Future changes to the web site & forum
Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:35 pm
As some of you are well aware, the forum and web site gets less and less visitors as each year goes by. As I gain no profit from this site this is becoming a drain on my finances and associated costs to maintain the site. The site is hosted on a Windows platform which generally is a lot more expensive than Linux / Unix. This gives me a few options. I'd be grateful if anyone can provide any feedback.
1) introduce advertising
Pros - I get money to pay for the site
Cons - Adverts are annoying. Not many visitors = not much money.
2) Move to a Unix Host
Pros - cheap and a LOT more features
Cons - will require forum to be scrapped and PHPBB used instead. Web site will have to be re-written in PHP instead of ASP.
3) Move to a cheaper Windows host
Pros - will not need to make any changes to the site and forum. I will be able to use an MS SQL database instead of Access.
Cons - None in the UK that offer this cheaper than my current host. Conversion from an Access database to SQLserver has a potential for completely bolloxing up.
Currently my best option is to move to another host. I have already got the rest of the site re-written & working on a test server running UNIX with PHP 5 installed and it works well. The forum is the only issue. I'd like to dump Snitz and use PHPBB but this would mean loosing all posts which I don't really want to do.
I will be experimenting for a while as I have renewed for another year with my current host but I have a feeling they might drop Windows hosting altogether. I'm looking at kiwihosting.net in New Zealand as they are offering the perfect solution to all my problems. I will be in contact with them also to possibly move to them next year.
So for at least a year this site will be here but after that there will be some changes. I do not intend to scrap the site altogether.
1) introduce advertising
Pros - I get money to pay for the site
Cons - Adverts are annoying. Not many visitors = not much money.
2) Move to a Unix Host
Pros - cheap and a LOT more features
Cons - will require forum to be scrapped and PHPBB used instead. Web site will have to be re-written in PHP instead of ASP.
3) Move to a cheaper Windows host
Pros - will not need to make any changes to the site and forum. I will be able to use an MS SQL database instead of Access.
Cons - None in the UK that offer this cheaper than my current host. Conversion from an Access database to SQLserver has a potential for completely bolloxing up.
Currently my best option is to move to another host. I have already got the rest of the site re-written & working on a test server running UNIX with PHP 5 installed and it works well. The forum is the only issue. I'd like to dump Snitz and use PHPBB but this would mean loosing all posts which I don't really want to do.
I will be experimenting for a while as I have renewed for another year with my current host but I have a feeling they might drop Windows hosting altogether. I'm looking at kiwihosting.net in New Zealand as they are offering the perfect solution to all my problems. I will be in contact with them also to possibly move to them next year.
So for at least a year this site will be here but after that there will be some changes. I do not intend to scrap the site altogether.