popo

I've got an idea for a sports website that would satisfy what I see as a big need. The thing is, I don't know where to start. I have a great registered name, I see what I want the site to be like, I know the field & competing sites well and I know that this would satisfy a really passionate niche.

I've browsed through elance.com but the problem is that I don't know what I'm looking for. It would not sell anything but would be ad-supported. Perhaps a move to subscription-based service would happen. I need the functionality to be similar to endless.com... and I only assume that this is based on AJAX. I have no idea what else I need to look for. It's tough to say how many pages, since it's all dynamic.

What am I looking at in terms of cost to getting it set up? Are we talking $500 or $5000? What about hosting? etc? Please smack me in the head and tell it to me straight-up.

TIA.

Cynthetiq

really depends on what you are talking about.

it can be as little as $0 investment using free software and free hosting.

to $1,000+ depends really.

It is quite vague, but it depends on what kind of software you'll need to run and how much horsepower and bandwidth will be needed.

video? lots of power and lots of bandwidth.
audio? some power and lots of bandwidth
photos? some power and some bandwidth.
text? a little power and some badnwidth.

I host a number of sites on dreamhost, I have close to 1TB of harddrive space and 12TB of bandwidth every month. I never come close to using it all.

after hosting is the kind of software you'll need to run the site you want. Maybe there is a free open source script. Maybe one you buy off the shelf. It really depends on what you are trying to do.

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popo

Yeah, I know that I'm not giving much to go on here... but it would not have any photos aside from small avatars. No audio/video.

I'm definitely sold on the idea of outsourcing the design and build-out. I can barely write html and I have big thoughts about this website. I see on elance guys in India charging $12-15/hour and they've got great feedback and seeming expertise. It's just tough to start a discussion without knowing what I need them to do. I have no idea on how many hours I should expect it to take.