It must be very satisfying to watch both the front and back end of a website working together, listening to your server hum to life when the site gets busy and your community comes online - 

That is part of why I do it. But mostly to have total control over all my site's data, period.

I do agree with starting with what you and Andrew suggests. That's how I started. But for some that know how to manage a dedicated box, it's easy.

It would've been nice to have had these server choices provided by you now back when I first started with Dolphin.