Featured On Smashing Magazine
Posted: 5 November 2009
Who hasn't heard of Smashing Magazine? Internationally recognized as one of the leading sources of info about anything related to web design, getting a mention on SM is any serious web developer's dream. In the past week, I found out that mesonprojekt got featured on SM, not once but twice!The first mention was in the article dated 29 October 2009, titled "Showcase Of Beautiful Textured Web Designs" and written by Callum Chapman. The blog section of mesonprojekt was featured. I guess the time I spent perfecting my all background textures finally paid off.
I was elated. I couldn't sleep properly for the next few nights. Then it happened again. My blog was highlighted on SM for the second time in a week by Julia May in her article "50 Beautiful And Creative Blog Designs" on 03 November 2009, alongside the likes of other fantastically designed blogs by Jason Santa Maria, Jina Bolton and Mark Boulton.
Aftershocks
I always wondered about the effect of sudden traffic surges on websites. I had read about how the exposure was good for business -- as a means of publicity, and also how surges of traffic put many a good web host in a tight spot. But since I could now see for myself, I decided to put do a little math after observing my statistics.
The first mention brought in traffic of almost 750MB over a period of 4 days. The second mention was significantly greater. The total traffic I recieved was in excess of 1GB. Yes one gigbyte. The largest spike occured on 04 November 2009, the day after it was featured for the second time. On that day, the traffic soared to something like 520MB. So the total amount of traffic Smashing Magazine sent my way? Easily more than 1.75 GB over a 6 day period.
Safe Under The Oak
Fortunately, I consider myself lucky to be hosted with Little Oak. Not one glitch throughout the entire week. I have already recommended their top notch services to a number of my clients on many an occassion, and this Smashing Magazine chapter wouldn't have had a happy ending had it not been for their rock-solid stability and uptime. It's not easy to choose a reliable host these days, but I can say with certainty that I'll be staying with Little Oak for a long long time. A quick shout to the team over at Little Oak; especially Christopher, Fabio and Giuseppe. A sincere thank-you.
