The new museum content is just stacking up here. The reason I have not released it is the site eats up 90% of the bandwidth already with only the bulletin board. I don't know how to go about monetizing the museum so it pays for itself. The heavy picture load alone will cost me a lot in bandwidth and possible costs in the $$$ per month. The museum has to be self sustaining. 1.Don't go into the red due to overages 2.Consult / hire professional?
Does anyone even make money off Internet ads (banners, AdSense) anymore when everyone with half a brain runs an ad blocker?
There is a lot of money in ads, if it is done right. Or at least enough to make it relatively self-sustaining, within reason of course. But its certainly something you would want a professional to do, and not half-ass it like I do.
Hmm, you should look at hosting the images on another server. My site is with Dreamhost which gives my a few terrabytes of space and unlimited bandwidth. My site does about 10 to 13GB of bandwidth a day. The plan I have cost 10.95 per month so it's not expensive and speeds are fast. Normally you can get about 15mbps download.
If you have a dedicated server then how is bandwidth an issue? Unless you have some strange internet service you should only be limited by connection speed. Unless of course you mean that the up speed of your current internet connection isn't fast enough. What kind of average Mbps does the site consume?
I thought about a "copyright" system: if you want pictures without a huge "picture property of assemblergame.com" watermarked on it, you need to pay a little annual fee. Don't know if it's easily doable though. Or maybe keep the rarer stuff pictures in a private paying section ?
How do you know the site eats 90% of bandwidth when its not released? Bandwidth is per user, if there are no users - you have no clue as to bandwidth usage. Or do you mean this forum eats 90% of your bandwidth? and therefore there isnt any more for the site? What kind of connection is this dedicated box on? how much are you paying, etc. A forum on its own, should really take up much - I have admined forums with more active and current users than this - it didnt take (that) much.
+1 to this as I've done the same with another forum that would have on average 4x more users on than this... Although looking at your hosting... http://www.peer1.com/hosting/dedicated-servers/servers Might want to consider a move....just saying... thats some pretty bad bandwidth allotment... How much do you pay for this? Also I don't know how I'd feel about ads.... last person who ran a forum and decided to go ad crazy killed the entire user base on the site because the ads were fucking up the sites layout and in general made it extremely annoying. Then again this isn't my site so I can't say what to do or not.
1. Forum is separate from museum and has no tie in whatsoever with it besides the name. Forum has no ads. It's not a matter of the host or plan. The museum is going to be ad supported so it can grow. So far I have no suggestions past people pointing out X host is not so great.
My apologies then as when I read the post it sounded like you were going to host both on the same. ( or atleast were trying to figure a solution to host both on the same.... again my misunderstand and my apologies to that. ) As for a solution....may I ask what you are going to use as a front end for this? a wiki? some static pages? Theres a few providers that come to mind that could support this for a low cost ( or atleast lower than most I've seen ) and should be able to handle the load easily.
The main problem we have is low budget places bend over for dmca with no second thought. We get legal notices on a regular basis, which get forwarded to me. I pay more $$ because I get professional support and proper notice of any legal issues. In short, I have a professional relationship and prefer a host that keeps it that way. Low cost providers attract lowbrow activity, and when a dmca sails in they just take the site offline and demand compliance. I on the other hand can deal with this directly with the complainant and consult a lawyer if needed. Low price providers couldn't be bothered. I have debated moving overseas, preferably to a non-us friendly provider. It will need to be done in the future. Even the once favored netherlands hosting is now subject to influence from American interests. The museum will be coded in plain old HTML. I've seen fad interfaces like flash come and go, require rework due to exploits etc. Good old HTML or DHTML will be around forever. I've considered php, but as with flash I don't see it being around in 25 years. The museum needs to be as close to timeproof as possible. I am open to ideas for sure. The museum will be 4K resolution, 4K video capable.
Have you looked at OVH for hosting? ( they also have a lower end branch "kimsufi" which are primarily used for seedboxs and such...granted so are OVH servers lol )
If the site isnt active, how do you know it uses 90% of the bandwidth? You couldnt know that until its in use - as it depends on number of vistors. Again, unless you are hosting them on the same server - but you just said above that they are not connected. You arent very clear with the technical aspects - which you need to be when asking advice.
I think he means bandwidth allowance from his current provider mate, not between the site and museum. Of course I could be wrong, but that's how I read it.
He shouldnt be using 90% of his bandwidth (either 1TB or 2TB) from just this forum. If thats the case, something is wrong. This site does not get enough traffic for a forum to generate that much traffic. I would be concerned about the server being hacked and serving as a FTP for some hacking group etc. Or he means the museum is using 90% of the disk space due to all the high res stuff? Like I said - technical details are lacking, which when asking for advice are required.
The answer is really quite simple. You may admin a forum with more active users, but most of our visitors are unregistered stalkers.
Thats not the correct answer. You have less guest users too. (when I said current and active users, that includes guests). I would track down where that bandwidth is being used via logs, as its high enough for me to be concerned - if it was my box.
