Dec
4
Successful Blogging Can Be a Disaster
December 4, 2009 | 18 Comments
Many of you may have wondered why NewEnergyandFuel went down this week for 24 to 48 hours, depending on where your closest Internet nameserver is in relation to NewEnergyandFuel. Its simple, the old hosting firm threw the site overboard and served the Account Suspended page instead when successful blogging overtook their skills and patience.
The old host’s claim was the site was using too much ‘CPU’ an assertion not at all the same as the new host. But on the way of figuring out what to do, this writer and infrequent administrator learned that WordPress as a blogging program is well known to be a CPU and memory hog as visitor numbers get higher.
Thanks to all of you, that’s what happened. Newenergyandfuel has gone from a tiny site to a ‘moderately successful site’ as the various forums about WordPress problems put it. There are tens of millions of blogs; just a few thousand ever get to the hundreds or (trouble zone) thousands of visitors a day. That’s where this site has gotten too. That means – many major thanks to all of you.
Moving such a thing as this size of blog isn’t so simple either. It’s nearly a gigabyte in size, after compression into the zip file. Then one is leaving a firm with its own thoughts on configuring servers to another with its own view on configuration. All the steps, recovering from the unannounced site closing, to trying to solve the problem instead of the old host’s desire to fix the problem with blame and a twenty fold increase in the cost, then realizing that a new firm is needed, choosing one, then getting the data out, and finally reinstalling the WordPress program platform into the new server and lastly, I hope, getting it to run with the new server configuration.
That requires a host support department much more sophisticated than first thought. Knowhow, skill, knowledge and patience are needed. Plus an ability to cope with a badly shook site admin with limited skills that are seldom used.
Writing a blog and getting some success isn’t for the faint of heart, there will come a day when the volume of traffic will bite ya.
There are just uncounted blogs about blogging and making money with them. Two and a half years ago I did have a look, and still get bombarded with emails for the latest ‘trick.”
The advice that made sense was write about what interests you, be consistent, stay with it. Which is what this writer has done. No, it isn’t making great sums or even noteworthy amounts of money, it does pay its’ way and a little more now. The payoff comes from the about 20 to 30,000 unique visitors a month. This site has had more than 4.2 million visitors learn, become informed, get inflamed or find an agreeable view. If anything, one hopes more questions formed, generating more knowledge – more widespread.
What this writer, infrequent administrator, and blogger learned (in lieu of advice) is that when my situation got to about 700 visitors a day the serving got slower, the support more surely, and finally an end. In researching the problem I saw a host’s name come up, one that seems to be for blogs getting to ‘moderately successful’ called Doreo.com. Doreo has a special support man, Frank, who is Gold.
The fixes are coming in; the site as of this writing is accessible and serving much of the Internet. Frank, and it is Frank, solving the problems that comes from an install done in one set of circumstances and moving it up several levels for the new circumstances.
For my friends out there, if blogging is in mind, this site is now hosted at Doreo. Doreo.com isn’t a huge hosting firm where support is curt, time consuming and hit or miss. It’s even a little lower cost than many, but when over a thousand people are looking every day, smart configuration, expertise in the technical and personal aspects of support are crucial.
This writer will be out now for a few days. Over 600 pages are on the site now; a wee bit of vacation might be in order. But I’m going to miss it. Or writing a thousand words per day, maybe not . . .
Finally, if you’re blogging or thinking to, WordPress is a good platform. It will work from the beginner to the New York Times web site. But if it works for you and your visitors, be forewarned, you’re going to need a Doreo level of hosting. And a Frank made from gold.
Comments
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I wondered what happened to your site. Now I know. Good to have you back where you belong on my tab bar. Looking forward to more informative posts.
Brian,
It’s great to see you back! Your site is a daily must read.
Your site builds a solid foundation under new energy, via careful fact checking and investigation.
Keep up the good work.
Brian,
It’s great to see you back! Your site is a daily must read.
That is nice to definitely find a site where the blogger knows what they are talking about.
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Christian,
Just want to say what a great blog you got here!
I’ve been around for quite a lot of time, but finally decided to show my appreciation of your work!
Thumbs up, and keep it going!
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Christian, iwspo.net
Just want to say what a great blog you got here!
I’ve been around for quite a lot of time, but finally decided to show my appreciation of your work!
Thumbs up, and keep it going!
Cheers
Christian,Diet Guide!
Just want to say what a great blog you got here!
I’ve been around for quite a lot of time, but finally decided to show my appreciation of your work!
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