Topic: About the Chart
New Server Being Installed To Handle Nolan Chart Demand

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Details about our efforts to improve website accessibility and speed.

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by Walt Thiessen
(libertarian)
Thursday, January 10, 2008

Website traffic at the Nolan Chart continues to grow at a dramatic pace. Because of this, the server package we acquired less than a month ago is already being maxxed out, resulting in slow response times on the website.

Over the past few days, I have been doing some intensive investigations to find out what server configuration we need in order to insure that you will always have the fastest possible access to this website. After consulting with a number of experts in the field, I have purchased a new server which we will be transferring to within a day or two.

A Little History of the Nolan Chart Website

When I first launched the website in August 2007, this website (like most websites) was built on what is known as a shared server. Most websites are on servers that are shared by hundreds or even thousands of other websites. This is how so many website providers are able to host websites at very low monthly prices. The problems come when a website becomes extraordinarily popular, as this site has done. Out of the hundreds of millions (perhaps even billions) of websites in the world today, less than 1% ever run into this problem.

Guess what? We ran into the problem after being online for less four months. By mid-December we were already seeing dramatic problems due to so many people accessing the website at once. Just how popular is our website? To give you an idea, Alexa.com reports that as of Thursday, January 10, 2008 we are among the 75,000 most popular websites in the world based on our traffic over the past three months. And for the past week, that number reduces down to the top 25,000. Within the U.S., we are among the top 5,000 most popular sites in the country. As a comparison, the Ron Paul 2008 website is in the top 600 websites in the country and in the top 3,000 worldwide. So we're even closing in on them, very quickly!

I have every reason to believe that given our rate of growth, by the end of 2008 we will be in the top 1,000 for all websites of all kinds around the world. That's going to be an incredible accomplishment, and it's well within our reach.

Our First Move Was Too Modest

So, because of all this remarkable growth, we took the next step and moved the website to what is known as a virtual dedicated server. This is a different kind of shared server where only a small number of websites are loaded at one time. It provides much more power and accessibility to visitors for each website. We moved to the new virtual dedicated server on December 18, 2008, and instantly we saw dramatic improvements. People were able to access the site easily and quickly, and everything seemed back to normal. It increased our costs by more than four times, but we figured it was worth it.

Boy, was that evaluation premature! Our popularity kept climbing at an even faster rate. Within just two weeks, our server was already being dragged down to a crawl during peak periods due to the ever growing number of visitors and columnists. In fact, our website was so completely dominating the server that we were actually drawing some of the resources of other websites on the server.

This led me to investigate what it was going to take to upgrade to a server level that would meet not only current demand but also future demand. The result is our new server which is a 100% dedicated server. This means that the server will be completely owned and operated by us, so we won't have to share resources anymore with other website customers. It also means that we could acquire a much more powerful server. I ended up discussing our needs with Platinum Server Management in NJ, a company which specializes in Linux server administration. They came highly recommended within the webmaster community. Within two phone calls, we were able to get a very clear picture of the kind of server we needed.

Oh, My Aching Wallet!

Once again, our costs have dramatically increased. Instead of four times our original cost, are monthly fees will now be 34 times our original cost. Obviously, this is a major commitment on our part, especially considering the fact that our advertising is just beginning to kick into gear and hasn't yet produced any really big revenues. Nevertheless, we bit the bullet and made the decision. We want to make this website the best it can be. Spending this much money on such a new venture is a little scary, but I'm trusting that it will be well worth it in the long run.

We are still committed to the revenue sharing program we offer to our columnists. That program will only be changed if we find that it becomes cost-prohibitive. So far, I have great hopes that will not happen.

The new server has been acquired, and now our new administration team at Platinum Server Management is scheduling time today to complete the configuration of the new server for serving web files as well as installing security configurations that will help insure that the website is protected against outside attack. As soon as they complete their setup job for us, I'll flip the switch and we'll be off-and-running on our new server.

Thanks to one and all for your patience in this difficult time. It's going to be well worth it once this site is humming along at top efficiency, handling the new popularity that comes our way.

Walt Thiessen
Nolan Chart LLC

©2008 Walt Thiessen, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Thursday, January 10, 2008
Last modified: Thursday, January 10, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of Walt Thiessen only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Walt Thiessen is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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