The Digg effect is often dubbed as every webmasters dream, and hey, let’s not kid ourselves for a second here - getting an influx of traffic to the point where your web hosting will struggle to keep up is something that can bring some of us close to tears  . Others will run through a forest wearing nothing but their underpants, and others will resort to climbing trees and doing back flips on a main road. Many webmasters are often unprepared for the sudden surge of traffic Digg can bring, and will consequently miss out on having their content in front of thousands of visitors.
This is why ensuring your website is up to scratch before trying your hand with Digg is absolutely paramount, and because I love you all so much I’ve gone ahead and written up 10 ways to survive the Digg effect. Here they are!
1. Ensure your web hosting is capable of supporting a sudden spike in traffic
Most shared web hosts will not be able to support all the traffic Digg brings in, regardless of the amount of bandwidth included in your plan. This is simply to do with the fact that catering to such a large number of guests will use up a considerable amount of system resources, and will eventually bring other websites on the server to a crawl. I’d strongly suggest checking out MediaTemple who have engineered a ‘Grid Server’ solution especially for traffic surges. Most dedicated servers and some VPS should also be able to cope with the traffic surge.
2. If you’re using WordPress, install WP-Cache
WP-Cache is a life saver, and will improve the performance of your website while under extreme pressure. Upload WP-Cache to your plugins directory, enable it in Word Press, go to options, select ‘WP-Cache’, and it should run an automatic configuration. It should also provide you with instructions on rectifying any issues you may have.
3. Install a PHP Accelerator
Installing a PHP Accelerator such as eaccelerator will boost the performance of applications currently running PHP. If you’re unsure as to how to do this, your web hosting provider should be able to help. Eaccelerator has been known to reduce server loads by around 40%.
4. Run a stress test
Use ab to run a stress test on your website before submitting anything to Digg. This will help give you an idea of how your website will cope under pressure.
5. Remove all unnecessary imagery and media
If there’s any unnecessary images and other media on your website, get rid of them for the time being. This will help ensure things remain smooth, and will assist in keeping your bandwidth usage to a minimum. Alternatively you can turn images into text links while you’re running your Digg campaign.
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(7 votes, average: 3.43 out of 5)
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January 10th, 2008 at 5:11 am
Very useful.
Especially thanks for suggesting the Wordpress plugin and the PHP accelerator. Although I doubt reaching anywhere special on Digg. Saving bandwidth is always good in my book.
January 10th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Let’s not forget about getting “Slashdotted.” I guess Digg is more of a general effect. I wonder which delivers more traffic, a good /. or ‘Digg’ing an early web server grave?
January 10th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Sorry but these tips aren’t good enough… I’ve hit the FP on a shared server a few times and even with no images, ample bandwidth, WP Cache and an accelerator you can still crash the hosted server and piss off your provider. If you are using a WP blog then you really want to avoid using any/all PHP. Each PHP request to the database no matter how small requires processing from the server. Very quickly these requests will accumulate and slow everything down. The best strategy is to create a static and small html page to be loaded and disable the comments. WP super cache also has some very nice features like “lock down” and I would recommend it over the standard WP-cache for the digg effect.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Of course you’ll crash the server on a shared account - that’s why I advised against it. I’d strongly suggest you try getting some real web hosting, and then applying these tips - you’ll find that your website should be able to cope with the pressure. I’m not sure what you expected with shared web hosting.
January 10th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Great. Thanks for sharing with us.