How You’ll Know When It’s Time to Upgrade Your Web Host
You’re probably wondering how there could ever be a downside to receiving too much blog traffic.
Believe it or not, there actually are some things you need to prepare for in order to avoid the rude awakening I experienced during a high-traffic day.
Of course, every blogger dreams about the day that their blog finally gets record breaking traffic; the day when their page views are through the roof; the day when it seems everybody wants visit and share their blog content. That day would be a glorious one right?
Downside #1: Too Much Blog Traffic for your Web Host
Well, what if, during an important point during a contest, you actually experience that traffic and suddenly you get an email from your web host that goes something like this:
Subject: Server Overload
During this routine monitoring we have found that your account is utilizing an excessive amount of system resources, and we have been forced to suspend your site as per our terms and conditions.
Would you freak out?
I actually felt pretty nauseous because this happened just as the Surviving the Blog contest was well underway. Emails began to pour in and I knew I had to act fast.
I contacted my host and they were willing to reinstate my account (so that the other blogs I’m hosting wouldn’t be affected) only if I removed WeBlogBetter, the site that was causing the overload.
Downside #2: Moving a Blog to a New Host
That might sound simple enough, but I hadn’t planned on moving, nor had I budgeted for the expense. I would have to upgrade to VPS – it was obvious at this point and I had to act quickly. That meant that I would have to find a new VPS host, backup my database, start downloading my sites files, and prepare for a move immediately.
That meant that everything I had going on, including projects with pressing deadlines – everything would have to wait.
Needless to say, I was pretty stressed out. Every moment my site was down meant money and/or major opportunities were on the line. My reputation was on the line. If someone who was considering becoming a client happened upon my site and it blasted “Account Suspended” that meant that they’d immediately question my credibility. I know I would if the shoe was on the other foot.
So I quickly searched for a suitable host and happened upon 1and1.com. They turned out to be a life saver – their 3 months free promotion was exactly what I needed. They even threw in a free domain name, which I didn’t need at the time, but will use for a future project I’m working on.
I quickly signed up and was on my way…
Downside #3: Technical Difficulties and Site Downtime
I’ve moved sites from Blogger to WordPress countless of times and when Brandon Cox moved WeBlogBetter from Hostgator to Justhost, he clued me in on all the steps involved, so I believed moving WeBlogBetter to its new VPS host would be just as simple.
Wrong!
The clock was ticking and it seemed like everything was moving extremely slow. It took forever to download giant files and folders. Filezilla kept timing out and I kept having to start over. Everywhere I turned – it seemed that I would hit a road block. Days passed this way and my site was completely out of commission the entire time!
At the point of giving up, I turned to technical support. The advice I received sounded like Chinese – I don’t speak Chinese! My large files would have to be uploaded via SSH – I didn’t know SSH!
I wanted technical support to take over and conduct the transfer for me – but they didn’t offer that service. I began to question my choice of host. Had I made a mistake? How could they NOT offer that service?
I don’t know how many calls I made to technical support before I finally just sucked it up and worked my way through learning the necessary SSH commands. It was either that, or pay someone to make the move for me. I hadn’t planned for that expense, so I rolled up my sleeves and dug in…
Eventually, after much sweat and tears, I was able to get WeBlogBetter back online. This site is now running on 1and1 VPS hosting and I haven’t experienced any downtime since.
You may not be at the point where you need to upgrade, but if you’re looking to increase your blog traffic eventually, this is something you need to consider in the long run.
I’m glad I was able to find this affordable host quickly. They always have great promotions going on like the one I got in on. They even have domains for $.99 for the year. If you’re in need of shared hosting, they’ve got that and dedicated hosting, too.
Too much blog traffic is of course, a great thing, but don’t wait until it’s too late to upgrade – save yourself a headache and plan ahead.
Has anything like this ever happened to you? Please share your experience in the comments.
About Kiesha Easley
Nice post Kiesha, Having a high traffic blog is a good thing, it also has some downsides as you stated above. The one thing that I would like to say is we should at least keep in touch with a technical team or individual to help when situation arises.
Twitter: messynessychic
says:
Oh and hats off to you for learning the SSH on ur own and fixing it on your own. Pretty commendable!
Twitter: messynessychic
says:
This is happening to me as we speak. I’m nauseous just as you say. One of my articles made it to the top of Reddit and within an hour of traffic through the roof, my server pulled the blog and refused to reactivate. Thankfully I have a brother that’s come to my rescue and is currently moving me to Amazon for a new server. I feel pretty helpless and sick knowing about all the traffic and exposure I’m missing out on however as long as my article stays at the top of Reddit. I feel like I won the lottery bit lost the ticket. I don’t know if I’ll ever get the same opportunity again and it’s pretty devastating.. Thanks for your article, made me feel a bit more comforted that someone else has gone through this. Hopefully I’ll be back online soon :(
Twitter: sharynsheldon
says:
I can’t even imagine having to go through that. So stressful!
