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Internet 'Survivor' tries to outlast CBS series
(CNN) -- Forget the scantily clad television contestants. In the shadow of "Survivor," another game of perserverance is being played out -- one that pits a small software company against the monster TV hit and its legion of fans. Mike Farmer runs Survivor Software, maker of finance programs for Mac computers. Conrad Walton runs the Web server for Farmer's Internet site, www.survivor.com. Predictably, the two have weathered weekly tidal waves of online traffic, set off by each episode of the million-dollar television contest. "Calm down, it's just TV," lost "Survivor" fans read when they reach Farmer's domain. The entrepreneur registered it five years ago to promote his software company in Inglewood, California.
But Farmer and Walton have plenty to fret about. When the first "Survivor" series ran last summer, traffic ballooned on their site and overwhelmed their tiny server. They battened down the hatches and upgraded their server after surviving a nasty brush with CBS network brass. But the traffic spikes have returned, along with the second edition of "Survivor," causing more trouble. The day before this week's episode, many links from the main survivor.com page did not work. "My hosting company shut me down last night with no warning for using too much bandwidth. I've been scrambling to find a replacement, which I have. Things have been a little crazy," Walton said Wednesday. During the 2000 "Survivor" season, the number of visitors to the software site rose from an average of 180 a day to as high as 122,400 on the day of the final show. "The hit count is slightly lower this year, but it peaks out higher at different times," Farmer said. Attempts at compromiseAt first Farmer and Walton discouraged "Survivor" traffic, but eventually decided to cater to the crowds rather than fight them. They added a link to the CBS show as a courtesy, removed it, received "tons of hate mail," then put it back up along with links to dozens of sites spawned by "Survivor," including parody sites like Survivorsucks.com and Survivorfire.com. They moved the software Web site to survivorsoftware.com while the show runs, but plan to move it back to the original name after the show goes away. In the meantime, they figured they should try to profit from their troubles. They said they were rebuffed when they approached a CBS executive to see if the network would like to place a banner ad on their site. The conversation, according to Walton, included a hint from CBS that it was interested in buying for under $100,000. The offer was declined.. CBS spokesman Dana McClintock offered only this statement about dealings with Walton: "He presented us with a business proposal and we declined his offer." CBS traffic still 'dramatically high'McClintock added that fans of the show easily find the official site, survivor.cbs.com. The hits are "dramatically high" and helping CBS break Internet traffic records. The number of visitors to CBS.com sites increased more 300 percent the week the first 2001 episode ran compared to the week before, according to PC Data Online. Specific show data was not available, but while the Super Bowl was responsible for some of the surge, Survivor was a main cause as well. In the meantime, hoping to gain something for their hassles, Farmer and Walton have sprinkled survivor.com with banner ads and pop-up ads galore, including many that appear when a user clicks on the link to the official CBS Web site. "Click a banner ad before you go," the survivor.com page urges before disappearing. RELATED STORIES: Australia welcomes 'Survivor' to Outback RELATED SITES:
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