How to survive a digg slashdot effect

Every worried that you wordpress blog , forum or just simply your webpage would not be able to handle the massive traffic of digg / slashdot effect ? Scared that your website would crumble if it received a shout out from the media ? Worried when your blog goes viral on social  sites like reddit , fark , indianpad , facebook , Mixx or twitter ?

Well this is a fear among many bloggers and webmaster . Fortunately there are simple tips and tricks one can you to survive this possible scenario . They are

Tip No 1 :

Get  a good host :

By getting a good host I don't mean you should buy expensive dedicated server plans , I simply mean you should    get a reputable hosting company that can withstand such traffic. For shared hosting I recommend Dreamhost , For VPS hosting I recommend Media temple and for Dedicated servers I recommend ThePlanet. It is important to note even though Dream host plans are super cheap you can still use it for high traffic site if you follow the next few tips .

Tip No 2 :

Use a Image or File hosting service :

If your blog / webpage / forum is image intensive then I recommend using a image hosting service like tinypic , imgur . And a file hosting service like amazon or hotlinks . This reduces the pressure on your servers , thus enabling faster loading time and ability to withstand heavy traiffc . Host your css , ico's , images etc. outside your own server . But make sure you make a back up copy just in case .

Tip No 3:

Optimize your design :

Don't bloat your site with bandwidth guzzling web designs . Make it clean and simple . Remember users will love your site if it is neat and easy on the eyes . Leave the flash intros and elaborate Photoshop designs else where .

Tip No 4 :

Make your site static :

Make sure your site is static use service like wordpress super cache , php accelerators to reduce the load on your site . Don't make your website make many server side functions . Replace php with javascript if possible . The key is to make your site static and not too dynamic .

Tip No 5 :

Use free services :

Why host your video on your own server when there is youtube ? Why use another commenting system when there is disqus ? Be practical and use these free services to the best of your ability .