How much horsepower do I need server wise?

Thanks to my wife plan A & B got shot right out the window. I was buying a server and then the people who were going to help me move backed out. And then I was renting a VPS and then my wife pulled a stunt on me. So now my website is back on a $5 hosting plan for now.

I have a mega plan where I would like to build enough small websites to make $100 a day from all of them. So I am thinking about making/buying 50~100 different websites over the next 1~2 years until I am earning $100 a day. (If it ever happens)

As soon as my divorce is over which is in 2 months (hopefully) I want to buy or build a server that is capable of handling 100+ low~moderate traffic websites. What kind of server power will I need for that to happen?

Greg

P.S. In 3 years from now I want to be on the beach with my toes in the sand drinking a ice cold coke!

 

We need a bit more info.
You could build 100 1-5 page sites that wouldn't take up much, or you could have 2 database driven websites that would need considerably more resources.

 

I want it to be a mix of forums and WordPress websites. I will also be looking to buy websites with traffic and revenue. Most likely everything will be data base driven.

Greg

P.S. I have though about going all in on Downriver Today. But almost everyone I talked to told me not to put your eggs in one basket. Which is why I am looking to earn something from multiple websites.

 

You need at least one horse for that amount of horse power. Maybe two.

Seriously though, you don't likely need that much. I mean, if they're small websites, you could probably fit all 100 in a moderate shared hosting account or low end VPS, especially if they're only a few fairly static pages using a script like WordPress. Disk space and bandwidth wouldn't be much of an issue at all.

But it depends exactly how big each site is. How many members and posts and people online do you expect the forums to each have? How many pages, pictures, etc on the websites? How much space/bandwidth do you think each will use?

Without that, any answers will just be guesswork.

 

Its good to have goals.

Here is what I would suggest....

Sign up with a hosting company. Someone like A Small Orange or HostGator

Choose one of their medium sized plans - For Hostgator, I would suggest their business plan - Its $12 a month. When that isn't enough, get a second account, and a third... As you grow, addon new accounts. Eventually you can get a VPS or even a dedicated.

I wouldn't suggest buying all at once, but as needed. That way your not laying out money you don't need to until you need to.

 

I have a VPS with a hosting company I'm not going to mention. My sites are not big enough to warrant a VPS but I really like being in (nearly) complete control of the box.

I have 20GB of disk, 5TB bandwidth, and 2GB of RAM with a 2.6GHz processor (if I remember correctly). I pay $29 and it hosts my WP blog, and both of my forums, one of which has about 15k posts and any number of spiders/guests at a given time.

I've been really happy with it.

 

Maybe I should just do a VPS then, I was kind of weary on a VPS because I seen so many people complain of slow performance with their VPS.

Greg

P.S. short term buying a server would cost more. Long term owning a server would be cheaper. Because you can get colocation a lot cheaper then renting a large VPS or dedicated server.

 

while we are on the server talk...who's your hosting comp? @Brandon @Gregman @Xenon ?

 

Hi Greg,
Nice plan I wish you the best of luck with it!

I would suggest a VPS, even Shared Hosting would do unless you were going to get 5k - 10k visits per day from all your sites together.

With a VPS though you can start small, $22 a month will get you a VPS with 1GB Ram and 3TB Bandwidth and you can upgrade it as you get more sites or traffic builds up.

I recentky took the plunge with an Unmanaged VPS it took 2 days to learn how to set it up, secure it and set up cPanel accounts for my sites and transfer them over, but thanks to all the guides on the net it was a doddle.
You cant best having full control over it.

 

I'm very happy with Cloudive.com who I host with now. They had a datacenter issue in May but recovered admirably.

 

Right now I am using XFhost.net and I am kind of screwed. My wife keeps stalling the divorce and its driving me insane. Last week she dropped a bomb on me. So for now I am going to hold onto my money until after the divorce.

Greg

 

sorry to hear about your divorce.... I understand

 

I love liquidweb. I am on the $100 a month VPS.

 

That is wise advice for any kind of investment.

I hope you don't mind Greg, but I'd like to aks a question to the VPS users. The answer may interest you too.

Have you had to upgrade the VPS to a bigger one and if yes, how much trouble was it?

Scott

 

Depends on your Host Provider but most of them have the option to Upgrade in your Account, you just choose what type of Upgrade you want and it'll show the extra prices per month for that option. Then if you Accept it, most systems will be upgraded almost instantly.

VPS is easier to upgrade as all the system is doing is designating part of the Servers Resources to your VPS Account.

With a Dedicated Server, if you was to upgrade Ram etc then an Engineer may have to go and physically put in more Ram modules into that specific Server with could take 24 - 48 hours.

 

You could start with some "unlimited" hosting for your sites. If you are just installing Wordpress I don't think you need much horsepower so any hosting would do it just fine. Eventually when you are driving lots of traffic maybe one hosting account won't be enough. Then you can get yourself a VPS and move some sites there. Then you can get a dedicated server and move the sites that are making you the most money to that one.

But for starting go with a Hosting that will let you host unlimited domains.

 

Was hoping not to mention this because so many people hate them, but I am going on a year and a half with 1&1 (VPS) and I'm loving it.

 

I would not recommend my current host, if it wasn't for the super deal I have, I would move away.