plan on having discussion boards and some free content. I imagine it should consist of around 10-15 pages when I'm done.

The information that people will be purchasing access could consist of several hundred recreational lease property listings so some way of searching through them would be useful as well. This is a big project that would be much easier if I just hired someone to do it for me but I like initially doing and learning myself so I want to go that route for now since this is my first web project and I don't know any better yet.

I'm thinking of doing the Business hosting plan. With that will I be able to do a subscription site like I described with the provided sitebuilder and maybe a little help from someone with website building experience?

[ritoban]

Yes, the business plan would suit you. You also get free private SSL with that plan. So, you can add secure pages to your website.
As you site will be commercial, so having the additional secure pages is always a plus.
I can recommend you a few things for your membership site.
I have worked with Joomla for over 2 years, and with Joomla you have the flexibility of adding forums, blogs, memberships etc quite easily. Its a free CMS and there are many developers who can help you out. I even know a few components in Joomla that can create your lease property listings and make them search able.
If you need any custom development, then you can also use DLGuard software (its used quite often in the IM world)
There are many freelancers who can help you in making your web development process easy. You can hire them from sites like scriptlance and getafreelancer...
Hope that helped

[phorizt]

Thanks for the answers and suggestions.

[Goddess Dix]

that's a bit ambitious for someone not accustomed to building sites. but hey, more power to ya! if you have the patience for it, then no problem. and in terms of software, i would NOT consider sitebuilder sufficient for your needs, no.

first of all, when your site is small and low-traffic, smaller vs. bigger hosting plan will not matter. SSL is also probably not going to be needed, especially early on. the vast majority of new sites accepting payments will start out with paypal or something comparable, where the payment transaction is actually taking place on the payment processor's server. that's what you need the secure connection for: storing, displaying or transferring confidential data.

in other words, you do not need SSL to have sections of your site membership only. the access is most likely going to be controlled by whatever content management system you select (and sitebuilder is NOT a content management system). the usernames/passwords and content access control is going to be handled there, so that's where you need to investigate.

i would advise you to get yourself a small hosting plan, and start checking out CMS's to see if you find one that appears to be a good fit and has the features you want. spend time on the website for the cms you're investigating, and read the help forums to see what they are talking about.

review the addons and modules available to see if they meet your needs in terms of what you want to do, and start getting a feel for how much technical prowess you're going to need to implement these features. pay attention to how active the plugins are you are looking at.

since most plugins for cms's like drupal, joomla or wordpress (yes, not a cms technically, but can be used like one) are developed by individuals in the community, you want to look at ones that are actively updated and supported so you don't get stuck in plugin purgatory, relying on a plugin for core functionality for your site that ceases to be updated along with the software.

joomla is one option, as is drupal, and a host of others, for that matter. but you'd better expect a learning curve. expect to do test installs for a while to work out what you're doing and learn your way around.

since you specifically mentioned forums, vbulletin does have paid subscription features and a host of hacks and plugins that might meet your needs, including a few that you can use to produce non-forum pages.

however, i would caution you that if you're going to do it yourself, you need to be ready to learn and dig into the code as needed. at some point, it will be needed. in other words, you can't go in to do this type of site with a "sitebuilder" mentality. once you get the backend setup, sure, you can go type your content into a pretty little WYSIWYG web editor, but be prepared to get your hands dirty getting it all set up and working well.

good luck, grasshopper.

[striddy]

Originally Posted by Goddess Dix

that's a bit ambitious for someone not accustomed to building sites.

Setting their expectations a bit high

Originally Posted by Goddess Dix

in terms of software, i would NOT consider sitebuilder sufficient for your needs, no.

**cough** did someone say sitebuilder and ecommerce in the same sentence? **cough**

Originally Posted by Goddess Dix

good luck, grasshopper.

They will need it.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by striddy

**cough** did someone say sitebuilder and ecommerce in the same sentence? **cough**

I can't decide whether that's worse than mentioning "Joomla" and "easy" in the same sentence aimed at someone building his/her first site.

(Like the classic French cookbooks that say "simply caramelize some sugar and spin it into gossamer threads...")

[Goddess Dix]

well heck, i'm never one to discourage a person wanting to learn how to do it themeselves. that's how i got started. but i think it's also important to foster realistic expecations of just how much work is involved. it's not a "point and click" type proposition to build this sort of site.

[striddy]

Originally Posted by Goddess Dix

i think it's also important to foster realistic expecations of just how much work is involved. it's not a "point and click" type proposition to build this sort of site.

Very true Dix.