Forum BW

[Ross1982]

Hey,

I am thinking of putting a forun on one of my site that averages 7k uniques a day, so thought might as well.

I was wondering, how much bandwidth on AVERAGE do you think the forum would take up? Bear in mind uploads and stuff will be disabled, all images and stuff will be offsite hosts used (Like avatars etc).

Currently my site without downloads and just the visitors takes up about 1.5gb a day with as I say, just the visitors and site design obviously being downloaded and nothing else, so would a forum be more or less then that, do you think, IF all those people were be to visit the forum daily. (Which they won't, but just trying to get an average)

Thanks

 

[Ross1982]

Anyone wish to answer?

Also, what are the pro's of putting a forum on a site? Do you think it helps get more visitors and stuff?

 

[Vivvy]

You go through 45 gig of bandwidth a month? what are you offering on the rest of the site that's so bw intensive?

there is no "average forum bandwidth usage" that I think can be pulled out of a hat... it depends on the traffic, it depends on how much "stuff" you have available in the forum either in threads or features. There just isn't enough information in your post to really even give you a wild guess. How much traffic is actually coming to the site (unique visitors?).

Vivvy

 

[Ross1982]

'You go through 45 gig of bandwidth a month? what are you offering on the rest of the site that's so bw intensive? '

Nothing, it's just the site design, I just get a lot of uniques and average around 1.5gb a day with 7-10k uniques a day. Dunno why to be honest.

How much traffic is actually coming to the site (unique visitors?).

I said in my post I average 7k, but it can go upto 10k some days, but around 7 is the average.

 

[Vivvy]

that must be some site design....

so i assume you're considering a forum to bump up your traffic? i wouldn't think it would be a good space/bandwidth to visitor ratio ... I doubt seriously a built from scratch forum would even bring 7k new uniques in a whole year to your site depending on what this site is all about...

Vivvy

 

[Ross1982]

Well site design is less then 60k, so I don't really know why all that BW is being used up.

so i assume you're considering a forum to bump up your traffic?

yes and no, I already get plenty of traffic, but felt a forum might be good for my regular visitors, but also to try and get more traffic too, if possible.

 

[Vivvy]

you need to find out what's sucking your bandwidth... seriously man...you may be the biggest way station for spam on the planet or something...

Vivvy

 

[Ross1982]

What?

 

[Vivvy]

.. if you're getting 7-10k without a forum, it's unlikely a forum would be a good money/space/bw/time investment...

Vivvy

 

[Domagon]

~250K x ~7000 less caching = about 1.5 GB/day ... with that said, he may want to check the server's mail activity and check various mail blackhole lists to be sure his server IP(s) aren't listed.

While a message board will increase bandwidth, the bigger effect is server load.

And, message board software requires constant maintenance to keep it running properly and to keep it current; otherwise risk being hacked to ribbons like many phpbb folks were

With all that said, I'd say go for it ... message boards give folks a reason to return, and are often a great traffic builder - improve SE ranking.

Costs money to make money; research alternative hosts now so you're ready to negotiate with your current host if the need arises ... price on dedicated boxes/bandwidth is negotiatable, even at big name hosts.

Good luck.

Ron

 

[Vivvy]

~250K x ~7000 less caching = about 1.5 GB/day ... with that said, he may want to check the server's mail activity and check various mail blackhole lists to be sure his server IP(s) aren't listed.

I said something similar to this about the bw and his response was ... what?

i think it's the time vs. roi that has to be juggled with this decision and a lot depends on the site... how focused is it? are his visitors engaged in some way already? will a search engine bump make a difference or is he already hitting his saturation mark?

so much we don't know... i suppose even i can't say yea or nay...

Vivvy

 

[pelican]

what is the forum? care to share the url?