Dear YNOT,

I was thinking of starting an adult paysite and I just wanted to know what kind of webhost packages or specs I should be looking for.

Thanks for your help.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Well, that depends on what kind of paysite you have and how much traffic you’ll expect to get. Before you can begin to “spec out” hosting, you need to have an idea of what kind of bandwidth, disk space and technical requirements you may have.

Here are some of the most basic questions you need to answer first:

1. Are you going to have your own content on your site, or are you going to use content plugins?

If you host your own content (pictures, stories, chat, etc.) you are going to require more bandwidth and disk space for your site. (If you’re not sure what content plugins are, please look here).

2. Will you need video streaming capabilities?

Video streaming your own content has a whole different set of requirements than those for your main paysite. Streaming your own video is bandwidth intensive. Of course you can always purchase video plugins as well and these also have their usage built into the fee.

3. Are you going process credit cards through your own merchant
account or are you going to use a 3rd party service?

If you use some software to process credit card transactions yourself, you will need an SSL certificate. Some hosts charge more for this service, others don’t. Many hosts are already set up to work with third party billing solutions. If you choose a third party billing solution, you may also want to use one of their recommended hosts, especially if you are not confident setting up the technical end of the billing yourself.

4. Are you going to have an affiliate program?

When you’re just starting out, an affiliate program is a good way to grow your site quickly. There are several different kinds and most have some technical requirement to set up. Many hosts can assist you with this if they are familiar with the affiliate program you want to use.

5. Are you going to have free samples in your tour?

6. Are you going to have your own “free” sites to get traffic to
your pay sites?

How do you intend to market your paysite? If you wish to use free feeder sites, AVS galleries or third level domains to get traffic to your paysite, you need to factor these items into choosing a host. You don’t want to pay extra each time you add a new gallery or third level domain.

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of this, stick to the basics. Focus on the first three items on my list above. As you grow your business you will learn more about the others, and you may even decide (or be required) to change hosts as you grow your paysite.

If you haven’t looked already there are some great tutorials on planning out your website in the Articles & Information section here at YNOTMasters. Check out the main page at http://www.ynotmasters.com/articles/ and more specifically check out the Business Planning section.

And of course when you are ready to actually choose a host you’ll find everything you need in our Service Directory in the Hosting section.

Cheers,
JR
YNOTMasters