Adult Site Owners

Web hosting is a crucial aspect to building any web site. Without a host, a site is not possible. A web host stores your site on one of their machines and provides a connection to the Internet so others can view your web site. With this in mind, finding a host should be one of your first concerns when you decide to build a site. Hosting services range from absolutely free to thousands of dollars a month.

Like most other businesses, no two hosting companies are exactly alike. There are, however, common factors that you should take in to consideration when evaluating and choosing your web host:

1. Adult approval. Because of the constraints adult sites place on bandwidth (and sometimes the nature of the content), some companies will not host adult sites. Make sure the host you choose will have your site before signing up. If you visit the directory at Hosts4Porn.com, you will find there are numerous companies that specialize in adult web site hosting.

2. Technical Support. Good technical support will likely be crucial to the smooth operation of your site. There is a good chance you will have to contact your hosting company's technical support division at least once when you first set up your site, and, as a paying customer, you shouldn't have to wait long for answers. Most reputable services offer free, 24-hour email and telephone technical support. Failing that, try to find a company that offers prompt, knowledgeable technical support both via email and telephone. A good way to gather an indication of a hosting company's level of service is to send an email to their sales or technical divisions enquiring about something like hosting packages or the hours of their support division.

3. Tools. A quality hosting company will let you take care of a fair amount of site administration through a number of web-based maintenance tools.

4. Expansion. If your site is successful, it will require more space and bandwidth. Make sure you choose a company that is flexible in terms of package changes and space or bandwidth upgrades.

5. Redundancy. If you intend to operate a pay site, your clients will expect to be able to visit your site whenever they please. Good companies have multiple connections to the Internet as well as on-site backup equipment and procedures in case of any sort of failure. A power or connection outage is not an excuse for a site to go down. Most companies have a 99% uptime guarantee.

6. Extra costs. When signing up for a hosting package, keep an eye out for any costs, like set-up fees, that may have to be tacked on to the initial package price.

What type of service do I require?
Typically, you will have four choices when deciding what type of hosting service you need:

1. FREE SERVICES: Many first-time adult webmasters start with free hosting packages. Free hosting services generally offer the most basic of hosting packages, giving you a limited amount of disk space to store a web site in exchange for displaying an advertisement on their site promoting their service or an affiliate's service. While a free hosting service isn't the most versatile option for your site, it is definitely a good start for someone who is new to the Internet's adult industry and wants to learn more about the details of site building and administration.

2. SHARED: Shared hosting services are the default option for most hosting companies. If you do not explicitly order dedicated or co-located services, chances are you are signing up for a shared service. Shared hosting means your site is being stored on the same server as a number of other web sites. Unlike many free services, most shared hosting packages allow you to have your own domain name and up to 10-15 email addresses and aliases. Larger sites, however, likely won't be able to take advantage of shared hosting's cost efficiency, as most limit the amount of bandwidth available to your site, and offer smaller amounts of space.

When evaluating shared hosting packages, try to find a host that limits the number of sites they assign to one server. The more sites that share a server, the longer your site will likely take to connect to and load on the Web.

3. DEDICATED: Choosing a dedicated hosting package is a must for sites who have a large number of images, plan to offer any type of ecommerce or who intend to attract large volumes of traffic. Companies offering dedicated hosting packages will provide your site with its own server; your site won't share a machine with anyone else, and will have its own space on the hosting company's racks of servers (typically known as "rack space"). Although more expensive than a shared package, dedicating hosting is a must for larger adult sites, as they typically offer the most space and bandwidth.

4. CO-LOCATED: If you're apprehensive about leaving your hosting in the hands of another company, but don't have the funds to physically maintain a server and direct Internet connection out of your home or office, a co-located server is the next best thing. With co-located servers, a hosting company will connect your hardware to the Internet and provide you with rack space, a secure environment to store your server in, and technical support. What you are responsible for providing is the actual server, maintenance and software. Co-located servers generally give you more control over your hardware without having to worry about vandalism, theft or connectivity.

How much space is enough?
The decision is ultimately up to you. However, make 10-20 megabytes (MB) your absolute minimum, even if you are building smallest of sites. If you're planning to launch a site with 100 to 200 pictures, 50-70 MB of space should be enough. However, you should always try to purchase more room than you think you will need, thereby leaving room for expansion.

Remember, hundreds of companies are out there hosting adult sites. Don't settle for one that "sort of" suits your needs, and don't pick the first host you see. As a hosting consumer in a particularly competitive industry, you have the advantage of being able to pick and choose. Use it to your advantage, and get the exact hosting package you want.

Stephen runs Hosts4Porn.com which is The Adult Webhosting Directory!! Forget about looking through a ton of non-adult hosts checking out to see if they accept adult sites, just come to Hosts4Porn.com and they will show you the WAY!! They have hosting seperated into 4 categories (Dedicated Servers, Co-Located, Shared, and Free). So head on over there today, or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to receive their newsletter.

Special thanks to Porn Resource for providing the great adult webmaster articles for our newsletter! For more articles like the one above, visit Porn Resource at: http://www.pornresource.com