<div dir="ltr">If this is strictly for use by friends and family and you expect low usage there may be a low cost alternative and host it yourself but make it publicly available. It's amazing what you can do with a static IP, a Raspberry Pi and a network firewall. This video talks about putting a website on the dark web hosted in your house but it would apply as well if you don't want it to be on the dark web. Food for thought:<div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bllS9tkCkaM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bllS9tkCkaM</a><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Dec 20, 2021 at 10:29 AM Peter S via Hidden-discuss <<a href="mailto:hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net">hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>Hello Hidden Techers,</p>
<p>I want to apologize up front for what is a serious 'newbie'
question.. but I was hoping to draw from your collective wisdom,
if possible.<br>
</p>
<p>I've built a small website that essentially aggregates all of my
home utility data (from the various utility websites) into one
dashboard. It's been a personal project of mine for the past few
years, written in Django, that I've essentially developed/hosted
on my home Linux server. Its written to be scalable, so that it
works for any US State/City, assuming the web crawlers were
written for the utility web sites. I see this as a hobby venture
(that could grow to be more).</p>
<p>I'd like to go live with it, and make it available to some of my
friends/family, if they were interested in using it.</p>
<p>While I've been buttoning up things from a security perspective,
I've also been researching the associated costs of actually
running a website. <br>
</p>
<p>Specifically:</p>
<ol>
<li>Purchasing/Sustaining a domain name via Namecheap</li>
<li>Web hosting (maybe multiple nodes... one for main Django app,
one for Redis Queue workers, one for Splash Javascript rendering
support) via Digital Ocean, Heroku, or AWS.<br>
</li>
<li>Email Hosting..<br>
</li>
<li>(Possibly) SSL Certificate purchase</li>
<li>More?</li>
</ol>
<p>I haven't yet decided on which hosting services etc to use
(multiple topics for other conversations). My assumption is that
in the short (and most likely long term) this won't turn a profit,
and would just be a small money hole.<br>
</p>
<p>I thought it might make sense to at least capture these costs
under some sort of 'small business' umbrella. My naive hope is
that maybe it would have positive tax implications.<br>
</p>
<p>I've never started a business of any kind before. <br>
</p>
<p>So.. what do I need to do? I need to get an EIN from the IRS.
I've heard an LLC may be more than I need. What would be your
suggested approach? <br>
</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your time and wisdom (and patience for my
newbie question),</p>
<p>~Peter</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
</div>
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