Off Topic: Server Problems
April 1st, 2009You might have noticed that today and tomorrow is having some server problems. Over the last few months, the traffic on this website quadrupled, even during the last few days there was a peak of almost 100.000 visits a day. It basically reached a point where my current shared web server can’t handle it any more. So I’ll have to invest in some bigger hosting package.
But that comes along with some serious costs. The google ads, on the single post pages, generate only a fraction of those. Therefore I’ll have to come up with some other ways to finance today and tomorrow. Sponsorships or donations through PayPal would be an option. But I don’t want it to be obtrusive at all.
I would like to ask your input on these thoughts. If any one has some good tips how to optimize wordpress for this kind of traffic, please leave a comment too.
I would also like to thank all the artists, designers etc. who produce all the great work which I can feature – collect – archive on today and tomorrow. Content is king!
So again, sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your comments,
Pieter
PS: I’m off to Hamburg tomorrow, I’ll have to leave you alone with this messed up server till Thursday evening.
UPDATE (April 3, 2009 – 1:17 AM):
Thank you all for the comments! And no this wasn’t an April 1st joke. The timing is pure coincidence.
My current shared hosting plan has unlimited data transfer included, so that can’t be the problem. I also have a wordpress cache plugin installed, but I will look into those other ones.
I’ll contact my host tomorrow and ask what’s the problem. Maybe the server can’t handle that many request per second or so.
It’s possible that a PayPal donation button will appear in the sidebar, we’ll see.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:27 am
i love your work, and i’m down to send you at least $10. tell me where and I’ll be there.
April 1st, 2009 at 4:05 am
Hy..
As a daily visitor of your site. Great work!
I have some webspace left with kind of unlimitted traffic.. Dunno how much space you need?
but you could “outsource” some of the content..
Own ftp-access would be possible.. Just write an e-mail if you’re interested.
Anyway.. keep up the great work..
Grz.
Snort
April 1st, 2009 at 7:02 am
love to be one of the 100,000 visitors.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:21 pm
WP Super-Cache has always helped me in times of bandwidth trouble. There’s a good guide to it here.
I also moved one of my sites to Bluehost recently, which allows unlimited bandwidth and isn’t too expensive.
Hope that allows you to keep up the good work!
April 1st, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Tip: Josh, owner of “www.milboys.com” had the same issues as you. He found a host where its free and without asking people for money I believe, and he can tell you more what to do and stuff.he is a very friendly guy, as i came to know hm, so I`m sure he will help you out with the right answer. So visit his site and just ask him on his forum or in the comments.greetings from Koenski from holland, you know..
April 1st, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Oops its Milkboys, not mil. excuse senor.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Maybe ask Kanye for some cash or server space… he’s been bludging off your site for ages… seems fare.
April 1st, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I don’t know if you have the WP-SuperCache plugin installed, that certainly helps by caching the pages into Html versions as opposed to querying the database every time there is a visitor. I have implemented that on a few WP sites and it has helped tremendously. I believe it could handle that much traffic.
Love the site and email me if you have any questions about WordPress I know it very well.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:06 pm
april fools?
awesome website though. It’s my homepage. If i wern’t a broke college student i would totally send you $. Goodluck
April 1st, 2009 at 7:14 pm
hi¡
Love this site¡
There are more ways of ‘making’ money better than google ads. I know that publicity it’s not the better solution, and i love the white arround this blog, but like you said, content is the king, so, i like the white, but i LOVE the content
April 1st, 2009 at 8:54 pm
First of all: congrats!
Hopefully I’ll receive my salary this week and after that I’ll be able to donate or something, though I don’t have a PayPal account…
Fingers crossed and have a great time in Hamburg!
Keep up the good work! :)
(@Matt LOL)
April 1st, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I´m so sorry but I have no idea about this problem.
I like very much your website, to me is a very interesting window to see the world.
Please don´t close it.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Uhh, you don’t have to host every single image on the server for example. Use Imageshack or s.th. like that
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:50 am
I can also vouch for Bluehost, nothing but great experiences with them.
If you ever get really ambitious, you could consider selling limited edition _________. Any time I purchase a coffee mug or print or something small but useful from a private designer or blog or small store, I value it that much more knowing that it benefits a source I care about and have a connection with.
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
If nothing helps, just let me know where to send some cash.
Love the site, check it every day.
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:32 pm
hoping this isnt an april fools :-)
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:09 am
I’m not sure if I’m reading to much into this and as a daily reader I do love the site and would miss it dearly but is this an APRIL FOOLS JOKE?
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:28 am
Thank you all for the tips and support.
No, this isn’t a joke.
I’ve posted a small update in the original post.
Thanks again.
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:36 am
you could create a new site with the name “tomorrow and the day after tomorrow†with the same one layout
A_
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:42 am
@Angelo
why would I do that?
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:10 am
Adsense does not make sense for high quality blogs like yours, it only works with spammy ones. Go for selling art prints, CPM ads (paid by 1000 page impressions), display ads (125*125 blog ads) and books via affiliate programs like Amazon. Also you should ask web hosting providers if they want to sponsor you. Media Temple is known to offer hosting for art and graphic design sources. Media Temple is known to provide reliable hosting for high profile blogs with big traffic spikes.
April 4th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
it was an idea to divide your public based on the time zone…
Great job yours
A_
April 5th, 2009 at 1:13 am
Great site. Hope you figure out a little revenue model for yourself. I see that the art prints idea I was going to recommend is already on the books, above, my other suggestion is a nice little ad pool called The Deck. I think that your’s is a blog of the caliber/exposure that you could get involved. http://decknetwork.net/ “The ad network
of creative, web and design culture”
April 6th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
hey pieter,
GREAT job your doing! fell in love with tdyntmrw long time ago. did you ever think of placing just one ad on your coversite? maybe one in the right context? it never bathered me at vvork?but maybe thats bad manner, dunno?
anyway-thanks for your good work!!! oh and let a fellow know if you are up to ads ;)
M
April 18th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
[...] and tomorrow is looking for sponsoring. Why? Almost 2 weeks ago my current web host took my website temporally offline because today and tomorrow was causing too [...]