As I said on my previous post, yesterday, suddenly the blog and the forum were down and a message appeared telling to the webmaster contact the web hosting.
To totally clarify the reason, I publish here the email I received from my web hosting, LunarPages, telling me the reason why they shut down my site, and the possibilities I have to solve the problem, I replaced some sensitive information for security reasons.
I already took some actions, you can see also my email to them in response to their email and I am waiting a response to see if this is enough.
In my opinion, it will not be enough because the site is attracting more visitors each day, the number of visitors and page loads tripled in the last 2 – 3 weeks, a definitive action will be needed very soon if not immediately, and I need your opinions and ideas about it.
As you can see in the email, they give two urls to see the price of VPS and Dedicated Server, the VPS is not enough to my site and also the first two choices of the Dedicated Server, I need to move my site to the more expensive choice that costs $210+ per month, I think that I will need some extras and the final cost per month will be about $260 = $3,120 per year.
I want to tell you very honestly that I can pay this without problems, but, it’s not fair to someone that gives valuable information for free that makes much money to some of you, pay this amount per month, this site takes me much time, work and now money and I have no profit, you know that other sites with just BS newsletters that give bad information, can cost $50 – $100 per month.
I received yesterday 3 or 4 emails from some of the forum members offering to pay some kind of membership to help maintain the site, I really appreciate it and I need to do something like that, but, I need opinions and/or ideas from you all to take a decision about this.
What I want to know is:
1 – What kind of membership?
2 – How much is a fair price?
3 – Make the overall forum a paid forum or just one of the boards?
4 – Feel free to propose any ideas you have, I want to involve you in this decision, I will have the last word, but, I want to take a most consensual possible decision to have the support of the majority of you.
Thanks in advance from your support
Dr PennyStock
Below you can read the emails.
Re: [Lunardesk] [NSCS5330RUV5] Account moved to stabilization server
From: support [at] lunarpages.com
Sent: Fri 10/03/08 5:18 PM
To: dr_pennystock [at] hotmail.com
Note: Replying more than once may delay our response time, because your ticket will be placed at the bottom of our ticket queue.
Dear dr_pennystock,
—- TECH RESPONSE STARTS HERE —-
Hello, Your account was utilizing excessive resources, causing a significant degradation of services on the server. This is a shared environment and we can not allow one user to utilize the majority of the resources on a server as it affects all users adversely. Because of this, you have been temporarily moved to the Medon server. A detail of the problem is shown below as: username: xxxxxx domain name: drpennystock.com CPU usage: 1.32 MEM usage: 0.54 MySQL usage: 2.0 Top Process %CPU 19.0 /usr/bin/php /home/xxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxx/index.php Top Process %CPU 14.0 /usr/bin/php /home/xxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxx/forums/index.php Top Process %CPU 13.6 /usr/bin/php /home/xxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/index.php We moved you to Medon first to solve the issue of the degraded service on the server and second as a courtesy in order to prevent any downtime on your site to allow you time to rectify the situation. Currently, your site is not suitable for a shared hosting environment. Medon is not a production server and is not guaranteed to run in the same manner as your old server nor will it support all functions you may have. This is a transitional server only and is not intended to be a permanent placement. Please make a decision on how you would like to proceed .Your account will be suspended if no other arrangements are made. You may log into Medon using http://medon.lunarservers.com/cpanel or https://medon.lunarservers.com:2083/ You will not be able to log into Medon using the Lunarpages main login page as the server is stabilization and not available via that page. You have the following options: 1. You may take steps to correct the problem. You will need to let the technician know the steps you took to correct the issue and get approval before being returned to a production server. 2.You may upgrade your package to our VPS hosting plan. For more information on the features and pricing, please see http://www.lunarpages.com/virtual-private-server/ 3.You may upgrade your package to our Dedicated hosting plan. For more information on the features and pricing, please see http://www.lpdedicated.com Since we do not have the exact scripts to provide (since the manner in which PHP scripts are provided on the server only shows the username and not the script name causing the high usage), you would need to review your account for scripts that may be the cause. Please check ones such as forums, blogs, content management systems, and galleries as these are especially likely to create high usage. We value you as a customer and want to work with you toward a solution that is mutually beneficial. Please let us know as quickly as possible how you would like to proceed. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding in this matter. — Kind Regards, Gabriel Paiu Junior System Admin I – System Administrator Team Email: support [at] lunarpages.com Phone: 1-714-521-8150
—- TECH RESPONSE ENDS HERE —-
Additionally, you may also view the entire ticket by visiting: http://support.lunarpages.com/tickets/view/958933
Your ticket ID is 958933.
