MyOnlineImages.com

[Mike Bell]

Just curious here. Custom script and graphics developed by myself (and my wife). Between 600 - 1000 image uploads a day. 5800 members. Site is however not profiting. Any idea? Thanks

 

[Theo]

Just curious as well: what do you benefit from by offering free image hosting? And how do you track and block pr0n when there are thousands of accounts?

 

[Mike Bell]

To be honest, The goal of this site 6 months ago when I launched it was to luanch an unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage service and try to build a popular site. That goal went away after it got a little "too popular". I really had no idea how fast bandwidth dissapears on these sites. I quickly had to put limits on it, and charge for larger accounts. At this point, I figured AdSense or member fees would be making profits, but they still are not covering membership costs. Since I hear about image hosting site success all the time, I figured I must be doing something seriously wrong. I think somebody else might know how to turn it around.... but that's just a hunch.

I have an admin screen setup for image reviews. If they are porn, they can easily be deleted. I've built custom http handlers for all the image types served up, to monitor and block images for accounts that exceed their bandwidth. I've also just released a beta version of a client app (service) for "drag-n-drop" multiple image uploading. Not sure if that affects value at all, but I know of no other image hosting site that offers this feature.

I noticed this thread was moved, but I was actually trying to get an appraisal on it? In it's original Aooraisals by Peers forum.

 

[768768]

I'm no expert but just an idea or two....

I'm sure you want to keep the site nice and clean but you may want to add another AdSense ad to each page... perhaps a tower ad along the side.

Perhaps add a newsletter/email which could also contain some type of sponsor/affiliate ads.

Hosting the images for a year on a free account seems a bit generous. Perhaps 90 or even 60 days for a free account would be ok. Have em upgrade for longer hosting.

Good luck!

 

[Mike Bell]

Some good suggestions! I really like the vertical ad idea.... I imght implement that one pretty quick...

 

[stevey]

have you tried selling banner ad space on your site? if your getting alot of uniques per day try it, have a look over at http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=27 and you will see many people selling banner space and some people wanting to buy banner space to advertise there site, you might find it to be more profitable than google adsense