Seahen
2008-06-18, 09:42 PM
When their connection to the site keeps timing out, people will eventually give up on being able to read the comic. If they're new, that means they won't discover how great it is, which in turn means Rich can't sell them books and merchandise. I'm persuaded that upgrading to decent-speed hosting (5 second load time 99.9% of the time for broadband users, and 10 seconds for dialup users) would pay for itself at least three times in increased sales profits.
I did a whois, and his hosting company is called theplanet.com. A rep there quoted me the following, and assured me it's an upgrade over what we've got:
Dual Xeon 5335 Quad Core 2.0GHz (Clovertown)
+ Dual Processor Quad Core
+ 2GB RAM
+ 1x 250GB SATA Drive
+ RedHat Enterprise 4 Linux
+ 5 IP Addresses
+ 2000GB Monthly Transfer
+ 100mbps Uplink
$25 Setup / $224 Per Month
And subtract from that whatever he's paying now.
It's been suggested that 2000 GB wouldn't be enough, but I don't see why not: it amounts to easily 4 million page views per month.
Also, note that profit from book publishing is more than linear with the number of copies sold at any given price, because of the economy of scale in printing (which would allow him to either lower his prices, increasing sales, or widen his profit margin).
Upgrading the hosting would be a win-win situation: more money for Rich, more money for the hosting company, and an easier time reading the comic for everyone else.
I did a whois, and his hosting company is called theplanet.com. A rep there quoted me the following, and assured me it's an upgrade over what we've got:
Dual Xeon 5335 Quad Core 2.0GHz (Clovertown)
+ Dual Processor Quad Core
+ 2GB RAM
+ 1x 250GB SATA Drive
+ RedHat Enterprise 4 Linux
+ 5 IP Addresses
+ 2000GB Monthly Transfer
+ 100mbps Uplink
$25 Setup / $224 Per Month
And subtract from that whatever he's paying now.
It's been suggested that 2000 GB wouldn't be enough, but I don't see why not: it amounts to easily 4 million page views per month.
Also, note that profit from book publishing is more than linear with the number of copies sold at any given price, because of the economy of scale in printing (which would allow him to either lower his prices, increasing sales, or widen his profit margin).
Upgrading the hosting would be a win-win situation: more money for Rich, more money for the hosting company, and an easier time reading the comic for everyone else.