My response to LunarPages:
RE: [Lunardesk] [NSCS5330RUV5] Account moved to stabilization server
From: Dr PennyStock (dr_pennystock [at] hotmail.com)
Sent: Fri 10/03/08 7:34 PM
Reply-to: admin [at] drpennystock.com
To: support [at] lunarpages.com
Hello
I think that this problem was caused by a tracking code from quantcast.com that I inserted today on the index page of the blog and also of the forum.
To resolve this and future problems, I have already deleted this code from my pages, I have also installed the “WP super cache” plugin on the blog and I tried to enable the caching function on the forum, but, I still get the suspended page of the zuben server when I try to access my forum, I don’t understand why I can’t access the forum if you moved the account, when you move an account from a server to another you move also the sub-domains or not???
I can access my main domain at http://www.drpennystock.com but I can’t access my sub-domain at http://forums.drpennystock.com, this doesn’t make sense.
I am sure that the actions I took will be more than enough to resolve the problem definitively.
I have a request, once you moved the account from the zuben server, and as I have another account on the sobek server, is it possible you move this account to the sobek server instead of move it back to the zuben server, please?
Kind regards
xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx
Hey doc, this sucks haha
well you know i would be the fist one to agree you deserve money and some sort of compensation for the work you do.
I just want to remind you that most of your viewers, including me are beginners have barly have enough money to trade casually, let a long pay a monthly fee, im all for some sort of fee but please dont make it too hefty =)
thanks, Alan
Hi Alan,
Thanks for your suggestion, do you want to suggest any monthly amount?
Cheers
well thats all up to, but take into account you will most likely loose all your guests and about 50% of your members that will go to like HSM or trader-talk. I would suggest something like $10 a month, but i don’t know how many members you would get or anything so it up to you where you set it
I do agree that charging for access to the entire forum would cause you to loose a lot of people. Possibly you could charge for access to a certain portion of forums and leave at least one section open for everyone to post but you yourself wouldn’t feel obligated to post in that section, only if you wanted to.
I have no problem paying US10-15/month for ur service, but the method of transaction should be easy and safe, such as Paypal.
I would stay for $10 a month, I like the site and I like you guys….
Even though doc didnt tell me what he drives LMAO!!!
I do not think a monthly fee is unreasonable at all. You clearly know what you’re doing and provide us all with extremely valuable information and tips.
I don’t think 10 or 15$ is at all unreasonable or too expensive. You help us make a full years subscription all the time.
I started learning about penny stocks a few months ago and your forum helps a lot. I would easily pay a $10 to $15 monthly fee, which i think would be fair considering the site is/was? free and you clearly werent looking to profit off people. Regardless of what you decide I will continue to use your blog/forum fee no fee
Subscription based I think is the best idea. I’d be willing to pay anywhere from $10-35 a month.
You could also do it by donation, knowing that a server upgrade is costing, I would be more than willing to make a monthly donation. Depends whether you want this site to be profitable enough. Subscription based should make you some money, but donation based you’ll see a freerider effect by the majority.
Email from stretcher25 sent to me using the Contact Form of the blog.
Contact Form Results
From: Stretcher25 (xxxxxxxxx [at] xxxx.com)
Sent: Sat 10/04/08 2:32 PM
To: dr_pennystock [at] hotmail.com
Stretcher25 wrote:
DrPennyStock,
I’ve been reading a member of your site for a few months now, it’s one of the
most informative sites out there. The members are great and the information is
incredible. I design websites and database for a living so I know what’s
happening. Over the past few weeks a lot of newbies have been on the site. I
believe you need to make the whole site a membership based site. I think that
maybe $10-15 per month or $100 per year up front would be efficient. This way I
hope we keep all the regular members and keep the pumpers and dumpers away. I’ve
learned so much from your site and I would like to continue the million dollar
challenge. So whatever help or suggestions you may need, feel free to ask. I
hope that we all can get this site up and running quickly. Thanks
Email from RoagTrader sent to me using the Contact Form of the blog.
Membership
From: Roag Trader (xxxxxxxx[at]xxxxxx.com)
Sent: Sat 10/04/08 2:35 PM
Reply-to: xxxxxxxx[at]xxxxxxx.com
To: admin [at] drpennystock.com
Doc, I would be willing to pay a membership fee. Not sure the amount, but based upon what other sites are charging I think $50-$100/year is reasonable. I would not charge by the month, you don’t want to deal with all of these little accounting details.
The only issue I have with your blog post is that there are some members like Vegas, Greg, Dz, etc. who give good information also, and sometimes you benefit from their information so it’s a Quid Pro Quo.
So you might want to offer free memberships to people who achieve a certain level of expertise so they don’t go away. We want to have their kind of talent on the forum.
