Beagle - 11:16 pm on May 8, 2007 (gmt 0)

Hi, ItsAlex - Every once in awhile I'll read a post from someone and think, "He has no idea how many questions he's asking, and how complicated the answers are," and I'm afraid yours qualifies. That's not meant to be snide - everyone has to start learning somewhere. But owning and running your own server is not the place to start. I have the feeling that doing it yourself is a lot more complicated than you think, and that using a web host is a lot simpler than you think - and probably cheaper and safer, too.

I'd go along with the advice to first build a site and take things one at a time - you can use that site to learn how to incorporate a video, get an idea of how much bandwidth you're going to need, learn to set up a payment system, etc., etc. And if you want to know all the details of how your videos are being used, most hosts have ways of keeping track of the stats for you.

As you work on the site, read. Read a lot. The questions in your post would spread out over at least four of the forums on this site. As you read, you'll start to get an idea of what kinds of things you need to learn, and as you get some hands-on experience with a site and run into specific problems, you'll be able to ask specific questions that people can help with.

[edited by: Beagle at 11:28 pm (utc) on May 8, 2007]