Introduction Need help with BrilliantDirectories.com

[PaulDirectory]

I have full backups of all data on a "lesser" directory but prefer BrilliantDirectories moving forward.

The script is fully customisable , if you look at the default BD site compared to mine (PureLocal.com.au) you can it has been customised somewhat. The question I'm conquering now is what part of my script is causing the website to connect after 10 seconds ... I've asked BrilliantDirectories staff for the server logs etc so my dev and I can examine.

I will not be moving ahead with dedicated if they cannot tell me why it's not functional on the shared server .. otherwise I may just end up paying $500 per month with the same issues.

 

[Adam H]

Then the only people that can answer your questions are your Dev and script provider, everyone else is just guessing, for all we know it could be the work your dev has done which is causing the problem, it could be the script providers shared server, and a string of other possibilities which we can't answer because we don't have access.

Whether its customisable or not is a weak argument for the lack of info you have available, most scripts are customisable and with the money you have already spent, and what you are clearly considering spending if they tell you you need it... id be expecting alot better results than what i see currently on that site.

 

[PaulDirectory]

Yes indeed , all running on my mind - time will tell if the effort equals success or a bottomless pit.

 

[PaulDirectory]

How would you recommend reaching out / finding other BrilliantDirectories users?

They told me they have one site which reached 1 million in sales but wouldn't divulge what the domain was .. I understand not giving away names or personal data but surely they'd want to advertise their successful directories?

 

[Adam H]

Yes indeed , all running on my mind - time will tell if the effort equals success or a bottomless pit.

The fact you are even remotely considering a dedicated server at $499 a month, for a script that is barely getting a couple of hundred visitors a day.....................already screams bottomless pit. I can't believe your developer hasnt already recommended alternatives or bespoke development

 

[PaulDirectory]

The way I see it - Dedicated servers aren't cheap and if it means I can operate a website without constant server errors or slow speed then so be it. The history and position I'm in is most likely clouding my judgement to some extent but not completely.

 

[Adam H]

Dedicated servers are not cheap, but you also don't need one that is probably x3 times the price and power of what you actually need. Id love to hear the specs of the $499 dedicated server they are going to provide you. Id put money down that the same thing could be had elsewhere at a fraction of the price with a sys-admin to look after it.

 

[PaulDirectory]

To quote :

Hi PureLocal,
Thank you for your message.
The quote was $499 USD /month + $250 Setup Cost for tjhe following:
Intel Xeon 1270v3
8 GB RAM
1TB SATA drive (not SSD)
Dual Redundant Gigabit Network
It will be in the Dallas, TX location as that is where our rack is with SoftLayer. Unfortunately it cannot be hosted outside of this location at this time.

 

[Edwin]

A few possible alternatives (note: I haven't used any of them, but they seem to have longevity, you can host them yourself, and it also seems like they're still actively being developed - 3 key criteria!)
https://www.wsnlinks.com/
https://www.wsndirectory.com/
http://www.in-portal.com/modules/directory-management.html
http://www.phplinkdirectory.com/ (demo seems down, but the software itself has been around for years and years)
https://www.phpmydirectory.com/

Or, if you want to build on top of Wordpress
https://www.appthemes.com/themes/vantage/

I have no idea if any of the above will import Brilliant Directories data. But perhaps it's a starting point if you want to shop around for a replacement solution.

 

[Adam H]

I rest my case. You can get VPS's with better specs than that for sub $100 a month ( although smaller drives *SSD ). OR Dedi's with monster RAM ( like above 100GB ) and fast SSD's + static TB drives for around half the price you are being quoted, that obviously is just the hardware though, if you can't manage the server your self you'd have to add a SYS-admin cost to that. But you'd still have a much more powerful machine, plus a sys admin for less than you are being quoted.

But all of that is still irrelevant as none of us can actually tell whether you really need that kind of resource availability.

 

[PaulDirectory]

The WP option looks like the most viable however the BrilliantDirectories software is head and shoulders above the rest ... aside from the shared server non-functionality which I hope to remedy by fixing scripts/moving to dedicated etc.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Edwin]

I agree. I moved from a $300/month dedicated server to a $50/month cloudy thingy and the latter has proven much faster and more responsive. Probably because I'm buying a slice of a giga-specced server rather than the whole of a relatively poky beast. (Note: the $300/month was fully managed, and I'd been a satisfied user for years - it just seemed like time for a change)

 

[martin-s]

Is your directory site purelocal.com.au?

If so, there's one blindingly obvious thing no one has mentioned yet. Because of latency from most places to Australia, it really should be hosted in Australia.

If you're getting enough traffic to wipe out 80GB of bandwidth in 8 days and to consider spending $500 a month, you should really look at building something from the ground up that you have complete control over.

~40k visits a month (SimilarWeb estimate) is a pretty good start for a website to build on. But 80GB seems a lot of bandwidth to use for 1/4 of that.

 

[martin-s]

Adding to that, TTFB is 5 seconds or so from me. That's crazy.

If you're tied in or to cover the time needed to build a replacement for BD, a CDN would be another option.

 

[martin-s]

If you're not familiar with TTFB (time to first byte), it's basically:

DNS look-up time + server output processing time + latency

 

[Edwin]

If you're not familiar with TTFB (time to first byte), it's basically:

DNS look-up time + server output processing time + latency

Which tool are you using to measure this? Do you have a favourite?

 

[Murray]

Being nosy but, have you made much money from the directory?

 

[martin-s]

Which tool are you using to measure this? Do you have a favourite?

Start with Chrome developer tools (Network tab) and dig from there Google Analytics also has some useful stats about DNS look-up times. And obviously, if you control the server-side tech, you can add your own timestamp tracking to see where the bottlenecks are.

Poorly optimised SQL queries are the most likely culprit for most database driven sites. But there's lots of other stuff to do too...

Check caching rules are set up correctly. Optimise image file sizes. Reduce requests by combining js/css files and using image sprites where possible. Minify js/css too. Consider hosting resource files on a subdomain where no cookies need to be passed if you have a lot of requests. Reduce js and simplify the DOM if rendering speed is a problem.

The list is endless.

 

[martin-s]

PS. You can get an idea of global latency stats here:
http://www.verizonenterprise.com/about/network/latency/

 

[Edwin]

Thanks for the tool suggestions. These ones looked handy too:
https://www.webpagetest.org/
https://gtmetrix.com/