Hi all. I’m looking to start a website which will provide the following services and associated revenue:

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1. A newsletter sharing news and analysis in a niche field that I work in. At first this would likely be free. I’m looking to monetise the newsletter later through advertisements.

2. The site itself, with news articles and deep dives onto some ongoing topics. I may choose to host advertisements on the site at some point.

3. Paid courses providing content to bring newcomers up to speed in the niche, and potentially paid content with additional deep dives into specific topics.

I’m familiar with business but not advanced web design and monetising websites. I plan to start off small to see if the idea works, and was thinking of building the initial newsletter and site myself. My concern is that a service like Squarespace or Wix might be very helpful at first, but later present some issues.

I’m not sure that a service like that would allow me to host large numbers of videos for courses, and I’m not clear that I would actually own the domain when using their service. I.e. if this does work and becomes popular, I would worry that I’d actually lose the domain at some point or run out of storage / bandwidth. Equally though, I’ve heard that full commercial websites can cost $50,000 to build which is too much to risk before guaging interest.

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Am I right to be concerned about the growth prospects on a platform like Squarespace / Wix etc?

Is it possible that I would later run out of bandwidth or lose the domain if it is successful?

Would a proper commercial website really cost $50,000?