The Digg Effect
April 13th, 2007 Filed in: News & Updates Jump to commentsAs you might have noticed that my site is loading very slow today and sometime not even available. This is because someone submitted my iTheme (WordPress theme) to Digg. The good news: I was dugg, but the news: my site was completely down last night for couple hours. If you were on my site last night, you probably had experienced the downtime. This is known as the "Digg effect". Digg effect is "the term given to the phenomenon of a popular website linking to a smaller site, causing the smaller site to slow down or even temporarily close due to the increased traffic."
Usually, my server (Media Temple’s dedicated server) is very stable which can manage my high traffic site (12,000+ visitors daily). But I was very disappointed that it couldn’t handle the Digg effect. As soon my link made to the Digg front page, my site immediately became very slow and sometime unavailable. This is cause by the high demand of server requests and database queries. There was nothing much I could do about it since my server’s CPU was at 100%. Well, I guess it is time to look for a better host or server upgrade.
The chart below shows that my site was down for about 6 hours:
Getting dugg is good because it brings you traffic and exposure, but it also has side effects such as server downtime and bandwidth excess. If you think you might get dugg next, be sure to prepare for it. Here are some links on how to handle the Digg effects:
- Ten things you should know about Digg effect
- Surviving the Digg effect
- Dealing with Digg effect
- How to prepare your site for Digg effect
- High traffic tips for WordPress
P.S. I’m very excited to get dugg and thanks to all diggers who dugg my link. Also check out my previous dugg links:
April 22nd, 2007 at 9:40 am
http://www.maxspeeds.com/
hey, see this, a whole clone.
April 21st, 2007 at 12:07 pm
you’re theme is also in a tutorial of an Italia magazine “Web Designer”
April 20th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Wow, glad that your site got on digg.
The server must of taken a beating.
April 18th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Glad you got dugg.
Nick, you should try www.survivedigg.com if you feel like you are going to get dugg.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:11 am
Well, congrats on the getting Dugg. It’s probably a good thing that I haven’t experienced the Digg Effect since I’m not on a dedicated server. I’m surprised that Media Temple couldn’t handle it.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:11 am
Congrats mate on being dugg :), but I read it on your that you have switched to a dedicated server. So even dedicated server was unable to resist Digg effect?
April 17th, 2007 at 6:27 am
James David beat me to it, SurviveDigg.com is your best option if you hit the digg main page regularly and want your site to get through it without any problems.
April 16th, 2007 at 7:10 am
Disons que c’est le résultat du succès :)
April 15th, 2007 at 3:36 am
Dont you just hate the little mac fanboys.
April 15th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Hey! Just want you to know that I somehow stumbled upon your site (it may have been google, but I don’t remember how it was a few days ago…) and have fallen in love. You’ve been bookmarked and RSS subscribed. Anyhow, I love your portfolio as well as all of your free/cheap stuff. I may have to buy some of those icons in the future.
I don’t think the digg effect would hit me too hard… I’m really lucky to get fifty hits on my blog (not the one listed) in a day. I’m not sure how the new folio will fare. I’ll be one of those people who someone finally diggs and I’m back on the last page or so. :)
iTheme is beautiful, by the way. I’ve just started using it on my blog, and all of its little features keep surprising me… in a good way. Keep up the good work.