Also, if you’re going to charge, then the site has to be completely private but accessible 24/7 so we can discuss opportunities. In a way I think it’s good because it will weed out a lot of people who really aren’t “traders”, they are just looking to make quick and easy money without doing any work.
Thanks for your efforts. These are just some ideas but I will go along with whatever you decide in the long run!
Roag
Email from jotuk6771 sent to me using the Contact Form of the blog.
DrPennystock site
From: jotuk6771 (xxxxxxx [at]xxxxxxx.com)
Sent: Sat 10/04/08 3:07 PM
To: dr_pennystock[at]hotmail.com
Hello Doc,
In the first place, congratulations to have saturated your server, It is the price of fame!
Technically, I think that it’s worth the trouble to rise of category!
At the financial level, I think that a contribution of member of the order of 15 – 25 $ a month would be accessible to all and would remain completely competitive.
I am favorable to the fact that the forum is reserved for the members what would take away pumpers, spam and others and would base one .
Having said that, the aforesaid offer should make the list of the uncountable information which we can find there (technical analysis, shorts, options, opinion in real time, etc.) so that the internet user does not say to itself that he has to pay just to post his messages… A simple copy of the homepage of the forum would make the affair.
The daily advice of DrPennystock has to remain accessible to all, as well as Twitter connected in for the 1 million challenge, which incidentally puts certain time to update…
It is up to you to enrich the public offer or the display of the blog for a better attractiveness in the purchase of the membership.
Know that I am very attached to the success of your site and that you can count me among your most fervent supporters!
In quite soon on Web!!!
Best thoughts.
Doc if you are going to start charging fees, you might want to keep the forum public for a weeks or so just to let people things are switching and give people time to be informed
Doc,
Completely understand the cost, and I agree that $10 per mo/$100 per year would be agreeable. As a business major, I’ll be a little tough here, so please take what I say as respectful as possible.
Some of your picks until recently have been less than performers (QMNM, FVRL, GRDB, to mention some of which I’ve lost money). Now, if I’m paying for a service, and not getting a reliable return, I’m not going to resubscribe.
So my suggestion for your forum and setup can’t be on picks, but on education and daily analysis (similar to Claytrader). You could also add advertisements bars to reduce the overall cost.
The probable dramatic increase, which I mentioned in the lounge, was the swarm of newbies, and the increased traffic regarding WAMUQ and LEHMQ. I would imagine that once the financials settle, traffic would stablize. You could also limit number of posts per day, and allow moderators unlimited access. Just some random thoughts, and hope you don’t find it offensive.
Thanks, KC
I would be willing to pay too Doc. Just please keep it reasonable. Also as another member pointed out, Paypal is an easy secure form of payment. Please add that cause I always keep some money in there. One last thing, please allow an option to pay a year in full, I hate monthly payments. BTW the forum is still down, Please get it back up by Monday, It’s gonna be a crazy day and I need some advice badly! Thanks
I use blue host check it out it’s 180 for 24 months and it has unlimited traffic and data fastest and most reliable on the net, i think it would be a great alternative 3,000 dollars a year your getting ripped off, and i love your advice and i think its the best on the net, i also love the fact that your not charging outrageous amounts of money, that’s what keeps me coming back, just something to think about. i have a website and i average quite a bit of traffic, i think you’ll find blue host will be a very nice home for your website.
10 dollars a month would be ok. Also I’d prefer to make monthly payments, preferrably by credit card………if possible? Starting from the 1st of every month, a member can only access the forums after he has paid his dues.
Email from someone that just found the site, I will hide the name because it’s a real name, not an username.
Contact Form Results
From: xxxxx (xxxxxxxxxxxx[at]xxxxxxx.net)
Sent: Sat 10/04/08 2:32 PM
To: dr_pennystock[at]hotmail.com
xxxxxx wrote:
Hello,
I located this website yesterday when I did a search on yahoo. It was the only
site that I found that did not make you pay a fee. I was not able to get on
because of the issue but came back this AM.
I am at a stage in my life where I have been laid off from my job and every
cent means something to me, not only that so does my time. I was not able to
subscribe to the other sites because they are fee based.
That being said I think that what you did is great and you should charge a fee.
When you start doing so and I am able to pay I will join the site. For the most
part what I saw on other sites was a fee of 90-100 dollars for a years
membership. One company offered the 2nd year free. And this same company
offered 5 months for 58 dollars.
One option that I do not remember seeing was a monthly based fee. Perhaps this
is something that you can do. Paypal is another option I did not see listed.
Perhaps I am thinking to cheap but I think prices such as the one above would
make you site will worth it. For the people that just want something lower
priced I think the monthly service charge would be a great option.
I am sure things will work out. I have not subscribed yet but I am sure your
info is quality. get paid what you are worth. The ones that know you best will
stick around.
Email from EJC sent to me using the Contact Form of the blog.
