Since I first posted, I've been look around at some virtual servers. Do any of you have any experience with these?
I looked at
Slice Host, but I get the distinct impression that they are aimed towards the Linux nerd brigade which I am definitely not a member of. My last attempt at using Linux resulted in me frying my XP install (dual boot off one drive). So I'm loathe to launch straight into something which is above my head for my main sites. I don't mind fiddling with something to see how it works and go from there. But I don't have the time right now and really just need something I can pay the money for and start uploading as per a regular shared hosting account.
The other one I've serious looked at is
HostV. They are twice the price of Slice Host, but they don't seem to be aimed so much towards Linux gurus which is more up my alley.
I have a few questions I hope you guys can answer though:
Firstly, how hard would it be to setup the HostV server? They claim that it's about as easy as a regular shared account, but they also talk about using root access and many other fancy things I have no idea about.
Secondly, I asked them if they could handle 2000+ unique visitors/day via WordPress blog posts on their bottom model and they said "sure, no problem at all". But that bottom level package only has 256 MB RAM (plus another 1 GB of 'burstable RAM') and a friend of mine reckons that isn't enough RAM to serve the amount of traffic I need it to handle. Do any of you have an idea about this? I don't have the foggiest idea about such things.
If you don't think the 256 MB plan would do, then what sort of plan do you think I need?