This site was down for a while last night, I did try to let people know that I was working on the problem with a slightly altered title graphic…
It's quite simple really, every month I use about 15-20Gb of bandwidth (which is a silly amount as all the graphics are hosted off-site, so that's 15-20Gb of text).
When I signed up with the hosting company (MyOstrich) the bandwidth limit was something like 1Gb.
Unfortunately for the last three years or so I appear to have 'dropped through the cracks', so I haven't been charged yearly renewals, nor have they noticed the huge jump in my bandwidth through becoming an *cough* internet superstar *cough*.
So yesterday they realised. And shut me down.
Cue a frantic email halfway across the world, where I pleaded for help. I'd just like to thank the extemely helpful Tim at MyOstrich for sorting out my problem very quickly. I'm in his debt…
…quite literally because I'm now at the point where they work out how much money I owe them. I suspect that Mr Barclaycard is going to take a bit of a hit at some point in the near future.
I've been offered free hosting by the lovely Friday Project, but that would mean…
a) Setting up a Typepad/Moveable Type/Other Third party software.
b) Migrating everything across from my Blogware blog.
c) Trying to get the URL to redirect (which will be tricky as I don't 'own' it).
The thing is that I really like Blogware as they are a superbly friendly and helpful company with an excellent bit of software – so it looks like I'll be adding another big number to outgoing expenses this month, what with my Ā£500 bill for new spectacles.
Good job I'm paid such a huge amount of money…
Glad to see you back.
Paid a lot of money?Quick I better move to LAS, š
Only joking.
Why not set up a pay pal and anyone who wants to donate a small some (1?) can and you can use it to pay for your bandwidth?Id say over a year your blog is worth a lot more than that. Any you have left over pass to a charity or close it when you have enough?
Scroll down and look for the white button on the right quietly saying Make a Donation.
Oh yeah, ok why not a clearer explanation about it and maybe move it higher up? I didnt know it was there so I expect someone else might not.
If you decide to move, don't worry, us loyal minions will follow. (Or, perhaps, do worry.)I have noticed the “donate” button, and have always appreciated that it wasn't yelling at me from the top of the blog. Some people, like me, who've been caught in Paypal's toils, refuse to deal with them. (My story is long and tedious, but a friend of mine had a situation that was funny, so long as you weren't her. She moved, they didn't, wouldn't, couldn't update her address. They told her to change her name to solve the problem.) I don't know how hard it would be to offer something besides Paypal (Amazon has some kind of system, I believe), but maybe it's something to think about.
Point out to Blogware that you have just given them free advertising of serious magnitude. I'm relatively aware of up on these things, and I'd never heard of them. Now I have, and that Internet Superstar Reynolds, whose opinions on software have worked in the past, thinks they're good. That's worth a few thousand right there.
Of course, you don't need it since they pay you so much in the LAS.
why not register your own domain, I'm sure there must be something suitable. 123-reg.co.uk do them for about bugger all a year then you can tell us what is is and redirect it to wherever you like. Might be worth registering the title of the book and pointing it here too..
Please find at the following address your title bar image, in jpg format. Instead of 'weighing' 47Ko in gif, it's 15Ko, which should decrease bandwidth usage for web visitors…http://galleries.sophie-g.net/images/titleBar.jpg
You can use this tool to analyse what's costing you in your page :
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
The Make a Donation button is way too small. I've never seen it before.
I know nothing about bandwidth costs and I want to make a donation. It should have occurred to me to do so beforehand. What's an appropriate amount?
Can i suggest if you are paying by credit card/ debit card, that you get yourself a Nationwide account, either their credit card – interest free period when you join, or a flexaccount with debit card.the reason – you wont pay a foreign transaction fee (normally 2.5%), and the exchange rate will be the best of the day when the charge is presented.
then you can spend the savings on beer š
I don't do beer – not this year at least…
It's because I'm vaguely embarrassed by it – I don't like asking for money, and this seems a lot like that.I prefer something small and easily overlooked – but that's just me, I never got into the blogging game to make money.
The thing is, I don't want to change URL because it's where all those links point to – first law of a successful website – don't change your URL…
I'll do that to help people d/l the file – but all images are stored off-site and don't count for the bandwidth that has been exceeded.Images are _not_ the problem, it's purely text (and probably CSS).
Good luck.Glenda
Oh. We're getting our regular fix again.
Are you able to get a breakdown of what percentage is CSS and what is the standard pages?If CSS is significant, perhaps there'd be some way of mirroring the CSS at other sites?
I am about to donate, but will only give more if you move the button to the top of the site so everyone can see it!!I have been coming here for at least two years and have never seen it before……….
Personally I would move it to a proper domain/server space/bandwidth provider causea) we'll find you anyway: just got to dial 999 to get the new address, or you could put some stickers on the big white taxis…
b) it will give you scope to expand should Holywood get in touch
and
c) you can print the address in Da Book and will look well credible because of it.
True, but I doubt you got into it to lose money either.
Meh.You are right, but I'm happy to pay a chunk of money a year for the enjoyment this gives me.