2005: quite a year (*^_^*)
Well, this year almost comes to an end…
Time for me to sum it up, and when speaking of geektechnique it’s been a marvelous year
It all started off just like this site ended last year, the traffic in january and february was the usual… and then… in March the whole thing shifted into a higher gear…
the iNo got some major coverage on some big sites and kaboom! my little old SGI Challenge S (I still think it’s a miracle it could even cope with the traffic) had to work hard to keep up :-)
...it’s the small one in the front (*^_^*)
this one:
at some point in history, this little Challenge was considered quite a brutal webhosting platform :-)
I felt I had to somehow professionalize this whole operation, so I shifted to another server, a homebuilt Athlon 1200 and boy was I glad I had some extra oomph, when this site got slashdotted (because of this article)
Anyways, not exactly knowing what to expect from here… I couldn’t resist a good deal on yet another server
...and I was very glad I had it laying around, cause it was needed hard to keep another site up. Not long after that I also moved my own site to this new server (in a datacenter this time) and from september on this site has been linked quite regularly on some big sites. (check my projects page for more info on that)
Although some people think I’m completely mad to use a dual Xeon solely for this site and another one... I can tell you, I’m very glad with this setup. Of course, I’ve still got room for a couple of big sites on there and somehow I like to keep it that way… not sure what I’m gonna do in 2006, or how 2006 will turn out to be for geektechnique, me, or both… we’ll see
Anyways, I want to say thanks to everyone who helped me, in one way or another, to get this whole operation (my hobby) into a higher gear and I will try to continue to be the geek I am :D
Let’s all have a splendid 2006!
cheers
Mark
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When did the ads at the top of the page start? Been a while since I’ve stopped in.
Just a question Mark, How much money do you really think your gonna make from the ads?
oh well, the topbanner is new. I really haven’t got a clue how much I’m gonna make from these banners. As long as I have click-through rates of around 0.1% (1 in a 1000) it isn’t gonna be much, that’s for sure, but I don’t need much either. I’ve been quite lucky so far in getting it all to this point. I’ve got my own dedicated server, I don’t rent it or such, because I also host another site on the same server, I don’t pay for the rackspace either, only bill I need to be able to pay is traffic above 100GB and with things going like they are now, I’m gonna go over that next month. On a top day I burn in between 15-25GB… So, that’s the reason I have the banners, it’s an experiment to see if I can get this thing to break even (on bandwidth alone).
A question for you then, are they really annoying to you? or what do you think I should do? (really, I am gonna listen to this).
At least they aren’t annoying flash ads :) I understand about bandwidth costs. goodluck with them
BTW I totally have that challenge S been meaning to set up something fun on it.
Well, I can only speak for myself, but judging from the growing number of visitors I’m propably not the only one to say this: I really like all your projects, the “because it’s possible” approach, and the DIY attitude. This is what sets your blog apart and makes me come here every day – sorry for all the traffic I cause :-) I hope the banners help you covering the cost for this operation. And if they don’t, well, then I’m sure we’ll all read about something like a bike-powered mobile webserver using open WLANs in Groningen :-D
Good luck for 2006 and may there be many funny / crazy / geeky / why-did’t-I-do-that? projects to come.
Yeah. . Sorry about the big boom in October if it cost you money. . That was the month I introduced all the lesser geeks in my college to GT. I was all like THOU SHALT READ THIS WEBSITE! and they were all like YES MASTER! FERRET IS MY BISHIE! and I was like Sweet. . now get me coffee AND THEY BROUGHT ME NESCAFE! HOW DARE THEY INSULT THEIR GOD FERRET!
Anyway, that was about the time you got your boom so sorry.
ROFL!
and about feeling sorry for visiting this site, DON’T! of course not :D I’ll figure out a way if I start burning more bandwidth than I do now… So, please, don’t worry about my bandwidth, it’s just the explanation for the banners, if I didn’t need them, they wouldn’t be there…
BTW, now we’re having a nice chat in here. Is there stuff any of you would like to see? Somehow, compared to my traffic, my opinion is that their could be more interaction somehow. Reactions on the projects are very good, but somehow next to that, I’d like to see some interaction going on. Does any of you feel the same way? Any comment is appreciated btw.
Don’t think your readers don’t care. They do! Well, I do. Anyways… it’s not easy to write an articulate and thoughtful comment when what you want to say is “I like it”. It may be a bit quiet here sometimes, but it’s much nicer than the noisy “fire and forget” comment style of sites like slashdot.
Nice, really, comments like that keep me going :-)
Well, if anyone has an idea on what could be changed, I’m always willing to listen.
BTW, you lurk less and less ;-)