Elexis Smith posted a new question on 6/16/2009
There are going to be virtual gifts and hardware users can give to each other. The normal profile, pictures, videos, blogs, IM, and comment text will be used. We will have an online jewelry store. A music instrument and recording application will need to be added. There will be groups and forums.
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William Bedford Jr. Responded on 7/26/2009
You can have a company host your site, email and even help you market and setup online store and merchant services. My website is www.montcotech.com and its hosted through www.1and1.com. I dont have to maintain it just pay for it. Its very competitive in pricing. I think my whole thing yearly is $120. Your basically renting space on some other company's server. The amount of space and usage requirements will dictate pricing. The thing you'll need is a person with web design exp. to help make it look the way you want. Otherwise theres templated site to choose and customize to and extent.
I find more and more SMBs are shifting to hosted online solutions because its a lower cost of ownership. For instance, you asked what hardware would be needed. Well a server, a reliable decent speed Internet connection (broadband) - Static IP address to allow connectivity. It gets very pricey and then it must be maintained. Backups and upgrades in software can be very time consuming and expense to maintain.
Having someone host for you would be a better fit for you I think. You can bring the whole setup in-house too if you so choose down the road. But for your needs I don't think that would be necessary.
