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10 Things That Will Make Or Break Your Website
blog.auinteractive.com — What every web developer should know about building the next Digg or Flickr - a condensed version of lessons learned from the Future of Web Apps Summit in San Francisco earlier this month.
markus941- 1260 diggs
- digg it
- mittermayr, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4markus, well i think your blog itself is a nice proof of concept :)
looks great- oddmanout, on 10/12/2007, -0/+29looks like digg is one of the ten things that can break that site.
- ignorantcow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Is that a wordpress theme? 'cause if it isn't.. RIP. http://www.huddletogether.com/ (Lightbox JS author's blog)
- jriley101, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Also take some of the comments from this one too!
http://digg.com/tech_news/Top_10_ways_to_earn_with_Google_Adsense_without_a_site - baggachipz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Hmm, site's down... looks like it was more "break" than "make"
- toddander, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Interesting, this web site seems to be broken - The links is timing out
- gharding, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10I think I'm going to add a #11: Poorly written web apps and a shoddy shared hosting server will break your website
- DCUK, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Remind me again why I should take advice from someone that can't even handle a digging?
- championchap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7slightly off topic, but i post this here since this site is down.
Why does digg keep the mirror hidden away like some dirty little secret?
why cant we have a link to the mirror next to every story?
or at least every front paged story?- n8r0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4There is a handy firefox extension that will fix that for you.
- davisr5333, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually Kevin Rose addressed this question at the Future of Web Apps conference. He said that digg wants to drive traffic to the originating site. He also said there is a possibility that in the future, they may link to a mirror if digg detects that the originating site is down.
- championchap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1there is?
ohh, il must look right now!
but still, it would be a handy feature, so often you see new diggers saying "Omg, sites down! :(" or asking for a mirror. - marioluigi123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So wait, the duggmirror is officially related to Digg? I was wondering about that, and I figured as much as Digg isn't too keen on other using the name. I really think that they should put it somewhere though...granted, it's pretty well-known now, but I think that it should still be somewhere on this page.
- LeetPCUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Decent article, but it took forever to load.
- dtt1167, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1digg effect already?
- addicted68098, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Don't make a website expecting to make money (unless you are getting paid selling something or putting 20 ads per page). I am working on a forum which is basicly a small community where users can synch flickr dig del.lish.us accounts together. I am making it so a good part of the community beside the content can be user generated.
Logic and design doesn't go together, logic and people don't go together, don't use a boxish layout (digg amazon 99% of all websites) try to not use the box design, now that css can do everything it should be easy and still be usable.- jriley101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Are you talking about something like http://www.friendlyvote.com ? That has been in existence for a long time? Explain.
- fak3r, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1(obvious) Well from this story I can tell that one way to break your site is to have it linked to from Digg.com. :)
- rasbill, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10#11 dont link to digg with a ***** webserver
- buddyfarr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0would that be www.*****.net???
- babakshirazi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1
"Hey, we just got dugg. So this is a temporarily moved page. (Links and comments probably won't work for now). First time dealing with this."
...and this guy is giving advice on Web 2.0?
# 12 - Get a real server before giving advice.
- mattvenables, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7mirror: http://duggmirror.com/design/10_Things_That_Will_Make_Or_Break_Your_Website/
- addicted68098, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I guess digg will break it also (:
- teamparadox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think the 1st rule here should be host your site on a server that can handle the traffic before you go linking it on digg
- pcking, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Irony =
Not Found
The requested URL /10-things-that-will-make-or-break-your-website was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request. - tdskate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So can somebody explain to me what is meant by the "Wikipedia consensus model"?
---- "(many people contribute to one idea for the greater good) is not a good model in general and probably cannot be duplicated outside Wikipedia."
.. why is this not working?- trialofmiles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For a wiki to curtail spam attacks or simply to have the best possible content, it requires a large, involved community. This is something Wikipedia has, and why they're succeeding, even with the occasional hiccup or threat. Critics try to poke holes in its reliability, but Wikipedia bounces back. Here's an article that's a few months old, but gives some good pros and cons.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5286458.stm - sooperdooper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'd like to see an example of a site that tried Wikipedia's "consensus model" without the benefit of a "large, involved community."
- oddmanout, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i may be mistaken, but is that what digg is? users submitting content and using a consensus to direct it.
- trialofmiles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For a wiki to curtail spam attacks or simply to have the best possible content, it requires a large, involved community. This is something Wikipedia has, and why they're succeeding, even with the occasional hiccup or threat. Critics try to poke holes in its reliability, but Wikipedia bounces back. Here's an article that's a few months old, but gives some good pros and cons.
- farksucks, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0#1 thing that will make or break your digg story to the front page:
Make sure the story involves a list of 10 things.
