How Much Hosting Space Do You Need?

Many web hosts try to sell you a large amount of web hosting space

that then costs you a lot each month. However, you may not need this

much space. Have you ever calculated just how much disc space (MB)

your web site uses? Do you really need an expensive hosting solution

for your web site?

For my first web site, I purchased 20mb of disc space and wondered if

this would be enough as I added pages to it. Well, recently I checked

the size of this site which had grown to over 20 pages. To my

surprise the size was only 3,269KB. This means it only uses a

little over 3Mb of disk space.

Most of my friends sites also only use 2-3Mb for their sites.

Therefore it is not necessary to purchase a large amount of space for

a small site (if 20 pages = 3Mb, then 20Mb = 140 pages approx). Are

you paying TOO much for the actual space you need?

How Do You Calculate The File Size Of Your Web Site?

1. First you need to understand how file size is measured. The

smallest unit on a computer is a bit. One bit is one electronic on or

off pulse. 8 bits strung together make one byte. One byte of

information can put a letter, such as “B” on your screen.

If you put 1024 bytes together and then you have one unit of

information called a kilobyte. Put 1024 kilobytes together and you

have a megabyte. (Most floppy disks hold around 1.4 megabytes of

information). Most of your graphics and web pages are measured in

megabytes.

2. To determine your total site file size, right click on the root

folder where your web site is housed this will not only give you

the total site size but also how many files and folders are contained

in your site.

3. If you use an editor, such as FrontPage, go to the reports view,

click on the site summary and you will get a reading of the total

site file size. In Dreamweaver, just use the method in No 2.

Prepare To Expand Your Hosting Plan

You may want to add pages, graphics, features eg scripts, databases

etc, to your site in the future. Begin with a small hosting plan at

first (even 5mb is enough to start out with), and then expand it as

you add new features.

Check with your web host, if you can easily upgrade your hosting plan

as you grow your site. You don’t want to go through the hassle of

changing hosts every few months.

Once you have determined your total site file size, check what

hosting plan you have purchased and how much disc space has been

allocated for your site. If you are only using 3mb of disc space but

are paying for 100mb, then you may want to switch hosting plans and

save yourself a ton of money each year.

Herman Drost is a Certified Internet Webmaster(CIW)

owner and author of iSiteBuild.com

Low Cost Hosting, Site Design and Promotion

(http://www.isitebuild.com/sitehosting.htm)