Contact Form Results
From: EJC (xxxxx@xxxxxx.fr)
Sent: Sun 10/05/08 4:42 AM
To: dr_pennystock[at]hotmail.com
EJC wrote:
Hi Doc!
I saw the problem with the server and was really glad, that it happened only on
a Friday ^^.. To be honest, I wondered for such a long time, why you did all
this (and I am sure, that you’re helping A LOT OF users) for FREE! After
following a while your board it became clear, that you are really a unique and
fair guy, and that your informations are REALLY FUNDED AND VERY HELPFUL.
To make it short: I think that a membership fee REALLY is fair. It would of
course be okay to ask for 100USD/month (oh yeah, at least ^^) – however for me
personally, it would be a little hard to afford it. I must admit, that I’m
everything but rich (just finished studies and had no luck/no experience on the
stock market and therefore lost everything in only one year). However I am so
convinced of your site and infos, that I want to try it your way from the very
beginning (I love your 1,000,000$ account idea!!). I would have no problem with
paying 20 or 30 USD/month. Just have my zecco-Account founded yesterday with
xxxxUSD and just would love to follow your challenge!! If it works out – and it
will ^^ !!! – I personally will of course be glad to pay more or make a
donation or whatever (and with pleasure!!)
I would prefer the all-in-one solution : Pay a monthly/yearly membership (by
credit card f.ex.) for everything – with a login required to enter the site.
That’s it. This would be just a simple and fair thing, and it would even more
familiarize the board. Of course I hope, that 25 bucks a month is okay for you.
Fact is: It’s certainly okay for every student out there. And that, I find, is
important, because as a beginner it’s so hard to get useful informations (I got
there by pure coincidence, and otherwise maybe would have stopped trading today)
from the Internet.
Ok. Would be happy to stay tuned on drpennystock.com ! Nice greetings (just am
in xxxxx, this has to be not that far away, right? ^^) And enjoy your weekend.
I think that the last days in the market created some really good occasions for
a quick gain in the next week. Let’s see!! :)
Cheers. EJC
I am also willing to pay the $10/month since you give out very good infos even though the stock i get in with you always drops haha but i guess that’s the stock market. Hope the next time around i make some money!
Looks like something is up but not working 100%.
Yep, the Forum Page is avaible now, but cannot load anything in the topics…
I am so angry with the guys of my web hosting, you have no idea how angry I am now, the problem is far from be resolved, I still have no response from them after 49.5 hours from my email to them, I just posted a few posts on their support forums and they “corrected” the problem with the forum, they said, but, I can’t login into the forum nor open any topic, as you all, if you scroll down till the end, you will see a message on the left side of the forum saying this: Code corrupted. Insert fresh copy.
I have no idea about what is it, and I sent a PM to one of the support forum moderators to correct that s**t.
I can’t do more than this, I hope the guys resolve the problem until tomorrow, if not they will know me personally, and it will not be a good experience to them, I am so %$$§T§% that you have no idea.
OK, why not move this to Facebook or even yahoo till everything gets resolved? We could create an invitation-only group there.
Just a thought.
Doc that’s why we are staying with you, because you obviously love and dig what you do, as evident of your anger that the website isn’t back up
I dont know a whole lot about this sort of stuff but how about proboards?
Doc check your .htaccess for a problem with mod_rewrite. When you were moved the path may have changed
A yahoo or google group would not be a bad idea
Dr.,
To be honest, you have to treat this as most bloggers that turn their site into money makers do.
You should pay the whole yearly fee for the webhost for Year 1. Then build up the readers, then after a year either charge a nominal fee (i.e., no more than $10 USD per month) OR get a sponser that will pay you depending on the number of visitors to this site.
This site is too new for you to ask for payment now. I agree that you deserve a fee but I think it’s the wrong way to go about it.
I am willing to pay $10 a month for all forums
is the site back ? just posted something
DR. please i recently lost total 385% holding on to updv, now were it is at do u think it is a possition to double my shares n rebuy also on uvse ur thoughts bout the same
dustin cole
The maximum anyone can lose is 100%, suppose you buy $1,000 of a stock and you lose all the money, you lose 100%.
UPDV – I don’t see this stock running soon, my advice is to sell and recover the money in another stock.
UVSE – I talked about this stock on the forum weeks ago and I told to not buy this, this is a print machine, too much dilution.
Just follow my $1,000,000 challenge, it’s the best advice I can give you.
Dr. I bought wamuq this morning .092 i was curious as to ur guidance on wamuq and see u didnt post anything on it? ur thoughts?
dustin cole
I think that is possible make some money with it, it will probably touch .12 again, but, it’s too risky.
Ok Dr, ive purchased cgfi how far do we see it running?