I’m using CPVLab as my tracker, with Beyond Hosting to host all my website. I’m using VPS to handle my traffic and I do not expect or allow any disturbances to my sites.
However, recently I encountered lagging from my CPVLab. Not too sure why, and since it was still running fine, I just ignored it.
My worst fear finally happened yesterday. While I was editing and adding new campaigns, but CPVLab couldn’t load and finally, “500 Internal Server Error” occurred. It was bad. My traffic was running and I was losing money every single minute. I imediately open a support ticket to Beyond Hosting. The person in charge (Kyle) replied almost immediately saying he would checked the issue. I could only wait and prayed.
After several attempts to bring my site back, including reinstalling my CPVLab, Kyle told me I had to wait for their Tier 2 admin to come as he did not have enough access rights to continue troubleshooting. I felt lost. This was the first time I felt completely helpless. There was nothing much I could do except to pause all my traffic.
Since everything’s down, I made use of the time to play with my daughter, brought her to our library and playground. It was then I realized I focused too much on my biz, rather than on my girl. Feeling pretty guilty ;(
At night, around 1030pm, beyond hosting staff replied asking me to try again. He (Jesse) said he had removed some files that were jamming my server.
I tried, but failed. I could login this time, but wasn’t able to edit my campaigns, or checked any stats. I emailed Jesse back again. He checked, and within 5 min, he told me it was settled. The root cause was because my database and CPVLab version were different, and therefore unable to sync. He fixed that by upgrading my CPVLab. Indeed, it was fixed magically! I couldn’t say happy I was at that time. It seems like a part of me suddenly revived from the dead. Lol.
I resumed all my traffic immediately. It was late and I was tired. I was hoping everything would be settled and by tomorrow morning, I could see some traffic reflected on my CPVLab. I knew my earnings would be affected, but right now the most important was to get the problem fixed.
The next morning, I login to my CPVLab before I even brushed my teeth (familiar anyone :p ). Finally, things were back to normal. My stats were healthy. Earnings were back and biz was back as usual.
Although my traffic and earnings were dropped, I was still happy with what I had. Online business was really a push button business. I pushed the button to resume my traffic, and traffic started running.
I’m not sure if the problem is settled. I have to login with my iphone regularly to make sure my site is up. But I’ve learned several lessons:
- I depend too much on CPVLab. I must spread my traffic and campaigns to either more accounts, or Voluum. At least if 1 site/server is down, I still have the rest running.
- Always get worldclass service such as BeyondHosting. You need immediate response when things happened, and they are giving you that attention. Don’t go for cheap sources.
- Relax. When things are down and beyond your control, take the time off to do something meaningful. No point keeping it to heart and make your day miserable.
So have you encountered any sudden disturbances in life? How do you react or overcome it? I’ll like to hear.