I have seen so many posts saying 'I only have $20, how can I get hosting for super cheap?', I decided to give back some to this community with a way of hosting small landing pages for pennies.
Before I begin, I must stress a few things:
What we're going to do here is to use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to host a static page. The host I am most familiar with is Rackspace. You can sign up for an account at www.rackspace.com.
After your account is created at Rackspace, here is the procedure:
1) Click 'Storage' on the top navigation, then go to "Files" on the fly-out menu.
2) Click the 'Create Container' button and give your container a name. The region shouldn't matter too much. Choose the "Static Website" button. Click "Create Container".
3) Click 'Upload Files' and upload the content of your website. Be sure you upload an index.html file! Remember, if your site relies on PHP, THIS WILL NOT WORK.
4) Click "Container" at the top in the breadcrumb navigation to go back to your list of containers.
5) Click the gear next to your container and choose 'View All Links'. Copy the HTTP link.
Now you have a link to your page that is served on Rackspace's CDN. Use that link and point your domain name at it with a CNAME record.
The benefits here are that the CDN is super fast, and it is dirt cheap. I have quite a few things served this way and I rarely have a bill over a few bucks a month. This may vary depending on your traffic. If you are getting tens of thousands of hits per day, you would probably be better off with a full host (although if you are getting tens of thousands of hits per day, I doubt you need cheap hosting
)
If you need hosting for Wordpress or something, PM me and I can hook you up with some full hosting for cheap.
Before I begin, I must stress a few things:
- This WILL NOT work for things like Wordpress, Joomla, etc. This WILL NOT work with any PHP or other server-side scripting (Python, PHP, Perl, ASP, etc. Javascript, WILL WORK, however, so you can still do things like contact forms if they can be pointed at a service like MailChimp, etc).
- This is best for simple landing pages, not blogs.
- This WILL require a credit card, but there are no upfront fees or account load amounts, etc.
What we're going to do here is to use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to host a static page. The host I am most familiar with is Rackspace. You can sign up for an account at www.rackspace.com.
After your account is created at Rackspace, here is the procedure:
1) Click 'Storage' on the top navigation, then go to "Files" on the fly-out menu.
2) Click the 'Create Container' button and give your container a name. The region shouldn't matter too much. Choose the "Static Website" button. Click "Create Container".
3) Click 'Upload Files' and upload the content of your website. Be sure you upload an index.html file! Remember, if your site relies on PHP, THIS WILL NOT WORK.
4) Click "Container" at the top in the breadcrumb navigation to go back to your list of containers.
5) Click the gear next to your container and choose 'View All Links'. Copy the HTTP link.
Now you have a link to your page that is served on Rackspace's CDN. Use that link and point your domain name at it with a CNAME record.
The benefits here are that the CDN is super fast, and it is dirt cheap. I have quite a few things served this way and I rarely have a bill over a few bucks a month. This may vary depending on your traffic. If you are getting tens of thousands of hits per day, you would probably be better off with a full host (although if you are getting tens of thousands of hits per day, I doubt you need cheap hosting
)If you need hosting for Wordpress or something, PM me and I can hook you up with some full hosting for cheap.
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