free image hosting..would this work?

funguru · 10-29-2006, 07:40 PM

hi.. websites which offer free image hosting get a lot of traffic.. how can i make a website like that.... is there a software to install? I know i would have to get a lot of bandwidth but it may be worth it, if i could make money from the site..

any help?

funguru · 10-29-2006, 08:13 PM

which is better..free image hosting or free subdomain website?

**ToddW** · 10-29-2006, 09:48 PM

Free image hosting sites require a lot of work and a lot of bandwidth. While money can be made it's normally not worth it to justify the work and possible legal issues.

I used to run a VERY popular (read: 100k+ PAGE VIEWS per-day) that would make 20-30 a day butit was just so much work approving images, removing illegal content, etc. I just sold it off. I run 1 small image host now but I designed it for personal use and friends. Others use it but it hasn't gotten out of hand yet.

I plan to add some more features to it like no animated images (really take the bw). I already have custom hotlink protection with my own php image handler that saves butloads of bandwidth.

Do it for a hobby or fun but I wouldn't spend a lot of time doing it for money unles you can code/tweak it yourself.

funguru · 10-29-2006, 11:11 PM

20-30 a day would not be worth the time and effort and specially the money spent on bandwidth. I have no programming knowledge and i don't want to run something for hobby.. have done that before when i was in college.. did not make a dime then but now it's different.. whenever i think of a website idea, the first thing which comes to mind is "how can i make money of it?"..

funguru · 10-29-2006, 11:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToddW

I used to run a VERY popular (read: 100k+ PAGE VIEWS per-day) that would make 20-30 a day

Just had a thought.. with 100k PV's you should be making something like $70-$80 a day??

forumrating · 10-30-2006, 03:05 AM

you need to have strong servers, and good uptime,
that is enough, and some promotions

funguru · 10-30-2006, 10:47 AM

what would be the revenue model for such a website?

**ToddW** · 10-30-2006, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by funguru

Just had a thought.. with 100k PV's you should be making something like $70-$80 a day??

A lot of traffic for free anything is international. You could of course block some countries that barely pay. I was using AdBrite so INT. was paying still thats why it was even doing that much per-day. You can't use google or ypn on the result pages.

Maybe some affiliate offers but most wouldn't do to well.

WillB · 11-02-2006, 10:53 AM

The revenue model? PPC... which isn't going to make bucketloads of cash without constant work and huuuge traffic. If you're going to go down this route, you'll need a few similarly modelled services to make you decent cash. As Todd mentioned, 100K pageviews is only producing $30 a day.

I mentioned to someone else recently that they should offer premium services for image hosting. RapidShare does that, and AFAIK they're doing OK.

motheninja · 11-03-2006, 12:44 PM

you would probably need to hire someone to remove all the illegal images daily. other than that bandwidth is not THAT expensive, if you start with a 10mbit line (<$400?) that will give you plenty of bandwidth.

funguru · 11-03-2006, 01:25 PM

getting all the illegal images out would be a full time work

**ToddW** · 11-03-2006, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by motheninja

you would probably need to hire someone to remove all the illegal images daily. other than that bandwidth is not THAT expensive, if you start with a 10mbit line (<$400?) that will give you plenty of bandwidth.

Sounds like pure speculation... have you run your own image hosting site? If not hten the advice you provide isn't to accurate... and having run many of my own and still do your advice is not dead-on.

You don't need to hire someone you just need a good backend where you can approve/remove images in batches quickly. And 10mbit is enough to start out but I wouldn't get a 10mbit for 1 server.

A 10mbit is approx. 3.25Terabytes a month instead of getting an "unmetered" (meaning you can run it up to 10mbit for 24/7 for a month and utilize approx 3.25 TB of tarnsfer) server I would get one that limits your bandwidth to say 2.5TB for under $200 a month and you can then utilie 100mbit. Spread the site on to multiple servers.. $400 a month is now 5TB instead of 3.25 and you have 100mbit to serve your pictures not the crpapy 10mbit

**ToddW** · 11-03-2006, 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by funguru

getting all the illegal images out would be a full time work

You can take the YouTube approach if you don't want to be 'hands on'.

-Don't remove images until you get a C&D.
-Don't remove imaegs until a lot of your users complain/report (kiddy porn, etc)
-Don't remoev images until your data center complains about their legality.

It's up to you...

King Justice · 11-04-2006, 09:37 PM

My attempts at making money with free image hosting were pretty much in vain, although I wasn't using the best revenue source(s) at the time (I used ClickSor).

I would suggest that you go ahead and try it, but market it wisely and try to promote it as much as possible. You're going to want to start off strong, and by that I mean you really want to have enough disk space and bandwidth so that you can begin to grow. I would suggest starting off with a VPS server and eventually going to a dedicated server once the site hits it off.

If you need an image hosting script, I have the turnkey one. I'll send it to you for $5 if you're interested - just PM me.

Good luck with your free image hosting ventures.

funguru · 11-04-2006, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToddW

You can take the YouTube approach if you don't want to be 'hands on'.

-Don't remove images until you get a C&D.
-Don't remove imaegs until a lot of your users complain/report (kiddy porn, etc)
-Don't remoev images until your data center complains about their legality.

It's up to you...

makes sense

funguru · 11-04-2006, 11:19 PM

king.. i might take you up on the offer, but i now am in double mind as i am not getting any good reviews about it. how is rapidshare and sites like it making money?

**ToddW** · 11-07-2006, 12:50 AM

I think someday I might sell my script once I finish it fully and make it more user friendly.. heh.
A LOT more options than the turnkey ones, you really need a lot of control.

funguru · 11-09-2006, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToddW

I think someday I might sell my script once I finish it fully and make it more user friendly.. heh.
A LOT more options than the turnkey ones, you really need a lot of control.

can i ask why you are working on such a script? are you planning to start your own free image hosting?

**ToddW** · 11-09-2006, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by funguru

can i ask why you are working on such a script? are you planning to start your own free image hosting?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToddW

...I used to run a VERY popular (read: 100k+ PAGE VIEWS per-day) that would make 20-30 a day butit was just so much work approving images, removing illegal content, etc. I just sold it off. I run 1 small image host now but I designed it for personal use and friends....

I bolded my previous post and made some text in red to make it easier to explain