Guys, I just started my free image hosting site : ImageFox - Free Image Hosting How to market it cheaply? How to bring more traffic ? I'd be doing much of the work myself and prefer cheap/free options. Already started with directory submissions. Thanks in advance...
What I did to promote mine was to use it to post thumbnail images on several forums I participate in - I gained a lot of users from those forums by doing that.
PM me and I will give you some details on how I got a few 1000 uniques a day after 3 days (takes little work)
image hosting market is too crowded. just type "image hosting" and you will see billions free image hosting sites. +it requires lots of bandsidth,space,own server. if rev is ads based = hard to generate traffic to ad-s, because people like to hotlink image only.
Use thumbnails that make users go to your page to view the pictures is a good technique once you have a big user base.
hmm... direct linking is off right now. so I enable it for the time being till I get some user base ?
Image hosting directories (like free-webhosts.com) sent my site 500 unqiues per day. Normal directory listings helped to increase page rank (and monetization). Use thumbnails that re-direct back to your site. Myspace bulletins / comments work well for image hosts. Advertise on sites that relate to 14-20 year olds (myspace resource sites, etc). Banner or text link exchange (you can list your link on my site tladb.com) Post on a few forums. Seperate your image host from the rest. Provide a secure URL (https://), provide large space / bandwidth, etc. Have a CLEAN design and logo that has no popups and doesnt force ads down the users face. Some tips: Make sure your webhost allows adult content (someone is sure to upload porn sometime... this is what happened to me and my profitable PR5 image host was shut down). Dont have popups. Get a quality dedicated server or VPS. Dont skimp or youll pay. Good luck and have fun!
Offer a premium service that stands head and shoulders above the rest. High volume users want things like bulk upload interfaces, being able to host their own galleries, slideshows etc..
yes, I'll be keeping a seperate site dedicated to paid image hosting if this free one is successful and I'd link to it.
Hmmm i wanted to submit my image hosting site to free-webhosts.com but I couldn't seem to find a link where I could submit the site.
An idea would be to rely on the Google image search and optimize your site to it. It can work wonders. You might also create some extra utilities for those in search of a signature or avatar hosting and then market them on forums (game oriented forums work best here). Hope this helps. Best regards, George