Paths and security

I have a website that has an admin application to add and delete files that the web application shows to users. I am not exactly sure where I should put the directory to store the files. My site is hosted on a virtual private server.

The path to the website's directory is:
/home/vipservices/www/vipservices.net

The domain is not live at the moment so I can get to the site using:
(myhost)/~vipservices/vipservices.net/

The files directory is located:
home/vipservices/www/uploaded_images

Once the domain goes live I will turn off access with the ~ (I think)

I am concerned the directory "uploaded_images" is going to be set to 777 so I can read and write to it, but it will be accessable to the world, which I obviously dont want.


What is the correct way to handle this?

Thanks for any help offered.

**crossposted