One of the ways non-profits and small businesses can cut costs yet remain visible is through free web site and blog hosting services such as blogger.com. Affordability and ease of use make these services attractive. Free isn't always such a great deal though as members of a non-profit recently discovered when their "free" service failed at a crucial time.
I've posted the non-profit's problem below and called upon interactive marketing guru Scott Burkey of Solar Velocity, an Atlanta-based full service marketing and technology firm to lend his expertise.
Problem
We've used a blog hosted by a community newspaper to promote our non-profit event. The blog worked well for us as we could immediately post information, set up the blog in a nice format that met our needs, and best of all, it was free.
For six months we posted articles of interest relating to our event, press releases and updated event information. Occasionally, we'd find that the blog links didn't always work, but it didn't seem to be a big deal and problems were quickly rectified. However, a few days prior to the opening day of our event, we received publicity in our local newspapers. The result, over 600 daily visitors to our site over the next few days. While the publicity was great, it appears our blog shut down numerous times as our contact person received many calls from people stating the blog wasn't working. This was a big problem as who knows how many people didn't attend because the blog was down or how many other members of the media chose not to pursue coverage as they couldn't access the site.
Soon we'll be planning for next year. How do we avoid this situation again? Do we blog or buy a web site domain? Also, when non-profits or small businesses are looking to set up blogs and/or web sites, what technical things should we be looking at to make sure the host can accommodate our traffic especially at critical times?
Scott Burkey's advice:
Free for most of the year doesn't amount to much if, when you need it, it fails you. That being said, the amount of traffic you are talking about isn't, from my experience, an extraordinary amount of traffic for any web-based application built by a professional to endure for a abbreviated period of time.
Here are a few thoughts:
1. If a blog, website or any piece of Internet technology is mission-critical then it should be tested on a regular basis to ensure it can handle anticipated usage. It seems silly to most, but situations where technology has to stand up to an increased amount of usage should be planned for and tested for.
2. If your blog or website gets very little traffic 99% of the time, but then has to handle an influx of traffic for an event promotion then there are alternatives that will only cost you an extra amount when you need it but not the rest of the time. Load-balancing sites is one option. Stripping down the weight of a site to allow for heavier use is another option. In
extreme cases the site may be cached for efficient retrieval during such times. The option you choose depends on many factors. One of the things my firm does in recommending a solution for a client is to always look at what the right balance of cost and availability. This takes a forward-looking mindset and some honesty with oneself.
3. Any organization needs to look at the reason they are putting up a blog or website when considering how much to invest. If the purpose is solely for information, then the cost can be kept at the low-end of the spectrum. If the site is an e-commerce site then it will likely be at the other end of the cost/feature spectrum. If the blog is "somewhere in the middle" then
that is a decision you're best off making with a guide that is experienced in such matters.
Thanks Scott for your valuable advice. I agree totally with Scott regarding checking your site frequently especially around times you anticipate increased traffic. Six hundred hits isn't a lot of traffic. Rather than the host server being down, the problem could be that a couple of the links are off and that could disrupt your blog or web site.
Anyone else face a similar situation, or any other experts care to comment? Please feel free to share your experiences.
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