Back in 2000 I was the founder of a small, but growing website. Without getting into the specific details, we ran an off the wall promotion with a well known celebrity. This celeb was a hero to some and a criminal to others, so it was a really juicy promotion. A day or two into the promotion I got a phone call at 3am. It was the AP Newswire. I did their interview and when I woke up the next day I was all over the news. The article was on the front page of Yahoo, in the tech section of CNN, and a gazillion other places. The next day it hit newspapers around the world. Throughout the next 48 hours we had millions upon millions of visitors coming to the site. I was very green back then and had no clue how to immedietly monetize from the traffic. I through up some quick banner network ads, which actually paid pretty decent back then. I figured that I had another day to figure something out before this wave dies.... but then the phone rang again.... My website hosting company was calling to tell me that we racked up $48,000 in bandwidth charges over the last two days and I had until morning to pay or else he would shut the site down. I didn't pay and he shut the site down. I pleaded with him to wait until I monetized off of this traffic. I even offerred to cut him in. No dice. The next morning the site was gone. I was locked out of the site prior to him making the phone call, so I could not get a backup of the files in order to switch to a new host.... I know, I know. Don't lecture me about not backing up. I've lived with the mistake for 9 years In fact, I learned many lessons from this experience. The next time the AP calls, I will be soooo ready for it! My question to the group is: If you were to all of a sudden get a windfall of traffic (in the millions), do you think that your site is set up to make the most ammount of money possible? Would you add new affiliate programs or other cash generators? Which ones and why? (By the way, I was reminded of my story while reading the CNN story about how the big tomato guy was mobbed in NY today. I went to their website and sure as shit, it was running as slow as mollasses. They are getting overwhelmed by traffic due to the news reports.)
Amazing story. Last few months I was thinking of hiring Paris Hilton for promoting my site. Don't laugh, it was a thought only; I can't afford it in real. Most websites you see around are just for passing time. And I don't blame those webmasters; they do it because they love it. And for the answer to your question 99%+ websites are not ready for that kind of kick off. It takes lot of money maintaining a good server. Try using http://www.archive.org/ for have a peek on your past site.
Great story! I've heard many types of stories like this. A small website gets media attention and either the server can't handle the increase in traffic and crashes, or the host has to take down the site because of bandwidth problems or billing.
I constantly hear stories about people that get to the front page of DIGG and their servers crash. The best thing is to be prepared. A shared server is not the way to go if you are serious about the Web. Your host will shut you down at the first complaint by others that share the server. So, at the very least, you should have a dedicated server for your web sites. If you anticipate a windfall then you need to contact your host and ask them what the best steps to take are. As for money making content, you should also be ready to have the best possible ways to make money. You shouldn't do what I did and scratch your head when it's too late. Ask yourself how you would make money off of millions of visitors and then ask yourself why you are not practicing those methods right now?
Wow! That is an amazing story and a wake up call to us all. I currently have two shared hosting accounts, which I now realize are completely worthless if something like this were to happen. Thank you for sharing, it gave me something to think about for sure.
perry rose yeah that's possible when it happened - 9 years ago, servers and bandwidth wasn't always cheap. it's also a good reason to use grid hosting, not shared, vps or even dedicated.