Hi there!

Here's my situation: I run a fansite which uses up about 80GBs of BW per month and takes up about 100MBs of space. I'm currently with Communitech and though they've already "warned" me about the over-usage, they've yet to take any action. They've suggested that I get a dedicated server but being a student, I really can't afford anything more than $30 or $40/month. With my kind of usage, is dedicated the only way to go? Are there any shared hosting plans that can possibly accomodate my needs? Please help. Thanks a lot! :)

- Ally

I'd say go dedicated!

Yes, go dedicated.

And what does a 'student' have to do with anything?? I see all these posts on WHT about how 16 yr. olds make great business people and run great hosting companies - they're certainly 'students'.

If you're using 80GB of bandwidth per month you're getting some serious traffic and using serious resources. You had certainly better be getting some serious income from a site like that so you can easily afford a dedicated server.

Allyen,
with that kind of GB usage, dedicated is the only way to go...........you are lucky communitech have not done anything, most hosts would get rid of you in a second..........
I also understand your situation, when I was a student money was always non-existent......although that hasnt changed.........

Get a few companies to start advertising on your site and you will cover costs no problems...........

good luck.............what is your site??????

*L* I should've mentioned the fact that I had very limited financial resources. Also, being from out of the US (Singapore), I have to consider the exchange rate factor. Which is why I'm looking for alternatives, instead of getting a dedicated server straightaway.

Crooner - You mentioned something about generating income through my site. Could you tell me how I can go about doing that? Would it be through the placement of ads?

21inchguns - Frankly, I've never placed ads on any of my sites before. How do I approach companies? And which companies do I approach? Btw, my site's on one of the Lord of the Rings co-star, Orlando Bloom. You can take a look at it at: http://orlando.glisten.net :)

- Ally

First of all you have a great looking site.

Generating income -
It looks like you already have some affiliates listed - it they're not paying the bills get some better ones.

Visit some sites like yours and see who the advertisers are - approach them with your site stats and you should be able to snag a few.

Read the Sitepoint articles on generating income from your site - some of the best info you'll find.

Look at how this site is operated as it's probably the most successful of it's kind. It's a great site to visit but it's still all business. Everything that's done around here seems to be geared toward making the most of the bandwidth use and maximizing the profitability - from the sponsored forums to the newsletter, etc. It's all done in good taste but it's there nonetheless.

First of all you have a great looking site.Thanks! That means a lot. :)

Generating income -
It looks like you already have some affiliates listed - it they're not paying the bills get some better ones.To be honest, fan sites like ours only get affiliates for more hits, not money. Therefore we all don't pay each other.

Anyway, thanks a lot for all the tips. I'll definitely go look around and read those articles that you told me about. Meanwhile, I'll remain stubborn for a little while more and continue to look around for shared hosting packages. ;)

One more question: Exactly how much space and BW do message boards take up? A friend of mine told me that my message board could have been the cause of my problem. Will getting a separate domain for it be the end of all my woes?

Hey Aly,

Take a look at your server logs and you will see what is eating up your bandwidth.

Originally posted by allyen
To be honest, fan sites like ours only get affiliates for more hits, not money. Therefore we all don't pay each other.

Anyway, thanks a lot for all the tips. I'll definitely go look around and read those articles that you told me about. Meanwhile, I'll remain stubborn for a little while more and continue to look around for shared hosting packages. ;)

One more question: Exactly how much space and BW do message boards take up? A friend of mine told me that my message board could have been the cause of my problem. Will getting a separate domain for it be the end of all my woes?

Originally posted by allyen

One more question: Exactly how much space and BW do message boards take up? A friend of mine told me that my message board could have been the cause of my problem. Will getting a separate domain for it be the end of all my woes?
A popular forum can generate HUGE amounts of traffic. Most of the space that they use is for the enormous log files that they produce. Also the databases (flatfile or sql) can get quite large.

-Dan

Your frontpage has 250k to download............... Thats part of the reason your bandwidth is so high. I try to keep most of the sites I design under 35k.

Originally posted by Rewdog
Your frontpage has 250k to download............... Thats part of the reason your bandwidth is so high. I try to keep most of the sites I design under 35k. I never realised that! Any tips on how I can reduce it?

- Ally

Many graphic programs have a feature to do it, which do you use?

how do you find out the size? could you check my homepage: www.crosse5.com/futind.php

lol! Orlando Bloom. I am more of a Hugo Weaving Fangirl then Orlando Bloom. *^^*;; *waves her little elrond fangirl flag*

I think you better get a domain and seperate account for your message board. I don't know how many members you have, but it's always a good idea. You're getting too many server 500 errors...I see that happening with a lot of popular Ikonboards.

Many graphic programs have a feature to do it, which do you use?I use Photoshop. Could you please tell me how I can reduce the size of my images?

lol! Orlando Bloom. I am more of a Hugo Weaving Fangirl then Orlando Bloom. *^^*;; *waves her little elrond fangirl flag*Hugo Weaving, eh? Nah... he doesn't do anything for me. ;)

I think you better get a domain and seperate account for your message board.Any idea how much space/BW I'll need for a message board, on the average?