YNOT – Before creating your own website, it is necessary to secure server space that not only will provide all the features the site may require, but also can expand as your website grows. Price is not the only consideration. Weigh your options carefully, as hasty choices could wreak havoc down the road.

Before proceeding with the purchase of web space and related services, you should consider some parameters that no doubt will define the size and basic aspects of your work and, indirectly, the success of your brand. Determine the following about your site before you shop for website hosts.

Static or dynamic?
If you’re going to create a site that provides static content like pictures, video or simple text — none of it frequently updated — then you most likely will not need a particularly large database. If, however, you want to create a portal and manage it as if it were a blog with continuous updates, you require a large database unless you intend to delete the oldest content often.

Balance cost against dynamism. At a minimum, select a database that will hold approximately 100 MB of data, but you’ll probably be happier with a capacity of at least 1 GB.

Text, images or video?
The size of your database also helps determine the hard-disk space you’ll need on the server. Textual content typically takes up less space than videos or images, but if updated frequently (for a dynamic site), text can occupy several megabytes. In the case of WordPress, the images and videos that accompany text will not be saved within the database but in separate directories on the hard drive.

Keep an eye on image sizes. JPEGs offer good quality in limited space, but remember: the higher the definition, the better the quality and the larger the file. Use the highest resolution only for the most important images.

When inserting video, the thriftiest format is Flash (.flv), but not everyone can view Flash files. Obviously, be aware that your storage space can grow exponentially according to the length and format of each video file.

Interactive or display?
A portal can be designed exclusively for displaying content, in which case the webmaster has complete control over hard-disk and database requirements. By compressing images, video and text and removing old material, the site owner can solve almost any storage problems that may arise.

Sites that allow user interaction are much more complex when it comes to storage and database needs. In other words, if the portal you intend to create will allow users to make comments or upload their own material, you should expect to need a lot of extra space that, even though under your control, will not be as easy to manage.

Automatic or manual updates?
Many sites now interact with others via RSS feeds or other content-sharing protocols. WordPress offers the ability to populate sections of a site with feeds from other sites.

If, for example, you want a page displaying the titles of the latest DVD releases and the distributor is equipped with a feed, you can populate a page on your site directly from the distributor’s feed.

If you adopt a solution like this, then you’ll need to estimate the database and/or hard-disk space required to store the information depending on the type of content contained in the feed (text, images and/or clips). The webmaster will not have complete control of the situation but will have to manage the available space as best he or she can by deleting no-longer-current information as soon as possible. (Many affiliate programs offer “hosted feeds” for just this reason. The data contained in the feed is pulled from the program’s servers, so it never takes up space on yours.)

In the event that you choose to populate the pages of your site manually, however, you will be able to manage your storage space according to the needs of the website, but you’ll trade control for convenience and time spent in updating.

In summary, you need enough space to serve your site’s requirements as it grows. Determine the kind of portal — dynamic or static, interactive or display, manually or automatically updated — before you start pricing storage space.

This article was written for YNOT by Eng. Antonio Lodesani. For more information, visit ingoccupati.blogspot.com (in Italian).