This quick [embedded above] 2 minute video features Mark Zuckerberg, the Founder of Facebook, sharing how the now extremely-large site started humbly working off a $85 a month server.
It doesn’t cost that anymore.
What’s nice is that church websites, in terms of hardware and servers, are even cheaper now. What a wonderful luxury! What surprises me though is how many ministries are paying far too much for their hosting than they need to be spending. You can start on a humble (and very effective and scalable) server and then grow from there.
What are you paying for your ministry/church website and hosting? Can you be doing better?
klreed189 says
I am very interested in hearing about this myself. I have been trying to provide this as a resource to others through advice and help on creating websites, wordpress hosting, etc…
I go through media temple and really have had a great experience and it is pretty cheap
human3rror says
mediatemple isn't really that cheap…! but, i like it.. i use them.
klreed189 says
I guess I need to rephrase that. It is cheap for me because I share it with a couple of friends and all I pay for is a little hosting fee they charge me. So for me it is cheap I guess. Sorry for the confusion.
human3rror says
ah, very good…!
klreed189 says
sorry to bug you John, but did you see my DM I sent you about finding a plugin for displaying a portfolio?
I have been searching all day and have tried several crappy plugins that are rather frustrating.
Thanks man appreciate it
human3rror says
Kyle,
Been super busy. must have missed it.
klreed189 says
thats cool dude, I understand.
I am sure that you are going crazy with nponline.
I just was wondering if there was a plugin that you liked or used.
I was just bummed that i missed the prayer service last night and I missed my meeting before the prayer service because I thought it was 6pm Central time.
But I am looking forward to the big launch. Would love to help in any way I could.
human3rror says
sweet! have you dropped a line to scott.m?
Paul Steinbrueck says
Only thing I would point out is not to underestimate the value of good support and a stable company. There are companies out there that promise 100 GB of space for $5/mo, but the only way they can do that greatly overselling the space on their servers and then outsourcing their support to Russia or India where you're lucky to get a reply to your email a day later in broken English.
There are also lots of hosting companies out there that are nothing more than resellers trying to make a buck through an automated system. Many of them come and go in less than a year.
Obviously you can get more disk space and bandwidth for less money than ever – that's the nature of moore's law, but the less knowledgeable you are about server administration the more important support will be. I would strongly recommend people check out the rep of the companies they're considering and not just go with the cheapest.
human3rror says
good clarification paul. thanks for taht.
nerrad says
I'm reminded of the flyer I received (via snail mail) at church over a year ago from a "web design" company that caters "specially" to churches and will design a simple one page static website for the cheap price of $95 and only $2 for each link you request added on the website. I shuddered thinking of churches that might be suckered in by that…
human3rror says
but a bet a lot are…
Paul Steinbrueck says
Crikey! I thought 1 page static sites and charging per link went out with Y2K services.
human3rror says
hehe. i guess not.
stephenbateman says
I'm getting the spinny wheel of death on the video, but…
I wish Media temple was a bit cheaper, for now I'm relegated to a fraction of the cost of [MT], but good enough results.
Bill Whitt says
We've always been in the $100/yr price range. Now, we can get unlimited space/bandwidth for that, along with all the backend features it takes to run a blog or just about anything else we want to host.
Paul Steinbrueck says
Unlimited space and bandwidth??? Oh no, you didn't fall for that one, did you? I don't know what company you're with, but it's just not possible. If it was, Google would move their operations there and save tens of millions of dollars a year on server costs.
Obviously at some point they are going to cut you off, they're just not being honest about it and you're in the dark about what point that is.
Bill Whitt says
Well, we're not exactly running an operation like Google. So, I don't think we'll ever get big enough to get cut off. It's just nice not to constantly exceed a meager 500 MB limit like we were with our last host.
We're with bluehost.com, by the way. And we've been very, very happy so far!
Paul Steinbrueck says
Sure, you're happy so far because you're disk and bandwidth usage is still relatively small.
But you do realize that if you continue to grow at some point they are going to cut you off, right? Don't you think its deceptive that they won't tell you at what point that is? Doesn't it bother you that at any point in the future you could get a message from them saying you're exceeding what they think is reasonable and you've got to either pay more or move to another server?
There are lots of web hosting companies with lots of plans that will give you more than 500 MB of space but provide clarity as to how much disk space and bandwidth they're contractually obligated to provide you.
Personally I think promises of unlimited disk space and bandwidth are unethical and saddle the user with unnecessary risk, but that's just me.
Bill Whitt says
That's a good point. I wonder how to find out what the limit really is. Or I wonder if it varies per customer (whatever they feel like)?
Paul Steinbrueck says
Just for kicks I read blue host's terms of service (http://www.bluehost.com/cgi/info/terms.html). They are vague but make it clear unlimited does not mean unlimited. You could call them. I doubt they would give you any firm numbers but maybe they would give you a ballpark.
Jim says
using one that you don't prefer and going to start using dreamhost
friar_don says
Actually,
I have others paying for the hosting (clients who host with me) and I host my churches website for free. The bad news, it's blue host and they have a little more downtime than I would like.
joannamuses says
I'm building one i'm working on now for a campus club i'm in on blogger so it is free. Blogger isn't a normal tool for non-blog websites but we've made it work for us. It is possible to set up blogger pages to work more like a website. (see http://mychocolatetestblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/a… for a beta version, still needs some work). Another reason i am doing the site on blogger like this is that once the layout is properly set up, minimal computer skills are required to update it so i can easily give the task to other club members if needed.
human3rror says
Joanna,
that looks like a great start! and you can't beat free and easy to update…!
joannamuses says
Thanks 🙂
Another advantage with using blogger for this is that the guestbook/feedback section the club leaders requested to be part of the site comes with little extra effort via the comments feature.
philldo says
I think you really have to consider your needs and growth trajectory when choosing a host.
I have used dreamhost for some small clients because they are cheap and the downtime is acceptable for the client. Plus they have a free option for non-profits (http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/Non-profit_Di… Support has been good too.
I use MediaTemple DV hosting for more robust sites and when support / uptime is more important.
If you have a really mission critical site, then Rackspace is an option. They have been good to me. Their support is amazing. They will take their time with you on the phone and actually configure (or fix) your server for you. The support comes at a cost though.
I would recommend churches starting with Dreamhost's free non-profit option then moving up to a MediaTemple DV when the funds and / or need is there. I used a 20% off coupon and paid yearly so a DV account was only $400 a year.
philldo says
I think you really have to consider your needs and growth trajectory when choosing a host.
I have used dreamhost for some small clients because they are cheap and the downtime is acceptable for the client. Plus they have a free option for non-profits (http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/Non-profit_Di… Support has been good too.
I use MediaTemple DV hosting for more robust sites and when support / uptime is more important.
If you have a really mission critical site, then Rackspace is an option. They have been good to me. Their support is amazing. They will take their time with you on the phone and actually configure (or fix) your server for you. The support comes at a cost though.
I would recommend churches starting with Dreamhost's free non-profit option then moving up to a MediaTemple DV when the funds and / or need is there. I used a 20% off coupon and paid yearly so a DV account was only $400 a year.