How do you know that a web host really provides for "unlimited traffic"?

[Boojatta]

If somebody makes one attempt to visit the website and cannot visit on the first attempt because of heavy traffic, then is the person likely to send an email to notify you of the problem? Isn't it more likely that someone who has a strong desire will simply try again, and that someone who doesn't have a strong desire won't make the effort to notify you of the problem? Of course, we're assuming here that the person has access to both a website address and an email address. In many cases, the person will simply be clicking on a link to a website, and won't have any way of knowing an email address to be contacted in cases where the link is good, but the traffic is too heavy.

I would think that a good approach would be to get an organization that wants to advertise on your website to be responsible for web hosting. That way there's an obvious incentive for all people who want to visit the website to be accommodated, regardless of how quickly the popularity of the website increases. Also, if there's very little traffic, then the website may be of little benefit to the advertiser, but the cost of accommodating traffic would also be low.

Are there websites for organizations that want to advertise and that are willing to host websites, and for people who want to search for an appropriate organization to both advertise on the website and host the website?

[ixion]

1. Ironically enough, the connection was reset when I left this page...

If you consistently can't get on a site, that's one thing. But all sites -- ANY site -- will experience timeouts once in a while.

That said, it's easy to tell if a host is truly offering unlimited bandwidth, because your monthly/quarterly bill doesn't fluctuate. :)