As you are no doubt aware, the server this site is running on frequently faces difficulties. This is why we are currently using a powerful dedicated server. Unfortunately, those aren't cheap. If you want to help out, here is how you can do it:
As you no doubt noticed, since November 2007 we have finally put on some (hopefully unobtrusive) merchandise links on the band and album pages. We are happy to say that they have shown good results so far, but we have noticed that some people don't quite understand how affiliation works, or have some misconceptions about the links. So hopefully the following mini-FAQ clarify this whole deal.
We are currently running affiliation programs with the following merchant sites:
It's very simple: when someone clicks one of those links above (or those that appear on the band and album pages), and ends up buying something (anything!) on the merchant site within a certain time frame, we get a percentage of the sale.
As you saw, you do not need to buy the specific item you clicked on for us to get a commission. For example, if you click on an amazon link for Sad Wings of Destiny, but end up changing your mind and a few hours later you order a few books, it will work! So, if you plan on doing any shopping on any of those sites - whether it's a metal haul on The End Records, Holiday shopping on amazon, or buying second-hand headphones on eBay, please think of us - you can effectively support Metal Archives by bookmarking the links above and using them whenever you need to! Even if you just buy something small and inexpensive, such as a used DVD for $5, it will have been worth it for us.
Note that if you do wish to use those links, you need to bookmark the links displayed above, and not the page you end up redirected at after clicking them, otherwise the tracking of the sale back to us will not work.
Maybe! Do you run an affiliation program? If so, please let us know and we'll see how we can work together to get a list of your artists and/or available albums/merchandise, so that we can import them into our database and then display the links on the individual band and album pages.
For more information about what is required to become an affiliate, please read the news post at the top of this page. Thank you.
Many times we have been suggested to accept donations to pay for better servers. So we finally caved in and created a Paypal account just for that. However, there are a few issues we would like to clarify before starting to receive donations.
Most regular EM users know why: because the site is frequently down, frequently plagued with hosting problems and database errors, and since hosting is expensive, we are reluctant to move. Many users, regular and casual, have offered to send donations to help pay for the hosting, for which we are very grateful. In truth, we don't get this question very often; the one we encounter most, and which is no doubt of greater interest to you, is the one right below.
Moving and upgrading a site like this one is a bitch, especially with such a large database and so many image files. Some of you may remember the last migration in December 2006, which paralyzed the site for a few days (we were promised a smooth, near-seemless transition and something to be finished within a few hours, not days, which is what it took before the site was usable again). Every single one of our upgrades or migrations with our current host so far has been catastrophic, so if we do upgrade, we're reluctant to keep going with them (we're fed up with the shitty service, which will no doubt surprise you). However, other solutions are usually costlier, but we might get better service. Or not, they could actually be worse... we have no way of really knowing before we sign up. In fact, our current host had a good reputation (which encouraged us to go with them) initially, but the service declined in quality after a few months after massive staff changes. So you see why we're reluctant to move - we cannot know for sure what we are getting into.
Imagine if we lose the site again for a few days, to finally get it working again on the new server.... only to end up having the same problems? We prefer to be sure of what we do before we commit. So we are still shopping around (please read this before sending us recommendations). In any case, we want to be honest: yes, we would greatly appreciate donations, since we're already paying over $100 USD a month out of our own pockets - and that's for shared hosting: a good dedicated server with good service is several times that price. But we also understand that you would all be very frustrated to donate, and not see immediate improvements, and that is why we were so reluctant to start accepting donations. Still, whether we are on a crappy server or on a great server, it all costs us a lot of money regardless, so don't think your donations would be going down some drain - they would not, and we would still greatly appreciate it. It's all up to you.
So please keep all of the above in mind. If you still want to donate, then great, and we humbly and sincerely thank you, regardless of the amount.
Right now, we accept only Paypal donations, sorry. Eventually we might decide to accept other forms of payment, but we're starting with Paypal
only, to see how it goes. Note that creating a Paypal account is free.
If you have a Paypal account, use one of the following buttons (links pop in new window) to make:
No, all donations are 100% anonymous. Feel free to mention it in your profile or on the forums if you want (though we do not recommend it, to stem any pissing contest or drama between users), but we will not reveal the names of any donor, nor the amounts of any donation, to ensure the privacy of everyone involved.
No. Sorry, no bribes. ;)
Of course. So long as you remember our policy about bribes (see above). ;)
We know you are just trying to help, and we thank you, but, don't send us those recommendations unless you really know about servers, hosting and
the difference between shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated servers.
To clarify: bandwidth is not the sole (nor the most worrying) issue, though of course it has an high impact on the price.
CPU usage and the strain that the heavy MySQL usage puts on the server (especially the search, which is why we periodically disable and re-enable it
to make some tests) is a far more significant issue.
Even cheap shared hosting who are very generous in bandwidth could not accomodate us, which is why our host once offered to put us on a VPS.
What we are looking for, along with management service, is a powerful dedicated dual quadcore server with at least 4 gigs of RAM
(Linux hosting only, certainly no Windows) and 2 terabytes of monthly bandwidth at the very minimum.
There are sadly no cheap miracle solutions for this, hence this page.