You don’t even have to have too much traffic to end up needing to change. I had a niche site hacked a little while back and when Regina Smola (WPSecurity Lock) cleaned it up, she told me that it would be better to have the next level up of hosting. Seems that all my sites were affected by the one hack because they weren’t in separate silos. I’m so not a techy, so that kind of thing never would have occurred to me.
I’m glad your reason was due to too much traffic!
Sharyn Sheldon recently posted..Social Media PLR – Pack of Top Tens
Twitter: carla_easley
says:
Wow! I never thought that having too much traffic would be a bad thing. I haven’t experienced any of the following yet because my site’s traffic isn’t so great and I’ve been blogging for 2 years.
Carla Easley recently posted..Twitter for Your Business: Is it Worth Your Time?
Twitter: xtendedview
says:
You I also. Good traffic = good money and by that we can afford a hosting.
Tushar recently posted..5 killer ways: How to take awesome screenshots in Windows 8
Twitter: globalwalyy
says:
what a great info you have shared here….Traffic is the gain for blogging
Globalwalyy recently posted..How to Switch From New Blogger Interface TO the Old One
Twitter: MindMart
says:
Too much traffic is not a phenomenon I’ve experienced yet, but I do feel the effects of being on a shared server. As Ray said, it’s time to start investigating my options before a catastrophe hits.
Clara recently posted..Tea Time updated Tue Feb 14 2012 2:05 pm EST
Twitter: xtendedview
says:
yes only too much traffic is not important. Rtaher than quality and genuine traffic is required for success in the blogging business
BSNL Penta tab recently posted..How to avoid and remove Adsense Crawler errors and Ads form WordPress post preview page
Twitter: davidsneen
says:
“Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” Kiesha, it sounds like you had a couple of major headaches. Kudos to you for prevailing. My immediate goal is to get to the point you are at now; so it is good to be prepared for the accompanying hassles.
David Sneen recently posted..Save $1000s with This Tip
Bless you Kiesha!! Yes..it was a headache, yet you kept us fully informed and up to date and always responded to our queries and concerns, so full credit for maintaining your professionalism, humour and compassionate side during chaos….a real yogi!! Hugs
ntathu allen recently posted..The 7 Links Challenge – A Trip Down Memory Lane
I have never thought that getting too much traffic can sometimes cause problem to a website,but still I like this post, thanks for sharing it.
Twitter: elliepowell1912
says:
Hi Kiesha. Admittedly having ‘too much’ trafffic is a problem that requires positive actions on our part. But, still, it is a “good” problem to have don’t you think? I hope it’s something I have to deal with in the near future —- and your explanation shows me just what to do. :)
Ellie
Ellie recently posted..Overcome Panic Attacks
Twitter: TheAnnoyingLife
says:
I’d love to see the day where I have to upgrade my hosting because my blog is getting “too much” traffic because that would mean that I am doing something right.
Well though these maybe the downsides of getting huge traffic, but its also the signal that your blog is getting better and bigger, so I would see it in a positive way.
Rahul Chowdhury recently posted..Increase Blog Page Views in 3 Easy Steps
Twitter: techcrates
says:
Truly said….It would really be frustrating if the site gets suspended by the host due to too much traffic. Appreciate the efforts taken by you …
Great share Kiesha
Salman recently posted..Can Microsoft Catch the Iphone?
Twitter: issuesatwork
says:
I do not have this problem right now. Good information though.
Michael Belk (calculators) recently posted..You do not speak English as well as you think.
How many is too many.? What does your Alexa ranking have to be before you are in danger of this happening?
I had a mini viral incident- it’s rather terrifying and totally exhilarating when this happens. I agree we need to be prepared!
Rebecca Watkins recently posted..Winter In Natural Mothers Garden
Twitter: ForteProperties
says:
I have problems with site speed slowing down on Friday’s from web traffic. I need to upgrade my hosting for sure!
Chris recently posted..How To Buy a Home With No Banks: Owner Financed Homes Austin
I use a free blog on a wordpress host and I believe they do not have traffic problems as one of my blogs got some day an huge traffic because I wrote about niche but interesting news. Many people visited the article but no problem. Thats cool for a free blog hoster :)
Dennis recently posted..Find the Keyword density in a Text
No blogger would ever want to have less traffic. In my opinion one should go with Hostgator hosting, as their baby plan can handle daily traffic of more than 15k.
