Is it time to upgrade your hosting account?
Have you seen your website slow in growth? Are you wondering what the reasons are? Perhaps you see some sign such as a high percentage of new users or a very high drop rate from visiting customers? Maybe it’s time to look at some new or upgraded hosting accounts.
I have learned from personal experience not having enough resources for your web business can be devastating to the growth of your website. When people visit your website there’s nothing worse than experiencing slow load times or page cannot display issues.
Last night I was on twitter asking people what they thought about a social networking website I own named Blog Engage and a few members were saying the website was slow, had issues loading at times. This isn’t the first time I had complaints regarding the speed of my website but I must say it’s the first time I listened. For these reasons I had to take into consideration the possibility of upgrading my hosting account to a Virtual Dedicated Web Server.
After doing research and looking at competitive pricing plans I quickly came to a conclusion. I have decided to purchase a Virtual Dedicated server offered from my current host Godaddy. This is a huge change from a shred hosting server. First I have to install all the server side software, add IP addresses, setup the DNS settings and forward domains.
I should let you know I never once managed a server so I’m seriously in way over my head! I don’t know anything regarding security, server software or where to even start. I was reading a guide from the Godaddy support website and the process is long but it appears it’s actually pretty easy.
So if you visit my blog or any other website I own over the next week or so and it’s down you should know I’m sitting at home pulling my hair out.
What are my server specs?
• 10 GB disk space
• 500 GB bandwidth
• 256 MB RAM Guaranteed (1 GB RAM Bursted)
• Linux: CentOS or Red Hat F7
Overall I know this might not be so great but it’s extremely better than my shared hosting account which doesn’t have access to this information. The total cost for the year is 290 USD and that’s with a 20% discount
What’s the benefit of upgrading?
I think the best thing I get from upgrading is the opportunity to make more customers and visitors happy. I don’t want people visiting my website to find out the server load it to high, or the website can’t be displayed. To me this is unacceptable and is an example on how not to run a business.
I’m not beating around the bush here guys I knew this was a problem I just didn’t have the funds to invest in this server. The idea now is to dedicate my next three Google checks to my credit card.
Do you have any suggestion on how I can set up my website with the least downtime? Remember I’m a Server Administrator noob so anything you know that can help me would be appreciated! Wish me luck because this weekend I’m setting it up and the transfer of my many sites will begin.
Top reasons to upgrade your hosting account
1. Poor customer experience
2. Slow load times
3. Customer complaints
4. Website timeouts
5. Improved customer experience
Thanks and I hope this helps improve your experience visiting my websites.
Brian b
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Comments
I’ve got a shared hosting account and I honestly can’t say that I’ve found my load times slow. I’ve been more than pleased so far with their service (especially for only $80/year). The biggest issue I’ve had with them, is that they tend to go out for an hour here and there throughout the month. When they do maintenance, the whole server just goes down… But it just goes to show that you get what you pay for.
SoLinkables last blog post..Dilbert – I’m addicted to the internet…
Did you try shopping around first? You might have been able to partner with a local ISP and co-host a dedicated server. Back in the day I used to run my own MUD/HTTP server at out of a local ISP’s office for less than $100/mo.
Michael Henrys last blog post..Where I’m at: Free Flu Shot Clinic
I got a really cheap deal I only pay 361 usd per year 
bbrian017s last blog post..A Cruise Ship Date That Went Awry
Hey Brian..
First time commenting..
I actually ran into a similar problem on GoDaddy running a blog powered by Joomla. One of our breaking stories was picked up and ranked high on most search engines which resulted in a huge traffic spike. My site overloaded the server to the point of bringing it down along with everyone else on the same shared server.
This happened a few more times til I finally moved my site to a dedicated server. I skipped the VPS and went straight to a dedicated server because I didn’t want to run into the same problem again. VPS’s are good but you’re going to eventually need a dedicated server.. IMO.
You should check out iweb.com. You can find some pretty good deals in their clearance section. http://iweb.com/dedicated/clearance/ You’re going to need someone to help administer it though. Unless you want to pay extra to have the host do it. Spry.com is another good one but more expensive.
I’m personally an SEO professional and not a server administrator by trade. However I can tell you it’s quite simple to move from one server to the other without any downtime. Simply make sure that all your news files databases etc are properly in place on the new server before you point your DNS. As long as this is done ones you point your domain name to the new server it will bounce back and forth until propogation is complete but since files are on both servers you won’t see any actual website down time. I hope that helps.
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@Gerald
That’s true for blogs, however when we are dealing with a user generated dynamic site (like a social bookmarking site), any time spent bouncing back and forth can be compared to down-time. You don’t want people posting to an old database. Although, with that being said, there isn’t much you can do about propagation time…
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Wow, $290 a year?? I have two dedicated servers on PEER1 and one on Limestone Networks and I’m paying more than that per server per month!! Of course it gives me 5Tb of bandwidth per month and I’m usually close to chewing that up every month even using http caches and Amazon for image hosting.
Google Adsense pretty much foots my server bills and I do have 160+ websites, numerous forums and a few social media sites but ne thing I would never recommend is GoDaddy for anything but domain registrations. Simply put, they’re not large scale bandwidth provider and they have no scalability. Not to mention, PEER1 has the best 24/7/365 phone support.
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You should check out my site for some good hosting deals. It allows for growth and it doesnt break the bank.
roguedeals.com
- Great site! Following you now on mybloglog and blogcatalog!
Cheers,
Eric
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Oh yeah, it’s a timely reminder. My shared hosting is on the verge of bursting due to my increased traffic. I’m thinking of moving into a VPS account. Any good suggestion, buddy?
Yan
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