And also, make sure you have about 40 billion google adsense ads on that page- because that's the whole reason you created and had your friends digg the story in the first place: to get traffic for your ads and possibly a few dollars. - Topher06, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Dugg it down because it says nothing about the importance of how/where to host your website.
You can have the most f*cking awesome website on the face of the planet, but if it goes down 1minute after being linked to Digg.com, its WORTHLESS!
I am so tired of websites linked to digg that go down because of too much traffic. I am tired of people hosting their own website on an old PC runing Linux and Apache using a residential DSL line.
Spend the $10-20/mth and host your website on a dedicated hosting service like GoDaddy or your favourite one. Just don't act like "Wow, I created a web server, lets post it on Digg.com to show everybody how cool my website is!", and then it goes down because 5 people simultaneosly tried to browse it.
Any article discussing the content of a website without the importance and necessity of how to host your website so that its AVAILABLE for viewing is worthless tripe in my opinion.- nailPuppy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Funny, godaddy's cheapest dedicated hosting is $109/month, not $10-20. You are thinking of what is called shared hosting.
- auinteractive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1OK geez. This blog was not meant to be a high profile web app. Just a little side project by Markus. It was being hosted on a shared Dreamhost account for Wordpress capabilities.
We have temporarily redirected the site to our real servers without the Wordpress functions and without ads just so it can be read. Unless your dns is cached the SITE IS NOW UP. Think of it as an experiment to test the capabilities and limitations of a shared account! Results coming soon. ;)
- tf23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I love their use of the "title" tag. It's even more special because it's an article about how to do a website correctly ;)
- thebillionaire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Fantastic article. Great job!
- glind, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Good lord, the digg arrogance effect is in full affect today. Does anyone really think that posting "your site sucks becasue it can't handle the digg effect!" does anygood?
It's shared hosting blog site so relax about it being down, go to the mirror. If you bothered to read the article its a decent summary of the Future of Web Apps Summit, and brought up what I assume our some of the better points of the con.- markus941, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thanks Glind. Its painful to see your site down like this, but there's at least some joy in the irony of it.
The issue is that you can never predict what article will be a success and we've never dealt with getting Dugg before so this is a lesson learned.
- markus941, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thanks Glind. Its painful to see your site down like this, but there's at least some joy in the irony of it.
- shelton777, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Diggnation ringtone! Check this out!
http://digg.com/gadgets/DIGGNATION_RINGTONE - TheSak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0#1 thing that will break your website: 5 script errors when your page loads.
- stephenking, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Another good lesson is after your site gets Dugg and you move it to a new server, make sure the links to the menu graphics aren’t broken.
- markus941, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1point taken
- babooo404, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0FYI, This article links to more content from the conference here:
http://www.centernetworks.com/web-apps-summit-coverage - spanner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+111 DON'T HOST YOUR WEBSITE ON A SHARED SERVER
Why not?
I couldn't find any information on the problems of this, can anyone help?- babooo404, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0spanner - because technically if one person screws it up, it could ruin it for everyone. also with the price of non-shared hosting going down so dramatically, it makes more sense.
- tofuoni, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think the author added that to explain why the site had gone down. "sorry, this website is hosted on a shared server that couldn't handle the load"
- bluebearr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I love this:
2. [...]Obsess about your copy
[...]
newbie programmers unwittingly making 100 sever requests/sec.
What's a "sever request"? Is it a request to cut off any access to other newbie programmers?
Just messing witcha. Actually a decent article - not a total retread of the same old 10 things lists. - Parasocks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1#1 EASY is the most important feature of any website, web app, or program.
Disoverability
I disagree.
#1 - don't ***** up #1. - JeremiahOwyang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I added Number 11 here
11) REVENUE!
I sound evil, but it’s true, and something every investor, partner, and your father in law will ask about. As I understand it there are six potential revenue models: Advertising, Premium, Transaction, Consultation, Partnering and Acquisition. While I agree the best sites come from passion (I make no direct dollars from this passion web strategy blog) putting food on the table for your family is important.
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2006/09/28/excellent-tips-10-things-that-will-make-or-break-your-website-plus-one-more/ - jo42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+112) Learn to Blow Bubbles out yer Butt
- Dunce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Come on Guys at least they've gone to the effort of creating a mirror.
Some websites aren't prepared like that, or haven't ever Test, test, tested their websites.
Carter - axelsegebrecht, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Great article and summary. Yes, being dugg should also be included ;-)
@ everyone thinking shared servers can't handle the load: they can! provided people's websites are lean and the server config is too.
PS: Check out Markus reply to the comments above
http://blog.auinteractive.com/digg-effect
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