I built mine through yahoo webbuilder and it's very easy to upload video to the site. Got the domain name fo $1.99 and the website costs me $10 a month to host it. Overall a pretty good deal.

I'm using pair networks - pair.com - for hosting right now but seeing the deal on godaddy.com makes me very tempted to switch because I'm paying twice as much for half as much bandwidth and storage as I could get from them. Seriously, that $3.99 deal is better than what I currently get for massively less money.

That does it, I gotta check my agreement today and see if I can switch. 2 Terabytes of data transfer bandwidth rocks for video hosting along with 200 gig storage.

And for $14.99 to boot. Grrrrr. I'm paying double that right now.

One downside to GoDaddy, they do not host streaming video.

Hmmm. So what exactly does that mean? Currently, I'm showing folks some twilight footage here and I didn't do anything special other than point to the file. So what's the difference in streaming and non-streaming because I'm not sure I'm getting streaming on pair and even if I am, what's the downside to not having it if folks are downloading the file anyway? Especially considering the massive difference in cost and options. I did some checking and right now I'm paying $29.99 for 3gig of disk space and 250 gig of transfer versus $6.99 for 100 gig of disk space and 1 TERABYTE of transfer over at Godaddy.

Does streaming allow users to start watching prior to completing the download? That's a tough call but even still, man that's a major cost savings.

Unless there's some horrible catch, I can't make the numbers work for staying with pair.

Here's what godaddy says about streaming:
So it sounds like the same thing that I'm getting right now because that says you can embed files. Man, I'm confused.

I just signed up with Netfirms.com and got 40 GB of disk space and 1.5 terabytes of monthly bandwidth for $142.00 for the year. That's a little less than $12 a month. Good site with a good control panel, very reliable, plus they send you some good site builder software to get you started. I'm sticking with Dreamweaver, but for anyone that's just starting out on their own it's really decent software. Plus with the business acount (which I got) they'll let you register 5 domains for free and they support ecommerce so you can take credit cards. Worth looking into, I think.

No doubt it is. True streaming requires a special type of Web server that feeds the video to the viewer's computer. What you are doing (and what GoDaddy described) is progressive download, which feeds the video over the same HTTP protocol used for Web pages. While not quite as reliable nor scalable as a true streaming server, it is fine for most people's needs. It is what I do on my Web site.

Quick update: I bought some hosting from godaddy for a different site project I'm working on as a test and I can say that it's a much better user experience than the one I have with pair networks. It's not even close. Now I wish I'd have started out with godaddy.

I know nuts about building a webby. If I sign up the basic package with GoDaddy, would it be easy to use the web builder for someone like me? I just like to show case some photos and maybe sample videos that cant be downloaded.

I don't use their web builder app but if it's anything like the rest of their user experience it should be pretty simple and straightforward.

You also might want to look into using WordPress to build a site. Even though it started out as a blogging tool, it's really expanded what it can do and godaddy even offers it in their web hosting services at no extra charge which makes installing it easier than if you had to do it on your own (and even if you had to it's pretty simple). For someone with no experience in web design, you might just want to stick with the web builder to get your feet wet unless you really like to tinker and are comfortable with tech stuff. I've used wordpress to build my site and I love the extensibility of the code.

Greg, thanks for the great intro. I guess I will try wordpress with a free host till I'm familar. BTW, GOdaddy can allow for video hosting right? The kind that allows viewers to see but not download?

Both
 

There's no restriction on it. You can set it up to allow both ways. Here's an example on being able to download a video using right click to save as and an example of having the video on the front page as a place holder video. In either case you can still download it. Both examples are the same file on the server.

Cheers!

Hi Mike -

Are you still with NetFirms? If so, how's the service been...(i.e., tech support, downtime, speed, etc...)?

I use Yahoo Small Business hosting. Around $10/month and worth it for the ton of features in the control panel.

Web Service Providers
 

Except for the checkered expertise of their customer service, I've also been happy with Yahoo as a Web Service Provider. The reliability of their Linux servers are great and the feature/functions of the ecommerce merchant account is excellent (albeit $40/month). But as a podcaster, I need *LOTS* of download bandwidth so I don't host the actual media files on Yahoo. If your target audince is a glutton for download bandwidth, I recommend using Libsyn.com - their file hosting prices are unbelievably inexpensive and they allow truly unlimited download bandwidth (other WPPs will cut you off in a minute if you swamp their servers, routers, or pipes). They charge $5/month for 100MB, $10/month for 250MB, up to $30/month for 800MB - and users can download to their hearts content. But if you're certain your WPP has sufficient bandwidth, that hosting both your webpages and media files at one location makes sense.

Regards, Michael

Second that! company is great. i got 3 domain names with my package.