Ajay recently posted..Best Alternatives to MegaUpload
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Ajay!
This blog originally started on Hostgator – I then switched to Justhost because I had even more server crashes with Hostgator even with caching. Like I mentioned in another comment, it’s probably now the volume as a whole, but more about how many people are trying to access the site at one time.
Twitter: freedommmc
says:
really? So do you recommend Justhost? Have you been having any other issues with them that you didn’t have before? Windows or Linux.
Jacko recently posted..Hierarchy of Website Needs
Twitter: hajraks
says:
Is there ever anything called too much traffic? :)
Well, I loved this post but I think it is a long time before I suffer from too much traffic on my post! But yes, this has been informative… as usual Kiesha! Way to go :)
Hajra recently posted..Will they call you over for a bloggers party?
I think that it will take much time before I will suffere from excessive traffic on my blog. But at the same time I can only the problems with the hosting when you have too much traffic. Then may be it can be spamming with the comments, but I think you can control it easily. And if to choose too much traffic, or less traffic, the first is for sure more preferabble.
It is really a headache if you got too much traffic and have to move to a new server or web host. Luckily I don’t have to worry about this for now… or perhaps for the future as I have a great server on a great web host. Love your article. :)
Jasmine recently posted..HostGator Maximum Discount Coupon
Twitter: indblog
says:
This is something that I have never had to think about because I have been very lucky in hosting with a very reliable hosting company.
Dean Saliba recently posted..Social media SEO v/s customer engagement
That, too, is the only downside I could think of when receiving boatloads of traffic. So if you know you’re on a roll, better prepare to get it properly hosted asap. Prevention is better than cure!
Greg recently posted..Autostolforhandlere i Tyskland, England, Sverige og Danmark
Twitter: theapptimes
says:
That sounds like quite an upsetting experience. I got into one such difficulty myself while migrating from JustHost and my site was down for about two days or so. It is quite unacceptable for hosting companies to shut off clients when it doesn’t suite them. They are taking our money on a regular basis aren’t they. Business houses sure talk sweet when they want your investment. Glad you shared your experience with us.
Adeline recently posted..10 Cool Facebook Timeline Apps to Engage with your Contacts
Hello Keisha, thanks for this info. I have never thought that getting too much traffic can sometimes cause problem to a website.
CasandraHenrich recently posted..Local search seo South Carolina
Yeah I remember this blog was down for about 2 days as far as I remember during the Surviving the blog contest. What I was thinking now is that how much traffic are you getting that forced your host to overload. I was getting 1k PVs a day. And I think I’m still on the safe zone.
Twitter: Janis167
says:
None of them are downsides, they are technical difficulties!
Hey Kiesha,
Glad to see you’re sharing the downsides of getting high traffic. I’ve been using Hostgator since the beginning and never had any issues.
-Dev
Devesh recently posted..Why You Need Google Rating Stars and How to Set Them Up
What an awful, amazing problem to have. It sounds like a nightmare but the whole time you have to think to yourself, no traffic would be worse. However, after working that hard to build the traffic and suddenly it all being at jeopardy, I would be furious.
Who would ever think that driving too much traffic on your blog can also caused you in trouble. Yet, this could be prevented if things are done technically correct. Still, you need to think of the best thing to do as always.
Samantha recently posted..Milwaukee 6390-21 Circular Saw Review
I’ve always thought that severe traffic is best for a site. With all the benefits but I didn’t know this fact, I guess having a back-up plan in cases like this would be a good set-up to avoid any inconvenience. The worst thing that could ever happen is to see your site down because it can’t accommodate the traffic, well that’s odd. Thanks for the info.
Yes, same here. I’m working so hard to generate traffic to my site and maybe when the time comes, I’ll be grateful to know that my server is down because it can’t handle the traffic anymore, but you’re right. A back-up plan is a must.
Hi Kiesha, I posted a comment earlier which may not have gone through :( Anyway I wanted to ask how many visits and page views you were getting when you received that warning letter from your host?
David Wang recently posted..We’ve got your back with our new WordPress support plans (with 20% launch discount)
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi David!
I rescued your comment – somehow it (and others) ended up in spam. Some days I think it’s more sensitive than others. Anyway – that morning before I got the message, I think I already had over 700 page views before it went down. I think what causes the overload is not the volume throughout the day, but how many people try to access the site at one time. So while that number wasn’t necessarily my high – I think that day would’ve been a record traffic day if the host hadn’t arrested the account.
I see.. I know other bloggers who manage on shared hosting despite getting 2 times your traffic levels (1800 page views a day). See this comment thread http://thinktraffic.net/december-2011-monthly-report#comment-14208
Also, I think caching will help reduce the resource utilization of your blog. Here’s a quick primer I wrote in case you’ve not performed caching before – http://clickwp.com/wordpress-caching-basics
David Wang recently posted..We’ve got your back with our new WordPress support plans (with 20% launch discount)
Wow that’s pretty bad i never thought there could be a bad side to having lots of traffic. Now that I know whats ahead I can be more prepared for if this happens to me one day.
Okay, I can definitely see the downsides to having too much traffic. What about not being able to reply to users? Has that been a problem?
Doug Gene recently posted..GMC Denali Road Bike Review
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Doug!
I don’t consider having lots of comments a downside (it’s the spam comments that suck!) – but having more traffic and comments does make it difficult to keep up. I used to enthusiastically reply to each and every comment that came in. Now, if I tried to do that, I wouldn’t get absolutely anything else done. It also makes it harder to keep up with the spammers who are getting more and more creative – that means it’s easier for them to slip passed me now. I just do the best that I can – I’m human, after all. :)
Hi,
I thought that everyone dreams about having high traffic only and forget about anything else. Right now I only know that we must ready to have high traffic with our blog also ready to support the traffic.
Pendapat Niaga recently posted..Ulang Bulan Yang Pertama
Hi Kiesha, I know exactly the troubles you are going through because I migrated my client’s site to a VPS when she outgrew Justhost. It’s really very difficult to manage a VPS on your own if you aren’t a server administrator. Initially it went well, but the VPS crashed a few days later because the server logs were getting too big. I didn’t know I had to tell my VPS to ‘rotate’ the logs to prevent such problems!
Most VPS packages are unmanaged, i.e. you have to take care of everything yourself, including rotating the server logs. My advice is that if you go for a VPS, choose a managed VPS, i.e. a VPS package that comes with 24-hour support, control panel etc. Site5 has a package like this – http://www.site5.com/vps/normal/.
The other option is to go with a managed WordPress hosting service like Page.ly or WP Engine. They take care of all the technical stuff, and even WordPress optimizations like caching, updates and backups. I migrated my client to WP Engine in the end and now wished I had skipped the VPS altogether. Check out her site – http://cumidanciki.com
Let me know if you have further questions, I’ll be happy to share my experience :)
David Wang recently posted..We’ve got your back with our new WordPress support plans (with 20% launch discount)
Twitter: freedommmc
says:
Excellent story so you choose 1&1 over hostgator very interesting. Would you recommend 1&1 now that the transfer is complete?
Do you use unix or windows hosting? Thanks excellent post.
Jacko recently posted..Martin Luther King Jr – InfoGraphic
Yes this is quite true. most of the small hosts promise you that they will give great service but when you will start getting huge traffic then they will send you the message as Kiesha said above. They are so ridiculous so I suggest you to purchase hosting from trusted webhots only. If anything is not working then VPS is the last and best option.
Twitter: davelucas
says:
If your blog platform can’t support heavy traffic, you shouldn’t have to go outside and pay for hosting. About 7 years ago I had over 186,000 hits in a few hours, and no problem with blogspot handling that!
Dave Lucas recently posted..Tweaking continues … more and more (A blog update)
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Dave,
Now that’s a plus side to Blogspot that I hadn’t thought about. :)
Thats the way Google is. Blogspot is a google product and It can handle any amount of traffic.
Hey Kiesha , you have said a problem through which in the Initial period every blogger would love to go but this becomes more painful, when the server maintenance and the expenditure make themselves a hurdle in your blog and your visitors. Honestly, you have just triggered my mind to be ready for these kind of situations that’s why i have been trying to find the Good and affordable VPS system! Would love to hear about your post actions for your Blog during that incident!
Kiesha,
That’s why you have to choose good webhosting services so that your blog site will be durable when a traffic surge occurs. And also this is normal especially if your blog is gaining more popularity on the internet. And this down time can be avoided if you have good hosting services.
Moving to a vps or dedicated server sounds good with speed and performance, but it usually isn’t as simple to maintain and handle as standard cheap shared hosting. Some vps hosting plans include management, but it varies from one company to the next with what they will help you with or do for you. Some barely do anything, and others will do a lot. VPS is something to read up on before jumping into it. If you think you are getting a lot of traffic that could result in your host forcing you to upgrade to one I would start looking at what that would involve before as soon as possible and try to come up with a plan. Otherwise you will be scrambling and jumping into things just to get your site backup and running.
Ray recently posted..Human visits vs Bot visits
Twitter: bloggersethics
says:
Being a new blogger, I could only dream of getting good traffic. So atleast no downsides for me. I will be more than happy to get it
Tushar recently posted..4 Things You Need to Accept In Blogging Niche